Ads needed to stop boat people: Bowen

Chris Bowen has defended government advertising of its new hardline approach to asylum seekers. Source: AAP

TREASURER Chris Bowen has defended government advertising of its new hardline approach to asylum seekers, saying it was important to get its message to potential boat people overseas.

The government on Saturday paid for full page newspaper advertisements across the country stating: "If you come here by boat without a visa you won't be settled in Australia".

The ads come a day after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced Labor's tough new policy on boat people, which will resettle those who arrive by boat in Papua New Guinea rather than Australia.

The national campaign will be followed by advertisements overseas.

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon said he would make a formal complaint about the ads to the Auditor General, which he described as a blatantly political campaign paid for by the taxpayer.

But Mr Bowen said it was important to advertise the new boats plan in Australia, because recent migrants from countries such as Iran, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan would communicate it back to their home countries.

"And tell them, look the policy has changed in Australia, the law's changed, please don't come by boat because you'll get resettled to Papua New Guinea," Mr Bowen told Sky News.

"It is very important that people in Australia understand the new policy settings and it is very important that people down the chain of supply of boats to Australia understand it as well.

"We know this, people smugglers will lie about this.. and they will try and convince people that it's still a good idea to spend money to come to Australia by boat."

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NSW hospitals at risk of infection

The Opposition says cuts to the number of cleaners in hospitals could lead to serious infections. Source: AAP

THE NSW opposition is warning of an infections outbreak following reports of a drastic drop in the number of cleaners at some of NSW's busiest hospitals.

Opposition health spokesman Andrew McDonald cited a recent report which found Royal North Shore Hospital was down 67 full time cleaners compared to numbers in 2010.

During the same period Westmead Hospital lost 20 full time cleaners while the Nepean Hospital was down 25.

Across the greater Sydney region there has been an overall loss of 139 full time cleaners, Dr McDonald said.

"Slashing the number of cleaners in our hospitals is a huge infection risk and highly dangerous," he said.

The average hospital cleaner cleaned a minimum of 35 beds per week or 1820 beds per year, while unclean beds, wards and operating theatres could lead to serious and deadly infections, he said.

"Golden Staph and Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci (VRE) still kill people in NSW hospitals in 2013," he warned.

"Cutting the number of cleaners also means vacant beds are left empty for hours until they can be cleaned, while more patients sit waiting to be admitted in the emergency department."

Mr McDonald blamed the staff reductions on the O'Farrell government's $3 billion cut to health funding.

"A huge reduction in cleaners and the number of cleaning hours in our hospital is what happens when you cut $3 billion from the health system."

But a spokeswoman for Northern Sydney Local Health District denied the cuts.

She said Royal North Shore Hospital had employed 44 more cleaners since July 2011, taking the number of cleaners to 186.

This represents a 30 per cent increase in staff, she added.

A spokeswoman for Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District said cleaning staff at Nepean Hospital had increased by 7.8 Full-time equivalent (FTE) positions since July 2011.

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Orica gas move highlights supply worry

ORICA'S $52.5 million deal this week to buy 20 years' worth of as yet undeveloped gas from Strike Energy highlighted the panic about supply among Australia's largest gas users.

When central Queensland's suite of liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects come online by 2017, demand for the nation's gas will grow four-fold to 2,500-3,000 petajoules a year.

The multinationals controlling Queensland's coal seam gas fields want strong demand, as it will push prices higher for their Asian customers and cover the high export costs.

That's why chemicals and explosives maker Orica sought to take control of both its destiny and 20 years' worth of gas, at what its managing director Ian Smith said was an affordable price.

Australia might have abundant natural gas resources but is facing a domestic supply crisis from 2017, particularly in NSW where businesses are currently unable to get new supply contracts beyond then.

Beach Energy chief executive Reg Nelson has long been a proponent of developing unconventional gas to solve future supply worries.

