Peter Hore charged after ICAC outburst

Serial pest Peter Hore has stormed a NSW corruption inquiry, leaving a police officer in hospital. Source: AAP

SERIAL pest Peter Hore has stormed a NSW corruption inquiry, leaving a police officer in hospital.

The special constable was bleeding from the head after he tried to restrain the troublemaker, who barged into the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) hearing room just before 11am (AEDT) on Friday screaming about his "brother" and a death in Newcastle.

Hore was charged on Friday with assaulting a law enforcement officer, for offensive conduct and inflicting actual bodily harm.

He has had his bail refused and will face Central Local Court on Saturday.

The injured officer was taken away from the ICAC's Sydney CBD offices by ambulance while Hore was led from the seventh floor in handcuffs.

"We're the second coming," he yelled.

"Stop trying to assault me ... Don't try to break my wrist."

He was later seen banging on the walls of the paddy wagon in which he was transported from the building.

The injured officer is at St Vincent's Hospital recovering from what are described as minor injuries.

The body of Hore's 52-year-old housemate was last week found hog-tied and half-naked at a cricket ground in Newcastle.

Police have previously said there was no suggestion Hore had any involvement in the man's death and on Friday said Anthony Richard Dent, 53, was wanted for the alleged murder.

ICAC Commissioner Megan Latham, who was asked to leave the hearing room as Hore was tackled to the ground on Friday morning, returned to call an adjournment and said some staff were "traumatised".

Hore wore a long beard and a t-shirt with the letters "WTF" and told reporters he was "only trying to introduce myself".

A woman who arrived at the commission with Hore later told reporters she did not speak English.

The notorious gatecrasher has disrupted a string of major events including the Melbourne Cup, the funeral of rock singer Michael Hutchence and the Socceroos' 1997 World Cup qualifier against Iran.

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Boat incursion secrecy continues

CUSTOMS has refused to disclose whether Australian border protection vessels were turning asylum seeker boats back when they breached Indonesian territorial waters on six occasions.

The incursions took place between December 2013 and January 2014 under Operation Sovereign Borders and the discovery of the "inadvertent" breaches prompted the Abbott government to issue a swift apology to Indonesia.

Customs and Defence conducted a joint internal review into the incidents but only the executive summary with five recommendations was publicly released in February.

But a copy of the full report, under Freedom of Information laws, shows that damage to international relations and national security and defence are cited as reasons for the 18 blacked out pages and other redacted sections.

The document shows the joint review actually made seven recommendations but two have not been made public.

Sections identifying which boats were involved and the circumstances are also blanked out.

The discussion about the Abbott government's policy parameters on boat turn backs - only when safe and outside 12 nautical miles from Indonesia's archipelagic baseline - was also heavily redacted.

Last month, a Senate inquiry into the breaches found those two aims may not be achievable.

The document, obtained by AAP, shows the review team made up of three Defence personnel, and two Customs officers sought advice from the Attorney General's Department and Department of Foreign Affairs but the names of other bodies were blanked out.

It said the review took into account the potential for further inquiry into the events as a justification for making no findings against individuals.

The report said territorial seas declared by foreign nations are generally not depicted on Australian hydrographic charts.

The review blamed the breaches on incorrect calculations of boundaries of Indonesian waters rather than deliberate actions or navigational error.

The breaches have added to tension in Australian Indonesian relations following allegations Australian spies tapped the mobile phones of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his wife in 2009.

Customs and Defence are still assessing whether lapses in judgment contributed to the breaches.

Training regimes are under review and revised force preparation training will be introduced by May.

Officers will also be given special training on the United Nations convention of the law of the sea from the end of June.

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Shark victim's husband opens up

Police have found remains believed to belong to a woman killed by a shark off the NSW south coast. Source: AAP

THE husband of shark attack victim Christine Armstrong knew something was wrong when a bird swooped him in the water.

Rob Armstrong then spotted a large bronze whaler shark and swam carefully in a tight formation with the rest of his swimming group back to shore at Tathra Beach.

