Full briefing needed on boat tragedy: ALP

Labor is calling on the government to provide full details of the latest asylum seeker tragedy. Source: AAP

THE federal government must provide a full briefing of the latest asylum seeker tragedy off Indonesia, in which at least 22 people are believed drowned, Labor says.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott, in Melbourne for the AFL grand final breakfast on Saturday morning, declined to comment on the disaster to waiting reporters.

However, acting Labor leader Chris Bowen called on the government to provide a full briefing.

"There are very concerning reports of another tragedy in Indonesia," Mr Bowen said.

"It appears that the Royal Australian Navy may have been involved in two rescues, although of course details are very, very sketchy.

Indonesian authorities hold grave fears for up to 70 asylum seekers still missing, feared drowned, after the boat sank en route to Australia in rough seas off the coast of Java on Friday.

One of the passengers, a Lebanese man, had reportedly lost his pregnant wife and eight children.

Just 25 of those aboard were rescued before efforts to locate survivors were postponed due to failing light, with the effort scheduled to resume early Saturday morning.

"Of course, days like this, all our thoughts go to those who've lost their lives and we give our support to the rescuers," Mr Bowen said.

The government needed to be clear with Australians about what role the Royal Australian Navy and others have played, Mr Bowen said.

"The government has previously said that when there was a tragedy or a significant event at sea, then they would provide briefings," he said.

"I would call on the government, through the home affairs minister or the immigration minister, to provide those briefings to the Australian people today.

"This can't wait for Mr Morrison's weekly briefing. These updates should be provided as and when the government can."

Mr Bowen said a statement by Indonesia's foreign minister on Friday showed that government's "heightened level of concern" about the turn-back-the-boats policy.

"That is a matter in Australia's national interest which must be dealt with as a matter of some urgency."

The tragedy comes as Julie Bishop prepares for her first visit to Indonesia as foreign minister.

Ms Bishop will join a ministerial delegation accompanying Mr Abbott to Jakarta on Monday, where the issue of asylum seekers is expected to feature heavily in bilateral talks.

The foreign minister will then visit New Zealand to meet with her foreign counterpart, before returning to Southeast Asia for talks with senior leaders in Singapore.

Her trip finishes back in Indonesia, where she'll join trade and foreign ministers in Bali for the two-day APEC Ministers' Meeting.

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Molotov cocktail thrown at Sydney house

A MOLOTOV cocktail has been hurled at a home in Sydney's west.

Police said the explosive was thrown at the front door of the house on Horsley Road, Horsley Park, after 10pm Friday.

The door ignited as a result but the fire was extinguished by the occupant.

Two more unexploded molotov cocktails were later found by police out front of the house.

No one was injured during the incident.

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Hockey re-examining Labor's tax plans

THE failure of the former federal government to deliver a range of proposed tax measures hurt business confidence and investment, tax experts say.

Coalition Treasurer Joe Hockey on Friday promised the new government would re-examine the measures with a view to completing the legislative task.

More than 100 Labor tax measures are on the table.

BDO Tax Partner Mark Molesworth said the government should also promise not to implement retrospective changes to the tax system.

"While the government has confirmed it will be repealing the loss carry-back legislation, we're calling on the coalition to commit to not making this retrospective," he said in a statement on Friday.

Tax Institute senior tax counsel Robert Jeremenko agreed, saying business confidence had been eroded "by a tax system that is constantly being built and rebuilt on shifting sands".

CPA Australia CEO Alex Malley said the election of a new government had resulted in a renewal of business confidence.

"If Australia was voting for anything, incredibly, it was predictability," he told Sky News.

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Jill's march to show 'peaceful defiance'

A SOCIAL media movement that prompted 30,000 people to march through Melbourne in memory of Jill Meagher has come together again.

Users of Facebook, Twitter and even bloggers are widely promoting a peace march being held this Sunday to honour the murdered woman and other victims of violence.

Artist and photographer Philip Werner, who started last year's giant peace rally with a single online post that went viral, says he's not sure what kind of turnout to expect 12 months later.

