Abbott's plea to WA voters

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has pleaded for Western Australian voters to back Liberal candidates. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has made a last-ditch plea to West Australian voters as they head to the polls for a Senate election re-run.

Before jetting out of the country to Asia on Saturday, Mr Abbott recorded a message saying Labor and the Australian Greens in the Senate were standing in the way of his government's plan to repeal the mining tax and carbon tax.

"If you want to get rid of these anti-West Australian taxes ... that means voting Liberal," Mr Abbott said.

He said coalition candidates are "absolutely committed" to scrapping the taxes and the government hoped to get the numbers in the upper house from July to pass the repeal legislation.

"Send a strong message to Canberra, send a strong message to the Labor Party," Mr Abbott said.

"You can't say one thing in Perth and do the opposite in Canberra.

"That's my plea."

The outcome of Saturday's election is important for Australia's future, the prime minister added.

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Boy's parents located

POLICE have tracked down the parents of a young boy who was found wandering alone through suburban southwest Sydney.

Residents of Claymore called police after spotting the boy in the street wearing pyjamas about 7.30am Saturday.

Estimated to be aged two or three years old, the boy was cared for by officers until his parents were located and the search was called off.

The police thanked and updated the public about 2pm.

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Boy, 2, dies in Adelaide house fire

A TWO-YEAR-OLD boy has died in an Adelaide house fire, but other children and adults managed to escape without injury.

The alarm was raised just before 8am on Friday following reports the Elizabeth East house was alight with a child still inside.

When fire fighters arrived, the house was well alight but crews went inside and found the dead boy.

The property was destroyed by the fire.

Police say preliminary investigations indicate the fire was not suspicious and a report will be prepared for the coroner.

The ABC reported that the victim's grandmother, Anita, was told of the boy's death when she arrived at the house.

"He is a wonderful little boy but it's sad to find him, to say that he passed away in the house, I love him so much and it's hard for me, I'm second mother to him," she said.

Meanwhile, emergency services attended another house fire at Westbourne Park just after midday.

A Metropolitan Fire Service spokeswoman said about 80 per cent of the house was destroyed and its owner has not been located.

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Rudd too popular to go against: inquiry

FORMER prime minister Kevin Rudd's record-high popularity stopped bureaucrats from opposing the home insulation scheme before its disastrous rollout, an inquiry has heard.

Insulation consultant Kevin Herbert claims Mr Rudd's popularity rating of 73 per cent was used to discourage bureaucrats who raised potential safety issues with the program during a meeting in February, 2009.

Mr Herbert's statement to a royal commission says the potential for fatalities, as seen in New Zealand, was raised.

Prime minister's department staffer Andrew Wilson was also asked if Mr Rudd would consider looking at the issues before the scheme proceeded.

Mr Herbert said Mr Wilson replied: "You can't disagree with a PM who is rating 73 per cent in the polls."

After the meeting, he said he asked Mr Wilson: "Are we really hearing that you're saying the PM wants this to go ahead no matter what?"

"Mr Wilson replied to me 'yes that really is it, it's going ahead'."

However, Mr Wilson has previously told the inquiry he didn't recall making any reference about Mr Rudd's popularity.

The Rudd government announced the scheme on February 3, 2009 to stimulate the economy and create jobs during the global financial crisis.

It ended up being inundated with low-skilled workers who only required a general safety induction before entering ceilings and is blamed for the deaths of four workers.

The inquiry continues.

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Coote celebrates 30 years since heart swap

THE day Fiona Coote dodged death, she woke to the terrifying sight of masked strangers hovering overhead.

"All I could only see was eyes. I had no clue where I was," she recalls.

"I was ventilated, I couldn't speak, I was in a foreign place."

At 14, she had just become the youngest Australian to undergo a heart transplant after falling gravely ill from viral-induced tonsillitis.

Now 44, she's the longest-surviving heart transplant recipient in the southern hemisphere, and her traumatic memories have been replaced with ones of gratitude.

"Five years was a long time back then. Thirty has been the most wonderful surprise."

One set of eyes peering from behind a surgical mask belonged to Victor Chang, the renowned surgeon fatally gunned down on a Mosman street in a bungled extortion attempt.

Sitting metres from his portrait in St Vincent's cardiology wing, Ms Coote remembers the man, not just the celebrated physician.

"He was fun, cheeky, charming. He loved life," she said.

"He was someone who inspired confidence in all."

These days, she marvels at how routine and streamlined the once highly dangerous procedure has become.

"We took a risk, and I don't regret it for a minute," recalls Dr Phillip Spratt, who watched on as Dr Chang operated.

Now director of the hospital's transplant unit, he can still remember the pressure of public expectation in 1984 as his teenage patient underwent the operation.

"It was very important we didn't fail," he said.