He did not initially fear for the safety of his wife of 44 years at the NSW south coast tourist spot, more concerned about the welfare of a 70-year-old swimming buddy.

"We thought everything was safe and we just hugged each other (on the beach) and then we found that Chris wasn't in the change rooms," Rob Armstrong said.

"We immediately got in the IRB (inflatable rescue boat), went out and very shortly we found evidence that Chris was no more.

Mr Armstrong is convinced his wife suffered a quick death at the spot south of Bega.

"She would not hold anything against what happened," he told reporters.

He wanted to assure friends she died doing something that she loved and he "is certain Chris would not have known what had hit her".

"The shark was such a size and it's consumed her basically completely - she wouldn't have even known it happened."

Mrs Armstrong's swimming cap and goggles were located on Thursday evening and police say human remains will undergo forensic testing.

The search, which is focusing on the southern end of Tathra Beach, resumed on Friday morning despite wet weather and grey skies.

"Chris only knew one way in life and that was love, and everyone loved her," Mr Armstrong said.

Divers from Sydney have arrived to assist the search along with lifesavers from nearby regions.

Patrols of Tathra Beach will start again at about 8am on Saturday, including a helicopter search of nearby beaches.

Tathra Beach will be reopened at 10am on Saturday.

"This decision is supported by the Armstrong family and the Tathra Surf Life Saving community," police media said.

The Department of Primary Industries says large schools of baitfish could soon gather near the shore, which may mean sharks will also be attracted to the area.

People who see sharks are urged to notify life savers immediately.

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NT schools to double in attendance program

AT the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Thamarrurr Catholic College in the remote indigenous community of Wadeye in the north-western Northern Territory, average school attendance rates are about 51 per cent.

But the federal government is hoping to change that, now that it has almost doubled the number of schools signed up to its Remote School Attendance Strategy.

An additional 210 school attendance officers and 60 supervisors will be employed to boost attendance rates in a further 30 schools nation-wide from Term 2, Minister for Indigenous Affairs Nigel Scullion said on Friday.

Fifteen of the new schools will be in the NT, seven in Queensland and three in Western Australia, with another five in other jurisdictions.

The schools were identified following consultation with state and territory governments, the minister said.

The Wadeye community faces numerous obstacles to getting students to school, says Principal Dr John Young, due to the 22-plus different clans based there.

"When there's fighting in the community the attendance drops pretty dramatically," he told AAP.

"There's a lot of clan conflict issues, and a lot of kids don't get the amount of sleep they should, which has a real major effect on learning."

Factors affecting children's sleep and school attendance include loud music, parents gambling late into the night and overcrowding at home, where 16 people can live in a three-bedroom house, Dr Young said.

Some of the conflict spilled into school.

"Whether people say it's payback from the old days or they're fighting because every clan here has their own country, I don't know who to blame. Why is the government putting everyone in one place when years ago they wanted to kill each other?" resident Harold Anderson told AAP.

"The generation coming through now are hearing the same stories and the violence is getting worse and worse."

Dr Young said the key attendance data measures how many students attend school at least four days out of five.

22 per cent, or 177 students are coming to school 80 per cent of the time or more, he said.

"Those kids are making very good progress; the best thing we can do is move the 111 students who come 60 to 80 per cent up to coming four to five days a week... That makes the biggest difference."

School attendance personnel are already working in more than 40 schools across Australia and some schools in the NT have reported increases in attendance of nearly 20 percentage points since the strategy was implemented at the start of school this year, Minister Scullion said.

Early data from schools involved in the scheme's first stage show encouraging signs of increased school attendance, with more than 600 more children in school this year compared to last year.

Total government funding for the strategy now stands at $46.5 million.

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'500 dolphins caught in WA nets' in decade

ABOUT 500 dolphins have been caught in the Pilbara trawl fishery in the past 10 years, West Australian scientists say.

