Qld Labor downplays by-election chances

LABOR'S candidate for the Brisbane seat vacated by maverick former government MP Chris Davis has vowed to be a thorn in Premier Campbell Newman's side if he's elected.

But maxillofacial surgeon Dr Anthony Lynham is playing down his chances of winning Stafford, an electorate devoid of representation after Dr Davis quit parliament on Friday.

His dramatic departure means the LNP is facing a by-election battle just three months after suffering a 17 per cent swing against it in the Redcliffe poll.

However, Dr Lynham says winning Stafford won't be a cakewalk.

"We are not taking anything for granted, we have to earn it," he told AAP while campaigning on Saturday.

As an anti-violence campaigner, Dr Lynham says he's already taken Mr Newman to task and will up the ante if he enters parliament.

"I have a proven track record of standing up to Newman," he said.

"The people of Stafford need someone desperately to stand up to Newman on health and education.

"I will be a thorn in his side."

Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk has already promised to give Dr Lynham a senior position if he's elected, but she's also downplayed her party's chances of regaining Stafford, which the LNP holds by a 7.1 per cent margin.

Ms Palaszczuk says Dr Davis' resignation was a vote of no confidence in Mr Newman's leadership and has called on the premier to immediately announce a by-election date.

Dr Davis said he was partly demoted because he raised concerns with the premier about looming changes to political donations.

He was sacked as assistant health minister a week earlier after clashing with colleagues over the proposed individual contracts and changes to the state's corruption watchdog.

At the time of his resignation, Dr Davis released polling showing most voters in his Stafford electorate backed him and believed he had been unfairly treated.

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Trial delays BBC Savile review

A review into Jimmy Savile's abuse will not be published until DJ Dave Lee Travis's trial concludes. Source: AAP

THE publication of the BBC's review into how Jimmy Savile carried out a campaign of abuse over decades has been delayed again so as not to prejudice Dave Lee Travis's trial.

It has been reported that the Dame Janet Smith review is expected to uncover hundreds of victims and reveal a culture of ignorance that "protected" Savile.

A parallel review, being carried out into Stuart Hall's behaviour while at the corporation, will form part of the final report.

It was announced in January that publication would be delayed until after Hall's trial and now it has been delayed again ahead of the former DJ's trial.

A statement on the review website said "in the interests of ensuring that the independence and fairness of the criminal process is maintained, Dame Janet has decided that her report should not be delivered until after the conclusion of the trial of Dave Lee Travis".

The statement said the BBC was aware of and agreed with the decision.

A "more precise estimated delivery date" would be published online at a later date.

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Budget will pass eventually: PM

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott says he won't surrender his budget in the face of pressure to compromise over its most unpopular measures.

Mr Abbott is confident the coalition's first budget will pass the Senate because the alternative would be a double dissolution election.

Senior government ministers have signalled compromising on key budget reforms such as higher education interest rates and the GP co-payment, amidst a fierce public backlash and a hostile Senate.

Continuing the budget sell on Saturday, Mr Abbott said his team "absolutely" understood the "iron necessity" of sticking with difficult and unpopular budget measures.

"We are not going to surrender our budget commitments," Mr Abbott told reporters in Adelaide.

But negotiations were inevitable.

"You have got to negotiate your legislation through the parliament," he said.

Mr Abbott was confident that the government would get the budget through the Senate in the end, because the alternative would be a double dissolution election.

"Because let's face it, there have been many governments over many years that have had to negotiate budgets through the Senate.

"The only time that wasn't successfully done ... that was a different bill in 1975."

Last week, Mr Abbott appeared to back away from a threat to hold a double dissolution election after earlier signalling incoming Senate cross-benchers would be unlikely to keep their seats if there was a new election.

Labor, the Greens and Palmer United Party have vowed to block changes such as the Medicare co-payment and pension cuts.

Education Minister Christopher Pyne, who has faced a slew of student protests this week over university deregulation measures, has signalled compromising on some reforms.

He said it was in recognition the government did not have a majority in the upper house.

"We will of course seek to consult and negotiate with the minor parties and the crossbenches to ensure these important reforms are delivered," Mr Pyne said in a statement to AAP.

The industry is also being consulted to "refine the details" of the changes, with two higher education stakeholder working groups providing feedback.