Unconventional means natural gas trapped in shale, coal seam and tight rock formations, which is more difficult to drill to and release than conventional gas, and arguably poses a greater threat to the environment.

He plans to have the company's shale interests in the Cooper Basin, near the joint Queensland and South Australian borders, running by 2017.

Beach recently received a $349 million helping hand from energy giant Chevron, who bought a stake in its venture.

"The potential for what we call conventional gas is quite limited in eastern Australian ... particularly when you look at the demand side of it," Mr Nelson told AAP.

"The signs are already there (of conventional gas running out) in the Cooper Basin, for most areas in eastern Australia and certainly the gas left in offshore Victoria.

"Unconventional (including shale) in the Cooper is probably the main thing that can be unlocked in a timely fashion because it is onshore and close to infrastructure."

The Cooper Basin is already Australia's top onshore oil and gas province, with pipelines to Adelaide and Sydney.

Its strategic importance will only increase, with Mr Nelson likening its new shale potential to Haynesville, the US's most prolific shale area.

Strike Energy's managing director David Wrench said the prospect of a gas shortage crisis was difficult for Australian businesses to get their heads around, given they were used to having excess gas resources that supply half their energy needs.

"I've had discussions with the top 20 gas customers in eastern Australia in the last six months - these guys are really concerned about where they source their gas over the next few years," he told AAP.

Top users such as Alcoa have called for gas to be reserved for domestic use to ignite the non-resources side of the Australian economy - as the shale boom in the US had done.

That would potentially prevent some exports.

Mr Nelson rejects that, saying it would result in no development of natural gas, as the costly process of developing unconventional gas needs the incentive of high export prices to justify the risk.

He predicts prices will not be as high as feared, saying producers don't want to scare away customers.

Increased volumes of gas from Australian projects will also result in lower prices, he said.

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Rainsy welcomed back to Cambodia

TENS of thousands of jubilant supporters have welcomed Cambodia's newly pardoned opposition leader home from exile as his party fights to end Prime Minister Hun Sen's nearly three decades in power.

Huge crowds gathered outside Phnom Penh's airport and lined the road to the city centre on Friday to welcome Sam Rainsy, waving flags and shouting "change, change!"

The French-educated former banker fled in 2009 to avoid charges he contends were politically motivated.

Rainsy kissed the ground at the airport upon returning from France before boarding a truck with his political allies, raising his fist as he greeted a sea of supporters.

"I'm very happy. I came back to rescue the nation with you all," he said before heading in a convoy for Democracy Park, which was packed with people waiting for him to speak.

The 64-year-old had faced 11 years in jail but was pardoned by King Sihamoni last week at Hun Sen's request, clearing the way for his return ahead of elections on July 28.

"I'm very happy and excited to see the leader of democracy returning to the country," said Sok Kan, 64, who was among those waiting to greet him.

"He is far different from the current leader. He sacrifices everything for the nation," Kuch Narith, 26, told AFP.

US lawmakers have called for the United States to cut off aid to Cambodia unless this month's polls are free and fair.

Hun Sen is one of South-East Asia's longest-serving leaders. His Cambodian People's Party (CPP) won the last two polls by a landslide amid allegations of fraud and election irregularities.

In May Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge cadre who defected from the murderous 1970s regime and became premier in 1985, said he would try to stay in power for another decade.

Rainsy told AFP before his return that the pardon was "a small victory for democracy" but also warned that "much more remains to be done".

The opposition leader, who is seen as the main challenger to strongman Hun Sen, has been removed from the electoral register and as a result is unable to run as a candidate this month unless parliament amends the law.

But he plans to hit the campaign trail soon to try to boost support for his Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).

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McGurk murder statements 'inconsistent'

THE defence team of property tycoon Ron Medich say there are a number of "inconsistencies" in the statements of witnesses about the murder of Michael McGurk.

Medich is due to face a committal hearing next month to determine whether he should stand trial for the murder of his former business partner who was shot outside his home in Sydney's lower north shore in September 2009.

