“Push to shut black outposts,” says The Oz. The cost of funding about 1,000 remote and often
unviable Aboriginal communities dotted across Australia has been
questioned by Indigenous Affairs Minister Amanda Vanstone, who
described them as “cultural museums.” “Perhaps we need to explicitly draw a line on the level of service that
can be provided to homeland settlements,” Senator Vanstone said this
week.
In a speech to the Australian National University, Senator Vanstone
also said some communities provided “risky” environments, particularly
for children.

Bob Carr is gone but not forgotten in the SMH, which writes that his farewell piece of political spin – a trip to Dubai
and London to announce the site of Sydney’s desalination plant –
cost taxpayers at least $100,000, $10,000 of which was spent on
chauffeurs in London. Flights alone for the former premier, his wife, Helena, and
their entourage cost more than $67,000, according to documents
obtained by the Herald under freedom of information laws.
And the London hotel bill for the couple was $8906. Mr Carr ended his 12-day tour, which earned him the name of
Dubai Bob, just a week before he quit as premier.

InThe Age it’s Henry Kaye, Australia’s most notorious property spruiker, who has
been charged with criminal fraud after allegedly deceiving St
George Bank to secure finance for his most ambitious
development. Kaye, who taught tens of thousands of low income earners to
become speculative property investors, could face up to 10 years’
jail under Victoria’s Crimes Act if found guilty of obtaining
financial advantage by deception. The charge with summons was served by Australian Securities and
Investments Commission officers at his solicitor’s office in
Melbourne at 1pm yesterday after two years of investigations and
deliberations.

“Not on our beach,” declares NSW police Assistant Commissioner Mark
Goodwin in The Daily Tele. He grew up surfing
Cronulla’s famous breaks and now Goodwin is going after the thugs who threaten to ruin the beach for
everyone. The keen surfer yesterday vowed to bring order to the beach where he
learned to ride a board, amid growing fears a planned brawl at North
Cronulla on Sunday could turn into a race riot. “The Australian way is about coming to the beach with your towel and
sunscreen, and maybe a book, and lying back and relaxing,” Mr Goodwin
said yesterday.

Prime Minister John Howard has expressed
support for Victorian Opposition Leader Robert Doyle as speculation
mounts over his leadership, says the Herald Sun. This week former Premier Jeff Kennett criticised the party’s candidates
for next year’s state election and said the Liberals were too narrowly
focused under Mr Doyle and Victorian president Helen Kroger.

Education is the hot topic in The Courier-Mailwhich reports that children’s reading skills will be tested on
school entry and a literacy plan will be drawn up for them in a huge
national shake-up of teaching methods. A national report released yesterday has also recommended an overhaul
of teacher training at universities and that parents take a stronger
role in helping with their children’s reading and writing skills.

Meanwhile, the capital is back in business, says The Canberra Times,
with ACT’s tourism authorities have declared the slide in Canberra’s
visitor numbers officially over, with figures to be issued today
showing a significant jump in those making the trip to the national
capital over the last 12 months. Hot on the heels of a record-breaking
Floriade, which saw 356,676
people through the turnstiles of Canberra’s annual spring garden and
flower festival, a study by Tourism Research Australia shows a 4.1%
increase in domestic overnight visitation to the ACT in the year
to September, compared with the previous 12-month period.

In SA, two people are dead and two others are
recovering after an outbreak of food poisoning in the state’s public
and private hospitals. The Health Department is testing food from hospitals and the private
kitchens of the victims, and interviewing hospital staff and family
members to find the source of the listeria poisoning. The Advertiser understands the two victims died
at St Andrews Hospital and Royal Adelaide Hospital and the State
Government last night confirmed that the Wakefield, Whyalla, Keith and
Gawler hospitals were other sites visited by victims.

“Woman guilty over parents: She helped kill her father and tried to kill her mother,” reports The Mercury.
A former Launceston nurse who tried to kill her
mother and helped kill her father was remanded in custody yesterday
awaiting sentence. A Supreme Court jury took 2-1/2 hours to find
Catherine Anne Pryor, 42, guilty of the attempted murder of Anne
Frances Grant.
She pleaded guilty on Monday to assisting the suicide of Peter Dundas
Grant, 79, on November 4, 2003.

Snake smuggling inNT News. A major wildlife smuggling racket has been smashed in the Territory. Parks and Wildlife Service officers have seized
a consignment of about 80 reptiles bound for Sydney. A snake and
lizards are believed to have been found in a crate. In The West, a serial burglar who spent much of his adult life in jail and hooked on
drugs has asked a judge to deny him parole because in prison he can
“pass his days on heroin.”