Police hunt two sex predators in Melbourne

A man has tried to sexually assault a woman in the inner Melbourne suburb of Brunswick. Source: AAP

THE hunt is on for two sex predators who attacked three women in the same Melbourne suburb where Jill Meagher died.

Police say an assault on Friday night in Brunswick is not linked to two similar attacks a week earlier.

A 21-year-old woman was walking through a park at 8pm on Hope St in Brunswick West on Friday when grabbed from behind.

The assault continued until she called out to a passing cyclist and the attacker stopped and ran.

Another woman has been assaulted in Brunswick, Melbourne overnight as police hunt two serial predators.

Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Michael Phyland said on Saturday police would like to speak to the cyclist and anyone else who might have seen the incident.

It came after another man grabbed two woman from behind and dragged them down side streets in Brunswick in the early hours of May 10.

Both were able to fight him off and escape.

Jill Meagher was raped and murdered after being snatched from a Brunswick street in 2012.

Sgt Phyland said men and women should be careful when walking at night in the suburb.

"Where you can, take well lit areas, be aware of your surroundings, take the safest path that you can," he told reporters.

Sgt Phyland said descriptions of the two men were different and the attacks were not linked.

The Friday night offender is described as Caucasian, with a medium to solid build, aged in his 30s, with dark hair, blood-shot eyes and a beard.

Police have released CCTV footage of the other man wanted for the May 10 attacks.

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Israel designs hi-tech fin to save turtle

A BADLY injured sea turtle's prospects are looking up - thanks to a new prosthetic fin designed by an Israeli team and modelled on the wings of a US fighter jet.

The green sea turtle, named "Hofesh," the Hebrew word for "freedom," was caught in a fishing net off Israel's Mediterranean coast in early 2009.

With his two left flippers badly wounded, rescuers had to amputate, leaving him with a pair of stumps that made it difficult to swim.

Yaniv Levy, director of Israel's Sea Turtle Rescue Centre, said on Saturday Hofesh was initially fitted with a diver's fin but it provided little relief and he bumped into things as he tried to swim.

Shlomi Gez, an industrial design student at Jerusalem's Hadassah College, read about the animal on the internet and wanted to help.

He designed a prosthetic based on a fish's dorsal fin. The contraption provided some improvement but Hofesh still had trouble breathing and rising to the surface.

Then, inspired by the design of Lockheed Martin Corp's F-22 Raptor warplane, Gez designed a new prosthetic with two fins.

The device, somewhat resembling the aircraft's wings, was strapped onto Hofesh's back on Thursday, allowing him to move easily around his tank.

"I discovered it worked better than one fin on the back," Gez explained.

"With two fins, he keeps relatively balanced, even above the water."

Levy said Hofesh will never be able to return to the wild.

But he shares a tank with a blind female turtle named Tsurit, and researchers are optimistic the pair will mate, potentially adding to the local population of the endangered green sea turtles.

He said it is difficult to say exactly how old the two turtles are but they are estimated to be between 20 and 25 and approaching the age of sexual maturity.

"We have great plans for this guy," Levy said.

"They will never go back to the wild but their offspring will be released the minute they hatch and go immediately into the sea and live normally in the wild," he added.

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Cabbie car-jacked in NSW Hunter region

A taxi driver has been beaten up, robbed and car-jacked in the NSW Hunter region. Source: AAP

A TAXI driver had his nose broken during a terrifying ordeal in which he was beaten up, robbed, kidnapped and car-jacked by a drunken passenger in NSW's Hunter region.

The cabbie picked up a man in Kurri Kurri on Saturday morning and was asked to drive to Newcastle.

Police say that on the way, the passenger asked to be driven to a caravan park in Maitland to collect money for the fare.

Once at the caravan park, the driver and passenger went inside a cabin where it's alleged the passenger pulled out a knife, kicked the taxi driver in the head and took his wallet.

The passenger then allegedly forced the taxi driver into the passenger seat, cut the wires to the taxi meter, radio and CCTV system; and started speeding north on the Pacific Highway.

Police used road spikes to stop the taxi after detecting it travelling at 185km/h on the Pacific Highway at Moorland.

A 28-year-old man was arrested and taken to Taree Police Station, where a breath-analysis test returned an reading of 0.106.

He is still being questioned and is expected to be charged later on Saturday.

The taxi driver was taken to Manning Base Hospital suffering swelling, abrasions and bleeding to his face, and a broken nose.

