SYDNEY, Sept 19 AAP - As the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, said in Jakarta earlier this week, there is nothing new about Australia's active involvement in the Asia-Pacific region, says The Australian.

"Since World War II, Mr Howard told Indonesia's President Suharto, governments of both stripes had recognised Asia's importance to Australia's future and had worked to strengthen links with the region.

"That is an accurate description and a perfectly proper message to deliver in Jakarta.

"Why then, should there be a sense of disappointment and missed opportunity following Mr Howard's first visit to Indonesia as Prime Minister?"

The Australian Financial Review says the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, left Indonesia yesterday without attempting any bold initiatives, grand gestures, or thrilling rhetoric. And we should thank him for that.

"In the first major overseas visit of his prime ministership, Mr Howard has not attempted to add any touches of excitement to Australia's foreign relations, but instead has administered some essential sobriety," the newspaper said in its editorial."

The Age, in its editorial today, asks why the confusion within federal government ranks over meeting the Dalai Lama.

The dilemma about meeting the Dalai Lama, if there is one, is simply whether to be seen to support the ideals of freedom and tolerance that we share with his countrymen, or be cowed by Chinese threats, it says.

Surely, if the Dalai Lama, whose homeland is under Chinese occupation, is not intimidated, there is no reason why Prime Minister John Howard should be, the editorial says.

The choice, it says, is simple.

Adelaide's The Advertiser today says while Prime Minister John Howard must mainatain a good relationship with China, he should meet with visiting Tibetan leader in exile Dalai Lama - who is fighting for his nation's independence from China.

"Australia is not a superpower, able to make judgments based solely on the revulsion felt by political leaders, or take-it-or-leave-it domestic political considerations," the paper says.

"The Advertiser believes Mr Howard should meet the Dalai Lama just as the Foreign Minister, Mr Downer, and the federal Opposition Leader, Mr Beazley, have joined other international figures in meeting him.

"But it is appropriate that he should make explicit that he receives him as a religious leader in the context of Australian religious tolerance and that, whatever he may privately believe about Tibet and its torments, the official Australian position on the issue is more circumspect, more sensitive to those larger concerns.

The Herald Sun's editorial today says the federal government's latest attempt to patch up the nation's health insurance system follows the move by some private funds to gobble up the budget health insurance tax rebates by premium rises.

The government's hope is that single parents and childless couples will be attracted by a 20 per cent reduction in contributions and take out private insurance, the editorial says.

But some health funds, it says, argue that if this does not happen, those in other categories will have to subsidise the new lower categories.

The editorial says that because of an inquiry announced by the government into the health insurance industry it would be prudent to defer further changes, as the massive health insurance problem cannot be fixed by ad hoc remedies.

The Daily Telegraph says a century ago, when Parramatta was not a part of Sydney metropolis but a country town considerably removed from the city, the journey between the two centres was regarded as something of an ordeal for travellers.

"In the 1890s, parts of Parramatta Road were still unmade and travellers reported the trip by regular coach to be a bone-shaking experience," the newspaper said in its editorial.

"But remarkably, a new study indicates those earlier travellers along what is now the major city traffic corridor took less time to cover the distance than modern-day commuters forced to tackle the journey by car during peak hours."

The Sydney Morning Herald says this has been a black month for NSW taxpayers.

"The Premier and the Leader of the Opposition have torn up two important articles of faith of previous Labor and coalition governments," the newspaper said in its editorial today.

"The first is the need to strive to balance the state's budget and, preferably, achieve a surplus of revenue over expenditure while the economy is expanding in order to tide the state through economic hard times.

"The second is the need to redistribute hospital beds and health services from the relatively well-resourced central, northern and eastern Sydney health regions to the relatively under-resourced western Sydney and outer-Sydney growth areas.

"The abandonment of both principles will have disastrous long-term consequences for taxpayers."

The Courier-Mail editorial says the current stoush between the state government and the Criminal Justice Commission marks a new low in their relations.

"The previous government had its problems with the CJC," the newspaper says.

"Former premier Wayne Goss and then CJC head Sir Max Bingham were barely civil to each other for some periods. But at least they did talk to each other."