It was all Ronnie Reagan’s fault

THE PICK OF THE MORNING’S STORIES

CEO Fritz Henderson: Chapter 11 will make General Motors more competitive – The Detroit News website reports General Motors Corp filed for bankruptcy at 7:57 a.m. today in New York, saying it had no other choice because the Obama administration would only provide it with additional funding in bankruptcy.

Hulls plans hate crime crackdown – The Melbourne Age

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS

AUSTRALIA

Racial attacks

Hulls plans hate crime crackdown – The Melbourne Age

Fear wins out as Indian student heads for home – Melbourne Age

Hindu extremists burn Kevin Rudd effigies – The Australian

Rudd reassures India after a year of alarm – Sydney Morning Herald

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd moves to reassure India after attacks – Melbourne Herald Sun

Motor Industry

Small car pulls Holden out of GM wreck – The Melbourne Age reports that taxpayerfunds and a locally built small car will save Holden from the chopping block as parent company General Motors enters Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

GM woes fail to dent Holden loyalty – The Australian

Local car parts suppliers upbeat on future – Melbourne Age

Industrial Relations

‘Corporate cowboys’ slated by ACTU boss – Melbourne Age

Unions urge more support for retrenched workers – Sydney Morning Herald

Union fury at Julia Gillard’s backdown – The Australian reports ACTU boss Sharan Burrow has urged Kevin Rudd to intervene in Labor’s contentious award modernisation process after Julia Gillard took action the ACTU president warned risked turning restaurant and cafe workers into “second-class citizens”.

Economic conditions

Rudd and Swan soften blow of recession figures – The Australian

Rees on road to recovery with Budget’s $4 billion boost – Sydney Daily Telegraph

Premier shortlists assets for post-Budget sell-off – Brisbane Courier Mail

Political Life

Government hangs on Scrymgour quit threat – Northern Territory News reports erritory Government’s one-seat majority is in jeopardy after a prominent indigenous politician threatened to leave the Labor party over the homelands policy.

Deadline set for Costello to nominate – Melbourne Age says one of the big unanswered questions lurking on the political landscape will be answered by high noon on June 30 – whether Peter Costello will hang around to haunt Malcolm Turnbull or will he get a new job.

Family First Senator Steve Fielding in US for climate advice – Sydney Morning Herald

Libs sit on plan for flat rate – The Sydney Morning Herald reports on a report on taxation prepared for the Liberal Party

Poll watch

Labor weathering economic attacks on budget – Newspoll in The Australian calls it Labor 55 to Coalition 45

Transport

Brakes on timetable as one in 10 city trains late in May – Melbourne Age

The big choke: roads lose out in Rees budget – Sydney Morning Herald

‘P-plate curfew’ to curb road toll – Adelaide Advertiser

A hint of strange things

Brumby talks tough over ALP clean-up – Melbourne Age

Ex-minister Tony Stewart ramps up bid to clear name – Sydney Morning Herald

Dumped Tasmanian candidate takes aim at Senate – The Australian reports that a left wing unionist dumped as an ALP candidate before the 2007 federal election following intervention by Kevin Rudd is back — as a key ALP Senate candidate.

Political payout unethical, says Colin Barnett – The Australian

Opinion

A bruised relationship with India – Gerard Henderson in the Sydney Morning Herald

We are fighting a rising tide of assaults on our streets – writes the Victorian Police Commissioner in the Melbourne Herald Sun

Common sense the best rule – Tim Colebatch writes in the Melbourne Age that simplistic definitions of what constitutes a recession hinder efforts to find a path back to prosperity.

When anger makes the bad seem even worse – The Melbourne Age editorial argues there is no doubt that Indian students in Melbourne feel threatened, and there is evidence that some of the attacks on Indian students have been racially motivated. But it does not follow from either of these facts that there is widespread hostility to Indians in Australia, that racism is increasing, or that Melbourne is a more dangerous city than, say, Mumbai.

Holden’s future is in Obama’s hands after GM nationalisation – writes Ian Verrender in the Sydney Morning Herald

Despot dynamics: the dirty secret to survival – Peter Hartcher in the Sydney Morning Herald considers why the three countries who could do something about North Korea don’t do so

Wisdom of politicians is frail shield for our rights – George Williams writes in the Sydney Morning Herald of the bill of rights proposal

It’s all downhill from here – Andrew Clennell in the Sydney Morning Herald does a little budget speculating

Turnbull claws back from oblivion – Lenore Taylor in The Australian looks kindly at Malcolm Turnbull’s Newspoll figures

PM must put jobs before pay rises – argues Malcolm Colless in The Australian

We’re not the only ones hurting, think of Andorra – writes Christian Kerr in The Australian

ELSEWHERE

Motor Industry

Obama Sees ‘Painful’ Birth of New G.M. – New York Times

Judge Clears Way for Sale of Chrysler to Fiat – New York Times

Opinion

Reagan Did It – Paul Krugman in the New York Times goes searching for the origins of the current economic disaster

BUSINESS

China rejects iron ore price deal – Melbourne Age

Falling sales and cheaper options squeeze car makers – Sydney Morning Herald

Chinalco baulks at funding Rio alumina refinery – The Australian

Farmers confident of bumper crop – Adelaide Advertiser

ENVIRONMENT

Business pushes Coalition to negotiate climate deal – Melbourne Age

Household solar power laws at risk, state warns – The Melbourne Age reports the State Government has warned it will abandon controversial household solar power laws rather than accept Greens amendments to make it more financially attractive to install rooftop panels.

Garrett plan to protect ecosystems – Melbourne Age

Scientists warn acid is killing oceans – Sydney Morning Herald

Penny Wong in move to ease fears on energy – Cloimate Change Minister Penny Wong met Labor backbenchers yesterday in a bid to head off concerns that have forced the Rudd Government to delay legislation setting up its proposed 20 per cent renewable energy target reports The Australian

Victorian Farmers rush to sell water rights – The Australian

MEDIA

Sex workers say they’re being ripped off for ads – Melbourne Age

Blogger jailed in Anna Nicole Smith defamation suit – Melbourne Age

Rudd’s secret spiked essay for Foreign Affairs journal – The Punch website

LIFE

Swine flu

State relaxes as swine flu fears subside – Melbourne Age

Infection a riskier prospect for some – Melbourne Age

Threat mixed as swine flu toll grows past 400 – The Australian

Swine flu alert for State of Origin I – Sydney Daily Telegraph

Swine flu cases leaps by 94 to 306 in Victoria – Melbourne Herald Sun

Obesity

Last chance to cut back on children’s junk food ads – Melbourne Age gives details of a parliamentary committee’s recommendations

Shape up over fat, sugar and salt content, Canberra tells food industry – The Australian

Taxpayers to fund war on obesity – Sydney Daily Telegraph

Education

Powers to sack and pay at universities recommended – The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a NSW state parliamentary committee has called for changes that would give universities the power to sack their chancellor as well as pay members of their governing council as part of a series of measures aimed at improving the way universities are run.

Push to help gay pupils with new anti-homophobia policy – Melbourne Herald Sun

NSW public school’s $700 plea to parents – Sydney Morning Herald