PM sympathetic to Egypt, supports Greste

PM Tony Abbott has reached out to Egypt in the case of Australian journalist Peter Greste (pic). Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has told the Egyptian president that detained Australian journalist Peter Greste was simply doing his job, while also expressing sympathy for the strife-torn country as it grapples with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Greste, a reporter with the Al Jazeera television network, was arrested in Cairo on December 29 along with two colleagues with the trio accused of spreading false news and supporting the black-listed group.

Mr Abbott on Saturday revealed details of his call to interim Egyptian President Adly Mansour on Thursday night, saying he had conveyed that he had a lot of sympathy with the Egyptian government and that in Australia's view, the Muslim Brotherhood was linked to terrorism.

"Second point I made was at least from this distance, Peter Greste was doing his job," he said.

"He wasn't taking sides.

"He was simply doing his job and it is the job of a free media to report the facts as they find them and that is what he was doing."

Mr Abbott said the president conceded he couldn't interfere in his country's justice process but was confident the matter would be resolved swiftly.

11.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Police try to identify body found in river

A woman's body has been pulled from a western Sydney river, police say. Source: AAP

A WOMAN'S body has been pulled from a western Sydney river.

The body was found near the Camellia Bridge at Rydalmere about noon on Friday.

Police hope someone who knows the woman will come forward as they try to piece together how she died.

She is described as Indian or Middle Eastern in appearance, aged in her 20s or 30s, about 158 centimetres tall with long black hair.

Police say the woman's hair was tied up and she was wearing grey tights and a striped shirt.

11.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Ford CEO's pay up 11% to $US23.2 million

FORD chief executive Alan Mulally's compensation rose 11 per cent to $US23.2 million ($A25.12 million) in 2013, as the company reported record profits in North America and Asia.

Mulally earned $US2 million in salary, the same as 2012.

But he earned more in bonuses, at $US5.9 million, and in stock and option awards, which totalled $US14.6 million.

The company's board noted that Mulally helped keep the company's European restructuring on track.

It said Ford exceeded internal profit and cashflow targets, and noted that the Michigan-based company doubled its dividend in 2013. But the board said Ford missed internal targets for market share increases and quality improvement.

Ford earned a record pre-tax profit of $US8.8 billion in North America and a record profit of $415 million in Asia last year.

Ford saw strong demand worldwide for small SUVs such as the Escape, EcoSport and Kuga last year. In the US, sales of the F-Series pick-up truck jumped 18 per cent as the economy continued to improve.

Mulally's compensation included $232,153 for personal use of private planes.

Mulally, 68, announced in January that he would stay at Ford at least through the end of this year, putting to rest rumours that he might leave to become chief executive of Microsoft.

Mulally has made $197.65 million since joining Ford in 2006, according to the AP's calculations. He led a major restructuring at the automaker, cutting costs by closing factories and globalising its product offerings worldwide. Ford has earned $42.4 billion since returning to profitability in 2009.

11.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Search for MH370 takes dramatic shift

The search for a missing Malaysia Airlines flight has resumed with weather conditions improving. Source: AAP

THE focus of the hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has completely shifted to a new northern zone in the Indian Ocean.

New radar data analysis has prompted authorities to shift the search 1100 kilometres to the northeast, following updated advice from the international investigation team in Malaysia.

The focus zone is now about 319,000sqkm and some 1850km west of Perth.

Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) emergency response manager John Young said on Friday all planes and ships had been moved to the new zone, which was "now our best place to go".

"We have moved on from (previous) search areas," Mr Young told a press briefing in Canberra.

"The search we've had to date is what we had at the time. New information will emerge.

"I don't count the original work a waste of time."

He said the search area had been "refined and moved on" from earlier work.

"It's not a new theory."

But the search area could change again, Air Transport Safety Bureau chief commissioner Martin Dolan said.

Mr Young stressed that he would not use the term "debris field" in relation to the satellite objects previously identified, which "may or may not be objects".

Because the new search zone is closer to Perth, where planes are being flown from, spotters have longer time on the scene than before, he said.

Up until now, they only had one to two hours before having to return to RAAF air base Pearce.

"We're now doing much better than that," Mr Young said.

Weather conditions in the new search area will also be more favourable, he said.

MORE TO COME

11.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Australian gay couples to wed under UK law

A GAY couple who will fly to England to tie the knot are disappointed they'll have to leave their marriage at customs when they return home to Australia.

Murray Sayers and his partner Stephen Carlton have been together for a decade and are planning their London nuptials, after the UK's first gay weddings this weekend.

