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BBC Monitoring Quotes From Australian Press 12 Dec 05

Posted on: Sunday, 11 December 2005, 12:00 CST

The following is a selection of quotes from editorials and commentaries published in 10-12 December editions of Australian newspapers available to BBC Monitoring:

East Asian summit

Sydney's The Sydney Morning Herald: www.smh.com.au "... The importance of Australia's inclusion in the East Asian Summit can hardly be overstated - 60 per cent of Australian exports go to the other 15 member nations... China is keen to narrow the definition of East Asia to keep India, and possibly Australia and New Zealand, on the sidelines of the meeting. On the other hand, with the US excluded, Washington is keen for its regional allies - Japan, Singapore and Australia in particular - to back India, because it is the only nation large enough to prevent China dominating the region. But on one issue Mr Lee [Kuan Yew] is certainly right: Asia is about to embark on a new era." (Editorial) (12)

Sydney's The Australian: www.theaustralian.news.com.au "Perhaps the most promising indication of the potential for Australia that could come from next week's East Asia summit is that our being invited at all has already annoyed former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad... Whatever the ethnic origins of most Australians, it makes sense for all participants if Australia attends... The East Asia summit does not signal any change in the way Australian foreign policy is based on the firm foundation of the US alliance. But it does demonstrate that our Washington connection does not forbid us from other friendships." (Editorial) (10)

Hong Kong WTO ministerial

Sydney's The Australian: "... The most distorted markets of all are agricultural and the biggest culprits are the EU, the US and Japan. But while the US has made a forthright offer to slash its subsidies to farmers by 60 per cent and reduce tariffs by up to 95 per cent, the EU comeback offer is mealy-mouthed and riddled with exemptions... if the Hong Kong ministerial collapses into the same disunity that scuppered the Cancun meeting two years ago, it could be years before a successor to the Uruguay round of 1994 is back on track... Doha was meant to be concluded a year ago, but at this stage its mendacious enemies appear to have it in a stranglehold." (Editorial) (12)

Sydney's The Australian: "... Blaming the Europeans for the world's agricultural trade problems has been on the agenda of Australian government ministers for more than 30 years... Free trade campaigners can complain as much as they like. But every government will put the national interest first when negotiating on trade. And blaming the EU every time gets us nowhere..." (Vincent Matthews, former first secretary at the Australian embassy in Brussels) (12)

UK torture ruling: "A lesson three centuries long"

Sydney's The Sydney Morning Herald: "... This week's ruling by Britain's highest court that evidence obtained under torture is not admissible is consistent with the lessons of history, as is London's recent role in pressing the United States over so-called rendition - the outsourcing of the interrogation of terrorism suspects to nations known to employ torture... The war on terrorism has since prompted many Western governments to curtail civil liberties and legal protections, often with public support. Debate over new legal instruments such as detention without trial has a long way to run. But torture should never be revisited... It is a line worth drawing as this week's US policy shift attests. Under pressure from Europe, the US banned its interrogators from employing inhumane treatment anywhere in the world." (Editorial) (10)

Iraq: "One invasion begets another"

Melbourne's The Age: www.theage.com.au "... The unaccounted-for spending of Iraqi oil revenues revealed by investigations conducted by both the US government and the United Nations is nothing short of spectacular... Australia is directly linked to this process through its participation in the coalition of the willing... As with the furore about kickbacks paid by the Australian wheat exporter AWB to parties within Saddam's regime, these revelations threaten to tarnish further Australia's reputation. Trade at any cost sullies a nation's standing in the international marketplace. Trade in breach of international law has the potential to destroy it." (Editorial) (12)

Hicks: "Too gutless to save one of our own"

Sydney's The Sydney Morning Herald: "David Hicks is the Australian his country, his government and the major political parties have abandoned... David Hicks, apparently, is now the only Westerner left among Guantanamo Bay's prisoners... Not only the Howard government has washed its hands of Hicks, Kim Beazley's Labor opposition has been just as miserably spineless in seeking to avoid any political taint from supporting Hicks... The US legal system grinds on. Another year stretches ahead. Our shameless government deserves to be burned." (Alan Ramsey) (10)

Sources: As listed

Source: BBC Monitoring Newsfile

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