What Australin papers say Friday, Dec 14, 2001

AAP General News (Australia)
12-14-2001
What Australin papers say Friday, Dec 14, 2001

SYDNEY, Dec 14 AAP - Procedures allowing more short-term labour flows will help stem
the flows of economic migrants posing as refugees, The Australian Financial Review says
in its editorial today.

Furthermore, the conference in Geneva should look at ways of sharing the burden of
all genuine refugees so they can be settled in any country that supports the refugee convention.

This will help curb country-shopping and the people-smuggling trade.

"But the sort of measures needed require detailed

co-operation, starting at the regional level, to build confidence among countries," it says.

That will be the big challenge for Australia at next year's Indonesian refugee convention.

For some time now, the world has been confronted with mass displacement of people,
many within their own borders, The Australian says.

Among these vast numbers, only a minority fit the treaty definition of a refugee,
yet their need remains real and pressing, it says.

"If many nations co-operate to address the wider, deeper problem of displaced people,
then in time the pressure on Western systems for vetting asylum-seekers should be reduced."

The Sydney Morning Herald says it is folly to believe, after decades of bloodshed and
bitterness, one side or the other in the Arab-Israeli conflict can impose a lasting military
solution to the problem.

"If it is ever to be resolved, it will be at the negotiating table," it says.

It is in the interest of the international community that the peace process resume quickly.

"The Arab-Israeli conflict is one of the most powerful engines driving the rage that
created the terrorist attacks on the United States and now the grim aftermath in Afghanistan."

The federal government has been caught napping over its treason laws following the
capture of Australian Taliban fighter David Hicks, the Herald Sun says.

The government is frantically trying to unravel the antiquated and confusing treason
laws and needs to make law legislation it drew up after the attacks on New York and Washington,
it says.

"But, in a display of extraordinary complacency, the legislation is not yet law and
cannot be until Parliament meets as scheduled in February for the first time since September
11.

"So again, the Howard government has been backfooted in dealing with the dangerous
real world in which we live.

"It must lift its game."

The Courier-Mail says it does not say much for Archbishop Peter Hollingworth's management
of his diocese that instead of following his conscience or his church's teachings on the
issue of sexual abuse of students at Anglican schools, he adopted a course of action more
appropriate to the three wise monkeys.

It says Dr Hollingworth, now governor-general, cannot escape responsibility for what
happened when he was archbishop by blaming the legal advice he supposedly received - or
rather, by allowing a spokesman for his former diocese to make that excuse on his behalf.

He must himself explain why he did what he did. "His accountability for his term as
archbishop of Brisbane has not been lessened by the fact he has taken on a higher office
as governor-general," The Courier-Mail says.

Victorian Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon deserves full support in her campaign
against police corruption, The Age says.

It says Ms Nixon had opted for a new-broom solution to restoring the image of the revised
drug squad, sweeping away senior members and making it more difficult to get in.

Ms Nixon's newcomer status in Victoria has helped her reform the force and her time
with the New South Wales service "could have left her in no doubt about the corrosive
realities of police corruption".

"The hard question, however, is whether the restructuring will, in five or 10 years'
time, be seen as amounting to little more than a change of name and an influx of new
personnel," it says.

With police focusing on major crime in Sydney, rural NSW seems to be neglected as crime

is on the rise, The Daily Telegraph says.

"It is an indictment of police administration that in some towns at various times there
is not even a presence.

"This shameful situation demands immediate attention and resolution."

The US is behaving with blatant hypocrisy, The Canberra Times says, continuing with
plans to massively subsidise its farmers while seeking penalties of other nations do likewise.

US farmers, once the most efficient, now depend on taxpayers for half their income.

Further, under the subsidy scheme, US farmers are paid for overproduction. There is
no incentive to change to another product to meet market demand.

A free trade agreement with the US would be a two-way street -- the consumers of both
countries gain from lower prices and the industries of both countries gain from competition,
the paper says.

AAP rs

KEYWORD: EDITORIALS

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