"We thought after 10 years that we weren't going to wait around for things to happen here so we decided to go to England knowing that the laws were changing," Mr Carlton said on Friday.

"We will have to check that marriage at the customs gate when we come back to Melbourne."

Chris Elliott and Dale Park, who recently moved to Australia, say they want to be considered equal and their only option to be legally married is through the UK consulate.

As it stands, federal law stipulates that marriage can be solemnised only between a man and a woman and a union solemnised between a same-sex couple in a foreign country is not recognised as marriage in Australia.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young is planning to introduce a bill to recognise international same-sex marriages in Australia.

The bill will be sent to a Senate inquiry to give MPs across the political spectrum a say while looking at the impact of marriage equality overseas, Senator Hanson-Young said.

"Tomorrow in England, knights can marry knights and dames can marry dames - I think we should just have the same here in Australia," she said.

11.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Employers, unions argue over wage increase

EMPLOYERS are willing to put $10 extra a week into the pockets of low-income earners, far short of the $27 a week unions say is needed.

Industry groups argue small businesses could close if wages rise too much, but unions say low-paid workers are consumers who would stimulate the economy.

The ACTU says the gap between rich and poor has widened over the past 10 years, as wages failed to keep pace with the cost of living.

But Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said increasing the minimum wage too much would hurt 500,000 part-time workers who wanted more hours.

"Too big an increase in Australian minimum wages would also further damage Australian competitiveness," Mr Willox said.

"Our minimum wage levels are already amongst the highest in the OECD."

ACTU secretary David Oliver said profits were up, productivity was up, but workers' share of the pie was getting smaller.

He predicted Australia would have a US-style working poor within 20 years if the minimum wage wasn't increased steadily.

Last year, a push by unions for the minimum wage to be increased by $30 a week was met with a request by employers for the pay rise to be limited to $5.80 a week.

The minimum wage went up $15.80 to $622.20 a week in 2013.

Mr Oliver said that 20 years ago the minimum wage was 60 per cent of average full-time wages, but had fallen to 43 per cent.

Submissions from employers and unions were lodged with the Fair Work Commission on Friday, with a decision expected in June.

The commission's decision will apply to Australian award wages from July 1.

Employment Minister Eric Abetz said it was up to the Fair Work Commission to determine wages and the government would be making its own submission to the review later on Friday.

It was appropriate the FWC found out the details of that before it was publicly announced, he told reporters in Canberra.

Senator Abetz said the government was concerned about easing the burden on low income earners but that would largely come from scrapping the carbon tax.

11.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Pell worried by US abuse payouts

Cardinal George Pell has given evidence at the royal commission into child sexual abuse in Sydney. Source: AAP

CARDINAL George Pell was worried by sexual abuse case payouts that had bankrupted some US churches and wanted to prevent similar payouts in Australia, an inquiry has heard.

Dr Pell, the former archbishop of Sydney, told the royal commission into child sexual abuse that he had been concerned by verdicts in US courts where large payouts to victims had bankrupted some dioceses.

He denied, however, that he wanted sexual abuse victims to go through the Catholic church's internal system, Towards Healing, rather than the courts, so that the church could control the size of payouts.

Under questioning from Commission chair Justice Peter McClellan, Dr Pell agreed that, since his time as archbishop of Melbourne, he had been concerned about the US payouts to victims.

He did not want a similar situation in Australia because "Australia is not America" where there are "an enormous number of lawyers".

But Dr Pell also did not want the church to be treated differently to any other Australian institution in answering claims of sexual abuse.

"I did not want that to happen just to us," he said.

The commission was shown a 2007 letter to the archdiocese from its lawyers that described a court ruling that the church's trustees could not be sued as a significant and favourable outcome.

The lawyers said the court's ruling "places a significant number of obstacles" that would have to be overcome by claimants pursuing abuse cases through the courts rather than through Towards Healing.

Earlier, Dr Pell said he instructed lawyers to vigorously defend the case against abuse victim John Ellis to make other potential complainants reconsider going to court.

Counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness SC, asked Dr Pell if he had wanted to make plaintiffs "think twice" about suing the church.

Dr Pell said he wanted them to "think clearly".

"They should consider the advantages in not going to litigation," he said.

He admitted the church didn't deal fairly with Mr Ellis "from a Christian point of view", but in a legal sense it did nothing improper.

Dr Pell said he was consoled by a legal ruling protecting the church's property trustees from being sued.

