DOMESTIC
Stimulus package: Support for the Government’s $10.4bn stimulus package remained strong across most of the media this week, with many commentators saying the speed and size of the response was more important than attempting to fine tune the package for greater equity, while some criticised the package for ignoring the unemployed and low income singles.
Bank deposit guarantee: In a classic case of who said what to whom and where, Federal parliament was dominated early in the week by the dispute over whether the Reserve Bank and Treasury were behind the Government’s unlimited bank deposit guarantee, while the debate eventually moved later in the week to whether the unlimited guarantee had been good or bad for financial markets overall.
Britt Lapthorne: A service for Ms Lapthorne was held in Melbourne during the week, while a possible coronial investigation in Australia and a continuing investigation in Croatia were widely discussed in the media, AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty criticised for refusing to attack the handling of the matter by Croatian authorities.
Climate change: While Greens candidates have done well in the recent WA and ACT elections, there was further evidence released in polls this week that Australians are cooling to the idea of taking tough steps to control the growth of carbon emissions, with the Opposition claiming the Government’s economic modeling for the ETS has been rendered irrelevant by the global financial crisis.
Xavier mucks up: The Melbourne Jesuit private boys’ school got an avalanche of unwanted media this week after its Year 12 mucked up to the degree of one student’s arm being broken and thousands of dollars of alleged damage to a motor vehicle parked outside the school.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
U.S. Presidential campaign: The task for Republican nominee John McCain seemed to get no easier this week, as the media focused on his running mate’s wardrobe budget and his campaign pulling out of Colorado, Barack Obama’s lead in the polls continued to strengthen heading into the final week of the campaign. Obama has taken two days away from the campaign to visit his sick grandmother in Hawaii.
BUSINESS NEWS
Financial crisis: While some business commentators were predicting the worst volatility for share markets and the crunch on credit may be over, others were warning of further problems ahead, with most global share markets dipping significantly again this week. The US Government announced a summit of the G20 leaders in New York to discuss further coordinated moves to alleviate the crisis, which Kevin Rudd will be attending.
In other business news: Inflation has hit 5% but virtually all commentators believe it will drop sharply from that figure, with the “inflation genie” retreating firmly back into the bottle as commodity prices struggle and spending decreases; and the global oil price has halved since its peaks in the first half of 2008, although prices at the pump have not come back significantly from their July peak.
TALKBACK
Economic matters continued to feature most strongly amongst a wide range of talkback calls this week, with divided opinions on the bank deposit guarantee and the cash rebates, although most felt that some immediate relief for pensioners was long overdue, and there was debate over whether our politicians needed to travel overseas to deal with the crisis.
SPORT
Cricket – In Australia’s biggest Test loss in almost a decade, the Indian team crushed Ricky Ponting’s men in the Second Test at Mohali Stadium by 320 runs. The media focus was on a reported spat between the captain and his strike bowler, Brett Lee, and whether the loss signified the end of our 15 year dominance of world cricket.
In other sporting news: a 50-1 shot from Britain took out the Caulfield Cup as the world’s biggest stable Godolphin finally won a major in Australia; and the Rugby League World Cup kicks off this weekend.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK“
I’m fearful when people are greedy, and greedy when people are fearful"
Warren Buffett again, explaining why he has started heavily investing in stocks
Tracking the media, monitoring the message
No comments:
Post a Comment