Murdoch University PhD candidate Simon Allen and colleagues from the Cetacean Research Unit have made the claims based on independent observer data, which shows methods to reduce dolphin bycatch are not working.

"Independent observers reported bycatch rates of about 50 dolphins per year, which is double the number reported by the skippers of these vessels," Mr Allen said.

Under-reporting was not unusual around the world, especially where marine mammal capture was illegal, he said.

"This doesn't necessarily mean that skippers are deliberately under-reporting," Mr Allen said.

"Fishers are concentrating on the job at hand and may not see a dead dolphin fall out of the net on winch up."

A report by the WA Fisheries Department detailed similar findings, but instead suggested self-reporting mechanisms in place were accurate and the impact posed negligible risk, Mr Allen said.

But researchers said modified bycatch reduction devices with top-opening escape hatches could be more effective.

The scientists have also called for a reinstatement of independent observers and in-net video collection to accurately measure bycatch.

"The next step is to calculate the acceptable levels of human-caused dolphin mortality, which requires an estimate of the dolphin population size in the region," Mr Allen said.

"If the ongoing bycatch exceeds that threshold, switching to alternative, less destructive fishing methods, like trap or line fishing, should be considered."

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More double demerits for WA drivers

DOUBLE demerit penalties will now apply to West Australian motorists caught using their mobile phones while driving and running red lights during holiday periods.

Road Safety Minister Liza Harvey said the change would come into effect in time for the Easter long weekend and would be reviewed after three years.

"We know that both running red lights and using your mobile phone while driving are linked to fatal and serious crashes," she said.

"We don't want anybody to lose a loved one on our roads over the Anzac and Easter holidays."

Double demerits already apply to drink and drug driving, speeding and not using seatbelts.

Earlier this year, the Road Safety Council undertook a review of the double demerits system and advised that illegal mobile phone use and running red lights should be included.

Over the past five years, road fatalities had dropped by 30 per cent, but WA still had one of the worst road tolls in Australia, Ms Harvey said.

Double demerit penalties will be enforced between April 17 and 21, and between April 24 and 27.

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SA and Canberra closer on road plan

The SA and federal governments have held talks on Adelaide's north-south road corridor. Source: AAP

THE federal and South Australian governments have held talks aimed at overcoming disagreements on how to fully redevelop Adelaide's north-south road corridor.

The two governments had been at odds before the recent state election, with the Commonwealth wanting to start the project with an upgrade at Darlington in the city's south.

The state government maintained a section of the road further north should be the priority.

But a meeting on Thursday between federal Assistant Minister for Infrastructure Jamie Briggs and new SA Transport and Infrastructure Minister Stephen Mullighan appears to have closed the gap.

Mr Briggs said he was now more confident about the project.

"We want to get the north-south corridor upgraded in a decade," he said.

Mr Mullighan described Thursday's meeting as productive.

"We've made very clear what our priority is and they've made very clear what their priority is," he said.

"What we're working on is how we can deliver both projects."

Mr Mullighan said talks would continue.

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Safety overlooked in batts scheme rush

FORMER prime minister Kevin Rudd's "horrendous" timeline for the home insulation program denied bureaucrats adequate time to consider safety risks, an inquiry has heard.

Public servants were given five months to devise the $2.8 billion scheme.

Safety considerations were overlooked as they scrambled to have it up and running by July 1, 2009, a royal commission has been told.

Former environment department deputy secretary Malcolm Forbes, who oversaw delivery, says potential risks would have been properly considered if time wasn't so tight.

Commissioner Ian Hanger QC asked what was "so magic" about July 1, 2009.

"That's what the prime minster wanted," Mr Forbes replied.

Asked why nobody told Mr Rudd it couldn't be done, Mr Forbes said doing so would have gone against the public service culture, which was to remain positive and get the job done.

Mr Forbes said he did raise concerns about the challenging deadline with former co-ordinator general Mike Mrdak.

"We were flagging early that this was a significant challenge to us," he said.