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Peters ice-cream set to go French

THE Drumstick and Choc Wedge ice-cream could be about to go the way of iconic Australian brands Victoria Bitter and Victa Lawnmowers and be sold overseas.

The world's second largest ice-cream producer, UK-based R&R is believed to be close to a deal to pay about $450 million for ice-cream company Peters.

The sale would be between private equity groups, with Peters owners Sydney-based Pacific Equity Partners (PEP) to sell to French private equity firm PAI partners.

PEP looks like it will make a healthy profit, having paid Nestle what is believed to be less than $300 million for Peters in late June 2012.

It dropped plans on Thursday to publicly float Peters on the stock market with an initial public offering understood to have raised less than the proposed sale price.

Neither group would comment on the sale.

Peters was founded 107 years ago.

The company's website includes a picture of cricket legend Don Bradman advertising the ice cream in 1938.

The news comes in the same week it emerged that US corporate raiders private equity group Kohlbeg Kravis Roberts had made a $3.1 billion bid for Treasury Wine Estates, owners of the world-renowned Penfolds Grange Hermitage.

Private equity firms often buy underperforming publicly listed companies, restructure and turn them around and then publicly float them again.

The Spotless services group made a successful return to the share market on Friday, nearly three years after its acquisition also by PEP.

Warrnambool Cheese and Butter and Goodman Fielder are other Australian food companies to be bought recently by foreign groups.

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Mutilation doctor could go back to jail

A WOMAN whose genitals were removed by a rogue doctor has broken down outside a Sydney courtroom after facing the man she says devastated her life.

Struck-off NSW gynaecologist Graeme Stephen Reeves served just 18 months behind bars for the gross mutilation of his patient Carolyn DeWaegeneire in August 2002.

The rogue practitioner, who worked in Bega on the NSW south coast, surgically removed her clitoris and labia without consent during an operation on a pre-cancerous lesion.

He was sentenced to a maximum three-and-a-half years jail in 2011 but was released on parole from Sydney's Long Bay prison in December, sparking outrage among Ms DeWaegeneire's supporters and patient advocates.

Crown prosecutors want the 64-year-old put back behind bars for another year after previous rulings that his original sentence was "manifestly inadequate".

Reeves and Ms DeWaegeneire, from Wolumla near Bega, sat within metres of each other during an appeal hearing at the NSW Court of Appeal on Friday.

It was adjourned until June 2 when Chief Justice Thomas Bathurst and justices Peter Hall and Robert Hulme are expected to hand down a decision.

"My life has been totally, totally devastated - totally," a tearful Ms DeWaegeneire said outside court after the hearing.

"I should be enjoying life as an older person - I'm not."

She described Reeves's original sentence as "the biggest joke of all time".

"I've got my medical records. I know damn well what I had before I went in (to hospital). I know damn well what he did."

During his trial, Reeves's lawyers argued the former doctor was saving Ms DeWaegeneire's life and rejected the crown's argument that he did not have consent to remove her genitals.

It's understood hundreds of other women have also complained about the former doctor.

The Department of Public Prosecutions revealed in November that a significant number of outstanding charges against Reeves, dating more than 20 years, had been dropped.

The allegations against Reeves were not pursued because of "insufficient evidence to ensure a reasonable prospect of conviction", NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith said.

Reeves' lawyer, Gabrielle Bashir, on Friday said her client was in poor health and suffering kidney disease and chronic depression, among other conditions, and argued he should not go back to jail.

Prosecutors tendered a doctors' report that stated his health conditions could be adequately treated in prison.

Reeves made no comment as he left the court.

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Qld government MP quits parliament

MAVERICK Queensland government MP Chris Davis has resigned from parliament, saying recent laws go against his and his electorate's values.

The rogue MP was dumped as assistant health minister last week for breaching cabinet solidarity when he spoke out against changes to the state's corruption watchdog and doctor contracts.

At the time, Dr Davis said he had stood on some powerful toes and was demoted partly because he raised concerns with Premier Campbell Newman about looming changes to political donations.

His dissatisfaction came to a head on Thursday night, when he told parliament he couldn't support his government's policy to remove caps on political donations and raise disclosure thresholds.

