What Australian newspapers say Thursday, Aug 8, 2002
SYDNEY, Aug 8 AAP - A patient's family should be informed of genetic test results thatcould save their lives, The Age says in its editorial today.
"Under the rules of patient confidentiality and privacy laws, doctors who discovera patient has an inherited disease risk do not have a clear right to tell other familymembers even if their patient should fail, or refuse, to do so," it says.
"Doctors have long recorded family medical histories that are partly genetic in nature,but as the range and predictive power of genetic testing increases, so does the urgencyof a resolution to this conflict between patient confidentiality, family members' rightto know and a doctor's wider duty of care.
"As doctors and cancer-gene carriers alike have observed, the first reaction to thenews is shock, but, once they realise the protective value of their knowledge, most peopleare thankful for being told."
The Sydney Morning Herald asks how tightly Australian business needs to be regulatedfor its own good.
"Is the mild restraint of self-regulation sufficient, or are criminal sanctions - allowingsalutary examples to be made occasionally of the worst corporate offenders - needed?"
it continues.
While Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chairman Allan Fels hasbeen calling for changes to the Trade Practices Act to make it easier to jail executivesin the worst cases, the Prime Minister John Howard has declared a softer approach.
The Herald says Mr Howard cannot be accused of joining recent attacks on ProfessorFels and the ACCC, but "until he spells out a more cogent case for lighter, not heavier,reform or corporate regulatory regimes, he will look like an apologist for little or noaction at a time when the case for tougher sanctions against anti-competitive behaviouris being powerfully put".
In a reminder to keep the response to recent corporate collapses in perspective, theAustralian says Australia's problems with corporate governance are minor compared withthe US and those of the "greed is good" 1980s.
"The gut reaction is for harsher laws and more red tape to nip any potential offencein the bud. But our reporting regime already provides reasonable and improving levelsof disclosure," The Australian says.
And with his argument that Australia has a more sensible, principles-based approachto corporate law than the US, the paper says John Howard is placing great trust in corporateAustralia. "Now's the time for business to earn it," it concludes.
The Canberra Times says Mr Howard seems rather too complacent that the essentials ofthe Australian corporate governance system were already superior to those of the UnitedStates.
"He seems to believe Australian accounting standards, and regular disclosure standards,were some sort of world model. Whether they meet US standards is arguable..." the papersays.
"Mr Howard is right to think that the problems are not best addressed by a fresh roundof stifling rules and regulations. But government must do more to show that the alternativesystem works better."
The Australian Financial Review says that while the Reserve Bank refrained on Tuesday,for the second successive month, from lifting interest rates, talk in the United Statesand Europe turned to cutting them because of fears of a double-dip recession.
"Official US rates are already at a 40-year low of 1.75 per cent, leaving the FederalReserve little room to reduce them", although the Financial Review says bond futures marketspoint to a 0.25 per cent cut by the end of the year.
With sluggish growth also forecast in the eurozone, the paper says what this meansfor local rates is pretty clear: "they are on hold for the time being. For the ReserveBank to lift them into neutral territory - between 5.5 and 6 per cent - it would requiresolid evidence that the US recovery is intact or that the Australian economy is continuingto defy gravity".
The Daily Telegraph says the State Government will face a crisis on two fronts unlessit is able to calm public fears over meningococcal disease.
"After three deaths in as many weeks, concerns over the disease have been surpassedby fears over the ability of the health system to properly diagnose and treat it," thepaper says.
The Telegraph says the two-fold problem for the government is that the incidence ofthe disease has caused a 28 per cent increase in emergency department admissions, whileinquiries are underway into the treatment of two victims of the disease at public hospitals.
Increased admissions have "tested resources that already are in crisis because of ashortage of nurses that has limited the number of beds available and a diversion systemthat forces closure of some emergency departments for a number of hours per day", it says.
The Herald Sun says courts should back police dealing with violent crime by handingout harsher sentences.
"The disturbing increase in violent crime in Victoria has drawn a resolute responsefrom police command," the paper says.
"While burglaries, car thefts, shoplifting and deceptions contributed to a 4.5 percent drop in property crimes, violent crimes against people jumped 6.2 per cent (and)street attacks were up 15 per cent.
"(Police Commissioner Christine Nixon) has promised that along with other serious crimesthe police will focus on the latest unhealthy phenomenon - the use of knives.
"But it is not only the police who must accept the challenge. The courts, too, mustensure that community concern is reflected in the penalties handed out."
The Brisbane Courier-Mail says happenings in the Queensland education system throwdoubts on the government's claim that its redundancy plan for teachers was aimed at liftingteaching standards.
The paper says at least one state school teacher who took the package has since foundemployment at a private school, mocking the statement by Education Minister Anna Blighthat the payouts were for teachers who were dissatisfied with the profession and wantedto change career direction.
"The Government may be serious about improving teaching quality but its behaviour overthe past month has revealed that a more urgent goal is to save as much money as it canby whatever means are politically acceptable," The Courier-Mail says.
AAP jmd
KEYWORD: EDITORIALS
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