A coronial inquest has already blamed the scheme's rushed rollout for the deaths of young Queenslanders Matthew Fuller, Rueben Barnes and Mitchell Sweeney.

NSW tradesman Marcus Wilson also died installing home insulation.

Mr Forbes said he had never, in his 33 years as a public servant, seen such a short gap between a government program being announced and rolled out, as occurred with the home insulation program (HIP).

"The HIP implementation timeline was horrendous," he said in a statement to the inquiry.

" ... some compromises were made that left risks remaining to achieve the timeline."

The scheme wasn't fully implemented until September 2009 but even then inspections were happening slowly.

While 400,000 homes had been insulated by October, only 172 roof inspections had taken place.

The inquiry resumes on Friday.

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Four jailed over WA drug-fuelled killing

TWO men and a woman who lured her former lover to a site where he was run over and repeatedly shot have been sentenced to life in prison for the murder.

Tamara Kathleen Broadbent, Gary David Young and Damien Paul Kosick were each sentenced on Tuesday in the West Australian Supreme Court to life in prison.

Broadbent and Young must serve at least 24 years behind bars before being eligible for parole, while Kosick must serve 22 years.

A third man, Kym Steven Foster, was sentenced to eight years in prison for manslaughter.

The four offenders murdered father-of-two David Blenkinsopp in March 2012.

Earlier, during sentencing submissions, a victim impact statement from Mr Blenkinsopp's wife was read to the court in which she described her difficulty in explaining to the children that their father was dead.

The trial heard Mr Blenkinsopp, who was bipolar and a drug user, was having an affair with Broadbent in 2011, but their relationship was often violent.

By February 2012, she began dating Foster and took out a restraining order on her former lover, which he then broke, the court heard.

On March 4, Broadbent, Foster, Kosick and Young went on a drug and alcohol binge while Mr Blenkinsopp did the same elsewhere, after which he was lured to his death, prosecutors said.

The four accused confronted an unarmed Mr Blenkinsopp and shot him twice in the torso and once in the leg with a rifle.

He was also run over before being buried.

Broadbent fired at least one more shot at the bush grave.

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Cabbie charged over rape of 10-year-old

A 10-YEAR-OLD girl with profound hearing difficulties was allegedly raped several times by an elderly cab driver hired to take her to school.

Sydney police charged the 64-year-old on Tuesday morning with eight sexual assault offences, including two counts of aggravated sexual intercourse with a physically impaired child 10-14 years old, after investigating allegations from late 2013.

"The offences, which are alleged to have occurred on a number of occasions in 2009 when the girl was aged 10 and 11, took place in the vehicle the man used to transport her to and from school," police said.

The alleged child rapist would abuse the girl a few streets from her home, after dropping other children off at the end of the school day.

He appeared in Liverpool Local Court on Tuesday and was denied bail.

He's due before Campbelltown Local Court in May.

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Superbug may become untreatable: Qld study

A RAPIDLY spreading superbug that causes bladder and blood infections could evolve and become untreatable.

Queensland researchers found a strain of E. coli was one gene away from becoming resistant to almost all drugs.

The bacteria had evolved and spread rapidly worldwide over the past five years.

Study co-author Dr Nouri Ben Zakour says the spread of the multi-drug resistant ST131 strain could lead to a spike in urinary tract and blood infections.

"More than 150 million cases of urinary tract infection are reported globally every year," Dr Zakour, from the Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre, said.

"So an E. coli resistant to all currently effective antibiotic treatments could be devastating to the community."

The University of Queensland research will be used to develop detection tests.

The study was published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.

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Obeid touted $100m water deal: ICAC

Banker Gardner Brook has told ICAC the family of Eddie Obeid "thought they were running the state". Source: AAP

MOSES Obeid boasted that a mooted $100 million water deal "eclipsed" his family's notorious Mount Penny coal venture, the NSW corruption watchdog has heard.

In sensational testimony before the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), former Lehman Brothers banker Gardner Brook said the son of former MP Eddie Obeid told him in 2008 the water deal would bring in "a bucketload of money".