"We didn't want the press saying this expensive, exotic heart transplantation and they're not surviving."

Thirty years on, he says the technology used to avert cardiac illnesses are more efficient than ever.

A new mechanical pump about the size of an acorn is the next step, and he hopes to get a trial up and running at the hospital in the second half of the year.

While NSW donation and transplant rates are at an all-time high, NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner said Australian national organ donor levels still ranked poorly.

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Tas ALP leader accepts car crash blame

NEW Tasmanian opposition leader Bryan Green concedes he was in the wrong when he crashed his car two days after getting the job.

Mr Green's car collided with another in Hobart's CBD on Wednesday afternoon.

The former deputy premier was unanimously elected Labor's leader on Monday after last month's big state election loss.

Tasmania Police are yet to release details of the crash but CCTV footage has emerged of a four-wheel drive appearing to run a red light and collecting a small sedan.

"I think it is fair to say I would have been in the wrong under the circumstances," Mr Green told reporters in Hobart as he unveiled his shadow cabinet.

No one was injured in the crash.

Mr Green said his car had suffered minor damage and the other car's was "more significant".

The 56-year-old was still waiting to hear from police but defended his driving record and said the incident would not affect his leadership.

"I've been driving for 40 years," Mr Green said.

"I haven't had a traffic accident in 35 years and I've driven a lot of kilometres in that time.

"I certainly wasn't under the influence of anything."

Mr Green has developed something of a reputation for being accident prone.

He previously walked away from two light plane crashes, in 2006 and 2010.

"I don't think danger necessarily follows me but I guess there's not too many people that can say ... they've survived two light plane crashes," he said.

"I would like to think I'm a survivor from that point of view.

"I just feel so relieved that no one was hurt.

"It was a shock to me obviously and certainly sharpened me up."

Mr Green used the crash to criticise a government decision to cut drivers for MPs, who will be forced to use car pool official vehicles to help save $500,000.

"When you've got a lot on your mind and you're working on things like shadow portfolios, it is an all-encompassing job," he said.

"In the end I think it is unsafe."

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Palmer smacks down talk of KAP merger

Clive Palmer (Pic) has stomped on persistent speculation his party could merge with Bob Katter's. Source: AAP

CLIVE Palmer has stomped on persistent speculation his political party could merge with Bob Katter's.

Palmer United Party's Queensland leader Alex Douglas last month said the potential tie-up with Katter's Australian Party (KAP) would "most likely" occur under the Palmer brand, a comment the wealthy MP swiftly smacked down, saying "news to me" in a text to Fairfax Media.

At the same time, KAP MP Robbie Katter told the ABC that any merger between the parties would be "nothing to be sneezed at".

But Mr Palmer told AAP this week, while on the hustings in Perth ahead of the reprised West Australian Senate election, that the parties had little in common.

"The true story about that was Bob's vote was right down, and he's always trying to get notoriety in the press so he always leaks this every three months," he said.

"The Katter Party is an extreme right party and our party is a more centre party.

"And we disagree on certain things, such as guns ... a whole lot of things Bob's in favour of."

Mr Palmer said the leaders might like each other personally, but a political party had to share the same beliefs.

"There's more chance of us merging with the Labor or Liberal parties than with Bob."

KAP was being sought for comment.

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Aggressive 4.2m croc trapped in north Qld

A 4.2-metre long crocodile has been trapped at a popular fishing spot in north Queensland. Source: AAP

RANGERS have trapped a 4.2-metre crocodile spotted chasing another croc at a popular fishing spot in north Queensland.

The huge reptile was one of two male crocodiles seen chasing a female crocodile near a boat ramp on a river south of Townsville.

Rangers laid floating traps in the Haughton River last week and managed to catch the big croc on Tuesday.

It will be relocated to a farm or zoo.

State Environment Minister Andrew Powell urged boaties to take extreme caution or avoid the area until the other crocs have been trapped.

"These are very large crocodiles and they are showing very aggressive behaviour," he told reporters on Wednesday.

Recently a Port Douglas canoe club, north of Cairns, relocated its headquarters from a croc-infested waterway to a nearby beach.

The reptiles considered a threat to people in Townsville, Hinchinbrook, along the Cassowary Coast and in the Cairns region are relocated.

Under the state government's croc removal scheme 56 crocs have been trapped and relocated since early 2013.

One of the biggest was a 4.5m croc caught in the Herbert River near Ingham in August last year.

Concerns have been raised that the scheme doesn't work because other crocs may take over an area once one is removed.

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Police consider charging trucking bosses

SOUTH Australia Police are considering laying negligent manslaughter charges against the owners of a trucking company after one of its drivers was killed in a road crash.

They have also appealed for former employees to come forward although they say they can't name the company because of investigative and legal reasons.