He left the chamber before the laws were put to a vote.

While he says his sacking was a catalyst to his immediate departure, the accumulation of controversial legislation had weighed heavily on his conscience.

"The passage of recent government legislation affecting critical aspects of our democracy goes contrary to my value system and that of the majority of my electorate," he said on a statement on his website.

"I would never have stood for parliament on such a platform, nor do I believe I would have been elected."

A by-election will be held in the north Brisbane seat.

It's the second for the Newman government after disgraced MP Scott Driscoll quit after being found guilty of contempt for dodgy business dealings.

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US Supreme Court halts Missouri execution

The US Supreme Court has put off the execution of a Missouri inmate with a rare medical condition. Source: AAP

THE US Supreme Court has indefinitely delayed the execution of a Missouri killer just hours before a deadline, sending his appeal back to a lower court.

The ruling came after a botched lethal injection in Oklahoma last month stirred fresh debate about capital punishment in the United States.

All three executions that had been scheduled to take place after that event have since been delayed.

Missouri was barred from executing Russell Bucklew as planned late on Wednesday in the court's order.

The Supreme Court declined to provide a reason in granting the stay, instead letting the appellate court decide whether to hold a hearing for Bucklew's case.

Bucklew, 46, had argued a rare vascular condition put him at risk of excruciating pain during execution, making it unconstitutional.

He had also raised concern about the drugs and methods used in Missouri's executions.

"We are extremely pleased and relieved," Bucklew's lawyer Cheryl Pilate said in a statement welcoming the order.

"What may be deemed constitutional for one prisoner may be gravely risky and in fact torturous for another in her filing," Pilate said in her court filing.

"Moreover, to allege such alternative means of execution, a prisoner requires the ability to obtain facts from the state of Missouri regarding the drugs to be used, their origin and the ingredients used in compounding them, among other things - facts that the state actively continues to conceal under the guise that they are 'state secrets.'"

A tortuous and painful death is in violation of the US Constitution's Eighth Amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.

On Tuesday, a flurry of legal proceedings before a federal appeals court ended with an 11th hour temporary stay issued by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.

Bucklew was convicted in 1996 of murdering a love rival and raping a former girlfriend.

Death penalty states across the US have faced a barrage of legal actions challenging the origin of drugs used in lethal injections.

Oklahoma used an untested cocktail of drugs during the botched procedure because some drug suppliers have ceased making the substances usually used in executions available.

Clayton Lockett, a convicted killer and rapist, was put to death on April 29 by lethal injection in a process that took 43 minutes, well over the expected time of a little over 10 minutes.

His death in Oklahoma prompted officials in that state to temporarily halt executions and review its execution drug protocols, amid harsh criticism from human rights and anti-death penalty advocates.

President Barack Obama called the incident - in which Lockett eventually died of a massive heart attack - "deeply troubling" and warned that it raised "significant questions about how the death penalty is being applied."

Some US states have turned to compounding pharmacies as a source of the drugs, but the future of that option is in doubt, as state governments review their execution procedures.

Despite the questions over lethal injection drugs, a recent study found that 59 per cent of Americans remained in favour of capital punishment, with 35 per cent against.

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New way of policing in WA to reduce crime

A SIX-MONTH policing trial aimed at reducing the demand on officers and dropping the crime rate has been such a success that the model will be rolled out across Perth by the end of the year.

The new police operating model was trialled in the South East Metropolitan District from November to May, with the region moving from sixth to second best performing district compared with the previous year.

Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan said the model relied on "neighbourhood policing" so police teams were only responsible for a couple of suburbs each.

"They develop relationships with the local community (and) people can ring them direct on their mobile phones," he told Fairfax radio on Thursday.

"They know the kids who play up, families who play up (and) where people congregate in parks."

Mr O'Callaghan said 10 per cent of the population was creating 90 per cent of the problem for police.

"People are being driven mad by these people who are out of control in the neighbourhood," he said.

The commissioner said local governments and the wider community had embraced the trial, giving him confidence to widen the model across Perth.

The new model will see four larger districts each made up of 550 officers divided into response, local policing teams and investigations, all co-ordinated through a 24/7 district control centre.

The next phase will begin in September when the South Metropolitan and Peel districts combine to form the new South Metropolitan District.

