The Australian

leads with the National’s first test of strength in the new-look
Senate, which sits for the first time today, with a demand for extra
cash for regional universities to help pay for facilities they claim
will be jeopardised by the introduction of voluntary student unionism. The Oz also reports that the Australian stock market
reached a record high yesterday, following signs from the Reserve Bank
that interest rates could stay on hold until at least 2007. The
benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index closed 30.6 points higher at 4407.9,
while the All Ordinaries index was up 32.1 points to a record 4365.2.

The Sydney Morning Herald
reveals that parents may lose new leave entitlements, won in the
Industrial Relations Commission yesterday, after the prime minister refused to guarantee to include them in the government’s
planned workplace changes. The SMH also says Labor has called on Pauline Hanson
to repay almost $165,000 she pocketed from the last federal election,
stating that it was wrong for the One Nation founder to make a profit
from an election. And following Piers Akerman’s letter in yesterday’s SMH on the yacht he was said to have bought with Lachlan Murdoch, a reader writes:

Piers pressure
Piers Akerman writes for the Herald (Letters, August 8). His dream … my nightmare.
Max Fischer, Scarborough

The Daily Telegraph also splashes with the “WIN FOR MUMS”
following the industrial court decision allowing new mothers the right
to ask for two years of parental leave and part-time work until their
children reach school age, but the win could be short lived without a
guarantee from the PM. The Tele also reports that the NSW Fire Brigade has declared that Sydney’s 80-year-old City Circle tunnel network
is almost inaccessible to emergency workers and could pose opportunities
for terrorists. Meanwhile one of Sydney’s most famous shock jocks, John Laws,
the man with the “golden tonsils,” has turned 70 and celebrated the day
surrounded by 350 of the nation’s heavyweights at his Woolloomooloo
apartment, including Bob Carr, Neville Wran, Eileen Bond, Andrew and
Penny Peacock, the Turnbulls and John Williamson – who wrote a song
for the occasion.

The Age
goes big with the leaking of confidential police files on hundreds of
Victorians from the Office of Police Integrity, the Bracks Government’s
police corruption watchdog, which has prompted the Privacy Commissioner
to investigate. The Liberal Party is also continuing its push to
obscure political donations
from public scrutiny by lifting the secrecy threshold on political
donations from $1,500 to $10,000. But the Howard Government still has
yet to decide if it will adopt the proposal. And the president of the
Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Ameer Ali, has said radical clerics
such as Sheikh Mohammed Omran ought to be included in the prime minister’s summit with Islamic leaders, as it could show radical
Muslims how isolated they are from the mainstream Muslim community.

The Herald Sun
splashes with the “SPACE RACE” as NASA waits for fine weather for
Discovery’s return, following the decision to abort the Shuttle’s
scheduled landing at Cape Canaveral last night due to bad weather. The Hun also reports that waiters who top up wine glasses
before they are empty could face legal action if a guest is caught
drink-driving or involved in an accident, prompting the hospitality
industry to review the common etiquette of topping up guests’ glasses.

The Courier-Mail
reveals that the husband of wrongfully deported Australian woman Vivian
Young was “made fun of” by an Immigration Department worker when he
contacted the Department two years ago for information about his
missing wife after Queensland Police allegedly told him that his wife
had been deported. The West Australian
splashes with the powerful WA public servant who has been hit with 55
charges of official corruption, attempting to pervert the course of
justice, possessing drugs and stealing more than $227,000 as a
servant. In Adelaide, The Advertiser
reports that Liberal MP Mark Brindal will today announce he’s quitting
state politics after admitting to having a gay relationship with a
24-year-old man. The Mercury
says the decision by several paper companies in Japan to reduce their
purchases of Tasmanian wood chips was only partially driven by green
politics. The main reason was that the wood chips were becoming too expensive for the
Japanese paper industry. And the NT News
reports that Jenny Djerrkura has said her son Nathan, 16, was “angry
and embarrassed” about remarks made by his physical education teacher
at Scotch College, who suggested the phrase “Black B*stards R*pe
Willing Women” to help them remember the letters BBRWW.