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Oprah helps Barbara Walters say goodbye

Oprah Winfrey and Hillary Clinton have surprised Barbara Walters as she taped her final edition of The View.

OPRAH Winfrey and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have surprised Barbara Walters as the legendary American newswoman taped her final edition of The View to end a five-decade career on television.

Actor Michael Douglas, a longtime friend and frequent subject for Walters' interviews, also dropped by for the tribute.

Looking smart in a cream-coloured blazer and a black skirt, the 84-year-old Walters was presiding over a studio audience of friends, colleagues and fans on hand to witness a bit of history.

Although she will retain a behind-the-scenes role as executive producer of the talk show she created 17 years ago, she is ending her daily on-air involvement, while limiting her appearances to the occasional story or interview.

Oprah has helped journalist Barbara Walters tape her final edition of the View and retire from TV.

"I can't believe this day has come, and I can't believe it's for real," Clinton told Walters, who began her career in 1962.

Typically, Walters couldn't let Clinton get away without fielding the question on so many minds: Is she running for president in 2016?

"I am running," smiled Clinton. "Around the park."

A bit later, Douglas brought the subject up again with Walters.

"If Hillary runs," he said, "I bet you'd be a great vice president."

Some of the best moments happened during commercial breaks, never to be seen by viewers. Then audience members could snap photos and interact with Walters and her co-panellists (Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Shepherd and Jenny McCarthy).

The audience erupted at the sight of Winfrey, who told Walters, "You're the reason I wanted to be in television."

"You shattered the glass ceiling for so many women," said Winfrey, who then brought on a startling parade of them, some two dozen prominent on-air women including Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric, Robin Roberts, Gayle King, Connie Chung and Joan Lunden.

"You are my legacy," Walters, visibly moved, said to them as they crowded around her onstage.

The hour had its comic twist: In a pre-taped segment, Walters (who, after all, has interviewed everybody else) lobbed some questions at herself, in the person of former Saturday Night Live cast member Cheri Oteri doing a spot-on Walters imitation.

Walters brought the hour to a close with a heartfelt statement looking back with amazement on her career.

But a more telling moment took place during a break, as the throng of women she had paved the way for posed with her for a group portrait.

"I have to remember this on the bad days," Walters said quietly, "because this is the best."

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Tinkler faces ICAC over pollie donations

NATHAN Tinkler has told NSW's donation rort inquiry he gives to political parties because he's "such a great guy", not because he thinks his largesse will buy favours.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is probing more than $400,000 in payments to alleged NSW Liberal slush fund EightByFive, including $66,000 by the former mining mogul's racehorse business, Patinack Farm.

Counsel assisting the inquiry Geoffrey Watson SC alleges the money was funnelled through Patinack from another Tinkler business, development firm Buildev, and that Mr Tinkler was trying to win support for a lucrative coal loader on the Newcastle foreshore.

Mr Tinkler told the ICAC on Friday he "didn't know about Eighty By Five" until the company hit the headlines, courtesy of the inquiry that has now toppled four Liberal MPs and two NSW ministers.

Nor did he accept suggestions he arranged for two employees and their partners to donate $5000 apiece to the Nationals to sidestep laws that cap individuals' electoral donations.

But he has admitted to a $45,000 personal donation to the Nationals and handing over $50,000 to a Newcastle group manoeuvring to oust then-ALP MP Jodi McKay at the 2011 NSW election.

Mr Tinkler also signed off on $53,000 in payments to another alleged Liberal front group, the Canberra-based Free Enterprise Foundation.

"You share it around," he said.

Mr Watson didn't buy it, asking: "Why would you give that away if you weren't getting something in return for it?"

"Because I'm such a great guy," the witness quipped.

"I've never had a political favour in my life."

He also said he was "quite annoyed" when he learned the financially troubled Patinack had been spending thousands each month on an EightByFive retainer, ostensibly for marketing services and political advice.

But Mr Watson said it was a crooked deal designed to subvert NSW electoral funding laws, which ban developers making political donations, and signed off by Mr Tinkler himself.

"You knew, Mr Tinkler, didn't you, that Buildev was paying money into a campaign associated with Liberal Party politicians and funding it under a subterfuge," he said.

"No I didn't," Mr Tinkler replied.

Emails obtained by ICAC show Buildev executive Darren Williams was seeking advice in 2010 on "which entity" to give Mike Gallacher - the former NSW police minister allegedly in on the scam - and was told by his colleague David Sharpe Mr Tinkler should have the final say.