By the end of the year, Central and East will form another district, along with North West and West.

Some suburbs may transfer to balance demand across these new, larger districts, Mr O'Callaghan said.

The model will not apply in regional WA.

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Some avoiding GP because of payment: AMA

PATIENTS are already putting off visiting the doctor because of the coalition government's GP co-payment, even though the measure won't come into effect until next year.

The Australian Medical Association says one clinic in Mt Druitt in Sydney has reported a fall in visits since the budget, and had to send out SMS messages to patients to inform them they were still bulk billing.

There was also evidence of a drop in patients at one clinic in Tasmania, the doctors' group said.

AMA President Steve Hambleton said the reports, while isolated, represented a widespread concern with the $7 co-payment.

"It's disturbing that people have got mixed messages," he told reporters in Canberra.

"It is very important for patients to realise this does not start until 2015."

The AMA and other health groups have repeatedly warned a co-payment would deter people from visiting the doctor, and could result in hospital emergency departments being overwhelmed by those trying to avoid the charge.

But Dr Hambleton said there had not been an increase in emergency department presentations since last Tuesday's budget.

Asked about the AMA's concerns, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he was confident the co-payment was consistent with a "strong and dynamic, affordable and accessible Medicare system".

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Bad news comes in threes for economy

AMID all the huffing and puffing about the budget, three sets of economic data on Wednesday quietly warned that the economy is struggling.

Consumer confidence slumped, wages grew at a snail's pace and job vacancies fell.

It's not a good look for an economy that's supposed to be picking up towards a normal rate of growth.

Consumer confidence was obviously affected by the federal budget last week.

Even before that, though, the economy's chronic sluggishness had put the Westpac-Melbourne Institute index at an unusually low level for an economy not actually in recession.

But the index has now dropped to a level typically only seen when some sort of crisis is under way - a recession, a stock market crash, a financial crisis or the like.

The only bright spot in the survey was a bounce in expectations for the state of the economy over the coming five years.

But, given the gloom evident in other measures including slumps in gauges of shorter term economic conditions and family finances, it's likely that the expected improvement in the coming five years is more a measure of how grim things are now than of how good they are expected to be later.

The weakness in confidence has most likely been exacerbated by what's happening to wages.

Which is, as it turns out, not very much.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday showed average wage rates rose 2.6 per cent over the year to the March quarter.

That data series goes back as far as 1997 and there has not been a smaller rise over that time.

But longer-term data sets like the measure of average compensation per employee from the national accounts, which extends back to 1972, show that wages growth this slow is very rare.

And it was a smidgin slower than the 2.8 per cent rise in the consumer price index.

That's not exactly bound to boost consumer confidence.

Nor is the state of the jobs market.

The Department of Employment counts the number of vacancies advertised on internet sites.

This data series shows the trend in vacancies, after a small and tentative rise in the second half of last year, has stalled and is now flat at best and possibly drifting lower.

That will feed back into both confidence and wages growth, tending to depress both.

And that will just make it harder for the economy to gain traction as it pushes against the triple headwinds of a fading mining investment boom, a high exchange rate and a contractionary budget.

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Ten guts news, axes Wake Up show

Network Ten's Wake Up program and its early, morning and late news will be axed from Friday. Source: AAP

THE fate of up to 150 Network Ten workers is up in the air after the broadcaster announced plans to gut its news service and axe Wake Up.

Friday will be the last day of the early, morning and late news bulletins as well as the Wake Up breakfast show.

Ten Eyewitness News at 5pm will continue to be produced locally and Studio 10 will remain part of the network's daytime schedule.

Ten's chief executive Hamish McLennan broke the news to staff in an email sent at midday on Wednesday, saying consultations would begin on Thursday about a proposed voluntary redundancy program for workers in the news, operations and engineering departments.

"The next few weeks will be a difficult and sad period, as colleagues leave the business," McLennan said.

"Let me assure you the changes are not being undertaken lightly.

"No one is happy about them, but unfortunately they are necessary."

"Despite the commitment and enthusiasm of its staff, Wake Up has not resonated with enough viewers to make it a viable program."

An industry source told AAP it was common knowledge within Ten that the breakfast show, launched in November last year, would be axed.

