What Australian newspapers say on Friday, December 22, 2006

AAP General News (Australia)
12-22-2006
What Australian newspapers say on Friday, December 22, 2006

Melbourne's Herald Sun leads the tributes to Shane Warne, after the legendary leg-spinner
announced his retirement from cricket in Australia.

"Cricket, sport and Australia will not be the same without Shane Warne wearing his
baggy green cap.

"Warnie was, quite simply, the prayer of his generation and a man who captured the
imagination of an entire nation.

"He was a flawed character - sometimes crude, often in trouble, always the larrikin.

"But to concentrate on his failings as a person would be to diminish his achievements
as a sporting hero to millions."

Sydney's Daily Telegraph also leads its main editorial with a tribute to Warne.

"Warne is simply the best bowler the world has ever seen.

In 143 Tests, he's taken - on average - 4.9 wickets per match. Imagine being able to
rely on as captain on such a wicket-taking machine - then imagine the success that can
be built on that foundation."

The Brisbane Courier Mail joins the lauding of Warne saying: "The statistics are formidable,
the individual achievement almost unparalleled and particular feats seared in our collective
memory.

"Shane Keith Warne quite simply changed cricket and played a significant role in cementing
Australia as the pre-eminent team in the world.

"Australians have loved Warne the bowler while being exasperated at his off-field antics.

It has been his ability to soar to heights of achievement, take bruising knocks for his
own behaviour and then bounce back, with his larrikin grin and boyish enthusiasm, that
has endeared him to his fellow countrymen.

"He will be cheered long and loud and remembered as one of Australia's greatest sportsmen
of the modern era."



The Melbourne Age says Australia cannot be taken seriously on climate control while
the federal government refuses to adopt the Kyoto protocol.

"The awkward fact that Australia has not ratified Kyoto continues to place us in the
outer reaches of international debate on environmental control: how can we be taken seriously
in the climate-control debate by other developed nations (excluding, of course, the US,
which also didn't ratify the protocol) when we have refused to endorse their common and
binding treaty of agreement?

"While most countries under Kyoto were required to take emissions below 1990 levels
by 2008-12, Australia negotiated an 8 per cent increase. It is forecast that by 2020,
when the benefits of reduced land-clearing start to fade, Australian emissions will be
17 per cent higher than its Kyoto target.

"Whatever the figures, Australia is exceeding greenhouse gas emissions in a way that
does little to salvage our reputation as one of the lesser players on a more globally
responsible stage."

The Sydney Morning Herald says HSC results should not be only way in which schools are measured.

"A better test of a school's quality is whether it adds value. In other words at any
given school how does the performance of students of all abilities and talents improve.

"The NSW Department of Education knows which schools do this; it is part of the same
regular tracking that identifies trends in selective schools. That these results are not
made public systematically is an opportunity wasted. Far worse it is unfair if insiders
can obtain and make use of the information which the public cannot."

The Australian Financial Review says that commentators who warned, ad nauseam, that
shares would produce only produce single-digit returns, three years ago, may be left with
egg on their faces.

"Financial markets can humble the sharpest minds and the most passionate students of
investment - perhaps this is the biggest lesson from the bull stockmarket that has generated
average annual price gains of 22 per cent from Australian shares since 2003."

KEYWORD: EDITORIALS

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