Phone records show Mr Williams rang Mr Tinkler four minutes later.

Asked on Friday what they might have discussed, Mr Tinkler joked: "Probably footy scores."

During two hotly anticipated hours in the witness box, Mr Tinkler was both feisty and playful - though at lunchtime was heard to remark: "This is some of the most boring s*** I've ever seen."

However, he was emphatic when questioned over claims he offered former Newcastle MP Ms McKay a bribe to win her support for the coal loader - and that when she turned him down, he funded a leaflet campaign to "destroy" her.

"Definitely not," he said.

"I never took this to her, I never asked for her support."

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Buffett discloses new Verizon investment

Warren Buffett's company has disclosed a new investment of 11 mil shares in Verizon Communications. Source: AAP

WARREN Buffett's company has disclosed a new investment of 11 million shares in Verizon Communications, and an increase in its stakes in Wal-Mart and IBM.

Berkshire Hathaway on Thursday revealed the changes to its $US106 billion ($A114.69 billion) portfolio in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that show what the company owned at the end of March.

The Verizon investment was the only new one disclosed.

Berkshire bought 8.6 million Wal-Mart Stores shares to increase its investment in the retail giant to 58 million shares. Buffett has said in the past that he regretted not buying more Wal-Mart stock earlier when he was building Berkshire's stake in the company.

Berkshire also bumped up its IBM investment to 68.4 million shares by buying 233,100 shares in the quarter.

Many investors watch the quarterly filings closely because they like to copy moves Buffett makes because of his successful record.

Berkshire officials don't routinely comment on the Omaha-based company's stock moves beyond what they are legally required to disclose. Officials at the company Buffett leads as chairman and CEO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Most of the latest changes were likely made by Berkshire's two other investment managers, who each manage about $7 billion, because they were relatively small compared to Buffett's typical investments. But the Wal-Mart and IBM moves were likely his because of the size of those investments.

Berkshire increased its investment in MasterCard to a shade more than 4 million shares from its previous 405,000 shares.

Buffett's company sold some of its shares in General Motors. The car maker is dealing with recalls of several models, but Berkshire still held 30 million shares in March, down from 40 million in December.

Several of the changes revealed on Thursday were related to television entertainment:

- Berkshire boosted its stake in Liberty Global PLC - the cable company led by John Malone - to 14.7 million shares from 2.9 million at the end of 2013.

- Berkshire sold 2 million of its DirecTV shares but kept 34.5 million shares.

- And Berkshire reduced its investment in Starz to 1.9 million shares from 4.5 million shares.

Besides investments, Berkshire owns more than 80 subsidiaries in a variety of industries, including insurance, utilities, railroads, retail and manufacturing.

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Bikie gang bashed Sydney man to death

Rebels bikie gang members are alleged to have bashed a young man to death in Sydney's inner city. Source: AAP

A BIKIE gang was ordered to bash a young Sydney man to death, with police alluding to a drugs dispute as the motive for the killing.

Nikola Srbin, 18, was stalked and beaten by up to nine men in Redfern on May 16 last year and detectives have marked the anniversary of the attack by releasing the image of a second key suspect.

Mr Srbin, from Fairfield, died three weeks after being repeatedly punched and kicked by the mob on George Street.

A 48-year-old man has already been charged with his murder. He remains behind bars and will appear in court on June 6.

Detective Superintendent Luke Freudenstein said on Friday most of the attackers were Rebels bikies, and released a computer-generated picture of a second suspect called 'Moe' or 'Michael'.

The breakthrough came after police raided a Rebels clubhouse at Burwood, in western Sydney, on May 9 and collected evidence relating to the bashing.

"We don't want the public to approach this person, we believe he's very dangerous," Det Supt Freudenstein told reporters in Sydney.

"I'm not going to speak about the motive but we do have a significant problem with drugs in the area."

It's understood the bikies were ordered to attack Mr Srbin after he spent a large part of the day in Redfern.

Police believe 'Moe' or 'Michael' frequents the Burwood area.

He is described as being of Mediterranean/Middle Eastern appearance, in his mid-20s and about 187cm tall, with an athletic build and a shaved head.

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Frankie Valli wins decision on insurance

A court has reversed a decision that Frankie Valli's wife could claim his life insurance policy. Source: AAP

SORTING through the aftermath of music legend Frankie Valli's messy divorce, the California Supreme Court sang a tune that suggests that in some cases big girls may have to cry a little when it comes to splitting the spoils of marriage.