The fate of up to 150 workers is understood to be in limbo while management decides just how many will be made redundant.

Many of the employees, floor staff, crew and assistants, were specifically recruited to start up the breakfast show which was to ring in a new era for the network.

The network spent tens of thousands of dollars alone on building the set at Manly Beach and running cables from Ten's Pyrmont headquarters out to the set to avoid satellite transmission problems.

However, Wake Up has been plagued with issues since the outset when its creator and producer Adam Boland suffered a breakdown and quit.

"I feel very sad for all my friends at Ten. Very good people, let down by many things, including my early exit. Thinking of them all today," Boland Tweeted after the news broke.

Studio 10 co-host Sarah Harris also took to Twitter in support of her colleagues.

"Big hugs to my friends at Wake Up, Early/Morning News and Late News," she said.

The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) says it will hold meetings with affected staff as soon as possible.

"We had a short discussion with the company this morning," Mike Dobbie from the MEAA told AAP.

"The company has told us that it will give us a briefing and will begin a consultation process this afternoon and we are seeking to minimise job losses."

McLennan said the television advertising market had been soft in recent years and the network's ratings, revenue and earnings performance has been disappointing.

Ten posted an $8 million loss in the six months to the end of February, which was better than the $243 million loss it announced a year earlier.

Speaking at the half yearly result in April, McLennan said he was confident the network could turn its fortunes around.

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Nuclear water released into sea off Japan

HUNDREDS of tons of groundwater which seeped into a stricken nuclear plant in Japan has begun to be released out to sea, the plant's operators say.

Tokyo Electric Power Co, which operates the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, said the water's radiation level met safety guidelines, but it was not clear whether the water was more radioactive than normal groundwater.

The operator said it would discharge a total of 560 tonnes of the water, which enters the basement of the reactor buildings daily, into the Pacific Ocean.

The operator has been battling with a massive amount of radiation-tainted water as it continues to inject water into three of its six reactors to keep them cool.

The plant suffered meltdowns at the three reactors after a tsunami swept through the complex in March 2011.

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Brisbane accused of 'curfew' on the blind

Brisbane has been accused of putting a curfew on the blind by turning off audible traffic signals. Source: AAP

AUSTRALIA'S largest council has been accused of imposing a curfew on blind people by turning off audible traffic signals at night.

The Brisbane City Council has angered Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes, who's said he was stunned to learn what the council has done to satisfy CBD residents unhappy about the noise.

Mr Innes was in Brisbane at the weekend for a meeting about information services for the blind and vision impaired.

"Effectively we were on a curfew because at 9.30 at night the audible traffic signals are turned off and they don't go back on until 6.30 in the morning," he told ABC radio.

"If we were out later than that at night, or up and about before 6.30, which I often am because I take my guide dog for a walk, we didn't have the benefit of signals to cross roads."

Mr Innes says he's never come across the situation in other capital cities, and residents must know there's an element of noise associated with living in CBDs.

He also noted traffic signals contained sensors which reduced the level of sound at quiet times, such as at night.

Deputy Mayor Adrian Schrinner said signals generally were switched off in the CBD between 9.30pm and 6.30am, as part of an effort to balance the views of residents with the needs of pedestrians.

But he said the council was happy to modify the hours of operation based on requests and demand.

"Whenever we receive a request we'll do a review. In February we received a request for extended hours at about four or five CBD intersections and as a result those intersections are now operating 24-hours a day," Mr Schrinner told the ABC.

Asked why the council shouldn't have signals running around the clock, Mr Schrinner said: "It comes down to balancing the demands of use of those intersections with the concerns of residents as well".

"Where there's a need for it, where there's facilities operating late into the night, absolutely you can see the rationale for it," he said.

Mr Schrinner said the audible traffic signals had been generally switched off in the CBD for more than 10 years.

He said the issue came to a head back then when residents angry about the noise demanded the council take action.

"Our responsibility as a democratic organisation is to find that right balance," he told the ABC.

At the time, traffic signals were also being regularly vandalised.

"We don't know who was vandalising them but they were being vandalised, and it's a fair assumption that that might have been associated with the noise they made."

Mr Innes said the council's approach was nonsensical.

