Police probe Vic woman truck jump

ANYONE who saw a woman jump from a moving truck on a Melbourne freeway, causing her serious injuries, is being urged to contact police.

The 30-year-old woman jumped out of the moving white 2002 Mitsubishi single cab tray truck on the Eastern Freeway in Kew on April 12, police say.

They believe she was travelling with a 35-year-old man about noon toward the city, when she jumped from the vehicle about 500 metres before the Chandler Road exit.

She was taken to the Royal Melbourne hospital for serious injuries.

Anyone who saw the truck, with JT Fencing signage, driving in the area prior to the incident should contact Crime Stoppers.

12.21 | 0 komentar | Read More

Abbott congratulates Indian PM-elect

PM Tony Abbott has congratulated his newly elected Indian counterpart on his landslide victory. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has invited his newly-elected Indian counterpart to November's G20 summit in Brisbane.

Mr Abbott called Indian prime minister-elect Narendra Modi on Friday night to congratulate him on a resounding victory.

After a marathon six-week election for the world's biggest democracy, hardline Hindu nationalist Mr Modi is on track for the first parliamentary majority by a single party in 30 years.

Mr Abbott told Mr Modi he was looking forward to working with him.

12.21 | 0 komentar | Read More

Abbott, Hockey stand by budget

Prime Minister Tony Abbott is confident he can get controversial budget measures through parliament. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott is confident his first budget can survive a two-pronged attack from state premiers and the Senate.

State and territory leaders have organised a meeting for this Sunday to discuss concerns over the federal budget's $80 billion cut to school and hospitals funding.

Labor and the Greens are poised to block many of the budget measures, with the government left to horse-trade with new Senate cross benchers after July 1 to pass a new Medicare co-payment and pension and welfare changes.

Mr Abbott does not believe the Senate will frustrate the budget, but he is open to negotiations.

"I'm not going to be absolutely unreasonable," he told Sky News on Thursday.

However, the prime minister put the responsibility in Labor's hands, arguing the previous government created the budget mess and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten needed to offer his own solutions if he did not accept those of the coalition.

Mr Abbott said Labor previously had supported co-payments for health services while pensioners would have more money in their pockets after the carbon tax was abolished.

Offering an olive branch to the states, Mr Abbott said he had indicated to the premiers the government would fund schools and hospitals based on rises in line with inflation "plus population factor".

Treasurer Joe Hockey says the states will still receive $400 billion in the six years from 2017 for schools and hospitals, once the agreements signed with the previous Labor government expired.

"It is not cost-shifting because we don't run the schools or hospitals," he told ABC TV.

Asked whether he was prepared to horse-trade with senators, Mr Hockey said any changes to the budget would mean debt and deficit would be reduced at a slower rate and medical research would not receive extra funding.

Mr Shorten, who will deliver his budget-in-reply speech on Thursday night, said the budget cuts would rip $5000 a year out of the average family budget.

"I've got some advice for Tony Abbott ... why don't you horse-trade away your paid parental leave scheme ... and perhaps leave the pensioners alone."

Labor has yet to decide whether to support a temporary income tax rise for people earning more than $180,000 a year, but it will oppose the Medicare co-payment, pension changes and the fuel tax lift.

Mr Hockey said the $7 Medicare co-payment was only about the cost of two "middies" of beer and much less than the $22 cost of a packet of cigarettes.

Mr Shorten said the treasurer's comments showed he was out of touch with ordinary Australians.

The Greens will support the fuel tax rise.

12.21 | 0 komentar | Read More

Historic Vic church cleaned out by thieves

THIEVES have cleaned out a historic Victorian church, stealing a 17th century antique and so many other valuable religious items that it is likely they needed a truck.

The 150-year-old church at Daylesford was robbed some time from noon on Tuesday and 9am on Wednesday when the theft was discovered.

"They've really taken an awful lot of stuff, really cleaned the place out," Vicar Jeff O'Hare, from Christ Church Anglican Church, told AAP on Thursday.

"Everything from the altar cross to our chairs, lecterns and candlesticks ... they've just been very systematic and thorough."