The crown alleges 65-year-old Medich enlisted the help of one-time featherweight boxing champion Lucky Gattellari to carry out the alleged contract killing after their business relationship began deteriorating in late 2008.

Gattellari then allegedly recruited three others - Senad Kaminic, Haissam Safetli and Christopher Estephan - to assist in the hit.

Earlier this month, Safetli pleaded guilty to his part in Mr McGurk's death, while Gattellari and Kaminic were sentenced earlier this year over offences relating to the murder.

Medich and Estephan are now the only two remaining to face committal.

During a pre-committal mention on the matter on Thursday, Medich's barrister April Francis said they were facing a "number of material inconsistencies" within the crown witnesses statements.

"The extent of those inconsistencies has now significantly increased as a consequence of another version that has been supplied by Mr Safetli," she told Central Local Court.

When Magistrate Jan Stevenson questioned whether the matter was ever going to finish, Ms Francis said: "It will finish , in our submission, here," she said referring to the local court.

At the mention, Estephan's solicitor Gordon Elliot discussed his application to have Safetli called as part of the committal.

In statement or facts that were tendered when Safetli entered his plea earlier this month, the crown said he alleged the then 19-year-old Estephan had fired the fatal shot.

Mr Elliot said there were 11 areas in which he was seeking to cross-examine Safetli on.

The matters will return to court next week.

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Ex-Las Vegas prosecutor found dead

A FORMER prosecutor-turned-fugitive who handled the high-profile drug cases of Paris Hilton and Bruno Mars has been found dead in his Las Vegas home, his lawyer says.

David Schubert, 49, had completed a five-month stint in prison for crack cocaine possession in April. He was found sitting in his truck in his home's garage with the windows rolled down, according to his lawyer and friend Lou Schneier.

Schubert spent 10 years as a Clark County prosecutor, including a stint as a liaison to a federal drug task force. He resigned in 2011 after he was arrested with $US40 in rock cocaine and an unregistered handgun in his car.

He fled to Mexico to avoid jail but returned to the US. He told a judge he felt he had been treated exceptionally harshly.

He expected mandatory probation and a chance to wipe the felony conviction from his record. But the judge refused to consider a plea deal, calling Schubert "a disgrace to his oath as a prosecutor and a lawyer" and declaring that he wouldn't get special treatment.

Schubert told the Las Review-Journal in a jailhouse interview that he felt singled out.

"I did what I did, and I accept the consequences," he said. "But I don't feel I was treated fairly by the system."

Schubert's sentence contrasted with those of the people he helped prosecute. Both Hilton and Mars made plea deals and avoided jail time.

He was isolated for his own safety in prison because of his history as a prosecutor. Schneier said that may have contributed to Schubert's poisoning sense of injustice.

The ex-prosecutor missed a check-in with his parole officer last week, Schneier said. His phone had been turned off for at least a week, possibly because he couldn't afford the bill.

After a few visits to Schubert's home, parole officers finally entered early on Wednesday and found the body, Schneier said.

The ex-prosecutor is survived by a 15-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter who live with their mother in another state.

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Ford to recalibrate hybrids, improve fuel

FORD is offering free upgrades to US and Canadian hybrid customers to improve their fuel economy.

The company plans to recalibrate the vehicle control systems on 77,000 Ford C-Max and Fusion hybrids and Lincoln MKZ hybrids from the 2013 model year.

Some customers have complained that the cars aren't getting the 20 kilometres per litre fuel economy promised in Ford's advertising.

Ford will increase the maximum speed the cars can be driven in electric mode from 100 km/h to 137 km/h.

It also plans to make better use of the grille shutters which improve aerodynamics, reduce the electric fan speed, shorten the engine warm-up time and minimise use of the air conditioning compressor.

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Xenophon criticises car tax changes

CHANGES to tax concessions on cars provide the budget with a "sugar hit" but risk tipping Australia's car manufacturing industry over the edge, independent Senator Nick Xenophon says.