A 45-year-old truck driver was killed on March 7 after his rig slammed head-on into a road sign in Adelaide's southern suburbs.

The man's death has been declared a major crime with a taskforce established to conduct the investigation.

Police say checks so far have revealed brake failure caused the crash.

"Police are examining whether the company may have been involved in the deliberate and systemic failure to comply with vehicle standards," a statement released on Tuesday said.

"The taskforce will now determine if there is sufficient evidence to lay a charge of negligent manslaughter against the proprietors of the trucking company.

"Other serious criminal offences are also being considered."

Last week police searched the company's premises, seizing documents and defecting 11 trucks for a range of mechanical problems.

Serious brake defects were identified in a majority of the trucks.

Investigators have also spoken to several former employees but want others to come forward, especially those with information about the roadworthiness of the company's vehicles.

Detective chief inspector Greg Hutchins says those who own or are responsible for the maintenance of heavy vehicles are on notice.

"If your failures result in the death of an employee, or an innocent member of the public, we will rigorously investigate and lay a criminal charge wherever possible," he said.

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Greens aim to move beyond low tide

The Greens expect the party's support to strengthen this weekend's WA Senate election re-run. Source: AAP

AUSTRALIAN Greens leader Christine Milne expects the party's support to strengthen this weekend in Western Australia from the "low tide" of the Tasmanian election.

But she has ducked questions about whether losing Greens senator Scott Ludlam's seat in the Senate election re-run on Saturday would undermine her leadership.

The Greens' 13.8 per cent vote at the Tasmanian state election - which saw the Liberals unseat the Labor government - was down from its record vote of 21.6 per cent in 2010 and the lowest since the 1998 election.

However, the Greens achieved a 0.6 per cent swing to them in the South Australian lower house state election and held on to an SA upper house seat.

Senator Milne told the National Press Club the Tasmanian result was "disappointing".

"But we will see the vote turn around now," she said, pointing to the WA Senate election and the Victorian state poll due in November.

Asked whether her leadership depended on improved results, Senator Milne joked that WA voters "better get (Senator Ludlam) over the line ... a lot rests on it".

Senator Milne said the WA election was important because electing two Labor and one Greens senator could shift a vote from conservatives to progressives.

Taking a line from the hit Australian comedy The Castle, she said there was a "vibe" across the nation that the Abbott government was taking the country down a path of "intolerance, discrimination and climate denialism".

"They are governing for the greedy few, the vested interests of yesteryear, not the Australians of tomorrow," she said.

"It's like a CEO delivering for only a small component of a corporation."

Senator Milne said Prime Minister Tony Abbott would find it difficult to negotiate with the "right-wing circus" in the Senate after July 1.

"The prime minister's strategy has always been to crash through, but he will just crash because he simply doesn't have the leadership skills to negotiate," she said.

Senator Milne said she had only met with Mr Abbott once since the election on the issue of Tasmanian forests and he had failed to reiterate his pre-election commitment.

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Cam, Davis new faces for Gold Logie battle

Network Ten's popular drama Offspring has dominated the nominations for television's Logie Awards. Source: AAP

JOVIAL host of The Block Scott Cam and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries star Essie Davis are the fresh faces in the fight for the Gold Logie.

The pair join comedian Andy Lee, last year's winner Asher Keddie, The Project co-host Carrie Bickmore and Home and Away's Stephen Peacocke as the six nominees for the April 27 ceremony.

Cam and Davis are first-time nominees for the Gold Logie.

It's Lee and Peacocke's second nomination, while Bickmore is hoping for third time lucky and Keddie is shooting for back-to-back gold.

Davis, who stars as Phryne Fisher in Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, and Keddie, who plays Nina Proudman in Offspring, are also nominated for a Silver Logie for most popular actress.

Peacocke is nominated for the most popular actor Silver Logie. The category also includes Chris Lilley, fellow Home and Away star Dan Ewing and Matthew Le Nevez, whose character Dr Patrick Reid was killed in the final episode of Offspring last year.

Besides new faces in the battle for gold, there are also fresh shows in the battle of reality show supremacy.

The Nine Network dominates the most popular reality program with three of the five nominations: Big Brother, The Block All Stars and The Block Sky High.

The other shows are Bondi Rescue (Network Ten) and My Kitchen Rules (Seven Network).

Overlooked were MasterChef, The Biggest Loser, House Rules and Australia's Next Top Model.

Talent shows The Voice and The X Factor, which are, in effect, reality series, were nominated for most popular light entertainment program alongside Hamish & Andy's Gap Year Asia, Jamie: Private School Girl and The Project.

Foxtel scored two shows in the most popular lifestyle program.

