The Australian

leads with the Howard Government’s attempt to reassure nervous voters
about the fairness of its IR reforms, by considering
tougher laws to control bosses who use the new laws to bully or exploit
workers. The Oz also reports that the cases of Cornelia Rau and Vivian Alvarez are just the tip of the iceberg of the wrongful detention of residents,
citizens and lawful visitors, with department figures now revealing that 56
people have been wrongfully held in immigration detention facilities
for periods of longer than three weeks over the past five years.

The Sydney Morning Herald
leads with the Tax Office investigation of the transaction records of
more than 3,600 people suspected of using offshore credit cards to
return money from tax havens. Meanwhile researchers at the National
Acoustic Laboratories are predicting increasing levels of tinnitus and
other hearing problems among iPod users
with a quarter of users listening to their iPods at volumes equivalent
to the noise output of small power tools. And farmers who have illegally cleared land
around Walgett and Nyngan are being let off lightly after a “verbal
directive” from senior management in the Department of Industry,
Planning and Natural Resources said that prosecutions in the area
should not be pursued.

The Age
reports that federal cabinet last night cleared the way for the full
sale of Telstra after approving a $3 billion package to upgrade rural
phone services. The Herald Sun
splashed with the “KILLER BUG” which has been detected in more than 30
hospitals and is linked to the deaths of 123 patients in Victorian
hospitals and has infected more than 1,600 people. The Hun also reports that bidding has started for Joe Korp’s video
and diary after the court gave his brother Gust Korp the all-clear,
with TV stations said to be willing to pay at least $100,000. The paper also has an account of the bizarre suicide video.

The Daily Telegraph
splashes with missing Sydney woman Kerry Whelan whose husband Bernie
has emphatically denied he was having an affair with their nanny at the
time she disappeared while under cross-examination at the trial of
Bruce Allan Burrell. And premier Morris Iemma
has had to resort to launching radio ads to tell people how to
pronounce his name.

The Courier-Mail
reports that a 60-year-old Townsville man is presumed dead after being
taken by a crocodile while fishing from a canoe in the Lakefield
National Park in far north Queensland late yesterday. The Mercury
reports that police and volunteers who searched rough terrain at the
foot of the Great Western Tiers have yet to find any trace of bushwalker
Sue Maddern, 60, missing since last week. The Advertiser
reveals that yearly gambling losses on poker machines in South
Australia have topped $800 million for the first time – $667.50 for
every man, woman and child in the state. The West Australian
says the WA Government will demand up to a third of Telstra’s
multi-billion-dollar once the telco is fully privatised because of its
neglected telecommunications infrastructure. And the NT News
splashes with the largest illegal fishing boat ever caught off the
Territory coast, carrying 25 tonnes of reef fish estimated to be worth
around $200,000 wholesale and nearly $500,000 retail.