The Australian

leads with Peter Costello’s proposal to use Telstra share dividends,
rather than cash, to finance bush service upgrades and its potential to
jeopardise the Nationals’ support for the full sale of Telstra.
Meanwhile Queensland’s two big by-election defeats for Peter Beattie’s Government at the weekend show that the Beattie formula is no longer working. And Matt Price
warns that Barnaby Joyce plans to keep Australia in suspense about his
crucial Senate vote, keeping his position on the $30billion T3 sale a
secret until he was called to vote in parliament next month.

The Sydney Morning Herald
also leads with the doubts over the Telstra float if the share price is
too low next year and Costello’s suggestion the shares could be put
into the planned Future Fund. The SMH is also revelling in the news that the next Catholic World Youth Day will be in Sydney in 2008. And David Marr
revisits the case of Vivian Alvarez Solon and the 18 month run-around
her husband Robert Young was given by the Department of
Immigration.

The Age
goes big with the arsenic that leaked into the Maribyrnong River from
one of the Port of Melbourne’s properties for the last four years in an
area frequented by Vietnamese fishermen. Meanwhile Peter Costello
has warned left-wing teachers
of creating a “dangerous” anti-American bias in Australian
schoolchildren, and says that undermining a long-time ally could leave
Australia vulnerable to terrorism.

The Herald Sunsplashes
with the “VIPs SHAMED ON COCAINE” after one of Australia’s most
prolific cocaine dealers gave police the names of his celebrity
customers – who include music, sport and TV stars – being convicted of
serious drug offences in 2003. ASIC chairman Jeffrey Lucy
has admitted it mishandled the publicity triggered by its pursuit of
Steve Vizard on the ABC TV’s Inside Business program. And the
security officer accused of killing former Test cricketer David Hookes,
Zdravko Micevic, 23, will face court today after he allegedly punched
the Victorian cricket coach during an altercation near the Beaconsfield
Hotel in St Kilda.

The Daily Telegraph
splashes with the “HOME BUYERS SCANDAL” after it was discovered that
almost 2000 homeowners have been caught defrauding the First Home Owner
Grant in a $13.7 million scam. The Tele also reports that Olivia Newton-John‘s
long-time lover Patrick Kim McDermott, 47, vanished during an overnight
fishing trip off California and may have faked his own death.

The Courier-Mail
leads with “Beattie’s wake-up call” after a massive swing against Labor
in the weekend by-elections, which will see the Government face its
first serious electoral test at the next state election. The Mercury
reports that Tassie’s two Myer department stores are likely to survive
an expected purge by retail giant Coles Myer according to industry
sources. The West
says Australia’s leading independent telecommunications analyst has
criticised broadband services in Perth as sub-standard, claiming the WA
capital is one of the nation’s biggest black spots and needs more
investment than many rural areas. The NT News
reports that the cane toad is likely to invade Palmerston and Darwin
during the next wet season after being slowed down by the poor 2004-05
wet season.

And the correction of the week goes to the Brisbane News, August 17-25, 2005:

We regret to advise that there was a sub-editing error in
our HEALTH story last week. We should have printed that “leukaemia
kills 30 per cent of Australian children who are diagnosed with the disease.”