ABC NewsMail - Morning Edition.
To receive this email with your preferred topics and in HTML (report summary, links to the full report and some images), enter your email address and click "edit your preferences" at:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/alerts/
Top Stories
*Rudd leads Abbott as preferred PM: poll*
*Hundreds expected at Mr Yunupingu's memorial service*
*Sydney's monorail to make final journey before demolition*
*Barack Obama hails ailing Mandela's 'moral courage'*
-------Scroll down for more details-------
*Rudd leads Abbott as preferred PM: poll*
In the first national poll since Kevin Rudd returned as Prime Minister, results show he has taken a significant lead as the country's preferred leader.
In today's Galaxy poll published in News Limited papers, 51 per cent of respondents said they believed Mr Rudd would make the best prime minister, compared to 34 per cent for Mr Abbott.
Fifteen per cent of those surveyed said they were uncommitted.
Mr Rudd's position shows an 18 per cent jump from Julia Gillard's position in March.
However, the Coalition continues to lead Labor, 51 per cent to 49 per cent, on a two-party preferred basis.
The survey, conducted by Galaxy Research on June 27-28, revealed the opinions of 1,002 voters.
Poll data has been projected to reflect the Australian population.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is set to announce his new Cabinet line-up with a record number of women in positions.
After the resignations of six high-profile ministers following the ousting of Ms Gillard, Mr Rudd intends to increase the number of women in the ministry from nine to 11.
Victorian Senator Jacinta Collins will become the Minister for Mental Health and the Member for Ballarat, Catherine King, will be promoted to the Regional Australia portfolio.
Tasmania's Julie Collins will enter Cabinet with the portfolio for Housing, Homeless and Status of Women, while West Australian MP Melissa Parke will have the International Development and Aid portfolio.
They will join senior ministers Penny Wong, Tanya Plibersek and Jenny Macklin.
-------------------------
*Hundreds expected at Mr Yunupingu's memorial service*
Hundreds of people are expected to attend today's state memorial service for the former frontman of Yothu Yindi.
Mr Yunupingu died earlier this month aged 56 after a long fight with kidney disease.
The Yolngu man was a campaigner for reconciliation, a school principal and an award-winning musician.
The former Australian of the Year will be remembered today at Gulkula - the site of the Yothu Yindi Foundation's annual Garma music festival.
Mr Yunupingu is credited with bringing his local people and Indigenous issues to the national stage throughout his musical career.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and prominent Australian musicians Paul Kelly and Gurrumul Yunupingu are among those attending the service.
Federal MP Peter Garrett will be the master of ceremonies.
"I and others are obviously coming with sadness, also with a sense of respect and an opportunity to commemorate his achievements and I think it'll be a moving event," he said.
"It will be one which probably marks and recognises the contribution he's made and I hope it brings some comfort to his family and community."
Video
The Northern Territory's Chief Minister, Adam Giles, Yothu Yindi band members and Mr Yunupingu's widow Yalmay are expected to speak at the service.
The co-founder of the Fred Hollows Foundation will also speak.
Mike Lynskey has described Mr Yunupingu as a visionary.
"He had the most profound influence of any Indigenous person that I've met," he said.
"One night we sat up all night in Johannesburg and he explained to me his vision of what he wanted to do for his people."
The manager of Yothu Yindi says the band has been overwhelmed by the messages of support.
Alan James says Mr Yunupingu's death has been felt across Australia.
"The amount of condolence notices we've received by email and by Facebook and phone messages and text messages and so forth from all over the country is staggering," he said.
"I tried to print them all yesterday and I ran out of time there were so many of them."
:: A warning to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers: the above video includes images of a deceased person.
You can watch Mr Yunupingu's state memorial service from 11:30am AEST on ABC News 24.
-------------------------
*Sydney's monorail to make final journey before demolition*
Sydney's much-maligned monorail will loop around the city for the final time tonight after nearly 25 years of service.
The New South Wales Government is tearing down the track to build a new convention centre.
