How they see it, December 30, 2012

1. Global Times

The most important event in China in 2012 was undoubtedly the change of leadership, which is why societal issues came into focus. Keeping the entire year in perspective, most of the problems have come to a soft landing and attitudes throughout society are becoming increasingly positive. Most of those complex attitudes have been transferred into positive energy to drive national reform after the 18th Party Congress. This large-scale change will provide Chinese society more experience in self-examination … The year 2012 also reflected some institutional problems … which have sounded an alarm. Public supervision of the authorities should be encouraged and political democracy should be enlarged. (Beijing)

2. The Sydney Morning Herald

It has been a year dominated by 24/7 scandal, sleaze and sledging, instead of policy and positivity. It's the year we had to have, to clear the decks for the election year we have to have … The defining memory of 2012 is the fixation of the opposition and the media on testing the legitimacy of the government and the nation's first female prime minister, Julia Gillard. It's been grubby, disrespectful and unedifying at times … Most of all, this year has been a wasted opportunity. The negativity has been an inevitable flow-on from the prime minister's dumping of her pledge not to have a carbon tax. Many will never forgive her for that. The good news is that her misogyny speech has been a turning point. (Sydney)