"How do you predict these things?" he said.

The anniversary march - to be held on September 29 at noon starting on Sydney Road and Moreland Road in Brunswick - will be an opportunity for people to come together in "peaceful defiance" once again, he said.

"We need to do something positive with these negative feelings."

The tragic case of Ms Meagher's death in September last year has continued to draw national attention and outrage.

The 29-year-old had been walking home from an inner-city Brunswick bar when she was raped, murdered and buried in a shallow grave.

The community has widely backed her widowed husband's push since then to change parole laws and fix failures in the justice system.

Her killer, Adrian Ernest Bayley, is serving life in prison and was on Thursday denied an appeal bid against his 35-year minimum sentence.

Mr Werner said he hopes the legacy of such a tragedy will also be how the community came together in the face of senseless violence.

"We saw how the vast majority of people do care, and care very deeply," he said of last year's march of 30,000 people.

"We won't be forgetting her for a very long time."

A police spokeswoman said there's no estimated crowd size for this year's march, but officers will be on hand for crowd control if needed.

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SES busy as winds, fires hit NSW

EMERGENCY services across NSW have had their hands full with hundreds of incidents as high winds spark fires and uproot trees across the state.

Fire crews are working to contain a bushfire south of Taree, which has blocked the Pacific Highway in both directions.

The blaze has been classified as a Watch and Act but there are no immediate threats to homes in the area.

Fire and Rescue NSW say they are dealing with more than 100 smaller bush and grass fires, mostly in western Sydney.

Earlier, motorists were forced to navigate through smoke as a grassfire burned next to the M7 in Hinchinbrook.

"We had over 50 calls to that one fire," a Fire and Rescue spokesman told AAP.

The SES dealt with more than 200 wind-related calls, 100 of which were for within the Sydney metro area.

"It's been quite busy," an SES spokeswoman told AAP.

"Most are to do with trees down and roof damage."

Residents across NSW and the ACT were told to prepare for wild damaging winds on Thursday with a cold front moving across the region.

As of midday winds had hit 96km/h at Sydney's Kurnell, 93/km at Mossvale and 87km/h at Sydney airport.

Goulburn experienced winds of 102km/h and Wollongong reached a top of 95km/h.

The highest reading in the state was on the south coast at Montague Island, off Narooma, where gusts reached 119km/h.

The spokeswoman added that conditions were forecast to ease over the afternoon but crews expected the calls to continue regardless.

"As people come home from work they might find that a couple of things have been blown around or damaged on their property."

The SES has urged residents to tie down lose outdoor items and move vehicles inside and away from trees.

A total fire ban remains in place through NSW.

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Crown's focus squarely on Australia

GLOBAL casinos operator Crown says it is working to improve the quality of its Australian resorts, while also keeping a close eye on costs.

Crown has been upgrading its Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth casinos to make them more competitive with new casinos and resorts in Asia.

"In the year ahead, we will be focussing on the performance of our Australian resorts, including a continued focus on cost control," chairman James Packer said in the company's annual report released on Thursday.

"My vision for Crown sees us as a leading global luxury brand, with a clear focus on Asian tourism."

Crown is also working on a proposed luxury hotel and VIP-only casino at Barangaroo on Sydney harbour, and Mr Packer said the company would continue to work with the NSW government to bring that project to fruition.

Crown's $396 million profit in the 2012/13 financial year was down 23 per cent from the previous year, and its Australian businesses posted mixed results due to weak consumer sentiment.

The annual report shows chief executive Rowen Craigie's earnings in the year dropped by 27 per cent to $4.99 million, due mainly to lower incentives as performance targets were only partly met.

Mr Craigie said in the report that the company was undertaking a "comprehensive review of back of house and front of house operational efficiency" to ensure the Australian resorts reach their potential.

Mr Packer is paid by the Macau joint venture casino operation called Melco Crown Entertainment, and therefore no details of his pay are provided by Crown.

The total pay for all of Crown's senior executives, including former senator Helen Coonan and former Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon, was lower in 2012/13, due to fewer short term benefits and long term incentives.