Mr Brook told the inquiry the Obeids thought they ran NSW and were looking at a privatisation deal which would make a fortune.

The ICAC is probing allegations infrastructure firm Australian Water Holdings (AWH) billed the state-owned Sydney Water for limousine rides and trips to luxury Queensland hotels.

Mr Brook told the ICAC on Tuesday he got to know Moses Obeid while working on a coal deal at Mount Penny in the NSW Hunter region - a deal the watchdog has already branded corrupt in a separate inquiry.

"Moses said that he and his family had an ownership in Australian Water (Holdings) and that they had great influence over it," Mr Brook recalled in a written statement.

"The company was looking into a privatisation deal where they could effectively control all of Sydney's water. Moses said, 'We are going to make a fortune out of it'."

Mr Brook told the commission a payoff of $100 million was mentioned.

Mr Brook said he met with the two Obeids and and former Labor MP Joe Tripodi in August 2008 in Elizabeth Bay, where the men canvassed selling off NSW electricity assets and Moses repeatedly declared "this conversation's not happening".

Mr Brook didn't understand at the time, he said, "but I've figured it out since".

"It's fairly obvious that these people thought they were running the state of NSW," he said on Tuesday.

Lawyers for the Obeids suggested Mr Brook "had a problem with intoxicants" in 2008 or that he suffered memory loss after a 2010 accident.

But Mr Brook stood by his testimony.

"My recollection is sharp. Razor-sharp," he said.

Counsel assisting Geoffrey Watson SC this week zeroed in on documents he says provide "hard evidence" that AWH's Sydney Water billings amounted to fraud.

Sydney Water had agreed to pay for AWH's costs as the company built water infrastructure around Sydney's northwest.

It has been alleged the utility also picked up the tab for payments made to lobbying firm SolutionsRUs, Qantas flights and luxury lodgings at the Sofitel Hotel in Cairns and the Conrad Treasury in Brisbane.

It has also been alleged Sydney Water paid for a chauffeur to drive Eddie Obeid Junior and ex-AWH chief Nick Di Girolamo around Sydney.

Ian George, who certified AWH expenses while working for accounting firm MBT, said some payments appeared to have been rubber-stamped in error but that invoices were generally reviewed.

"Somebody sat down and thought, ah yes, they must have been driving to Acer Arena with what, sewerage pipes in the boot?" Mr Watson asked.

"How could this happen? What was going through your mind when you signed the certificates month in, month out which included these items?"

The inquiry continues.

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Public servant slams pink batts processes

A SENIOR public servant who described Kevin Rudd as "scary" in satirical presentation slides says he was treated unethically while devising the home insulation scheme.

Federal environment department assistant secretary Kevin Keeffe told a royal commission in Brisbane on Monday it was unethical for bureaucrats not to warn him that his business model would be dumped at a meeting attended by senator Mark Arbib.

But Mr Keeffe had to defend his own actions when the inquiry was shown a series of slides he made for a presentation to environment department staff in September 2009, two months after the scheme's rollout.

The first described former prime minister Rudd, former co-ordinator general Mark Mrdak and then environment minister Peter Garrett as "some scary people".

"When I say scary, they were key stakeholders we had to manage," Mr Keeffe told the inquiry.

There were also slides about "scary numbers", "scary timelines" and "scary stakeholders" in relation to the home insulation scheme.

Earlier, the inquiry heard how Mr Keeffe was furious to learn at a March 31, 2009, meeting that his business model for the program had been dumped.

He said he should have been warned before the meeting attended by Mr Arbib, Mr Mrdak and staff at the co-ordinator-general's office.

"It's not the done thing in public service culture for a central agency to not give someone at my level a heads-up this is going to come," Mr Keeffe told the inquiry.

"To have it delivered to you on a plate is unethical."

Mr Keeffe was still fuming after the meeting, and fired off emails to others in the department.

"I'm past slow smolder (sic). Seriously cranky," one email read.