The commission has heard the archdiocese of Sydney has property and cash worth $1.2 billion.

Mr Ellis sued the church over the abuse he suffered at the hands of a priest between the ages of 13 to 17 in the 1970s, but lost the case in 2007 when a court ruled the trustees weren't liable.

Lawyers disputed in court that the abuse had occurred, cross-examining Mr Ellis over a number of days, despite the church having previously accepted that it had happened.

Dr Pell said he regretted the action.

"I regret that. I was told that it was a legally proper tactic," he said.

The church subsequently pursued Mr Ellis for $550,000 in costs, despite a psychiatrist assessing Mr Ellis as being in a fragile mental state.

The inquiry continues.

11.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Elvis death 'his genetic destiny'

British TV researchers say bad genes may have been the real cause of Elvis Presley's death. Source: AAP

A BRITISH TV show that attempts to sequence the DNA of historical figures from Adolf Hitler to Marilyn Monroe claims to have discovered what could have caused Elvis Presley's early death.

The controversial show, Dead Famous DNA, had already hit the headlines after it emerged that TV bosses paid Holocaust denier David Irving thousands of pounds for a lock of what was supposed to be Hitler's hair.

DNA analysis on a hair sample thought to have come from the king of rock'n'roll, which was bought from a friend of the singer's barber, has revealed that the singer could have suffered from a heart muscle disease.

The DNA results - analysed by Dr Stephen Kingsmore in Kansas - showed mutations, known as "variants", which cause migraines, glaucoma and obesity.

Presley, a junk-food addict who relied heavily on prescription drugs, was known to have suffered from headaches and bad eyesight and ballooned in weight towards the end of his life.

Scientists also found a "crucial" variant known to cause hypertrophic cardiomyopathy - a heart muscle disease that causes the thickening of the heart and weakening of the heart muscle.

Presley displayed many of the symptoms of this disease, including an irregular heartbeat, fatigue, fainting and high blood pressure.

The star was found dead in 1977 at 42 slumped in a bathroom at Graceland, his mansion in Memphis, Tennessee.

Producers said although it was officially known that Presley died of heart failure, the cause of his heart failure was still subject to speculation and had fuelled a "melting pot" of conspiracy theories.

Kingsmore, director of the Centre for Paediatric Genomic Medicine at the Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, described the results as "a smoking gun".

"There had been so much speculation about cause of death, and so much ill spoken of his lifestyle, and we had this intriguing finding that possibly Elvis had a medical illness, and all of the stuff about how he killed himself with his lifestyle might have been very unfair," Kingsmore said.

11.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Christian bikies back Qld court challenge

QUEENSLAND'S anti-bikie laws go against the Bible and Christian beliefs about justice, the Brotherhood Christian Motorcycle Club says.

Queensland's outlaw motorcycle gangs have found an unlikely ally in the Brotherhood, which will help bankroll their High Court challenge against the laws.

"We'd hope to raise at least $2000, maybe more," spokesman Greg Pendlebury told AAP on Wednesday.

The club has written to the Queensland parliament asking for the laws to be repealed.

It's also contacting churches, asking them to compare the laws with the Bible's teachings and consider contributing funds.

The club has spoken out against anti-association laws in NSW and other states in the past, but considers the Queensland laws to be the most menacing.

The laws go against Christian principles by changing the nature of crime from "what you do" to "who you talk to", the club says.

Other criticisms include that the laws remove the intent of the justice system to correct behaviour, and the prospect of innocent people being punished because of their associations.

"Punishing the innocent is contrary to the Bible's mandate for government," Mr Pendlebury said.

"The new laws mean that an activity as innocent as a family picnic may be an offence."

Fourteen of the state's bikie gangs, which were declared illegal organisations in October, as well as recreational riders, launched the High Court challenge last week.

They'll argue that more than a dozen sections of the new laws are unconstitutional.

The reforms were introduced after a violent brawl at a Gold Coast restaurant in September 2013, which involved dozens of bikies wearing club colours.

The legislation imposes mandatory jail terms of between 15 and 25 years for anyone found guilty of gang-related crimes, with the punishment to be imposed on top of the usual sentence.

And it is illegal for three or more gang members to knowingly meet in public.

Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie said the laws are firm but fair.

"Everyone has the right to fund a legal challenge but that money could go towards helping victims of crime, disadvantaged Queenslanders and not organised criminal gangs," Mr Bleijie told AAP.