Senator Xenophon said the car assembly sector was fragile and questioned why the government would do anything to put it at risk.

"The federal government owes an enormous duty of care to our car industry given that it's in a very precarious situation," he told reporters in Adelaide on Wednesday.

Senator Xenophon said if Holden closed its manufacturing operations in Adelaide it would cost many thousands of jobs and turn the city's northern suburbs into an industrial wasteland.

He said the extra fringe benefits revenue looked good on paper but could result in the government paying out more in Centrelink payments if the auto industry collapsed.

"Right now why do anything to put our car industry in jeopardy for a sugar hit to the budget?" Senator Xenophon said.

His comments came as the South Australian government also revealed Premier Jay Weatherill would travel to Canberra on Friday for talks on the tax changes with Industry Minister Kim Carr.

The changes to tax arrangements on car leasing and salary sacrifice packaging will raise $1.8 billion to help support a move to an emissions trading scheme a year earlier than expected.

They are expected to impact 325,000 people and have been criticised by auto producers.

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Found! Kidnapped 82-year-old cocky

AN 82-year-old cockatoo stolen from Victoria's Phillip Island has been found in a Sydney backyard.

The sulphur-crested cockatoo, named Robbo, had been a well-loved resident of Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit Visitors Garden for more than 40 years before he was stolen about six weeks ago, Andrew Bowring of the visitor's centre told AAP.

Police said the elderly cocky was found in a cage in the backyard of a Marrickville home during a search on Monday.

"Investigations revealed that the cockatoo was possibly being held at a home in Sydney's inner west," police said in a statement.

"Robbo the cockatoo was located in the rear yard of the property in a large cage during the search."

He was kidnapped from the garden on May 18.

Mr Bowring said Robbo had been missed and the visitor's centre was thrilled to be getting the bird back.

"He's been here for years and years and years," he said.

"He's well known with a lot of the regulars here, including our campers for some of our major events."

Although Robbo was old at 82, sulphur-crested cockatoos are known to live to 120.

The cocky is being checked by an RSPCA vet before being returned to his home.

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New moon spotted circling Neptune

A TINY new moon has been spotted circling Neptune - the 14th known to be orbiting the faraway planet, the US space agency says.

The moon is the smallest ever glimpsed around Neptune and measures just about 19 kilometres across, based on observations from the Hubble Space telescope, NASA said on Monday.

Neptune is the farthest planet from the Sun, and NASA said the moon, named S/2004 N1, is about 100 million times fainter than the dimmest star that can be seen with the naked eye.

Astronomers found the moon by tracking a white dot that appeared repeatedly in more than 150 photos taken by Hubble from 2004 to 2009.

Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, found the moon on July 1 while studying the faint arcs around Neptune, NASA said.

"The moons and arcs orbit very quickly, so we had to devise a way to follow their motion in order to bring out the details of the system," he said.

"It's the same reason a sports photographer tracks a running athlete - the athlete stays in focus, but the background blurs."

The moon is believed to circle Neptune once every 23 hours.

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Juice withdrawn as senator complains

THE Berri fruit juice company has withdrawn an imported product from sale amid criticism from independent Senator Nick Xenophon.

Berri Ltd on Monday said its Berri Truly juice, produced in Mexico, had been withdrawn because it had not met its performance benchmarks.

The company's action came on the same day Senator Xenophon launched an attack on the company for misleading customers.

He said the fact the juice was a product of Mexico was only in small print on the pack which also included the Berri logo and the words "since 1943".

South Australian Liberal MP Tim Whetstone also criticised the company for deceiving consumers and misrepresenting Australian growers.

"The whole product comes from Mexico with not one molecule of Australian content," Mr Whetstone said.

The two MPs said they planned to file complaints with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and SA Consumer Affairs arguing that the packaging would lead consumers to assume that the product contained Australian juice.

