When it comes to the Labor leadership, neither Tony Abbott nor his Coalition voters seem to know what they really want

Should Julia Gillard stay or go as Prime Minister? Should she call an early election or attempt to govern for a full term until 2013?

Union leader John Setka is pursuing a defamation case against Opposition Leader Tony Abbott after Abbott spoke of the thuggery and intimidating behaviour of union officials that he called "the John Setkos (sic) of this world". Sky News owner the Australian News Channel is also named as a defendant as it replayed Abbott's comments.

from Crikey .....

Police bribes probe the ticking time-bomb under News Corp

Crikey senior journalist Andrew Crook writes:

Everyone in Britain knows about the News of the World phone hacking scandal, and most people know that at its heart is a collection of documents and computer files assembled by the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. Buried by police in 2007, these records have been laboriously dragged to the surface by journalists and lawyers, and they have revealed outrageous illegal behaviour. The Mulcaire files, in other words, have done untold damage to Rupert Murdoch’s organisation.

Norman and Oriane Rousseau were one more couple pushed by a huge, greedy bank to the brink of homelessness. On Sunday, desperate and with nowhere to go, Norman Rousseau shot himself. 

Asylum seekers branded security threats by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation have been involved in a spate of suicide attempts inside the nation's detention network.

Two Tamils given adverse assessments by ASIO have attempted to kill themselves at a detention centre in Melbourne's north in the past month - one of them twice.

A third man stood screaming with an electrical cord clutched in one hand late on Sunday at the same spot where a friend had swung by the neck until he almost died three nights earlier.

There has been a revolution in Australian economy over the last three decades that has seen millions of people move into insecure jobs without any prospect of permanent employment, the ACTU Congress in Sydney has been told.

Former deputy prime minister Brian Howe, in his keynote address this morning to around 1000 ACTU delegates gathered at the Sydney Convention Centre, said the internationalisation of the Australian economy had no doubt improved living standards.

from Crikey .....

As Attorney-General Nicola Roxon prepares to head to the United States to further integrate Australia's role in the War on Terror into the American security apparatus, the powerful Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security has knocked back her terms of reference for an inquiry into the further widening of intelligence-gathering laws, including the controversial data retention proposal.

Former News International CEO Rebekah Brooks and her racehorse trainer husband Charlie have been charged with perverting the course of justice in relation to the phone hacking scandal.

Ged Kearney 

from the Power Index

from Crikey …..

Did Joe Hockey and Barry O'Farrell watch Packer on 60 Minutes?

from Crikey …..

Crikey Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

from Crikey ….

Coles aren't missing many in bombing out their new Flybuys cards to every man, woman and child. But just how they're getting the information is an interesting question. One mum offers some interesting clues:

from the Drum …..

Can somebody tell me what happened? Can someone explain how in the space of just a decade our public discussion has been hijacked by the ignorant and the bigoted and their boosters in the mass media?