PM backs easing Qantas ownership limits

PM Tony Abbott says he backs unshackling Qantas from restrictions on foreign share ownership. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has backed unshackling Qantas from restrictions on foreign share ownership.

But independent Senator Nick Xenophon said it was not the Qantas legislation which needed to be changed but the management and board.

Mr Abbott said Qantas' desire for easing of the 1992 Qantas Sale Act was not unreasonable.

"Where we can be helpful we will certainly try to be helpful but as I understand it, what Qantas wants is to be unshackled, he told the Financial Review newspaper.

Qantas is facing tough times, with a sinking share price and plans to shed 1000 jobs, impose pay freezes and make cuts across the board as confronts the prospect of massive losses.

The Qantas Sale Act, under which the airline was privatised, limits foreign ownership to 49 per cent

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said the airline was not competing on a level playing field, with competitor Virgin receiving a $350 million injection from its foreign owners Etihad, Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines.

Senator Xenophon challenged Mr Joyce to show one dollar of profit since setting up Jetstar Asia and other offshoots.

"If the CEO Alan Joyce and the chairman Lee Clifford go, that will transform the airline because they have presided over monumental strategic mistakes including the failed Jetstar experiment in Asia where they have burned hundreds of millions," he told AAP.

The airline is now vulnerable to a private equity takeover because the share price is so low. The private equity buccaneers are now circling the airline."

Neither is Labor convinced, with MP Matt Thistlethwaite saying the restrictions in the Qantas Sale Act existed for a good reason.

"Given what happened to private equity in the global financial crisis you could probably fairly say if we didn't have the Qantas Sale Act.....Qantas would not be here today," he told Sky News.

Liberal Josh Frydenberg said Qantas was an iconic Australian brand which should survive and proper.

"It would be negligent of us not to investigate the various ways we could help Qantas to survive and prosper," he told Sky News.

"Ultimately if you were to change the ownership restrictions, that would be an issue for the Australian parliament."

A spokesman for Qantas welcomed the acknowledgment of an uneven playing field.

He said the company was in ongoing talks with the government about how it could be levelled.

"But we're not in a position to comment on those discussions other than to say we're certainly not looking for a handout from taxpayers," he said.

The spokesman said Qantas had previously called for review of the legislative framework distorting the Australian aviation market.

"Access to foreign capital has become a major factor in this market and Qantas is denied the same access as its competitors. But ultimately, the Qantas Sale Act is a matter for Parliament," he said.

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Man dies following Vic skydiving incident

A MAN has plunged to his death in a skydiving incident in Victoria's northeast.

The 33-year-old man's parachute malfunctioned and he fell a considerable distance in Drysdale Road, Euroa, about 12.30pm (AEDT), an Ambulance Victoria spokesman said.

The man was in cardiac arrest when paramedics arrived and they tried to resuscitate him, but he died at the scene.

Police will prepare a report for the coroner.

The Australian Skydiving Association has been notified.

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NSW Taser death police to be charged soon

Officers involved in the death of a Brazilian student who was tasered by police may be charged. Source: AAP

THE family of a Brazilian student who died after being tasered by Sydney police has welcomed news the officers involved may be charged, but says that doesn't go far enough.

Roberto Curti died in the early hours of March 18 last year after NSW officers tasered him 14 times, used capsicum spray, handcuffs and a baton and knelt on him.

The Police Integrity Commission (PIC) on Friday announced there was sufficient evidence to charge four officers with assault.

A spokeswoman said the men would likely be charged within days.

Mike Reynolds, the husband of Roberto Curti's sister, Ana Laudisio, says charges would be a step in the right direction.

"We are grateful that the DPP (Department of Public Prosecutions) has undertaken a thorough review, and has decided to take action on the recommendations of both the coroner and the PIC," he said in a statement.

"However, the family also believes that the charges don't go far enough.

"According to the coroner's findings, some officers behaved in a reckless and excessive manner, when they tasered, capsicum-sprayed and tackled Roberto.

"Roberto died shortly after the police pursuit."

Mr Curti's death was the subject of a number of inquiries before the PIC looked into the conduct of the police in Operation Anafi.

Senior Constable Eric Lim could be charged with common assault, Senior Constable Scott Edmondson with assault occasioning actual bodily harm or alternatively common assault, Constable Daniel Barling with assault occasioning actual bodily harm or alternatively common assault and Senior Constable Damien Ralph with common assault.

A coronial inquest found Mr Curti, 20, had an adverse reaction to a dose of LSD before stealing biscuits from a convenience store, where police mistakenly believed he was armed.

Coroner Mary Jerram also found the officers had acted "thuggishly" and rejected some of their evidence.