He said that as a visitor to the city, he didn't know which roads he was going to need to cross, and nor would others.

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Mick Jagger is a great-grandad

ROCK veteran Mick Jagger has become a great-grandfather.

The Rolling Stones frontman's granddaughter Assisi has given birth to a baby girl, according to Hellomagazine.com.

No further details have been revealed. The baby is the 21 year old's first child with her chef boyfriend Alex Key.

The arrival means Assisi's mum, socialite and jewellery designer Jade Jagger, is a grandmother at 42. She is also currently expecting a child.

The pair celebrated in March with a joint baby shower.

The birth brings some happy news for the Jagger clan, which was rocked following the suicide of Mick's longtime girlfriend L'Wren Scott in March.

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Committee to probe PUP 'offer' to MP

Queensland's Speaker says a bribe allegation against the Palmer United Party will be investigated. Source: AAP

THE Palmer United Party is being investigated over an allegation it tried to bribe a Queensland government backbencher to quit the Liberal National Party.

Speaker Fiona Simpson says an alleged attempt by a Palmer party envoy to induce Burleigh MP Michael Hart to jump ship was "sufficiently serious" to warrant an ethics committee investigation.

The party's Queensland leader Alex Douglas, who headed state parliament's ethics committee in 2012, was unable to comment specifically on Mr Hart's allegation.

But the former LNP member said the Palmer party had obeyed the law.

"I can only generally comment that we refute any views that we are involved in inducements," he told AAP.

Mr Hart last month went to police saying a PUP member - later revealed to be Jim McNally - had called him about switching parties.

He said he terminated the phone call when he came to the view he was about to be offered an inappropriate inducement.

While police declined to take his complaint further, Ms Simpson said the matter was "sufficiently serious to be considered by the ethics committee".

"The offering or attempting to offer an inducement to a member, to achieve an outcome that affects the proceedings in the Legislative Assembly, can amount to contempt," she told parliament on Tuesday.

"I am satisfied there is an issue of privilege."

Mr Hart used parliamentary privilege two weeks ago to accuse the Palmer party of offering him an inducement to change parties.

Party founder Clive Palmer has previously denied any inducement was ever offered by his party.

"They were having a discussion and he (Mr McNally) said, 'What will it take to have you join the Palmer United Party?'," Mr Palmer said earlier this month.

"He was referring to, 'Would you want to be endorsed for the seat of Burleigh?' He wasn't offering anyone anything. He wasn't authorised to do that. He's not an official of our party. He's just a party member."

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Dad, sons charged over NSW stabbing attack

TWO brothers and their father have been accused of using knives and a screwdriver in a "barbaric" daylight stabbing attack on a teenage boy and his sister.

Brothers Husein Al-Moosawy, 21, Sajjad Al-Moosawy, 23, and their father Haider Al-Moosawy, 47, fronted Bankstown Local Court on Monday charged with wounding with intent to murder.

The court heard the trio's alleged attack occurred on Sunday afternoon outside their neighbour's home in the southwestern Sydney suburb of Yagoona.

Magistrate Elaine Truscott told the court the 16-year-old victim, who can't be identified, and his 24-year-old sister were visiting the house next door to the Al-Moosawy family.

According to police facts heard in court, the Al-Moosawy's mother began abusing the 24-year-old after she pulled up at the home.

The 16-year-old stood between the two arguing woman before Husein, Sajjad and Haider came out of their home.

Police allege Husein and Sajjad held knives and Haider wielded a screwdriver.

The 24-year-old was pushed to the ground and Haider allegedly stabbed her in the eye with a screwdriver.

The father is also charged with stabbing the woman's 16-year-old brother with a knife three times.

Sajjad and Husein allegedly pushed the 16-year-old on the ground and repeatedly stabbed him in the back and legs.

Both the 24-year-old woman and her younger brother remain in hospital with serious injuries.

Husein made an application for bail but Ms Truscott ordered he stay behind bars after labelling the alleged assault barbaric.

"There is no court order that can prevent such barbary being committed again ..." she said.

Haider and Sajjad did not apply for bail, which was refused.

All three will appear by video link in Burwood Local Court next month.

They are also facing other charges, including affray and wound a person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

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Elders narrows half year loss to $10m

AGRIBUSINESS Elders has narrowed its half year loss to $10.2 million and expects continued improvement over the full year.