The company's shareholders will next month vote on a proposed name change for the company, to Crown Resorts.

The new moniker will reflect the large investment in tourism infrastructure that the company has recently made and expects to maintain, Mr Packer said.

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Journey for indigenous recognition

FOR years, Priscilla Collins' grandmother needed a permit to enter Alice Springs, her home town. As a half-white, half-Aboriginal girl, she was removed from her mother and sent to be a domestic cleaner in Adelaide.

"Like many Aboriginal people, my family history reflects important parts of our nation's story," Ms Collins says.

Although white-skinned, she identifies as Eastern Arrente and didn't know what racism was until she went to school.

"The only family I know is my black family; they're the ones who raised me - I was raised being spoken to in (their) language, growing up out bush and in town camps," Ms Collins says.

"When I was young no one questioned my Aboriginality, they all knew who my family was. I didn't realise there was a difference between black and white until I got to high school, and I had to listen to people call my nanna a boong, call my cousins coons, and they'd look at me and say, 'but you're one of us, you're white'."

She had trouble accepting that, not knowing her white family.

"I thought, all these coons you're rubbishing, I grew up the exact same way they did. The only difference was the colour of my skin."

CEO of the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA), Ms Collins is an advocate for holding a referendum to recognise all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia's Constitution.

"Over the generations our people have known heartache, suffering and exclusion, and it doesn't have to be that way," she says.

"The legacy of that lives on in the memories of older people who have never been formally recognised for what they are: the custodians. They deserve to be recognised."

There are more mentions of lighthouses than the first people in Australia's constitution, Chief Minister of the NT Adam Giles told a community forum in Darwin on Tuesday night.

"Ours is one of the longest unbroken threads of culture on the planet, a story of extraordinary survival... and yet not a single word records it, honours it or acknowledges it in Australia's founding document," he said.

"What message does that absence send about the value of Aboriginal culture, people and knowledge to Australia?"

Since 2007, both the coalition and Labor have supported holding a referendum to alter the Constitution to recognise indigenous peoples.

In 2010 Julia Gillard struck a deal to form government with Independent MP Rob Oakeshott and the Greens that included a commitment to hold a referendum by the 2013 election.

But public awareness of the issue has been minimal, and it has been pushed back for two years to maximise its chances of getting through, with Prime Minister Tony Abbott Abbott committed to release a draft constitutional amendment within 12 months.

People's movement Recognise set off from Darwin on Wednesday on a three-month awareness-raising journey across the NT and through the Kimberley to Perth.

They've already travelled 4711 km across Australia, walking from Melbourne to Adelaide, driving to Uluru, and then cycling from Alice Springs to Katherine and driving north to Nhulunbuy.

The ABC's Vote Compass, which surveyed one million people, found that seven out of ten respondents, including a majority of coalition voters, believe that the constitution should be changed to acknowledge the First Australians.

"I'm a pretty conservative person - I don't think you'll ever change the constitution lightly, and nor should you," Mr Giles said.

"But there's a pretty compelling case to be made to fix a glaring omission from history and heal the hole in the heart of Australia, and until we do this as a nation, we'll remain at an impasse."

He said constitutional recognition will also go a long way towards closing the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.

"When people know they're respected, valued and truly included in the life of the nation after long periods of exclusion, it can only help to better their mental and physical condition," he said.

Just eight of 44 referenda held in Australia have been successful, and although supporters of the movement are keen for a change, they don't want to rush it through before the country is ready.

Kim Hill, former head of the Northern Land Council, says constitutional recognition has an economic upside, with communities leveraging their culture to connect with other Australians and make money to support themselves.

Everybody wants to have an Aboriginal person experience, and why can't they do that?" he says.

"But we need to be recognised. We don't just want to be on the front desk, or your monkeys in the windows."

In order to succeed, a referendum needs both a national majority of voters in the states and territories, and a majority of voters in at least four of six states.

But it will be difficult to get a majority vote in places such as the NT and Queensland, where Recognise spokeswoman Tanya Hosch says people are comfortable with the status quo.