NSW Ombudsman Bruce Barbour's report criticised the police investigation because it failed to deal with the issue of police misconduct.

The NSW Police Force and the Police Association of NSW wouldn't comment while the matter was subject to legal proceedings.

The police said "appropriate interim management action" remained in place for the officers concerned, but would not confirm whether they were still working.

The police association said it had offered the officers welfare and support.

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COAG ditches national licensing scheme

Federal, state and territory leaders opted to abolish the National Occupation Licensing Authority. Source: AAP

A COUNTRY-WIDE licensing authority for a range of occupations including lawyers and real estate agents has been scrapped.

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has agreed to scrap the National Occupation Licensing Authority which was set up by the former Labor federal government after a 2008 COAG meeting.

Most states decided at a meeting in Canberra on Friday not to proceed with the national scheme, citing the cost and other problems.

"Let's try to bring about the same outcome in a less cumbersome, less time-consuming and ultimately more productive way, and I think that's what we are going to do now," Prime Minister Tony Abbott said.

Mr Abbott said there should be a seamless national economy so people such as lawyers and plumbers could trade in every jurisdiction and not just where they were licensed.

He said mutual recognition could bring that about without the extraordinarily difficult and endless processes national schemes seemed to involve.

States were generally opposed to the scheme because it would mean they would miss out on licence fee revenue.

The authority will cease operations in early 2014.

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Toyota likely to leave Australia: AMWU

Toyota is likely to leave Australia now that Holden is stopping building cars here, a union says. Source: AAP

TOYOTA will almost certainly leave Australia now that Holden is stopping building cars here, a union says.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union says it will also spell the end of 50,000 automotive jobs.

"It's now highly likely that Toyota will leave Australia. In fact it's almost certain," AMWU national vehicles division secretary Dave Smith told reporters outside Holden's head office in Melbourne.

"Fifty thousand workers will be losing their job because of this decision by General Motors today."

Mr Smith blamed the federal government for Holden's decision, saying it knew what was required to keep Holden and the automotive industry in Australia.

"The blame for this lies squarely at the foot of the Abbott government," he said.

He said workers and Holden did everything to try to keep the company in Australia.

"It's been the federal government that hasn't played ball, it's been the federal government that has made a decision that 50,000 people should be put out of work."

Mr Smith said Holden's decision would be devastating for the Australian economy, as well as South Australia and Victoria.

"There's going to be a $12 billion hole ripped into the economy."

Mr Smith said the government could have saved the industry and jobs but decided to ignore the issue.

"It's a very bleak day indeed."

Mr Smith said he was gutted by news of the announcement and that workers were devastated.

"They loved working in this industry," he said.

"They love building things. That's been taken away from them."

Mr Smith was reduced to tears addressing reporters in Melbourne and had to stop briefly to regain his composure.

"Sorry about that, my heart goes out to those workers and their families," he said.

"It's a very sad day."

Many workers had likely left early on Wednesday after being told the news.

"Workers have to go home and tell their wives, partners and kids that they will no longer be working in the automotive industry post 2016," he said.

He said he would sit down with workers and negotiate an assistance package.

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Keep suspended sentences: Vic report

Community safety could be compromised if suspended sentences are removed in Victoria, a report says. Source: AAP

REOFFENDING by criminals is likely to worsen and lead to compromised community safety if suspended sentences are completely removed in Victoria, a new report says.

Thousands of extra people will require supervision, monitoring and treatment when suspended sentences are abolished next year, the report prepared for Catholic Social Services Victoria says.

However community corrections services may not be able to cope with the expected influx of offenders.

"Without adequate services, treatment and support, reoffending outcomes are likely to worsen and community safety will therefore be compromised," the report says.

Suspended sentences have already been abolished in the higher courts, but sentences for all other crimes will be removed by September 1, 2014.

However, other sentencing options such as community-based orders will be available for judges and magistrates.

The report says Victoria's prisons are operating at 104 per cent capacity and it's questionable whether the new prison beds funded by the government will be able to meet the expected increase in prisoners.

The cost of putting offenders into community-based orders instead of suspended sentences would be more than $50 million a year, and higher if even some offenders were instead jailed, the report says.

Victorian County Court Judge Liz Gaynor said suspended sentences were an incredibly useful way to prevent reoffending.

Launching the report, Judge Gaynor said jail was not a good deterrent and putting offenders in jail often made them worse, not better.

She said suspended sentences had not been properly explained to the community, and were used by judges in cases where the success of rehabilitation was high.

There was enormous concern about overcrowding in Victorian prisons, she said.

"I certainly don't want to make a dire prediction, but the situation as I understand it is a dangerous one," she said.