11.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

New Hope plans to acquire coal miners

Coal miner New Hope's half year net profit has fallen by two-thirds to $22.7 million. Source: AAP

MOST Australian coal miners have been struggling for two years but New Hope has $1.1 billion in the bank and plans to capitalise by making acquisitions.

The Queensland miner was up for sale itself two years ago.

New Hope's first half net profit slumped 67 per cent to $22.7 million, due mostly to low thermal coal prices for 3.0 million tonnes sold, it announced on Tuesday.

That compares to peers, such as Whitehaven Coal, which have been posting losses since 2012.

New chief executive Shane Stephan said it was a good result given the challenging market conditions, and dismissed current anaemic prices as cyclical and certain to rise.

Mr Stephan said he expects prices to remain low in the second half due to an oversupply of coal but says that will change, pointing to South Korea's plans to bring on more than 10 gigawatts of new coal-fired electricity.

He dismissed predictions that China wanted to invest in cleaner technologies than coal and that it would lead to a permanent downturn.

"It will take some time for demand to catch up with current supply but there's still a very good, strong future for thermal coal exports into Asia," he told AAP.

"Japan had similar problems (to China) with air quality in the late 1960s-1970s ... They put on proper pollution controls and dramatically improved their air quality whilst increasing coal consumption."

He said ongoing low coal prices also meant well-priced coal assets would, inevitably, become available.

Mr Stephan's predecessor, long-term CEO Robert Neale last year complained that resources giants such as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto needed a reality check about their asking prices for coal mines.

"M and A (merger and acquisition) is all about timing and opportunity," he said.

"It is fair to say that with the current downturn in coal pricing, one would expect, over the next couple of years, there should be better priced opportunities available than what has been in the past."

New Hope's increasing Australian oil and gas assets were acting as a natural hedge against coal prices, with its Bridgeport Energy business already earning cash through oil production, he said.

The company is also the largest shareholder, with a 16.4 per cent stake, in Australian company Dart Energy, which is focused on UK shale assets at a time in which North Sea production is declining.

New Hope shares were down 3.0 cents at $3.16 at 1345 AEDT.

AAP gr/cdh

11.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Senate blocks mining tax repeal

COALITION plans to repeal the mining tax have been blocked by Labor and the Australian Greens in the Senate.

After days worth of debate the upper house on Tuesday voted against a move to scrap the Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT), 35 votes to 32.

Cries of "shame" were heard around the chamber as the result was read.

Scrapping the mining tax was a major platform on which Prime Minister Tony Abbott campaigned at the September election.

Even with the support of Independent senator Nick Xenophon and Democratic Labour Party senator John Madigan, the coalition did not have the numbers for the bill to pass its second reading.

Opposition debate on the bill focused on the need for mining companies to pay more for the right to harvest Australia's finite resources.

The money, forecast to be several billions of dollars, was to be injected into community-building programs under Labor's plan.

But coalition senators said the tax had failed to reap the forecast benefits and was instead causing a loss in confidence for foreign investors viewing Australia.

Liberal senator Matthias Cormann described the mining tax as a "dog's breakfast".

It's bad for the economy, it's bad for jobs, it's bad in particular for the great state of Western Australia, he said on Tuesday.

"It was designed deliberately to hold WA back, to make it harder for West Australians to be successful, to make it harder for WA to grow the economy and make more jobs."

As WA heads back to the polls in April for a Senate election re-run, coalition senators repeatedly raised the state in their debate.

"The dagger was put in the heart of Western Australia," Liberal senator Michael Ronaldson told the chamber following Tuesday's vote.

Voters in WA would voice their disappointment about this decision when at the polls on April 5, he said.

Championing the tax during earlier debate, Labor senator Lin Thorp said scrapping the tax would increase the burden on future governments as they struggle to cover high pension and welfare support costs.

11.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Plane relatives march on Malaysian embassy

Malaysia says new data shows missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 plunged into the Indian Ocean. Source: AAP

ANGRY relatives of the Chinese passengers aboard Flight MH370 are marching to the Malaysian embassy in Beijing to demand more answers about the crashed plane's fate.

Around 200 family members, some in tears, linked arms and shouted slogans including "The Malaysian government are murderers" and "We want our relatives back".

The embassy is about four kilometres from the Lido Hotel, where meetings have been taking place throughout the drama. A new chapter opened late on Monday when Malaysia said the plane had crashed in the Indian Ocean.

Chinese authorities normally keep a very tight rein on any protests in Beijing. Scores of black-clad uniformed police officers were blocking traffic at the diplomatic mission, their walkie-talkies abuzz.