The stolen goods include a 17th century carved wooden screen with a centre print of the Virgin Mary, a 140-year-old antique mirror, a carved wooden eagle and a gem-encrusted cross made of silver and brass. Antique chairs, carved wooden lecterns and candelabra were also taken.

Fr O'Hare said the church door was occasionally left unlocked as he had an open-door policy, and while it was not locked on the night the thieves would have likely "jemmied the door anyway".

"This is not a 'passing by' thing, it is 'pull up a truck and let's load it up'," he said.

The robbery has hit the town hard, Fr O'Hare said, and he suspects the church was targeted by someone from outside the community and with links to the black market for antiques.

Detective Sergeant Tony Coxall said the items taken were worth more than $100,000, and a theft of such scale from a church was rare.

"A lot of the items stolen have been donations to the church in memoriam of family members that have passed on ... so they are sentimental, and irreplaceable," Sgt Coxall said.

"The items also have a very limited market so where they would go from here is anyone's guess."

Several thieves were likely involved, Sgt Coxall said, and it may have taken 30 minutes to load a large vehicle.

The church theft comes a month after thieves targeted a historic Victorian homestead, in Mount Martha, stealing an antique snuff box and other artefacts linked to Napoleon Bonaparte.

"I will have a look at it, but there is no link at this stage," Sgt Coxall said.

12.21 | 0 komentar | Read More

Qld man's legs caught in farm machinery

AN elderly Queensland man is in a critical condition after his legs got caught in a cattle feeding machine.

It took two hours to free the man, whose legs were trapped in the rake-like device as he fed stock at a Nobby property, south of Toowoomba, on Wednesday.

He's suffered extensive leg injuries and blood loss.

He's been flown to the Toowoomba Base Hospital in a critical condition, the RACQ CareFlight Rescue helicopter service said.

12.21 | 0 komentar | Read More

Aust moves to ban Boko Haram

AUSTRALIA is cracking down on the Nigerian terror group that kidnapped 200 girls, banning Boko Haram under Australian terrorism laws.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott says the whole world was transfixed and horrified by the group's hostage-taking of some 200 schoolgirls.

The group is also responsible for the deaths of another 300 people in recent terror attacks.

"The government is taking steps to commence the process of banning Boko Haram as a terrorist organisation," Mr Abbott told parliament on Wednesday.

In taking such a step, Australia would be acting consistently with international partners, the US, UK, Canada and Nigeria, he said.

Listing a terror group under Australian law makes it illegal to belong to it, to provide funding or any material or other support.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said Labor was also extremely concerned about the kidnappings.

"It would be every parent's worse nightmare," Mr Shorten said.

He promised Labor would do everything it could to assist, including consulting over the decision of whether to list Boko Haram in a "constructive and bipartisan way".

Opposition leader Bill Shorten said Labor were also extremely concerned about the kidnappings.

"It would be every parent's worse nightmare," Mr Shorten said.

He promised Labor would do everything it could to assist, including consulting over the decision of whether to list Boko Haram in a "constructive and bipartisan way".

12.21 | 0 komentar | Read More

Garrett evidence at insulation inquiry

Former minister Peter Garrett is set to be grilled about Labor's botched home insulation program. Source: AAP

FORMER environment minister Peter Garrett has begun giving evidence at the royal commission into Labor's bungled home insulation program.

Mr Garrett will be questioned over his role in the $2.8 billion stimulus program rolled out by the Rudd government in 2009.

He is appearing before the $20 million inquiry after former senator Mark Arbib claimed the ex-Midnight Oil frontman was in charge of the troubled scheme.

Mr Arbib told the commission his role was to sell the scheme being designed by Mr Garrett and his department.

The home insulation debacle is widely seen as the catalyst to Mr Garrett's political downfall.

It led to him being stripped of his environment portfolio and prompted calls for his resignation.

Queenslanders Matthew Fuller, Rueben Barnes, Mitchell Sweeney, and Marcus Wilson from NSW, lost their lives installing insulation.

Mr Sweeney's brother, Justin, says he's keen to hear evidence from Mr Garrett and former prime minister Kevin Rudd, who is expected give evidence on Wednesday.

"Overall it comes down to what they actually knew and what they didn't - how far it actually went up the chain," he told reporters on Tuesday.