Liana Buchanan, of the Federation of Community Legal Centres Victoria, said there is already evidence the system wasn't coping.

"The data tells us that serious incidents in the (prison) system are increasing - prisoner-prisoner assaults, prisoner-staff assaults, self-mutilations and self-harm in the system are on the increase, deaths in custody we know increased substantially last year, including suicides," she said at the launch.

"We also know that an overcrowded system has even less capacity to focus on rehabilitation."

The report makes four recommendations, including maintaining suspended sentences and providing alternative sentences for vulnerable offenders.

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Barrier Reef could be dead by 2100: study

Rising sea temperatures could kill off the Great Barrier Reef by 2100, a scientist claims. Source: AAP

RISING sea temperatures could kill off the Great Barrier Reef by the end of the century, a scientist claims in a new book.

The coral would have to move 4000km southwards over 100 years to survive scientists' worst-case scenario of a 4C degree rise in sea temperatures by 2100, Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg says.

In his book, Four Degrees of Global Warming: Australia in a hot world, the University of Queensland reef specialist says the outlook for the reef is bleak.

"In a four-degree world, the Great Barrier Reef will be great no longer. It would bear little resemblance to the reef we know today," he wrote.

"There is little evidence that marine resources like the Great Barrier Reef possess the resilience to withstand the impacts of a dramatically warming world."

Even a more conservative 2C temperature rise estimate would likely be too much for the reef to handle, he wrote.

The death of the almost 2300km-long reef would destroy its $6 billion tourism industry as well as other areas like fishing.

The book looks at how Australia will adapt to a warmer and drier climate in the next 100 years.

Warmer and more acidic seawater is a knock-on effect of increased atmospheric carbon levels.

Prof Hoegh-Guldberg wrote that sea temperatures rose by 0.5C in the 20th century but the effect is expected to speed up this century.

The result is that coral cannot move fast enough to cooler southern seas or genetically adapt fast enough to stay where they are.

"Unless we dramatically reduce carbon dioxide emissions which are acidifying our oceans and leading to their warming, we will face the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef and serious decline in our marine resources," he wrote.

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Alleged killer feared death by fork

A QUEENSLAND man accused of murdering his wife was afraid she would kill him with a kitchen fork so he pushed her, causing her to fall onto tiles and die, a court has heard.

Klaus Andres, 70, has pleaded guilty to interfering with Li Ping Cao's corpse by dissolving her body in a wheelie bin of acid, but says her death was an accident.

On Tuesday, Andres told the Supreme Court the pair had argued about sex, money and their relationship in the kitchen of their Cairns home on October 30, 2011.

He says Ms Cao, 42, was screaming and that she scratched his face and then stabbed his hand twice with a fork.

Principal Crown Prosecutor Nigel Rees asked Andres if he feared for his life.

"Definitely, yes," Andres said.

"A person or Li Ping could kill me with a fork if she got the right position."

He later added: "I protected myself".

Andres says he pushed his wife on the chest with one hand and she fell to the ground and died suddenly.

He went to dial 000 but didn't make the call as he thought he would be blamed for her death.

"... in my opinion there is nothing that could be done (to revive Ms Cao)," he said.

In the days that followed he put her body in a wheelie bin, dissolved her body in acid and poured the remains down a storm drain.

Only Ms Cao's prosthetic teeth were found by investigators.

Andres admits lying to police, his family and Ms Cao's friends to cover up her death, but says he didn't mean to kill her.

Mr Rees told the court Andres murdered his wife because it would cost him a lot of money to divorce her.

"I never attacked Li Ping in the whole five years and I never assaulted her," Andres said.

He also denied an accusation that he suffocated his wife.

Andres says Ms Cao wouldn't be entitled to his assets as they had been transferred to a family trust.

Specialist forensic pathologist Professor Johan Duflou told the court there are a number of circumstances in which a person can die suddenly after a fall or blow, but it is rare.

He says it's possible wounds on Andres' hand visible after Ms Cao's death were caused by a fork.

"To me it's a possibility, but there's nothing there that specifically says fork to me."

The trial continues.

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Long jail term for murder of pensioner

A NSW man who brutally murdered a weak and disabled pensioner under the mistaken belief that he was a pedophile has been jailed for at least 22 years and six months.

Michael Peter Kaine, 50, was found guilty of murdering 62-year-old Dennis Griffin in his Newcastle unit in October 2011, by stabbing him dozens of times with a chicken boning knife, smashing a TV into his face and throwing two wardrobes on top of him.

Kaine had never met Mr Griffin before, but he believed a female acquaintance who "falsely and maliciously" accused Mr Griffin of being a pedophile.