A relative who refused to give his name, but who has been one of the unofficial leaders of the Flight MH370 group, told AFP that the police "would have known" about the demonstration.

"We are still discussing with the police what we are going to do," he told AFP. "Maybe they are preparing for us to arrive."

Earlier, the relatives boarded large shuttle buses bringing them from various hotels to the Lido, intending to take them to the diplomatic mission, but dozens of police surrounded the vehicles and prevented them from driving off, leading them to march instead.

"We are going to protest at the Malaysian embassy," one man told AFP as he joined some 200 other relatives to board the buses at the hotel where they had gathered throughout the 17-day ordeal.

One family member was holding a loudspeaker and urging journalists to head to the embassy, while others stood in a group, sombre and motionless, many holding pre-prepared printed placards and wearing "Pray for MH370" T-shirts.

The protest did not appear to be spontaneous, as at least a dozen police cars were waiting nearby at the Lido.

The officers were standing in a row behind a sign reading: "Traffic restrictions, vehicles take a circular route." A policeman refused to say why the traffic restrictions had been imposed when asked by an AFP reporter.

The move to protest outside the embassy came hours after relatives reacted with grief and anguish as Malaysia confirmed their worst fears about the flight.

China has demanded that Kuala Lumpur hand over the satellite data which led it to conclude that the Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines flight crashed at sea and that none of the 239 people aboard survived. Two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese.

11.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Aust youth unemployment is rising

TURNED away by business after business across Melbourne, Chris Saunders is one of the growing number of young Australians who can't find work.

Parts of Australia have experienced youth unemployment rises of up to 88 per cent in two years, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data analysed by the Brotherhood of St Laurence.

In the northern Queensland city of Cairns, one in five adolescent job-seekers can't find employment.

Communities in west and northwest Tasmania and outback Northern Territory are also experiencing similar figures.

For 24-year-old job-seeker Saunders, the hardest part isn't putting in the effort, it's getting a foot in the door.

"I've handed out dozens of resumes but it's usually the same response: 'sorry, we're not hiring'," Mr Saunders told AAP.

Youth unemployment is projected to affect nearly half of all young Australians in Cairns by 2016, the Brotherhood of St Laurence said.

One in three young job-seekers in outback Western Australia and Northern Territory will also be out of work, it said.

Brotherhood of St Laurence executive director Tony Nicholson said the data proves youth unemployment is not only at crisis point, but is continuing to grow at an alarming rate.

"Australia is facing a generational crisis," Mr Nicholson said on Monday.

"For young people caught up in this jobless spiral, this can be a road to long-term poverty and reliance on welfare."

The Brotherhood called on the federal government to implement a plan to aid the transition of young Australians from school to the workplace.

11.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Labor says it has a mandate in SA

RETURNED South Australian Labor Premier Jay Weatherill has rejected suggestions his government is "illegitimate".

Mr Weatherill will lead Labor into a fourth consecutive term after independent MP Geoff Brock agreed to support the party to form a minority administration.

That provided Labor the 24 votes it needs in the state's House of Assembly after the March 15 election delivered a hung parliament.

The premier said Labor had a mandate to govern because it won more seats than the Liberal opposition.

"We've formed a majority of seats on the floor of the House of Assembly which is the way governments are made and unmade," he told ABC radio on Monday.

"We've secured more seats than the Liberal Party, which is the contest."

However, both state Opposition Leader Steven Marshall and federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne have questioned the legitimacy of Labor continuing in office after the Liberals clearly won the popular vote.

Mr Pyne said the result showed that the state's electorate boundaries were drafted in such a way that Labor could win with just 47 per cent of the two-party vote.

"That needs to be closely looked at," he said.

"Jay Weatherill's government is an illegitimate government."

Mr Marshall said he was disappointed at Mr Brock's decision which he believed was not in the best interests of South Australia.

He said the decision might bring short-term stability but would end up delivering long-term disaster for the state.

"I think this is a death wish for South Australia," he said.

But Mr Brock reaffirmed that he made his decision to prevent South Australia returning to the polls or operating with a caretaker government for the next few months until it was clear who fellow independent Bob Such would support.

Dr Such is in hospital ahead of surgery this week and is expected to be away from parliament for at least the next two months.

11.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Sinodinos warned about 'company he kept'

A SENIOR NSW bureaucrat warned Arthur Sinodinos about his new business bedfellows after the Liberal senator became chairman of a company with alleged links to the Obeid family.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is probing claims infrastructure company Australian Water Holdings (AWH) charged state-owned Sydney Water for limousine rides and Liberal Party donations.

