What the papers say today, Thursday, December 28, 2000

AAP General News (Australia)
12-28-2000
What the papers say today, Thursday, December 28, 2000

SYDNEY, Dec 28 AAP - The anniversary of 100 years of the country's federated history
is surely a day to celebrate, a day to mark in our calendars as a milestone of collective
achievement and purpose, says The Daily Telegraph in an editorial today.

In our lucky land, made of the races of so many nations, there is the dominant theme
of unity, the notion that to be Australian is somehow special, it says.

"And that is surely a thing to celebrate, a thing to make us glad, a thing to draw
us more closely together."

The idea of a binding financial agreement between two people proposing to enter into
marriage might seem to many people the very antithesis of marriage, says The Canberra
Times. "Is not marriage a complete partnership?"

One of the conditions set by Parliament for giving a binding status to such agreements
is that each party has received independent legal advice about the effect of the agreement
on his or her rights, it says. "Even so, some people will be so anxious for marriage,
and relatively unequal in bargaining terms, that they may well make agreements that prove
to their disadvantage. It is also impossible to foresee all circumstances."

In the year where reconciliation and all it has come to mean has never been off the
public agenda it must be acknowledged that, in modern terms, the Aboriginal people were
dispossessed, Adelaide's Advertiser says in its editorial today.

But it is equally valid to point out that early 19th century minds and assumptions
were entirely different, the newspaper says.

"It is even more valid to note that the rights of the original inhabitants were acknowledged
(if imperfectly observed) in the formal documents establishing SA," it says.

In October, Ella Ebery, the 84-year-old editor of the St Arnaud newspaper, the North
Central News, gave a cautious assessment of Victorian premier Steve Bracks' progress so
far, The Age says today.

"I think it's a bit early to judge," she said, the newspaper says. "There is still
a bit of a cynical view in the country that this is a government not yet off its training
wheels."

Ms Ebery predicted the coalition's loss last year, it says.

"Her remarks suggest the premier has yet to face a serious test - that although the
government, and Victoria, are in good shape now, their continued health cannot be taken
for granted," it says.

Irrespective of whether he is wearing the baggy green, writing cricket books or indulging
his private passion for photography, Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh strives to
do better on each occasion, the Herald Sun says in its editorial today.

His friends say he has also made the same commitment in lending the support he does
to a home for lepers in India, the newspaper says.

"Imagine what a nation of achievers Australia would have if we approached life with
the same ethic of total commitment," it says.

The Herald Sun also says sailing, like other watersports, will always be dangerous.

But maritime authorities strive to make the pastime safer, the newspaper says.

The Bracks government also has acted wisely by its decision to introduce tests and
licences for owners and skippers of small craft, it says.

"Licensing can only help to save lives each summer," it says.

Poor outcomes inevitably follow poor policy, says today's Australian Financial Review.

In the case of Australia's transition to digital television, the general public will see
the first fruits next week of the Federal Government's poor digital broadcasting policy
- or, more accurately, the first outcome will be the inability to see digital television
at all, it says.

The story sold by the Government was one of better television picture and sound quality
and the promise of interactive and other services, all accessible using a simple set-top
box or digital television set, the paper says.

Only about 500 set-top boxes are expected to be available immediately to the country's
6.3 million television households, with another 9,500 boxes scheduled to appear in shops
by February end, and digital television sets integrating screens and set-top box technology
show few signs of appearing at all, says the paper.

Nothing is ever certain in the Middle East, but it seemed last night that US President
Bill Clinton might, after all, have one last chance to try to forge a peace of sorts between
Israel and the Palestinians, says today's Sydney Morning Herald.

Even if Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, and the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat,
both agree that proposals put forward by Clinton provide a basis for another round of
summit negotiations, this will be only the first and easiest part of a desperately difficult
process, the paper says. "The bargaining will have to be conducted within the tightest
of deadlines and against a background of months of bloodshed."

The timing of yesterday's shooting spree in the American town of Wakefield, just weeks
before George W Bush is sworn in as the 43rd President of the US, should lead him to make
gun control a top priority of his new administration, says The Australian today.

If he is serious about healing the political divide and building consensus, this is
his chance to prove his credentials because there is hardly any issue in the US more divisive
than gun control, the paper says.

AAP gfr/cd

KEYWORD: EDITORIALS

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