Mr Griffin was described as a security conscious and "very private" person, who generally only ventured out to shop and to his local Waratah hotel for a glass of cola.

"Dennis Griffin was an innocent man who was brutally attacked with extreme violence in his own home and, given his age and very frail physical condition, he was completely incapable of defending himself," Justice Robert Allan Hulme told the Supreme Court at Newcastle on Friday.

Kaine denied murdering Mr Griffin and claimed the pensioner had lured him into the bedroom and indecently assaulted him.

This was rejected as "utterly incredible" and "preposterous" by Justice Hulme.

When Mr Griffin's body was discovered, he had suffered 18 stab wounds, including to the heart, 18 slash wounds, and fractures to his eye sockets, jaw and skull.

Setting a maximum sentence of 30 years, Justice Hulme said he did not believe Kaine was remorseful.

As a victim impact statement was read out in court, Kaine showed "complete disinterest", the judge noted.

"The offender sought to exact punishment upon a man on the basis of unsubstantiated hearsay," Justice Hulme said.

"And he got it so terribly, terribly wrong and killed an innocent man."

Taking into account time already served, Kaine will be eligible for parole in June 2034.

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Drunken violence blitz to start

Police in Australia and New Zealand are planning their next coordinated blitz on drunken violence. Source: AAP

POLICE across Australia and New Zealand are planning their seventh coordinated blitz on drunken violence in the lead-up to Christmas.

Operation Unite, starting this Friday and ending on Sunday, will involve random breath testing, extra police patrols and overt and covert licensing operations.

Jon White, the CEO of ANZPAA, the agency that serves police commissioners across Australia and New Zealand, said police were concerned that the public considered excessive drinking just part of daily life.

"Our culture is one where some people are drinking alcohol purely to get drunk," he said in a statement on Monday.

"Cheap and readily-available alcohol with many points of access are intensifying the issue.

"The harms of alcohol misuse are seen in a large proportion of cases police deal with including street violence, domestic violence and road trauma," Mr White said.

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Elderly pair held against will in break-in

AN elderly couple had to be rescued from their North Queensland home after an intruder allegedly held them against their will.

Police spent almost an hour urging the intruder to come out of the house at Kirwan in Townsville before he gave himself up.

It's alleged the man broke a window to get inside the couple's home before arming himself with several knives and waking up the pair.

Neighbours heard the disturbance and reported it to police about 1am (AEST) on Sunday.

The 73-year-old woman and a 75-year-old man weren't injured during the ordeal, police said.

However, the intruder cut his arms badly while coming through the window.

He will appear in the Townsville Magistrates Court on Monday provided he's discharged from hospital.

The 43-year-old man, from the nearby suburb of Rasmussen, has been charged with two counts of deprivation of liberty, break and enter with intent to commit an indictable offence while armed.

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Mourning period for C. African victims

French troops have received a triumphant welcome as they arrived in Central African Republic. Source: AAP

CENTRAL African Republic President Michel Djotodia has declared a three-day period of mourning for the 300 recent victims of sectarian violence in Bangui.

"To honour the memory of our citizens who lost their lives during these tragic events, a three-day period of mourning will be observed (from Sunday)," he said on national radio.

At least 300 people were killed in Thursday's massacre and subsequent reprisals, the Red Cross has said, many of them clubbed or hacked to death.

The Central African Republic has descended into chaos since a motley coalition of rebel fighters known as Seleka overthrew the government in March and installed their own chief, Djotodia, as president - the first Muslim leader of the majority Christian country.

Djotodia has officially disbanded Seleka, but has proved unable to control the fighters who swept him to the presidency.

The president expressed his condolences to "all Central Africans". He assured in his radio address that "the situation is under control" and urged people to return to their normal routines.

Djotodia also expressed his gratitude to France which has sent in troops to patrol the Central African Republic's tense capital.

Around 200 French soldiers crossed the border from Cameroon to a triumphant welcome from thousands of Central Africans on Saturday. They complete the 1200-strong deployment to the former French colony.

The Central African Republic leader also decreed a separate period of mourning, to run from December 13-15, in honour of former South African leader Nelson Mandela who died Thursday aged 95.

"The whole world mourns one of its heroes," he said.

French troops, some of them on foot, patrolled the capital in a visible show of strength. On Saturday, a French armoured vehicle took a symbolic swing past the front of the presidential palace.

A fighter jet flew low over the city, where bodies still lay abandoned outside the parliament building.

Red Cross staff continue to pick up dead and mutilated bodies from the streets, but have been overwhelmed by the scale of the task.

However, the situation appeared to have improved since Friday. Residents contacted by telephone said only sporadic gunfire was heard overnight on Friday, in stark contrast to the intense violence of the two previous nights.

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