Elders is starting to reap the benefits of extensive "non-core" asset sales, restructuring and management changes as it nears its aim of becoming a "pure" rural services provider.

Its result for the six months to March 31 was an improvement on a $303 million loss in the same period a year earlier.

The latest loss included one-off items totalling $16.8 million linked to businesses that the company no longer operates and the value of assets it is looking to sell.

The first-half loss of 2013 contained $280 million in impairments and writedowns, including a $167 million impairment charge on Elders' Futuris Automotive car interiors business which the group has since sold.

Excluding one-off items, Elders' underlying profit of $6.7 million was up from an underlying loss of $23.7 million in the prior corresponding period.

Managing director Mark Allison said Elders was on the way to generating value for its shareholders, after posting a $30.4 million turnaraound in underlying performance.

Every part of the business delivered improved results in spite of variable seasonal conditions, which included drought in much of north eastern Australia.

"We see this as the start of the 'pure play' agribusiness journey and a sound outcome for the first six months although we do acknowledge there is a little way to go," Mr Allison said.

Elders had cut costs and debt, improved margins, and lifted cash flow.

The company's traditional operations - livestock, wool, real estate and grain - had made the biggest contribution to improved margins.

Elders said seasonal and market conditions were encouraging, and recent rainfall had provided a good start to the winter cropping season.

Cattle prices were recovering, sheep prices were strong, and demand from Indonesia, Vietnam, China and eastern Europe for live cattle was healthy.

"The second half outlook is positive, subject to seasonal conditions, and we expect ongoing improvement against last year's results," Mr Allison said.

He said Elders had improved its financial management of the live export trade and had reduced the costs associated with running the business.

In the first half, there was strong demand for Australian cattle, particularly from Indonesia as a result of a significant increase in import permits for Australian cattle.

Demand for breeding cattle remained strong, particularly dairy heifers from Australia and New Zealand for Chinese milk production.

Shares in elders were 0.5 cents higher at 12 cents at 1317 AEST.

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Guard distressed after shooting Qld bandit

A SECURITY guard who shot dead an armed bandit outside a Gold Coast tavern appears to have acted instinctively and is deeply traumatised, police say.

The guard was making a cash delivery at the Highland Park Tavern on Monday morning when a bandit, armed with a 9mm pistol, tackled him as he got out of his van.

A struggle broke out and the guard fired several shots at the man.

Police say the alleged bandit suffered a number of gunshot wounds and was dead by the time officers arrived, just before 8am.

The shooting forced the closure of nearby streets, and sent a child-care centre into lockdown.

The security guard suffered minor facial injuries during the struggle. He was the one who asked a passer-by to call the police.

Regional Crime Co-ordinator Detective Superintendent David Hutchinson said it appeared the licensed security guard had reacted instinctively when he was attacked.

"We all must understand that under that sort of situation he would have been acting instinctively and he may not recall exactly himself how things went down," he told reporters on Monday.

"It's certainly a traumatic situation for anyone and he's traumatised by it."

He said it was too early to say whether charges would be laid and the security guard was assisting police.

Det Sup Hutchinson said it was likely the guard was allowed to carry a gun as he was licensed.

Police haven't said exactly how many shots were fired, or whether the victim fired any shots.

He is yet to be identified but police say they have an idea who he is.

Officers are searching streets around the tavern in case the bandit was not acting alone, but police say there's nothing to suggest a second offender at this stage.

A crime scene has been established and investigators remain on scene.

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WA fine defaulters targeted with cameras

HIGH-TECH number plate recognition cameras will be used to catch fine defaulters in Western Australia who owe more than $2000 or owe any money to the courts.

Attorney-General Michael Mischin said the cameras, which would either be hand-held or mounted on a sheriff's vehicle, would target the state's worst fine defaulters, who owed a total of more than $279 million.

"Vehicles are most commonly clamped when they are parked at someone's home, however this can be quite limiting as people take their cars to work or go out during the day," he said.

"Also, the addresses for some hard-core fine and infringement defaulters are not always current, and sometimes those defaulters deliberately don't park their vehicles on their own property to avoid being clamped."