"Still cranky at being put into unwinnable position where blame flows our way," another said.

Before the scheme's July 1, 2009, introduction, the environment department's regional brokerage model was switched to a more centralised one that allowed for the participation of smaller installation businesses.

The scheme ended up being swamped by low-skilled workers who required only a general safety induction before entering ceilings.

Mr Keeffe said he pushed for installers to be trained but was overruled because the government was more concerned about job creation and stimulating the economy.

Training for installers was scaled back to include only supervisors, but Mr Keeffe said it was always his expectation that anyone entering a roof would have to first complete a five-day training course.

He also told the inquiry he didn't expect installers in Australia to die, despite fatalities occurring in New Zealand.

Four installers died in Australia, including two who were using metal staples to secure foil insulation.

Three New Zealand installers died using the same practice in 2007.

The inquiry before commissioner Ian Hanger QC continues.

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Deja vu all over again for WA voters

Tony Abbott (L) and Bill Shorten are campaigning ahead of the WA Senate election re-run on Saturday. Source: AAP

HAVEN'T we heard all this before?

That is surely what the West Australian electorate was thinking on Monday as the state's looming Senate election re-run brought politicians by the planeload to Perth - with plenty to say but little of it new.

While Prime Minister Tony Abbott was rebranding his agreement with WA Premier Colin Barnett for the national disability insurance scheme, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten was preparing to appear at a teachers rally - just as he did the week before September's poll.

And with Clive Palmer making plenty of noise, micro-parties threatening an upset and Greens Senator Scott Ludlam battling hard for his political future, the fourth WA election campaign in just more than a year has been a case of deja vu for the election-weary west.

Mr Abbott made an early-morning swoop into RAAF Pearce to meet the troops searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight before hitting the hustings in the city.

The PM accused the opposition of untruths over school funding, defended his reinstatement of knights and dames, and pushed for the abolition of the mining and carbon taxes.

"The people of WA need to know that Labor is not being straight with you, and Bill Shorten won't give you a straight answer about the carbon tax and the mining tax here in Perth," Mr Abbott said.

With a teachers strike set to close more than 100 WA schools on Tuesday, Mr Shorten got in early to attend a school in Belmont, in Perth's east, with a message about Liberal education cuts.

"Education cuts are occurring in Western Australia and if Tony Abbott gets a rubber stamp in his Senate ... we'll see further cuts to West Australian schools," Mr Shorten said.

Meanwhile, Mr Palmer's pre-election advertising blitz for his Palmer United party (PUP) reached fever pitch, with claims the Liberals and Labor are "taking bread out of the mouths of WA babies".

While up to three radio ads ran in each break on local stations, an animated YouTube slot from PUP claimed the flow of WA's GST share to the east was denying food for the state's children.

"They send our GST to Melbourne and Sydney - get it back," the PUP ad urged.

Meanwhile, the Australian Sports party - whose candidate, Wayne Dropulich, won a Senate seat in the recount - has been criticised for posting a topless woman on its Facebook page as part of its campaign.

The image - accompanied by a joke involving a weight-loss program that encouraged an overweight man to chase naked women - appeared on the party's site late last week.

The campaign will continue on Tuesday, with Mr Abbott set to host the entire federal cabinet in Perth, while Mr Shorten will rally on the steps of state parliament along with the teachers union.

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Big demand by abused for private hearings

THE royal commission into child sexual abuse is receiving about 40 requests by abuse survivors for private sessions each week.

After about 12 months of private and public hearings, the royal commission chairman Peter McClellan says the demand for private hearings with a commissioner is not abating.

Almost 1500 private sessions with sex abuse survivors have been held since the commission started and more than 1000 people are waiting to be heard.

"I still cannot identify how many people will ultimately want to come and talk," Justice McClellan said in Melbourne at a conference on Monday.

"We have only just begun to engage with people in prisons, people with disabilities, and people in remote communities."

He said many people in the private sessions said that their story has been heard and accepted for the very first time.