Berri said Berri Truly was the only one of its products not produced in Australia.

It said the juice complied with country of origin labelling laws and Australian food standards and was regularly monitored and tested for quality.

"We do not apologise for investing in innovation to grow the juice category in Australia," the company said in a statement.

"In the case of Berri Truly, the product required technology not available in Australia."

Senator Xenophon said the product should not have been sold in Australia in the first place.

"People assume Berri uses fruit that's grown in Berri or in South Australia at the very least, not in Mexico," he said.

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Asiana may sue over erroneous TV report

ASIANA Airlines says it is is considering legal action over a report on a San Francisco television station that used bogus and racially offensive names for four pilots on its plane that crashed earlier this month.

An anchor for KTVU-TV read the names on the air on Friday and then apologised after a break.

The report was accompanied by a graphic with the phoney names listed alongside a photo of the burned out plane. Video of the report has spread widely across the internet since it was broadcast.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has also apologised, saying a summer intern erroneously confirmed the names of the flight crew.

An Asiana statement on Sunday said it's mulling legal measures against both KTVU-TV and the NTSB because the report "badly damaged" the reputation of the airline and its pilots.

It didn't say what legal measures it was considering.

Neither the station nor the NTSB commented on where the names originated.

The four pilots, who underwent questioning by a US and South Korean joint investigation team while in the US, returned to South Korea on Saturday.

South Korean officials plan to conduct separate interviews with them, South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on Sunday.

Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed at San Francisco International Airport on July 6, killing three and injuring dozens.

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One dead in rally car crash in Qld

ONE person is dead and another has been seriously injured in an accident at a rally car competition in Queensland.

Police said a car involved in the International Rally of Queensland rolled about 11am (AEST) in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

Both victims are believed to be men.

Ambulance officers said one person was pronounced dead at the scene, while the second, a 40-year-old man, was airlifted to hospital with chest and spinal injuries.

Rally organisers say they are preparing a statement.

The incident occurred on a road near state forest close to Imbil, south of Gympie.

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Greens to tax big business to fund reforms

TAXES for mining companies, millionaires and banks would be increased to fund an extra $43 billion in social spending proposed by the Australian Greens.

Under the Robin Hood-style policy, the money would be used to boost payments to the unemployed and single parents, while nearly $6 billion more would be spent on education.

Launching the party's election platform on Sunday, Greens leader Christine Milne said the vision was not just about the next three years, but about the next 50 to 100 years.

As policy launches go, the Greens' was definitely a no-frills one.

A few dozen party faithful crammed into a small room in Melbourne's Docklands where Senator Milne and deputy leader Adam Bandt stood in front of a simple backdrop and announced a four-step plan to raise $42.7 billion.

The Greens plan to raise an extra $21.8 billion by increasing the mining tax and $12 billion by abolishing tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry.

A levy on banks would raise $8.4 billion, while increasing the marginal tax rate on incomes over $1 million to 50 per cent would raise $500 million.

The money would fund a $50 per week increase in unemployment payments and the Youth Allowance and a $40 a week increase for single parents.

Cuts to university funding would be reversed and an extra $2 billion would be spent on school funding.

The policies have been costed by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office, the Greens say.

Senator Milne said only the Greens had a sustainable plan for the future.

"We want to see an environment that can sustain us, a society that cares for us and an economy that responds to the major challenges of this century, because the Greens are not just about the next three years, we are about the next 50 to 100 years," she said.

Mr Bandt said the Greens would stand up to the big miners and big banks, which were the world's most profitable.

"We have got a clear choice at this election: we can either go down the road of keeping cutting government services as the old parties want to do or to have guts and to stand up and raise the revenue that this country needs," he said.

The Australian Education Union welcomed the Greens' commitment to public education and their strong advocacy for the Gonski reforms.

Liberal senator Eric Abetz said the Greens were simply repackaging old policies with some costings that were not comprehensive.

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