She says if this opportunity is squandered it will fall to the next generation to repair the damage done.

"It's a bloody beautiful thing to have the first Australians in this country, and even if it's just on a piece of paper, I do believe it will make a difference to the psyche of a lot of people," she says.

The Journey will arrive in Perth on December 1.

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Man charged with possessing paintball gun

A MAN has been charged with having a paintball gun, police uniform and 1000 rounds of paintball ammunition stashed his car in Sydney's southeast.

Police said they stopped the man, 24, and a woman, 25, in a car on Bay Street, Brighton Le Sands, about 3pm (AEST) on Tuesday.

Officers searched the car and allegedly found the paint-ball gun, Ammo and police uniform.

The man has been charged with possessing a prohibited firearm and a police uniform.

He was refused bail and was due to face Sutherland Local Court on Wednesday.

The woman was charged with possessing a police uniform and will front Kogarah Local Court on October 15.

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Abbott govt gives NBN Co new directions

THE Abbott government has set new targets for NBN Co and asked it to continue to roll out fibre-to-the-premises until a review is completed.

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Tuesday released an "interim statement of expectations" for NBN Co - the company managing Australia's biggest infrastructure project, the national broadband network.

The statement will guide NBN Co pending changes to its board, a strategic review, an independent audit and work on a new corporate plan.

"The interim statement instructs NBN Co to continue to roll out the network as rapidly and cost-effectively as possible throughout this process," Mr Turnbull said.

"(This) will see the NBN Co meet its contractual obligations by continuing to roll out fibre to the premises while the company conducts the strategic review of the project."

Forecasts for the number of premises passed by fibre cable have been revised down.

The figure is expected to be 729,000 by June 30, 2014, 1.74 million by June 20, 2015, and 3.115 million by June 30, 2016.

It was originally expected in the 2010 NBN corporate plan that 5.65 million premises would be passed by mid-2016.

"It is our goal following the completion of the review and a new corporate plan to see the NBN Co set realistic rollout targets and then consistently deliver on them," Mr Turnbull said.

NBN Co will be able to use a wider range of technologies to connect businesses and homes to the network.

"For example, this will allow NBN Co to trial the latest VDSL technology to deliver superfast broadband to homes and businesses in multi-dwelling units such as apartment blocks," Mr Turnbull said.

The minister said a new work program would give certainty to contractors.

Mr Turnbull told reporters the strategic review would be completed within 60 days of a new board being put in place.

The review would be conducted internally by the company, with input from experts and advisers.

The minister confirmed media reports he had asked NBN Co board members to offer their resignations and all but one had done so.

"That request should not be regarded as any criticism of any of the directors, least of all the chairman Siobhan McKenna," he said.

Mr Turnbull said he had taken the action to "give the government complete flexibility in remaking the board in light of its new policy agenda".

The federal cabinet would soon make the decision on the makeup of the board.

Mr Turnbull said the government was "open-minded" about what technologies could be used to deliver the national broadband network.

"What we want to do is get the best result for taxpayers and consumers as soon as possible," he said.

Asked about his previous criticism of the NBN Co board, the minister said he had not criticised any individuals.

"They are all very capable people and for the work they've done we owe them a debt of gratitude for that," he said.

"But in terms of a board for a project like this, certainly telecommunications experience, management experience, experience in the contribution of linear infrastructure is clearly very relevant.

"Those particular backgrounds were not present among the directors of the NBN Co that the Labor Party assembled."

Mr Turnbull said the difficulty and complexity of the project had probably been underestimated from the outset.

What he wanted now was the unvarnished truth about how much it would cost and how long it would take.

A spokeswoman for Telstra said the brief for NBN Co was a matter for the government.

"Our focus will be on working constructively with NBN Co and the government to implement the government's policy," she told AAP.

Acting opposition leader Chris Bowen said Labor would continue to argue for fibre to the home so Australia had the best possible national broadband network.

"We think it is important for the future of the nation," he told Sky news.