The demand is so huge that if the royal commission stops its public and private hearings at the end of 2015, as initially expected, about 2000 people would miss out on private sessions.

Justice McClellan said he has raised this issue with the attorney-general.

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Tasmanian govt, ALP leader made official

Will Hodgman (L) has been sworn in as Tasmania's first Liberal premier in 16 years. Source: AAP

TASMANIA officially has a new government and a new opposition leader.

Will Hodgman is the state's 45th premier after being sworn in at Government House to lead Tasmania's first Liberal government in 16 years.

A smiling Mr Hodgman and his eight cabinet colleagues took oaths before Governor Peter Underwood, family and Liberal party staff.

Across town, at Parliament House, Labor's caucus was thrashing out the leadership issue, with former deputy premier Bryan Green unanimously winning a caucus vote.

Mr Green's elevation came after outgoing premier Lara Giddings resigned and nominated her deputy, saying the party needed to unite.

Ms Giddings had said she'd be a candidate for opposition leader if her party wanted her, but her preferred premier rating struggled to get above the low 20s during her three-year reign.

The Tasmanian ALP was to become the first state branch in the country to instigate a ballot including rank and file members, but the unanimous vote meant it was not needed.

Former health minister Michelle O'Byrne will be Mr Green's deputy.

Mr Green, 56, began his working life as a fitter and machinist at a Burnie paper mill before his election to parliament in 1998.

"I come from an industrial background, worked on the tools for 19 years," he said.

"It gives me a balance."

He was forced to step down from the ministry in 2006 after allegations about his dealings with the Tasmanian Compliance Corporation.

Mr Green faced charges but juries could not reach verdicts at a trial in 2007 and retrial in 2008.

"I've certainly learnt form that whole process. It's made me a much tougher individual," he told reporters in Hobart.

"Obviously, I proclaimed my innocence the whole way through that process and don't forget I've had a couple of light plane crashes in between.

"I am a survivor and the things that don't kill you just make you stronger."

It had been speculated Mr Green would be appointed as an interim leader to rebuild the party before a younger successor took over.

But he committed to leading it to the next election due in four years.

Ms Giddings said she had no intention of quitting parliament to allow defeated potential leader David O'Byrne to take her seat on a count-back.

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UK army cuts 'hell of a risk': general

A senior UK general says Russia has now become a "strategic adversary" of NATO. Source: AAP

RESTRUCTURING the British army is "one hell of a risk" that will weaken the armed forces, one of the country's most senior generals has warned.

General Sir Richard Shirreff warned that the "jury is out still" on plans to slash numbers in the regular army and substitute them with reservists, saying if the idea is going to work "the nation needs to get behind" it.

The general said defence cuts had "hollowed out" the armed forces, particularly the Royal Navy, which have been "cut to the bone" and left unable to take part in NATO maritime operations.

Russia's takeover of Crimea meant it was imperative for the UK to protect its defence budget, he said, even if that meant other departments suffered.

The general, the army's third most senior officer, stepped down from his post as NATO deputy supreme commander on Friday and will leave the army in August.

His warning, in an interview with the Sunday Times, comes days after MPs warned Prime Minister David Cameron against any further cuts to Britain's armed forces after Russian's annexation of Crimea.

The government is cutting the regular army from 102,000 to 82,000 by 2020, while the newly-renamed Army Reserve - formerly the Territorial Army - is being expanded from 19,000 to 30,000.

General Shirreff said those implementing the changes had "made a pretty good fist of a very difficult hand of cards", but added: "I wouldn't want to let anybody think that I think that Army 2020 is good news, it's not.

"The sort of defence cuts we have seen ... have really hollowed out the British armed forces and I think that people need to sit up and recognise that."

He told the newspaper his biggest concern was the impact of cuts on the navy, which have left it without an operational aircraft carrier until 2020 and a fleet of just 19 frigates and destroyers.

The general said the Royal Navy's ability to participate in NATO naval maritime operations have been compromised, which affected how people think about the UK.