The first season of Embarrassing Bodies Down Under (LifeStyle YOU) and Selling Houses Australia (The LifeStyle Channel), Better Homes and Gardens, Domestic Blitz: The Block to the Rescue and The Living Room (Network Ten).

Foxtel has nine nominations in all after receiving seven peer-voted TV Week Logie nominations.

Drama series Wentworth, on the SoHo channel, picked up three most outstanding nominations, while Play Along with Sam, with former Wiggle Sam Moran, on Nick Jr is contesting the children's program section.

Also nominated in the most outstanding categories are Top of the Lake (miniseries), Kings Cross ER: St Vincent's Hospital (factual program) and Sky News: Leadership Spill (news coverage).

The seven nominations show the Logies are no longer a celebration of free-to-air TV.

Wentworth, a re-imagining of the 1980s hit Prisoner, is up against A Place to Call Home (Seven Network), Offspring (Network Ten), Redfern Now (ABC1) and The Time of Our Lives (ABC1) for most outstanding drama series.

The prison series also collected two individual nominations, underlining the strength of the cast and the quality of the production.

Danielle Cormack, who plays Bea Smith, is up for most outstanding actress against Asher Keddie (Offspring), Claudia Karvan (The Time of Our Lives), Kat Stewart (Offspring) and Mandy McElhinney (Paper Giants: Magazine Wars).

Shareena Clayton, who plays Doreen Anderson, was nominated for the Graham Kennedy Award for most outstanding newcomer.

Standing in her way are Anna Bamford (Wonderland), Caren Pistorius (Paper Giants: Magazine Wars), Meyne Wyatt (Redfern Now) and Remy Hii (Better Man).

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WA signs up to disability insurance trial

Western Australia has officially signed up to the national disability insurance scheme (NDIS). Source: AAP

WESTERN Australia has officially signed up to the national disability insurance scheme (NDIS), and two models of the program will be trialled there.

The WA NDIS My Way trial will begin on July 1 in the South West region, and the Cockburn-Kwinana area will join it in 2015.

It will be run by the WA Disability Services Commission and be implemented under state legislation.

A trial of the national model will begin in the Perth Hills region on July 1.

That trial will be run by the National Disability Insurance Agency and be implemented under Commonwealth legislation.

A joint steering committee will be established to oversee the progress and evaluation of both trials.

The WA government had agreed before the September 2013 election to take part in the scheme in the 2014/15 financial year.

Meanwhile, federal opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the federal government was talking down the NDIS by changing the language to "trial" sites instead of "launch" sites, which was the term used by the previous Labor government.

There are also reports that funding for the scheme will be scaled back.

Mr Shorten told reporters in Perth, where he is campaigning before Saturday's WA Senate election re-run, that the coalition had had nothing positive to say about the NDIS since the 2013 election.

"I am not going to join the Liberal chorus attacking the national disability insurance scheme," Mr Shorten said.

"The NDIS is about empowering the lives of hundreds of thousands of Australians with disabilities and their carers who have been effectively exiled in their own country."

He said funding for the scheme was "on the never-never".

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ALP-union member rules 'crazy': Plibersek

Deputy leader Tanya Plibersek says the Labor Party should not be putting up barriers to members. Source: AAP

DEPUTY Labor leader Tanya Plibersek says the party should in some circumstances open up its membership to those not in a union, saying it would be "crazy" not to welcome them.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten has said he wants to double the ALP's membership from 44,000 to 100,000, and according to News Corporation will soon announce changes to the party's membership rules.

He wants to scrap rules - often ignored by the party's branches - which restrict membership to those who belong in a union.

The largely symbolic reforms would further limit the party's links to a union movement, soon to be subject of a royal commission into governance and corruption.

Ms Plibersek said the ALP needed to recognise that for the likes of the self-employed, retirees and the unemployed there was no natural union in which they could be members.

"If the only barrier to someone joining the Labor Party is that there's not a natural union for them to join, then that's a crazy reason for not welcoming them into the Labor party," she told Sky News on Sunday.

"We're interested in increasing membership, opening up to people."

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Four rescued from floodwaters in Qld

FOUR people have been rescued from a ute that was swept off a causeway into rising floodwaters in Queensland's Darling Downs.

Rescuers say the four were on their way to church when their vehicle was swept off the causeway on Oakey Pittsworth Road at Mt Tyson, west of Toowoomba, about 11.30am (AEST) on Sunday.

A swift water rescue team flown in from Toowoomba winched a woman and a man, aged in their sixties, and two young men to safety.

RACQ CareFlight spokesman Brian Russell said the group was unlucky to become stranded in the first place.

"I believe they were on their way to church," he told AAP.

"They went to go through (the causeway) but stopped because of the floodwaters.

"Then a piece of debris floated past and pushed the ute off the causeway."

All four people escaped unscathed, but were taken to waiting emergency services as a precaution.

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