Goodes named NSW Australian of the Year

AFL star Adam Goodes has won the NSW Australian of the Year award.

The 33-year-old Sydney Swans player was given the honour for his commitment to community programs, particularly for establishing and co-chairing the Go Foundation.

Mr Goodes' foundation promotes education, employment and healthy lifestyles to help the next generation of Indigenous people across all walks of life, the Australian of the Year awards group said.

Inventor Peter Ford was awarded NSW Senior Australian of the Year and Jacqueline Freney won the NSW Young Australian of the Year award.

Mr Ford won for developing a device that allows paralysed people to communicate through a laptop.

Ms Freney was recognised for bagging eight gold medals at the London Paralympic Games.

The 21-year-old from Skennars Head, who was born with cerebral palsy, won a gold medal in every event she entered, making her the best performing athlete on the Australian team.

For his work with those addicted to drugs, alcohol and gambling, Reverend Graham Long was named NSW local hero 2014.

The 62-year-old runs programs from the Wayside Chapel with a team of 32 staff and more than 500 volunteers.

They assist 75,000 people annually.

The NSW winners will head to Canberra for the announcement of the national awards in late January.

Jeremy Lasek, the chief of National Australia Day Council, said "all four of the recipients are great Australians of whom we can be very proud."

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell praised the winners of the awards.

Mr Goodes, he said, is "a great role model" and a worthy recipient of the honour.

"Adam is a leading advocate in the fight against racism, his actions earlier this year transcended football and reached all parts of Australian society," he said in a statement.

"I congratulate all winners and finalists in the awards and thank them for the great contribution they are making to the community."

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Indo recalls ambassador

INDONESIA'S ambassador in Canberra will immediately return to Jakarta following claims Australia had tapped the phone of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa announced on Monday afternoon the ambassador would be recalled.

"It's nothing less than an unfriendly act," Dr Natalegawa said of the spying claims.

Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Legal, Political and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto earlier said he would demand Australia make a public explanation about the claims and make a commitment that it would not monitor the phones again.

Top secret documents from Australia's Defence Signals Directorate, leaked by fugitive US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden and published by the ABC and The Guardian, list 10 officials and their phone details - beginning with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and wife Ani.

Air Marshal Suyanto also said Indonesia would review the exchange of information with Australia and "all other cooperation".

Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop will be told the issue will have a negative impact on the countries' bilateral relationship.

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ASIO still waiting to move into new HQ

AUSTRALIA'S top spy agency ASIO still can't be certain when it will move into its imposing new headquarters, despite former prime minister Kevin Rudd opening the building in July.

The $630 million building, which looks over Canberra's Lake Burley Griffin, was initially due to be ready for its top secret occupants in April 2012, but the project ran into delays and budget overruns and is still waiting for its new tenants.

ASIO's Director-General David Irvine said while the new building was "substantially completed", builders were still making sure all systems, such as the air-conditioning, were working properly.

"I still cannot give you a date when the certificate for completion will be completed," Mr Irvine told a Senate estimates hearing, adding he hoped the building would be finished by the end of the year.

"In the best of all possible worlds, we will begin to move into the new building in the new year."

The building, named the Ben Chifley Building in honour of the former Labor prime minister who founded ASIO in 1949, has been the subject of controversy, with an ABC report that Chinese hackers had gained access to the building's blueprints.

But Mr Irvine on Monday said there were no security problems with the new building.

"I remain confident that the building from a security point of view meets the standards we require of it," Mr Irvine said.

He said he had advised the previous government that the building should be opened before ASIO staff move in.

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Schoolie on balcony-hopping charge

LET'S hope one schoolie on the Gold Coast packed his good clothes, because he's getting a guided tour of the magistrates court.

The 18-year-old man from NSW has been accused of balcony-hopping on the eighth floor of a Surfers Paradise high-rise on Saturday.

He will appear at Southport Magistrates Court on Tuesday charged with unregulated high-risk activity after footmarks were found on railings on four adjoining balconies.

Police warned on Monday of the risk facing schoolies from such high-altitude behaviour, which has led to two teenagers being evicted from accommodation.