In a decision that dealt with a murky area of California divorce law, the state's Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously found that Valli's former wife, Randy Valli, is not entitled to the full amount of a life insurance policy taken out on the singer, best known for performing with the Four Seasons.

The case centred on Valli's decision in 2003, shortly before separating from his wife, to buy a $US3.75 million ($A4.06 million) life insurance policy, naming Randy Valli as the sole beneficiary.

When the couple divorced after more than 20 years of marriage, Randy Valli argued the $US400,000 value of the policy at the time was all hers - while lawyers for the singer argued the policy was community property under California divorce laws, paid for with their joint money, and should be split evenly with the rest of their marriage assets.

The Supreme Court took the case to resolve the question of whether such an insurance policy can be considered a wife's separate property in divorce proceedings, or is tied up as community property.

In this high-profile instance, the judges concluded it is community property, reversing an appeals court decision.

"(Frankie Valli) never expressly declared in writing that he gave up his community interest in the policy bought with community funds," wrote Justice Joyce Kennard, who recently retired from the court.

Valli was backed in the case by a group of family law professors, including former University of California, Berkeley law school dean Herma Hill Kay.

Randy Valli didn't need the justices' help in securing her financial future: she is pulling in $US500,000 a month from the now 80-year-old singer, celebrity website TMZ says.

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Uncensored Rudd reveals batts flaws

OPPOSITION to Kevin Rudd's plan to reveal the innermost secrets of the federal government lasted for a little less than 16 hours.

The former prime minister's 31-page statement to the royal commission into the 2009 home insulation program was initially heavily blacked out or "redacted" at the insistence of government lawyers intent on protecting cabinet confidentiality.

Mr Rudd's lawyer had insisted his client could not tell the truth about the disastrous program that claimed the lives of four young workers if he was not permitted to tell his story in full.

Resistance was strong on Wednesday afternoon but evaporated on Thursday morning, when government lawyer Tom Howe QC said the Commonwealth supported "public ventilation" of everything Mr Rudd wanted to say.

What emerged from the document was Mr Rudd's portrait of the prime minister and his ministers as entirely reliant on the information and advice placed before them by the public service - the people he described at the commission as the "wicketkeepers" of his home insulation scheme.

Starting with the reason for implementing the insulation scheme, Mr Rudd reveals that an all-weekend sitting of senior cabinet ministers - Julia Gillard, Wayne Swan, Lindsay Tanner and himself - in October 2008 was warned that Australia faced recession and a nine per cent unemployment rate if nothing was done to combat the unfolding global financial crisis.

One response was the $2.8 billion home insulation scheme, devised as a make-work scheme to boost the economy.

Much of what was initially redacted from Mr Rudd's statement is simply anything mentioning cabinet processes, however mundane, but some reveal that even after people started dying, no alarm was raised about the program.

Mr Rudd described a briefing system used by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to warn cabinet about "any programs going off the rails".

The reports were colour-coded: green for "on track", amber for "maintaining close watch" and red for "in difficulty".

From its July 2009 inception to until February 2010 when its immediate closure was urged, the program was never rated anything other than green for "on track".

Among other details is Mr Rudd's recollection of a January 28, 2009, cabinet meeting that considered the rollout of the Home Insulation Program.

Issues discussed concerned timelines and costs, Mr Rudd says, but workplace safety standards never came up.

The statement also shows a public service task force was set up four days after the February 4, 2010, death of Mitchell Sweeney, who was the last worker to die during the life of the scheme.

On February 17, the taskforce advised Mr Rudd's cabinet committee of senior ministers of "significant program design risks, notably safety risks ... and the need to exit the overall program".

The same day the committee accepted the taskforce's recommendation to terminate the program.

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Labor pounce on second staffer conflict

LABOR has vowed to continue probing a second Abbott government minister over conflict of interest allegations.

William "Smiley" Johnstone resigned as an adviser for Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion after it was revealed he was also chief executive and majority shareholder of the Indigenous Development Corporation.

Senator Scullion has defended Mr Johnstone's employment, saying his sole role of devising the school attendance strategy meant his private activities did not create a conflict of interest.

But Opposition Senate Leader Penny Wong says Mr Johnstone's employment showed an "arrogant disregard" for the standards for ministerial staff.

Senator Scullion told the Senate on Thursday there had been "a couple of items that required follow up" in Mr Johnstone's private interests disclosure, filed at the time of his employment.

Five months later, that process was still under way when a media inquiry forced Senator Scullion's office to address the potential conflicts and ask Mr Johnstone to "amend some of his personal affairs".