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NSW cinema heist brazen, shocking: cops

MOVIEGOERS were lucky to escape unhurt after three men and a teenage girl armed with guns and a machete stormed the foyer of a Sydney cinema in a "brazen and shocking" robbery, police say.

The incident at the suburban Roseville Cinemas on Monday night put the lives of families and children at risk, north shore Detective Inspector Carole Dowsen told reporters.

"It was a very brazen attack, something that we actually think is shocking," Det Insp Dowsen said.

"They're going to a movie cinema, it's early and there could be children around, and they've got a shotgun.

"It's extremely lucky that nobody was hurt."

NSW opposition police spokesman Nathan Rees said it reflected a sad state of affairs in Sydney.

"Nobody expects to be threatened with a machete or a shotgun as they go to the cinema," he said.

The robbers took cash from the cinema - which was screening Blue Jasmine, the newly-released Woody Allen movie starring Cate Blanchett - and demanded people near the counter hand over their wallets.

"They threatened them, saying 'we'll shoot you if you don't give us your money'," Det Insp Dowsen said.

They then fled in a car allegedly carjacked from an 87-year-old Lane Cove man half an hour before and held up a pub in Revesby, in Sydney's west, where they stole cigarettes and cash.

Det Insp Dowsen said they may have carried out the second robbery because they didn't get away with enough takings from the cinema.

"I would suggest the car jacking and the movie theatre was planned," she said.

"It may have been an opportunistic crime for the second robbery, as an afterthought, because they didn't get as much money."

It's believed the alleged robbers were three men aged between 19 and 20, and a teenage girl.

The stolen car was later found burnt out in Westmead.

Paul Gertler was at the cinema with his wife when the armed robbers entered.

"We were definitely shook up by it, for sure," he told Fairfax.

"It was just one of the last things you expect to happen."

Investigators say while the robbery may have been a "clumsy" or opportunistic crime, the group's possession of a sawn-off shot gun was worrying.

"I'm sure that they will try something else again," Det Insp Dowsen said.

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Lynch understands Emmy tribute controversy

JANE Lynch understands why there's upset over Cory Monteith's Emmy tribute.

The actress remembered her late Glee co-star at the Primetime Emmy Awards Sunday but the posthumous honour garnered controversy as producers decided to omit other late legends, including The Odd Couple's Jack Klugman.

Speaking before the event, Jane told TMZ she holds the utmost respect for Jack and sympathises with those who might feel he was snubbed by the Television Academy.

"I'm a huge fan of Jack Klugman. Obviously I don't choose these things," she said, adding, "He was there at the beginning of television and he had a terrific career ... I'd be upset too."

Jane did say, however, that she was looking forward to taking the stage and paying tribute to her late colleague Monteith.

The actor passed away in July at the age of 31 after a drug overdose and the cast and crew of Glee have been working on a tribute episode of the program in his honour.

"I'm really proud to be up there for him tonight," she said.

Jane's remarks came a day after Jack's son, Adam Klugman, lamented about producers' decision not to include his father in the ceremony, which also mentioned late stars James Gandolfini, Gary David Goldberg, Jean Stapleton and Jonathan Winters.

"I don't mean to say anything disparaging about Cory, but he was a kid who had won no Emmys and it was a self-induced tragedy," he told the Associated Press.

Cory's mother, Ann McGregos, responded in her son's defence, telling TMZ that if Cory "had lived 30 more years he would have accomplished much more".

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Qld sex offender Fardon remorseful: court

SERIAL sex offender Robert Fardon has shown signs of improvement including remorse for his actions, according to his psychologist.

But another doctor said the infamous rapist is on the cusp of being a psychopath by Australian standards.

Fardon's indefinite jail term is being reviewed in the Supreme Court in Brisbane.

Psychologist Nick Smith told the court Fardon's "overall level of engagement" in sessions had continued to improve, which is a sign of progress.

"What I observed would appear to be quite a genuine expression of the recognition of the harm that he has caused," Dr Smith told the court.

