The Australian

leads with the controversial ranking system for Australia’s 38 publicly
funded universities, which saw the University of Wollongong beat its
more prestigious rivals into first pace to win an extra $250 million in
funding. Meanwhile the prospect of tougher conditions on Telstra’s fixed-line business
could wipe up to $7billion off the price the Government gets for its
stake and has already seen the telco’s share price fall 14c to a
four-month low of $4.85. And Northern Territory coroner Greg
Cavanagh has told the resumed inquest into petrol-sniffing
that he adjourned Wednesday’s hearing feeling “angry at myself, at my
impotence to stop what was going on” when he saw a petrol-sniffing man
at the hearing.

The Age
leads with Telstra boss Sol Trujillo’s proposal to share the cost of a
$5 billion plan to “future-proof” telecommunications in the bush, in
return for the Federal Government cutting the company’s regulatory
burden. The paper also has an “exclusive” on Douglas Wood – which ran in the SMH
too – revealing that the former hostage has become virtually blind
since he was rescued, due to a lack of treatment for his diabetes and
glaucoma during 47 days in captivity. And the full bench of the
Australian Industrial Relations Commission has upheld an earlier
finding that the ABC should not have removed Inside Business executive producer Neheda Barakat after she claimed the Victorian head of news and current affairs, Marco Bass, had bullied her.

The Sydney Morning Herald
reveals that the record job boom sweeping Australia has skipped NSW,
which lost 35,000 full-time jobs last month, prompting warnings the
state could be in a “technical recession.” Meanwhile typical Sydney
families are spending a growing proportion of their weekly household expenditure
on information and communication technologies like mobile phones,
the internet and pay TV, according to a survey by the Bureau of
Statistics. The SMH also reports that the founders of the Hillsong Church ministry,
Brian and Bobbie Houston, are running a $1 million-plus business after
the not-for-profit association posted a revenue of $1.329 million last
year – offset by expenditure of $1.05 million. And a reader reminds
the paper of its priorities on the letters page:

National shame
If there happened to be 60 deaths related to petrol sniffing among
white Australians, one can be sure the authorities, politicians and the
media would be falling over each other to be seen taking action. The
fact that it is being treated as just another unimportant episode
occurring among our forgotten indigenous communities (“Out of sight,
out of their minds: sniffing’s tragic toll”, Herald, August 11), is a case of yet more national shame. It also deserves a lot more than a page 8 snippet in the Herald.
Geoff Cousins Elizabeth Bay

The Daily Telegraph‘s
splash simply reads “UNMASKED” and goes on to name former army private
Matthew Stewart as the “chief suspect” in the hunt for the masked
terrorist with an Australian accent who appeared in a terror
video. In contrast the Herald Sun chose the slightly more cautious headline, “MASK MAN SUSPECT”. The Hun also reports that gangland widow Judy Moran
has applied for crime victim compensation over the murder of her
estranged husband Lewis Moran – despite cashing in on his death through
an autobiography.

The Courier-Mail
reveals that some Gold Coast councillors have been accused of running a
scheme where tickets to fundraising dinners that had already been held
were sold to hide donations made by developers and are now being
investigated by the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission. The Mercury
reports that about 2000 farmers and supporters gathered in front of
Parliament House yesterday, to fight overseas imports and poor food
labelling, where they were given a $3 million commitment for an
industry development fund but no firm decision on changes to food
labelling. The West Australian
says that one-third of baby deaths investigated by a panel of Perth
doctors could have been prevented by better medical care for the mother
or baby, according to a new report released by the WA Health
Department. And the NT News
reveals that Territorians are the best paid in Australia, earning an
average of $1,401 a household per week, but they are also the nation’s
biggest boozers spending $39 a week each on alcohol says the Australian
Bureau of Statistics.