Mr Johnstone never intended to stay on fulltime and chose to resign, Senator Scullion said.

Senator Wong promised to explore that in more detail.

"The Australian people are entitled to know why not one but two ministers in this chamber happen to have staff who have interest in the portfolio that they administer."

In February, Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash's staffer Alastair Furnival resigned over conflict of interest allegations.

Mr Furnival had a shareholding in his wife's public relations company, which has links to the junk food industry.

Unlike the case of Mr Furnival, who was accused of ordering the removal of a Health Department healthy food-rating website, there are no allegations Mr Johnstone made calls that affected his private interests.

The Abbott government's revised guidelines for ministerial staffers require divestment from private companies with a direct interest in their minister's portfolio.

The standards also forbid directorship of any company without written agreement of their respective minister and of the Special Minister of State.

Senator Wong asked Special Minister of State Michael Ronaldson if he had provided a written agreement regarding Mr Johnstone's employment on Thursday, which he took on notice.

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Borders commander warns vigilance is vital

THE army general charged with preventing asylum seeker boats from reaching Australia says ongoing vigilance is vital.

There have been no successful people smuggling ventures to Australia since late December, but Lieutenant General Angus Campbell says people smugglers are opportunistic, organised criminals looking to exploit any vulnerabilities.

"To modify a well-known and very apt phrase - the price of border security is eternal vigilance," the Operation Sovereign Borders commander told an Australian Strategic Policy Institute dinner in Canberra on Thursday.

Threats to Australia's border security remain as asylum seekers bide their time in Indonesia, holding out for policy or operation changes, he said.

"There are too many prospective travellers susceptible to believing that Nauru is a town in Australia."

His team is proud to be preventing asylum seekers from drowning during dangerous voyages from Indonesia to Australia.

And Lieutenant General Campbell says safe procedures are in place, consistent with international obligations and domestic law, in relation to the policy of turning back boats.

He expressed doubt about whether authorities could have reduced arrivals without it.

The willingness of Nauru and Papua New Guinea to accept asylum seekers might not endure if the flow of people continued, he said.

Tuesday's budget allocated funds to establish a new super frontline agency, Border Force Australia, from July 2015, which the government says will absorb Operation Sovereign Borders.

The new agency will replace Customs and take on some functions of the Immigration Department.

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Johnston fights for more funds for defence

DEFENCE Minister David Johnston needed to convince colleagues defence would be unable to mount short-notice missions such as its search for the missing Malaysian airliner if it did not get more cash.

In hard negotiations before the government's expenditure review committee, Senator Johnston made the point that defence would face serious problems if it had to endure more cuts.

As it turned out, defence was a big winner from the tough budget, with an increase of more than six per cent, taking funding to $29.3 billion in 2014/15.

Senator Johnston said finance and treasury officials acknowledged that defence had done it hard in the past five years, losing $16 billion.

"If we had to endure more cuts or absorb measures, there would be serious capability issues and we would be courting substantial difficulties," he told AAP.

Missions such as the ongoing search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which at its peak featured four Orion maritime patrol aircraft and five ships, could only be launched at short notice because these units were maintained at a high level of readiness, he said.

The same applied to aid missions following the Japanese earthquake and the Philippines typhoon.

Most recently, at Christmas, two RAAF transport aircraft were despatched to help the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.

Senator Johnston said it was expensive to maintain the level of readiness needed to be able to launch such missions at short notice.

"Those are the sorts of things we would not be able to do (without sufficient funding) and we would have to tell the national security committee and the prime minister we can't do this because we haven't got the money," he said.

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Victorian baby's murder 'inexplicable'

Prosecutors say the savage murder of a baby by a Victorian burglar demands a life sentence. Source: AAP

IT was an evil and ferocious killing of an 10-month-old baby boy with no explanation.

Harley Hicks used a homemade baton made of copper wire wrapped in tape to bludgeon Zayden Veal-Whitting more than 30 times about the face and head during a burglary spree in Bendigo in June 2012.

Zayden's murder will haunt his mother, 24-year-old Casey Veal, forever.

"Zayden was my mini-me, full of my physical appearance. Just catching my own reflection can destroy my day in seconds if I'm not strong enough," Ms Veal said.

"Just the simplest moment can destroy my heart and mind."

Ms Veal found Zayden covered in blood in his cot.

"Some days I am scared to close my eyes to relive that experience again."

She says she is a shadow of her former self.