He said: "A hollowed-out navy means you can't project power. I've heard this said in the Ministry of Defence: 'The yardstick by which we measure ourselves is our ability to punch above our weight'. You can't do that now. By that yardstick, therefore, we're failing."

General Shirreff warned the question of whether the army being more dependent on reserves would work or not was still unanswered, but he said it was "one hell of a risk".

He said it would need a "complete shift in culture" and support from the wider public and employers if it is to succeed, saying: "... the nation needs to get behind this. It's not just the armed forces - this is everybody's business."

The general, who has been co-ordinating NATO's response to the crisis in Crimea and Ukraine, warned of further aggression by Russian president Vladimir Putin, the Sunday Times said.

After Russia's "armed illegal aggression", the country has now become a "strategic adversary" of NATO, rather than a "strategic partner", General Shirreff said, and he argued that the UK and other European countries now need to protect their defence budgets to deter Russia, meaning cuts to other Whitehall departments.

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Vic rally in protest at East-West Link

Hundreds of protesters have marched in Melbourne against the planned East-West toll road and tunnel. Source: AAP

HUNDREDS of people have rallied in Melbourne seeking public transport alternatives to the Victorian government's $8-billion East-West Link Tunnel project.

The lively crowd of young and old chanted "No tunnel. No Way. We're gonna fight it all the way!" as they made their way up Sydney Road in Melbourne's north on Sunday afternoon.

Demonstrators bearing "Trains not Toll Roads" signs marched in support of the Doncaster Rail project and against the $8-billion tunnel which they believe will bring traffic gridlock, trucks and pollution.

The rally organisers, backed by Moreland Council, say residents are distressed about the disruption the project will cause to the area, especially Royal Park and Melbourne Zoo.

Kindergarten teacher Caroline Lunt is worried about the environmental impact of the project and said she was there to save hundreds of trees in Royal Park, "the lungs of the city".

Bike mechanic Mark Gilligan, said the money allocated for the road project could be better spent on other projects, including public transport, which will support Melbourne in years to come.

"Seeing drivers frustrated, rages between cyclists and cars - we need to take action for the future rather than some short-term stunt," he said.

The Victorian government has said the toll road will cut traffic congestion by about a third on a key access route into the city.

It hopes to start building the $8 billion stage one, which will connect the Eastern Freeway to Melbourne's western suburbs, this year and have it finished by 2019.

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Plane diverted from MH370 search

AN Australian air force plane has been diverted from the search for Malaysia Airlines flight 370 to respond to a fishing boat's emergency distress beacon near Antarctica.

The P3 Orion was on Sunday afternoon sent from the Indian Ocean search zone to look for a fishing boat in trouble about 3240km southwest of Perth and 650km north of the Antarctic mainland, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said.

"The rescue coordination centre was unable to establish communications with the vessel and the nature of distress is unknown," AMSA added.

Authorities sent the P3 as it is capable of dropping survival equipment.

"A broadcast to shipping has been issued, however due to the remoteness of the location it is unlikely that any other ships will be near the area," AMSA said.

"The weather forecast for the area is extremely poor with low cloud, rain, snow and a water temperature of 2 degrees Celsius."

The beacon is registered to a fishing vessel, but no details of the nationality, crew or size of the vessel have been released.

To replace the Orion in the search for MH370 a civilian jet has been dispatched from Melbourne.

That jet is expected to take five hours to travel nearly 4000km to the search zone, where it can fly for a further two hours before having to turn back.

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20 rescued from broken Perth chairlift

EMERGENCY workers have rescued 20 people trapped on a chairlift at a Perth adventure park.

WA's Department of Fire and Emergency Services were called to Adventure World in Bibra Lake on Sunday afternoon, after the chairlift ground to a halt with almost two dozen people on board.

After almost three hours, the last of them was rescued, with 12 firefighters using a cherry picker to free the stranded patrons.

The trapped riders have been provided with water while work continued to free them.

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