What Australian newspapers say on Friday, April 14, 2006

AAP General News (Australia)
04-14-2006
What Australian newspapers say on Friday, April 14, 2006

SYDNEY, April 14 AAP - It is no longer considered politically wise to tell electorates
what they need to know, The Age says today in an editorial.

Instead, politicians are happier giving messages that people want to hear, even if
such messages are not sustainable or true, the editorial says.

In this moral landscape, the idea of sacrifice - along with the concept that it might
have value - has been lost.

Once ministers were sacrificed as a way of preserving the notion of integrity in government.

During its 10 years in office, the Howard government has allowed this important convention
to erode.

The result is a political culture that accepts success at face value and does not examine
the meaning of actions.

The Daily Telegraph says that doubtlessly Mr Howard can expect to come in for critical
commentary this morning as the news of his appearance yesterday is reported - just as
Deputy PM Mark Vaile and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer were diced and sliced after
their appearances before the inquiry.

It now seems beyond contradiction that the executive arm of government has been let
down - and the opposition's calls for ministerial resignations are par for the course.

And the buck does stop with ministers, the paper says.

Except in cases where it can be shown ministers have been kept deliberately in the dark, it adds.

Which seems to be the inevitable conclusion towards which the Cole inquiry is tending, it says.



The Herald Sun says The Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday Appeal is a true community effort.

The Good Friday Appeal is about the warm hearts of those who give and the cold, hard
cash used for the common good, the editorial says.

Prime Minister John Howard said recently that Victorians did things a little differently
and the fantastic Good Friday Appeal was an excellent example of that.



The Sydney Morning Herald says that speaking last month on ABC radio, the renowned
British environmental scientist Norman Myers presented a dire picture of the consequences
of global warming on untold numbers of vulnerable species around the globe and, ultimately,
on the prospects of human life as we know it.

Professor Myers, who was in Australia to advise the federal government on strategies
to conserve biodiversity, was not given to gloom about the prospects of meeting the challenge,
however, it says.

Myers was giving vent to an optimism that it was not too late to deal with the dangers
confronting our environment.

But implicit in his stance was another sentiment: the need for, indeed the celebration of, hope.

Hope is the central theme of Easter. But all too often these days what that message
entails is lost in a rational-scientific approach to the story.



AAP cmc

KEYWORD: EDITORIALS

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