What Australian newspapers say on Saturday, August 19, 2006

AAP General News (Australia)
08-19-2006
What Australian newspapers say on Saturday, August 19, 2006
SYDNEY, Aug 19 AAP - A takeover of retail giant Coles, even by a foreigner, is good for
shoppers as it will engender healthy retail competition, The Weekend Australian says in
its editorial today.

The threat of foreign competition remains the best way to keep management of big companies
on their toes, to the benefit of shareholders and shoppers. The fact a US company is keen
on Coles is proof the management has failed to extract full value or best performance.

Coles management must now maximise the price that bidding companies are willing to
pay, or convince shareholders their best option is to stick with the current plan -- but
on grounds of performance, not emotion.

The proposed buyout is the market at work. Shareholders have everything to gain and
can reinvest capital in Australia. Consumers can only benefit from stiffer competition.

And for employees, Coles supermarkets are in no danger of being closed and shipped offshore.

The Sydney Morning Herald says the collective silence that greeted Australian soldiers
who returned from Vietnam muffled the clarity of the message: lest we forget.

They were emphatically forgotten by a community bitterly divided over the cause for
which they fought.

The Prime Minister has offered an apology for the way Vietnam veterans have been treated.

It is a welcome step along the road to healing a bitter division.

Vietnam vets have been living with the mental scars caused not only by war, but by
the systematic ingratitude of a divided country in the years immediately after the war.

An apology helps negates that ingratitude.

Of greater importance is to ensure nothing similar happens again. Australian troops
are engaged in another controversial war, this time in Iraq. Today's troops, on their
return, must not encounter the same indifference and contempt.

Sydney's The Daily Telegraph says the rapid reaction of bomb technicians and dog squad
specialists to the threat of a bomb on an inbound flight to Sydney yesterday is grounds
for some satisfaction.

But there are lesson to be drawn.

The question of who should unload an aircraft when a threat is received must be answered
immediately.

On Thursday, the airline's baggage handlers unloaded passengers and luggage. It appears
there is no protocol. A proper set of standard operating procedures must be set down.

The concern relates also to airport perimeter security, which is well short of iron-clad.

It's time to get serious about these matters before someone proves conclusively their
intentions are deadly.

The Weekend Australian Financial Review says cities must be given more housing land.

Urban policy can't ignore the strong preference for families to live in a house with
enough land for kids to play on. The low-density suburbia model remains dominant and most
attractive.

Projections show there will be a 25 per cent increase in Australia's population in 25 years.

If governments want to encourage a different expression of suburbia, they have to build
new infrastructure and manage it better, by relaxing planning laws and encouraging more
creative use of existing housing and land -- not impose arbitrary limits on the growth
of cities by simply restricting land supply.

Melbourne's Herald Sun says Prime Minister John Howard's critics have accused him of
living in the past, although his plan to push Australian history in schools is a welcome
step forward.

History is not just a catalogue of mistakes new age teaching dwells on. It's also a
guide to what can be, and has been, achieved through foresight and endeavour.

Without a proper grounding, future generations cannot be expected to cherish and protect
what has been achieved here.

Brisbane's The Courier-Mail says as new and hopefully innovative policies are rolled
out in the run-up to the Queensland election, both sides should ensure political truth
is the hallmark of the debate. So far, the state has had a poor campaign.

Voters prefer straight answers to evasions and doublespeak. In the medium and long
term, truth is also less painful for politicians.

Voters deserve an open, frank debate between the party leaders. While the coalition
has called for a series of debates between senior players taking in health and the economy,
the state's interests would best be served by a leaders' debate at least a week before
the poll.

A series of truthful, frank exchanges and a chairman would do fine.

AAP jat/rs

KEYWORD: EDITORIALS

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