He said Fardon had "verbalised remorse" for what he has done and appeared to recognise the importance of his behaviour.

Dr Smith said it was difficult to tell whether Fardon was being genuinely remorseful because he presented as being "emotionally closed down".

The psychologist added that Fardon probably lacks pedophilic tendencies because his history showed only one sexual assault on a child and one other attempted assault on a child.

Crown barrister Jonathan Horton referred to an outburst by Fardon against a prison worker earlier this month.

Dr Smith said Fardon had been distressed by his ongoing legal issues and also after making "new and significant" disclosures about his childhood.

Psychiatrist Michael Beech, however, told the court Fardon "reaches into the realm of psychopathy" by Australian standards.

He referred to a psychopathy checklist where the cut-off is lower in Australia compared with north America.

Dr Beech said Fardon was not charming but he came across as being glib, or insincere.

Glibness is a factor in psychopathy, he said.

In 2003, Fardon became the first person detained indefinitely under Queensland's Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act.

He has been convicted of sex offences against women and girls dating back to 1967, when he was 18.

The Supreme Court ordered the rapist be released on a strict supervision order earlier this year but this was overturned on appeal by the attorney-general.

The two-day hearing continues.

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Boy dies after collision with truck in Qld

A FIVE-YEAR-OLD boy out on a family cycle has been killed after a collision with a truck north of Brisbane.

Police say he was cycling with family on Narangba Road, Kallangur when a truck turning a corner struck him about 10am (AEST) on Sunday.

He died at the scene.

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Labor mea culpa cold comfort to mums

LABOR'S mea culpa on welfare cuts to sole parents has come too little too late for single mothers battling to survive on $35-a-day dole payments.

The two men vying for the federal Labor leadership - Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese - have admitted the party did the wrong thing when it implemented welfare cuts this year.

They say the party needs to revisit its policy stance, but single mothers say it's cold comfort.

In January, tens of thousands of single mothers, many working part time, were shifted off parenting payments and onto the unemployment benefit, Newstart, leaving many between $60 and $100 a week worse off.

The decision was to save taxpayers $728 million over four years.

Mr Shorten, as employment minister in the Gillard government, was responsible for introducing the changes.

"We sent all the wrong messages out about sole parents," Mr Shorten told Network Ten on Sunday.

"I think the measures we took have had the wrong consequences."

He said there were legitimate grievances and Labor needed to make it clear it was in the single mothers' corner.

"We respect you, we support you and we cherish you," he said.

Mr Albanese, who grew up in a single-parent home, said single parents had told him the decision showed a lack of respect.

"Labor must always be the party of the disadvantaged," he told ABC TV.

"We must be very clear about our values and what we stand for as a framework."

But he wouldn't blame anyone for driving the policy, saying it was time Labor stopped "finger-pointing".

"We have to take collective responsibility," he said.

"I was a member of the government and I don't seek to blame any individual."

Terese Edwards from the National Council for Single Mothers and their Children said the admission Labor had made a mistake wasn't enough.

"We welcome the courage in saying they got it wrong," she told AAP.

"But it must go beyond that and they must show how they are going to champion the cause, what are they going to do from opposition."

Ms Edwards said it was an uphill battle to get the welfare cuts reversed because the coalition supported the policy and had been responsible for the first wave of welfare changes to single parents in 2006.

She also questioned Mr Shorten's motivation for highlighting the need to tackle the scourge of domestic violence on Sunday.

"The Labor party, should, have and always will stand up for the dispossessed, the disempowered and the voiceless," Mr Shorten told a rally in Ipswich, Queensland.

Ms Edwards said she was aware of three cases of single mothers and their children having to return to domestic violence situations or face homelessness as a direct result of poverty they experienced from the welfare changes.

"There's absolutely no question about the correlation between trying to be safe and also having enough to live on," she said.

A spokesman for Mr Shorten said he had a "longstanding interest in combating violence against women".

A spokesman for new Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews said Labor's admission the parenting payment changes were a mistake was little comfort to those affected.

But he wouldn't say whether the Abbott government would consider reversing the policy.

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