Zayden's older brother, five-year-old Xavier, has also been shattered.

"His grief has consumed my daily life," Ms Veal said in a victim impact statement.

"I constantly worry about his thoughts and sometimes what he has to express.

"For his age, he has lived through more than most adults - without a large voice and a large vocabulary."

Prosecutor Michelle Williams SC said no one would ever know what sparked the attack, but said perhaps baby Zayden stirred.

"We consider what he did was an extreme, extreme way to respond to any thought of self-preservation, to react in such a violent way," she said on Monday.

"It is an evil killing without any rational explanation."

Prosecutors want Hicks, 21, jailed for life but with a minimum term.

Ms Williams compared the case to other child killers like Robert Farquharson, who drowned his three boys in a car on Father's Day 2005.

Farquharson is serving a life term with a minimum non-parole period of 33 years.

"This is different, in some ways maybe worse, because this was a cold, calculated killing of a baby in a vacuum," she told the Victorian Supreme Court, sitting in Bendigo.

Defence barrister David Gallowes said Hicks used the drug ice before the murder.

"Perhaps it goes some way to explain the inexplicable," he said.

He urged the judge to consider other sentencing options, citing Hicks' troubled childhood, drug and alcohol use, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anti-social personality disorder and youth.

"There is some prospect of rehabilitation even if the prognosis is poor," Mr Gallowes said.

But Justice Stephen Kaye said he was concerned Hicks carried the baton intending to use it "if necessary".

"You couldn't argue the proposition that this case falls squarely into the most serious cases of murder," Justice Kaye said.

Ms Williams said Hicks had an extensive criminal record, with nine court appearances before his murder trial dating back to 2007 for crimes including wilful damage, thefts and burglaries, and had breached almost all orders made against him.

The last, a community corrections order for a 2011 armed robbery, was made two months before Zayden's murder.

Hicks, of North Bendigo, will be sentenced on a date to be fixed.

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Teacher charged over NSW mine protest

A QUEENSLAND school teacher faces a possible jail term after chaining himself to an excavator and disrupting work at the NSW Maules Creek mine.

Simon Wells, 55, became the 159th person to be arrested this year at the Leard State Forest in the state's north, following a series of protests aimed at halting development of three open-cut coal mines.

Mr Wells, from the Sunshine Coast, locked himself onto the excavator at Whitehaven Coal's $767 million Maules Creek mine before dawn on Monday and unfurled a banner reading "coalruption".

He was arrested several hours later and charged with entering inclosed land, remaining on inclosed land and interfering with a mine, the latter of which carries a maximum seven-year prison sentence.

Mr Wells was released on bail and is due to appear at Narrabri Local Court in a fortnight.

He said the development of the mines, which involve the clearance of wildlife habitats, was "damaging environmentally, economically and socially."

"It became clear to me that it was time I did something concrete as a citizen and also as the parent of a teenager," he told AAP.

"I've been involved in environmental activism for over 30 years and I decided I would finally take the step of doing some civil disobedience and risking arrest."

Aside from the Whitehaven project, Japanese firm Idemitsu is developing the neighbouring Boggabri mine and Idemitsu and Whitehaven have a joint venture mine also nearby.

The Leard State Alliance is calling for a judicial inquiry into approval of the Maules Creek mine, which has been under development for five months.

The call for a judicial inquiry follows allegations at NSW's Independent Commission Against Corruption on May 5 that two Aston Coal directors and their wives gave donations to the NSW National Party in 2011.

Aston Coal was a subsidiary of Nathan Tinkler's Aston Resources, the company that initially developed Maules Creek mine, and the donations were allegedly not disclosed in a development application for the mine.

Aston Resources merged with Whitehaven Coal in 2012 and Mr Tinkler sold his stake in Whitehaven Coal in mid-2013.

A Whitehaven Coal spokesman strongly rejected the suggestion that the company had been implicated in any wrongdoing at the ICAC.

"Opponents of Maules Creek freely claim the moral high ground but shamelessly resort to lies and misrepresentation in pushing their radical agenda on the rest of us," the spokesman said.

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Arbib blames Garrett for pink batts

Former Labor senator Mark Arbib is to front the home insulation royal commission on Monday. Source: AAP

FORMER senator Mark Arbib has put the blame for Labor's botched home insulation program squarely on the shoulders of his ex-colleague Peter Garrett.

Mr Arbib claimed the former environment minister was the man in charge of the program, which has been linked to four deaths, when giving evidence at a royal commission into the scheme on Monday.