It has also been alleged the family of corrupt former Labor minister Eddie Obeid had a secret 30 per cent holding in AWH.

Shortly after Senator Sinodinos was made chairman of the company, the ICAC heard on Monday, he met with former Sydney Water managing director Kerry Schott and another public servant.

"We suggested to Mr Sinodinos he might be careful about the company he was keeping," Dr Schott said.

"We thought that they may be dishonest ... There was no reaction to that."

She says she also raised concerns with Mr Sinodinos about ballooning expenses at AWH.

Counsel assisting, Geoffrey Watson, has told the inquiry that Senator Sinodinos, who is due to give evidence to the ICAC next week, was paid $200,000 plus bonuses for "a couple of weeks' work" for serving as an AWH director.

11.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

One-punch killers to face life in Qld

One-punch killers will face life imprisonment under proposed changes to Queensland laws. Source: AAP

ONE-PUNCH killers would face life imprisonment under proposed changes to Queensland laws.

The Newman government's draft plan to tackle alcohol-related and drug-related violence, released on Sunday, would create an offence - unlawful striking causing death - to deal with one-punch killers.

If convicted, defendants would be required to serve at least 80 per cent of their life sentence behind bars before being eligible for parole.

"We have all seen the devastating and often tragic effects of coward punches not just in our state but across the nation," Premier Campbell Newman said in a statement.

"The Queensland government is determined to counter this dangerous trend and make Queensland the safest place in Australia for people to go out and enjoy themselves."

Under the plan, the maximum penalty for aggravated serious assaults on ambulance officers would rise from seven to 14 years' imprisonment.

Drunkenness would no longer be a viable excuse to mitigate an offender's sentence and courts would have the power to ban people from licensed premises for life.

ID would be installed in all licensed venues trading after midnight to keep out problem patrons and banned people.

The government would also set up 15 "safe night precincts" across the state where there would be late-night lockouts and more police on the beat.

Police would be given the power to detain people for their own safety if they were unduly intoxicated and at risk of serious harm, or behaving in a potentially violent or antisocial manner.

The government would also introduce a compulsory drinking awareness plan for all students between years 7-12 as part of the school curriculum.

The public has been asked to comment on the draft policy before April 21.

The opposition called on the Newman government to introduce a blanket 1am lockout across the state.

"If you don't tackle trading hours you don't tackle alcohol-fuelled violence. It's that simple," Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk said in a statement.

"Unfortunately we have a premier too scared to act and showing no leadership."

Opposition police spokesman Bill Byrne questioned whether the government had failed to introduce a lockout because it was beholden to vested interests.

11.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Female hiker found in Vic park

A HIKER missing for days in the Victorian wilderness has been winched to safety.

A police helicopter spotted the woman and winched her from the Alpine National Park, northeast of Melbourne, just after 10am on Sunday.

The woman, from the rural NSW city of Dubbo, sent a text message to her husband late on Thursday to say she was lost and out of water as she trekked through the remote park.

She lit a campfire at Howitt Plains to attract the attention of the helicopter.

A police spokeswoman said the woman was in reasonable health and was being attended to by paramedics.

Victoria Police and SES and CFA crews were involved in the search.

11.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

NSW urged to get flu-ready

PREGNANT women and the elderly are being urged to prepare for winter and get a flu shot following an "unusually high" level of influenza in NSW this summer.

The Director of Health Protection NSW, Dr Jeremy McAnulty, said the northern hemisphere had experienced widespread influenza over the past months, with influenza A(H1N1) pandemic strain, A(H3N2) and influenza B circulating to different extents in different countries.

An unusually high level of influenza had also been seen in NSW over summer, he said.

He and other health professionals are now urging people, especially the elderly and pregnant women, to prepare for winter.

"The Australian flu vaccine has been updated to more closely match the influenza strains likely to circulate in NSW this year.

"So get a shot in preparation for this season," Dr McAnulty said on Sunday.

He said the seasonal flu shot continues to be the best defence for pregnant women and has the added advantage of protecting babies during their first six months when they are too young to have the vaccine.

NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner said the government's Be Winter Wise campaign, launched on Sunday, was focusing on pregnant women, the elderly and people with chronic medical conditions.

"Although we are still experiencing warm weather, people should not be complacent when it comes to the dangers of the flu," she said in a statement.

11.25 | 0 komentar | Read More