"Obviously, it's come out over the weeks (that) certain bureaucrats have said certain things.

"But ultimately again, they're the key stakeholders as far as I'm concerned."

The program has also been blamed for at least one serious injury and 224 house fires.

AAP mjg/tnf/km

12.21 | 0 komentar | Read More

Efficiencies drive NT 'miracle' budget

NORTHERN Territory Treasurer Dave Tollner has hailed his budget as a "miracle" and called it "the most family-friendly budget that has ever been handed down in the NT, by a country mile".

Tollner's $6 billion second budget, revealed on Tuesday, is characterised by many small cuts rather than drastic measures.

"The government has been red-hot on this issue of trying to drive efficiencies in the public sector," he said.

It has saved $120 million alone by directing department CEOs not to use up unspent budgets before the end of the financial year, Mr Tollner said.

"We've been able to go across all agencies and look in all sorts of nooks and crannies to be able to find little bits here and there, and when you add them up as a whole it becomes an enormous amount of money," he said.

Meanwhile, the budget includes an extended childcare subsidy, a back to school benefit, and more funds for sports and recreation vouchers, while education spending is boosted from $845 million to $871 million.

Health received the biggest slice, $1.35 billion, to include $22.8 million to upgrade the overstretched Royal Darwin Hospital, and $28 million for expanding the mandatory rehabilitation program for problem drinkers.

Revenues are up but the government is reinvesting these and savings in debt reduction, he said, and no jobs or services have been cut other than by natural attrition.

The fiscal balance is running at a deficit of $723 million, which the government says it will slash to $39 million by 2017-18.

The deficit is almost double what was forecast last year owing to the late completion of the $521 million Darwin prison.

The delayed project is also partially behind the rise in net debt to $4.1 billion, up from $3.4 billion in last year's estimate.

Net debt is expected to reach $4.16 billion by 2017-18, which is lower than expected.

12.21 | 0 komentar | Read More

Union payments hidden in secret fund

A UNION official sent sham invoices for thousands of dollars to a construction firm for work that was never done, the first day of a royal commission into union corruption has heard.

Former Australian Workers' Union assistant secretary Ralph Blewitt has given evidence that AWU secretary Bruce Wilson - a one-time boyfriend of former prime minister Julia Gillard - established a workplace safety association to channel money into a secret account.

Mr Blewitt has flown to Sydney from his home in Malaysia to give evidence about events surrounding the 1992 establishment of the Workplace Reform Association (WRA).

He told the commission former prime minister Julia Gillard, who was a lawyer doing work for the AWU at the time, helped draw up documents to incorporate the WRA.

He said Mr Wilson told him the WRA was created ostensibly to advise on workplace safety at a major construction project being done by contractor Thiess in Western Australia.

Thiess was to pay almost $2000 a week for a full-time union representative to work on safety issues but Mr Blewitt said no work was ever done.

"We needed to raise funds for potential election campaigns in the future and this was a vehicle to raise those funds," he said.

Mr Wilson told him that no work would be done for the money, he said.

Mr Blewitt told the commission he set up a post office box on Mr Wilson's instructions to receive cheques to the WRA, which he then deposited into a Commonwealth Bank account.

An invoice for three months came to more than $25,000.

"The whole thing was kept completely secret from anybody else," Mr Blewitt said.

Mr Wilson later used funds from the WRA account to pay for a house in Melbourne, the commission heard.

Mr Blewitt, a small man with a clean-shaven head and bushy grey goatee beard, said Mr Wilson was a "charismatic" person he worked very closely with in the WA branch of the AWU.

The 70-year-old said he and Mr Wilson attended a 1992 meeting at law firm Slater and Gordon's Melbourne offices where Ms Gillard, a lawyer at the firm, was present.

The meeting was to incorporate the WRA and Mr Blewitt was asked to sign a document stating the association's main purpose was improving workplace safety.

Counsel assisting the commission Jeremy Stoljar asked Mr Blewitt if he thought the statement was true.

"I never turned my mind to it - I was just following the instructions of Bruce Wilson," Mr Blewitt said.

Former federal Labor leader Mark Latham was among those present in the hearing room.

While Ms Gillard has been notified of the proceedings, the commission has not received an application for her to appear.

