The Sydney Morning Herald

goes very big with the profit results of the world’s biggest miner, BHP
Billiton, running a graph of the company’s once-in-a-century resources
boom profits from one side of the paper to the other under the
headline, “BHP hits jackpot of a lifetime.” The SMH also reports that John Hewson
has left the board of the new web-based political campaign
organisation, GetUp! less than a month after its launch and following
the denunciation of the group by Liberal backbenchers as little more
than spam. And NSW’s top justice James Spigelman speaks to the SMH about David Hicks dealing with a tardy, snoozing or drunken judge and warns against any move towards mandatory sentencing.

The Age
takes a different angle on BHP’s impressive result, leading with the
Chinese economic boom, which is expected to expand by more than 10%
over the next decade. Meanwhile, Labor and the ACTU will challenge the
Federal Government’s IR ad campaign
in the High Court on Monday, asserting that the Government has breached
the constitution by spending public money without proper authorisation
from Parliament. And the Sydney trial of Brad Cooper
has been told the former HIH executive was a generous boss who gave his
employees and associates gifts of cash, with his largesse even
extending to swimming legend Dawn Fraser and singer Jimmy Barnes.

The Australian
leads with Kim Beazley’s upcoming strategy changes, which will see him
dispense with his usual small-target policy and put Labor’s broad
position on nation-building projects, the skills shortage and record
foreign debt. Meanwhile Craig Emerson says Labor could meet its
priority of reducing the tax burden
on lower-income earners and have enough left over to cut the higher
marginal tax rates if it adopted a policy of cutting upper-middle-class
welfare. The Oz also reports that Ron Walker
is set to become the next chairman of the John Fairfax Holdings
newspaper group, leading to speculation that a new chief executive
could also be announced soon.

The Herald Sun
splashes with an exclusive on the “FURY OVER $20m MAN” Gabrial
Pennicott – a former student of the disgraced property developer and
spruiker Henry Kaye – who fleeced mum-and-dad investors before fleeing
Australia for a Caribbean island with an extradition treaty. And
the Hun also reveals that police minister Tim Holding’s office arranged to meet the police files whistleblower just days before he was mistakenly sent up to 20,000 pages of police files.

The Daily Telegraph
splashes with “GIANT SHARK TAKES DIVER” after yesterday’s shark attack
off Glenelg beach in Adelaide. Meanwhile, Morris Iemma is preparing to
axe up to 4000 public service
jobs within the next six months, says The Tele, saving the State
Government $300 million and allowing it to pay for the abolition of the
vendor tax.


The Courier-Mail reports that Queensland Nationals senator Barnaby
Joyce will back the full sale of Telstra provided obligation for bush
telecommunications are met. The Advertiser splashes with the “DEATH DIVE” which saw marine
biologist Jarrod Stehbens taken by a shark off Glenelg beach while
diving yesterday. The Mercury reports that Greens leader Peg Putt has claimed that the
Paul Lennon’s government had been hiding away taxes and deferring
banking stamp duty cheques to carry over its unexpectedly high tax take
into the new 2005-06 financial year. The West Australian says the fly-in, fly-out working arrangements used
by large mining companies have been labelled the “cancer of the bush”
by regional development minister, John Bowler, and contributes to the
breakdown of families. Meanwhile in Darwin a 3m long croc has been spotted off Mindil
Beach, which was closed for several hours until Parks and
Wildlife rangers were sure the saltie had gone, says the NT News.

And in the UK, The Times reports that Prince of Wales is keen to persuade
the Government to offer more alternative medicine on the NHS and has
commissioned a report into the benefits of complementary therapies,
claiming that millions of pounds could be saved if such remedies were
made available. But the study has been condemned as “outrageous
and deeply flawed” by an expert in the field
and the Prince’s actions have also triggered a row over his
constitutional role, with doctors and MPs questioning whether the Prince
should be challenging the Government’s agenda.