Mr Mischin said the sheriff would use the camera in busy areas during the day including shopping centres, train stations and the main streets of country towns.

Last August, new laws came into effect that allowed sheriff's officers to wheel-clamp vehicles, seize licence plates and other property, and name and shame fine defaulters.

Since then, 421 wheel clamps had been applied and 362 licence plates had been removed, Mr Mischin said.

More than $70.8 million had been recovered, up on the previous year's sum of $63.4 million, he said.

An SMS trial has also been launched in Ellenbrook and Albany where fine defaulters are contacted via text message to warn them that they could face wheel clamping, licence plate removal or have property seized if they did not pay their debt.

The state government has called a tender for the mobile licence plate recognition cameras, which closes on May 23.

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NYT publisher defends removal of editor

NYT publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr has defended his removal of executive editor Jill Abramson (pic). Source: AAP

NEW York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr has provided a fresh defence of his removal of executive editor Jill Abramson, saying it had nothing to do with his company's treatment of women but with Abramson's management style.

"During her tenure, I heard repeatedly from her newsroom colleagues, women and men, about a series of issues, including arbitrary decision-making, a failure to consult and bring colleagues with her, inadequate communication and the public mistreatment of colleagues," Sulzberger, who also chairs the Times parent company, said in a statement.

"The saddest outcome" of the decision, he said, is that many have cast it as an example of unequal treatment of women.

He denied that Abramson's compensation package was less than her predecessor's.

Abramson was named executive editor in September 2011, replacing Bill Keller.

She was the paper's first female executive editor.

"Jill's pay package was comparable with Bill Keller's; in fact, by her last full year as executive editor, it was more than 10 per cent higher than his," he wrote.

The Times replaced Abramson, 60, on Wednesday and promoted managing editor Dean Baquet, 57, to executive editor.

Abramson has yet to comment publicly.

No one answered her home phone on Saturday, and she did not immediately respond to a LinkedIn message.

In a blog post on Wednesday, New Yorker staff writer Ken Auletta quoted an anonymous "close associate" who said Abramson confronted the Times' "top brass" about her pay after discovering that both her pay and her pension benefits were less than that of Keller.

The New York Times reported in its initial story about Abramson's departure that as part of a settlement agreement between her and the newspaper, neither side would go into detail about her firing.

Sulzberger then said in a memo to the newspaper's staff Thursday that it is "simply not true that Jill's compensation was significantly less than her predecessor's".

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PM backs away from election threat

PM Tony Abbott appears to have backed away from his threat to hold a double dissolution election. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott appears to have backed away from his threat to hold a double dissolution election over the budget, saying the cross-benchers would understand its harsher measures.

The coalition government will struggle to get the harshest of its budget measures through the Senate, with Labor, the Greens and Palmer United Party all saying they will block changes such as the Medicare co-payment and pension cuts.

But Mr Abbott said he did not think there would be a need for a double dissolution election.

Last week his comments that some of the incoming Senate cross-benchers would be unlikely to keep their seats if there was a new election was interpreted as a threat of a double dissolution.

He expected the next election in the middle of 2016, he said on Sunday.

"I am confident that the minor parties and the independents in the Senate will understand that we could not go on living the way we were - we could not go on mortgaging the future," he told ABC television.

"If they don't like what we're putting up, what are they going to put up as an alternative."

Mr Abbott said his government would not be exposing itself to a "world of political pain" unless its tough budget was absolutely necessary, after a poll showed it was facing a massive backlash.

The latest Galaxy poll, published by News Corp, found 75 per cent think they will be worse off as a result of the budget, which hiked the fuel excise, cut welfare, health and education spending, and introduced a new GP co-payment and deficit tax on the wealthy.

Mr Abbott said everyone would play their part to rein in government spending, and bring the budget back to surplus.

"I think the load is fairly shared because that's the Australian way," Mr Abbott said.

"This is all happening because we were living beyond our means. We're not doing this because we are somehow political sadomasochists."

Mr Abbott defended the tough budget measures, most of which were not flagged before the election, saying "we could not just sit here and do nothing".

"Why would I be exposing myself, why would my colleague be exposing themselves to a world of political pain if we didn't think it was absolutely necessary for the long-term good of our country?" he asked.

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