Before the hearing even began, Mr Arbib caused a stir by slipping into the Brisbane Magistrates Court complex through a back door and avoiding the waiting media scrum.

The commission later said the former Labor powerbroker had been allowed to make the unusual entrance after he raised "security concerns".

In the witness box Mr Arbib laid the blame for the home insulation debacle on Mr Garrett, who will get his chance to respond on Tuesday.

He said while he'd co-ordinated the government's stimulus programs as parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, Mr Garrett was the one designing the program.

"I didn't have any decision-making role in terms of the HIP (home insulation program), I was working with the co-ordinator-general's office," he said, adding that Mr Garrett was the minister responsible.

Mr Arbib said he didn't know that three tradesmen had died under a similar scheme in New Zealand in 2007.

He claimed he never saw an email sent to the government in July 2009, which raised the risk of electrocution and the NZ deaths.

"I would have been ringing alarm bells," he said.

Mr Arbib said the prospect of deaths or serious injuries was never raised as a safety risk.

"Death was never mentioned as a prospect," he said.

But death became a reality under the program when Queenslander Matthew Fuller, 25, was electrocuted while driving a metal staple into an electrical cable while installing foil insulation on October 14, 2009.

It was the same practice that led to the deaths of the three NZ installers.

Mr Arbib said he never thought about suspending or reviewing the program after Mr Fuller's death.

"I don't recall considering that," he said.

He said he wasn't involved in any high-level discussions about Mr Fuller's death either.

"I was informed that the prime minister's office and Mr Garrett were dealing with it," he told the inquiry.

"I wasn't being asked into those meetings."

The royal commission is investigating what advice Labor received about the scheme and whether the four deaths could have been avoided.

Mr Arbib is due to finish giving evidence on Tuesday, while the man he claims was responsible for the scheme, Mr Garrett, is expected to enter the witness box immediately afterwards.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd is due to appear on Wednesday.

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Union cash handover at Gillard's house

A former union official told an inquiry he gave cash to workers at former PM Julia Gillard's home. Source: AAP

A FORMER union official went to the home of former prime minister Julia Gillard and gave cash to workers doing renovations, a royal commission into union corruption has heard.

Ralph Blewitt, the former secretary of the Western Australia branch of the Australian Workers' Union, told the commission he had $10,000 or $20,000 in cash when, in 1994, he went to Ms Gillard's Melbourne home to meet Bruce Wilson, his union boss and Ms Gillard's then-boyfriend.

In an extraordinary opening day, the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption heard the payment was one of a series of cash deliveries drawn from a secret fund and flown across the country by Mr Blewitt.

The cash was from the Workplace Reform Association - a secret entity allegedly set up by Mr Blewitt and Mr Wilson with legal advice from Ms Gillard, who was a lawyer advising the AWU at the time.

Allegations surrounding the fund dogged Ms Gillard's political career, although Ms Gillard has maintained she knew nothing about any impropriety.

Mr Blewitt told the inquiry Ms Gillard was at home when he arrived for the 1994 meeting, and the future PM directed him to the back of the house to find Mr Wilson.

Mr Wilson was in the kitchen or veranda where three men in "workers'-type overalls" were doing renovation work, he said.

Mr Blewitt said Mr Wilson asked him to pay one worker $7000.

"I counted off $7000, gave it to that gentleman. He stuck it in the front pocket of his bib and brace overall and went back outside to join the other two workers," he said.

He said he gave the rest of the money to Mr Wilson, but Ms Gillard was not present during the handovers.

In an eventful day, Mr Wilson was spotted outside the commission building on Monday after a meeting with his barrister, and shoved, swung a punch and shouted abuse at a news photographer who took his picture.

Mr Blewitt detailed a series of flights in which he carried cash, drawn from the Workplace Reform Association, from Perth to Sydney to give to Mr Wilson.

In one 1993 example, Mr Blewitt took $50,000 that he gave to Mr Wilson at a Travelodge hotel in the inner-Sydney suburb of Camperdown, the commission heard.

Mr Blewitt also said that $93,000 from the fund was used by Mr Wilson to buy a $230,000 house in Melbourne in 1993.

The commission heard the Workplace Reform Association was established without the knowledge of the broader AWU in 1992 to receive payments from construction firm Thiess, which had a major infrastructure project in Western Australia.

Mr Blewitt said he submitted invoices to Thiess, including one for more than $25,000, to cover the cost of a union-appointed workplace safety adviser, but no work was ever done.