Sydney's Lord Mayor says the demise of the monorail, which has eight stations along the 3.6 kilometres of track, will eventually lead to improved public transport in the city.
Clover Moore says the monorail was never efficient.
"When the monorail comes down and the George Street light rail progresses, that will be moving 8,000 people an hour," she said.
"People will be able to get out at Central [Station] and then move easily through the city.
"That will be the beginning, I hope, of a light rail network and that'd be part of the integrated transport system that Sydney desperately needs."
The Sydney monorail was controversial even before it opened in 1988.
It was opposed by many who claimed a light rail service would be cheaper and less ugly.
Frank Sartor was a city councillor at the time and says he hated it then, and still hates it now.
"It's aesthetic mainly - I mean, it interrupts the streetscapes of Sydney," he said.
"It didn't serve particularly well as a transport system, although some people that live locally, they like it and it works for them."
The monorail's last journey will be at 9:30pm AEST this evening.
-------------------------
*Barack Obama hails ailing Mandela's 'moral courage'*
US president Barack Obama has met the family of his "inspiration" Nelson Mandela but was unable to visit the anti-apartheid legend, who remains critically ill in hospital.
Despite tentative signs of an improvement in Mr Mandela's condition, Mr Obama decided not to visit him for fear of disturbing his "peace and comfort".
Instead Mr Obama met privately with some relatives of the revered leader, including two daughters and several grandchildren, while he spoke Mr Mandela's wife Graca Machel via phone.
"I expressed my hope that Madiba draws peace and comfort from the time that he is spending with loved ones, and also expressed my heartfelt support for the entire family as they work through this difficult time," Mr Obama said, using Mandela's clan name.
Ms Machel said she had "drawn strength from the support" offered by the Obama family.
"I am humbled by their comfort and messages of strength and inspiration which I have already conveyed to Madiba."
Speaking earlier in Pretoria, where the 94-year-old anti-apartheid hero lay fighting for his life in a nearby hospital, Mr Obama praised the "moral courage" of South Africa's first black president.
"The struggle here against apartheid, for freedom, Madiba's moral courage, his country's historic transition to a free and democratic nation, has been a personal inspiration to me. It has been an inspiration to the world," Mr Obama said after talks with president Jacob Zuma.
"The outpouring of love that we've seen in recent days shows that the triumph of Nelson Mandela and this nation speaks to something very deep in the human spirit - the yearning for justice and dignity that transcends boundaries of race and class and faith and country," he added.
Mr Obama said before arriving that he did not need "a photo op" with Mr Mandela, whom he meet briefly in 2005, and the White House on Saturday ruled out a meeting between the two men.
Zuma pic
"Out of deference to Nelson Mandela's peace and comfort and the family's wishes, they will not be visiting the hospital," the official said.
Mr Obama's three-nation tour is aimed at changing perceptions that he has neglected Africa since his election in 2008, while also countering China's growing economic influence in the resource-rich continent.
But it has been overshadowed by the illness of his fellow Nobel peace laureate, who has been in intensive care for more than three weeks.
Mr Zuma said Mr Mandela remained in "critical but stable" condition, expressing hope that he would improve.
Welcoming the US president to South Africa on the second leg of his tour, he said Mr Mandela and Mr Obama were "bound by history" as the first black leaders of their respective nations.
"You both carry the dreams of millions of people in Africa," Mr Zuma said.
But the US leader was not greeted so warmly by all South Africans. Riot police fired stun grenades at anti-Obama protesters in the township of Soweto, once a flashpoint in the anti-apartheid struggle.
AFP
-------------------------
For more news visit ABC News Online at http://www.abc.net.au/news/
To unsubscribe, please go to http://www.abc.net.au/news/alerts/unsubscribe/
(You subscribed to this newsletter with email address: uwantshare001.myblogg2@blogger.com )
===========================
Enhance Your ABC NewsMail:
===========================
To receive this email with your preferred topics and in HTML (report summary, links to the full report and some images), enter your email address and click "edit your preferences" at:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/alerts/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sent from:
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 700 Harris Street, Ultimo NSW 2007
No comments:
Post a Comment