12.21 | 0 komentar | Read More

Australians are digging deeper for charity

AUSTRALIANS are giving more to charity despite worries about the cost of living and job losses.

Younger and older Australians are digging deep, with charitable giving growing by more than eight per cent in the year to February 2014, National Australia Bank's annual Charitable Giving Index shows.

"We are giving more to charity in spite of below trend economic growth, rising joblessness and elevated anxiety around the cost of living," National Australia Bank Group Chief Economist Alan Oster said.

This year's result is a big improvement on the 3.3 per cent increase in charitable giving in the previous year.

The index shows the average annual donation size for all charities increased by $13 to $315 per donor over 12 months.

Humanitarian services charities were the most favoured, attracting around a third of all donations.

The survey also found donations grew faster among older donors, with most other age groups recording an increase.

Among those aged over 65 years of age donations increased by almost 11 per cent in the year, compared to three per cent the previous year.

The survey showed donors from higher income areas gave the most money, but they did not donate the most relative to their incomes.

"Once again, the ACT stands out as most generous," Mr Oster said.

ACT residents gave an average annual amount of $121 per person, or $55 more than the national average.

This was followed by Western Australia at $72 per person, Victoria at $66 and NSW at $65.

The data, which is compiled from tax deductible donations, showed a decline in the share of giving to community services and children/family charities while the share of donations to medical research and services charities has grown.

Cancer charities received a boost but people's generosity for animals and environment and health and disability was broadly unchanged.

Since NAB started the index three and a half years ago, charitable giving has grown by almost 19 per cent.

12.21 | 0 komentar | Read More

Buswell light rail report light on insight

FORMER West Australian treasurer Troy Buswell's light rail report from a taxpayer-funded trip across Europe is so paltry it could have been compiled in his office, the state opposition says.

Mr Buswell came away from the trip to Europe and China with six key findings about light rail as he planned a network for Perth.

Mr Buswell, now a backbencher after quitting cabinet following a car crash controversy in March, visited Switzerland, Germany and France in August and September last year to study light rail systems.

Before making the trip, Mr Buswell had said non-essential government travel would be temporarily banned and instructed the public service to tighten its belt amid spiralling state debt.

And in December, the state government shelved its MAX light rail project due to WA's ailing finances.

A 20-page report since submitted by Mr Buswell on the trip contained six insights about light rail, with the fact it could be a "very effective, embedded and highly valued component" of a public transport system split over two bullet points.

Mr Buswell also used two bullet points to report that trams could operate effectively in confined urban settings at sensible speeds and with clear community awareness of the operation.

His other points were that right of way for light rail in congested parts of a city was important and that a tram system could be delivered effectively via a public-private partnership, particularly in a greenfields environment.

Opposition transport spokesman Ken Travers said Mr Buswell could have compiled the light rail report from his Perth office and saved taxpayers money.

In China, Mr Buswell met with state-owned conglomerate CITIC and Industrial Bank of China about investment opportunities including Perth Stadium and the long-awaited Oakajee port.

And with his then-fisheries minister hat on, he also held several meetings about artificial reefs, shark barriers and seafood trade.

The total cost of the trip is expected to be tabled in parliament in coming weeks.

On his return to parliament as the Member for Vasse last week, Mr Buswell told reporters it was "entirely appropriate" for ministers to travel for work.

Mr Travers said on Sunday Mr Buswell's report, which used swathes of general information from websites, was light on insights.

"I don't think there was anything in that report that added value to what we do," he told AAP.

He believed Mr Buswell already knew funding for the MAX project was questionable before he got on the plane.

While Mr Buswell provided a brief report to parliament one month after the trip, the full report took eight months to be tabled, said Mr Travers, who admitted he'd once returned a late travel report too.

He expected more than $20,000 had been spent on the light rail trip.

12.21 | 0 komentar | Read More

SA driver six times above booze limit

A MAN has been caught driving while he was nearly six times above the legal alcohol limit in Adelaide.

Police pulled over the 57-year-old Mawson Lakes man at 7pm on Saturday, May 10.

He recorded a blood alcohol reading of 0.298.

The drunk driver immediately lost his licence for 12 months and had his car impounded for 28 days.

12.21 | 0 komentar | Read More