Mr Wilson told him the association's purpose was to raise funds for union elections, he said.

Mr Blewitt said he was instructed by Mr Wilson to regularly withdraw cash and keep it until it was time to deliver it to him in Sydney.

Once, he had so much cash at his WA home, Mr Blewitt buried almost $10,000 in his yard and the money was water damaged.

He followed Mr Wilson's orders because he was afraid for his job, he said.

Mr Blewitt, 69, flew in from his home in Malaysia for the hearing and will continue giving evidence on Tuesday.

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Puffing Hockey silent on cigar tax

Treasurer Joe Hockey has avoided a question about a tobacco tax after being caught having a cigar. Source: AAP

JOE Hockey probably hoped he had got away without being questioned about having that sly cigar with his finance minister.

But in any interview there is always that last question.

Twitter has been abuzz since Friday ridiculing photographs of the treasurer and Senator Mathias Cormann having a cigar after putting together their first budget.

"There's nothing like the satisfying flavour of other people's dreams ... going up in smoke!" was one tweet.

Having a puff is not illegal, but having a celebratory drag on a fat cigar when you are about to impose the budget with the toughest impact on Australians in almost two decades isn't a particularly good look.

The latest ribbing came in a more traditional form.

In an interview on Channel Nine on Sunday, political stalwart Laurie Oakes just had to ask one last question after a 15-minute grilling that covered broken promises, infrastructure, rising petrol prices and a freeze on politicians pay.

"For some reason there has been speculation on Twitter about the impact for the budget from the price of cigars. Will tobacco excise go up?" Mr Oakes teased.

Mr Hockey declined to comment on that.

"But I do note that I think in the first budget in 1901 they had taxes on opium, so I can assure you that's certainly not in the budget. There is certainly nothing to tax there," he said.

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Buswell light rail report light on insight

Ex-WA treasurer Troy Buswell's report on his taxpayer-funded trip to Europe has few fresh insights. Source: AAP

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.

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Hospitals to suffer under GP co-payment

A survey says hospital emergency wards would be inundated with patients with a GP co-payment system. Source: AAP

HOSPITAL emergency wards would be inundated with extra patients under a GP co-payment system being considered by the Abbott government.

A survey, conducted just days ahead of the Tuesday's budget, has found that most Australians oppose paying any co-payment to visit a GP.

The survey of 1000 people, commissioned by the Consumers Health Forum, found 72 per cent thought a $6 co-payment would send more people to hospital emergency wards.

Sixty-nine per cent said a $6 co-payment would also discourage people from visiting their GP.

Consumers Health Forum chief executive Adam Stankevicius said another survey of almost 600 consumers found co-payments would hit the chronically ill and those on low incomes the hardest.

"If people have to pay to see a doctor, a lot of things are going to change," he said in a statement.

"If they are paying $6, then many people who are used to seeing a GP at no cost are going to put off a visit. Any introduction of a co-payment will be a clear barrier to primary health care."

There has been speculation ahead of the budget that the coalition government will introduce a co-payment for GP visits of $7.50.

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Qld police name pair in abduction case

Police say 3 men and a woman who abducted Queensland toddler Bella Goulding are known to her family. Source: AAP

POLICE have publicly named two people they want to question in relation to the abduction of a two-year-old girl from her father's house southwest of Brisbane.

Bella Rose Goulding was taken from a house at Willowbank, near Ipswich, on Saturday night and police say her abductors are known to the family.

Queensland police believe Lisa Maree Carroll, 21, and Michael Kenneth Winning, 42, may be able to assist their investigation but have not said how they are related to Bella.

Acting Inspector Alison Jewell said three men and a woman abducted the toddler from the home, where she was temporarily staying.

"We believe that Bella is in the company of people who are known to the family," Inspector Jewell told reporters outside Yamanto police station.

"However, we still hold concerns for her safety."

The 8pm abduction occurred on Sancroft Street, which is near a park and the Cunningham Highway.

The girl's father Steven declined to speak publicly on Sunday.

Witnesses saw the abductors in a white Holden Commodore and a silver Mitsubishi sedan.

Bella is described as Caucasian with blue eyes and blonde, curly hair. She was last seen wearing a Dora The Explorer t-shirt and grey leggings.

Insp Jewell said there weren't any specific child safety issues but declined to say if her mother was among the people who abducted the girl or with whom she lived permanently.

"We are consistently getting information from the public and we're following all those leads," she said.

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