Acting Chief Superintendent Des Lacy said: "Police will continue their efforts to reduce the high-risk behaviour of balcony-hopping and are prepared to prosecute others who fail to listen to the warnings which have been given continually.

"We want everyone to enjoy their schoolies experience, but this kind of behaviour is incredibly risky and the last thing we want to see is anyone being seriously injured or killed as a result of a poor choice."

Parents have been urged to make daily calls to schoolies partying on the Gold Coast "to make sure not only how they are, but how their spirits are".

"This is a time now, after a few days of letting their hair down, that some young people start to feel a bit lost, a bit sad, a bit depressed and we don't want any dangerous behaviour occurring," Chief Supt Lacy said.

Police say they are generally pleased with the behaviour of schoolies so far.

Ten school-leavers were arrested overnight on Sunday, mostly for public nuisance and street offences.

Two schoolies were arrested for minor drug offences, while liquor infringement notices were issued to 115 schoolies.

Since schoolies celebrations began on Friday, 19 schoolies have been arrested, compared with 43 for the same time in 2012.

Police Minister Jack Dempsey said most school-leavers were behaving well.

"You've got 30,000 young people celebrating 12 years of education and going on to the next step," he said.

"Relatively, they are behaving well."

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Abbott defends Sri Lanka boat deal

Australia will give two retired navy boats to Sri Lanka in a bid to crack down on people smugglers. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has defended a decision to gift two refurbished patrol boats to the Sri Lankan navy in efforts to stop people smugglers.

Mr Abbott revealed the $2 million deal in Colombo where he is attending the final day of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

The rebuilding is to be financed from the Customs budget and comes with a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two governments, he said.

The prime minister said people smuggling was an "evil trade" and potentially hundreds of Sri Lankans had drowned trying to make the journey to Australia.

"The vessel is being made available for humanitarian purposes and search and rescue purposes," Mr Abbott said.

"What we get from Sri Lanka is close and constructive cooperation."

This year 14 asylum seeker boats have travelled directly from Sri Lanka to Australia, compared with 120 in 2012.

The Sri Lankan navy undertook at least 12 on-water interceptions in 2013.

About 4000 people have been brought back to shore since 2009.

Sri Lanka's chief of navy Jayanath Colombage said the navy was taking the issue of stopping boat journeys "very seriously".

He said the vessels would also be used to keep the Indian Ocean "free of maritime crime".

Mr Abbott said the MoU linked to the ships covered the level of co-operation and "safety of life at sea".

The retired Customs patrol boats will be handed over in mid 2014.

A number of Sri Lankan navy officers have been arrested in recent months for helping people smugglers.

Mr Abbott said the arrests were a sign that the government was taking the issue seriously.

Former immigration minister Tony Burke said "a lot of questions" surrounded the decision.

"I'm not sure what the conditions are on how those vessels can and can't be used," he told ABC TV on Sunday.

The opposition and Greens will use Senate estimates this week to unveil detail about the deal and the broader Operation Sovereign Borders.

The Commonwealth summit has been mired in controversy over Sri Lanka's treatment of minorities, human rights abuses and alleged war crimes at the end of three decades of conflict.

Greens leader Christine Milne said Mr Abbott, who says he's been reassured the Rajapaksa government is "making progress", should take a more humanitarian approach to the asylum seeker issue.

"I don't think Australians who genuinely thought that stopping the boats was about saving lives will feel comfortable knowing that 'stop the boats' now means preventing people from running away from torture and condemning them to human rights abuses," she said.

A Sri Lankan journalist told AAP finding a people smuggler was easy along the southern and western coasts and the cost was about 1.5 million rupees ($A15,000) per person.

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Man dies, five hurt in multi-vehicle crash

A MAN has died and five people have been taken to hospital after a multi-vehicle crash in Sydney's southwest.

Emergency services were called to the Hume Highway at Greenacre on Sunday evening after four vehicles collided, police said.

A man travelling in one of the cars died at the scene.

Five others were taken to hospital with injuries.

The highway has been closed and specialist police are investigating.

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Alicia Keys to perform at ARIA Awards

GRAMMY Award-winning singer-songwriter Alicia Keys will perform at the upcoming ARIA Awards in Sydney.

She will perform a medley of her hit song Girl on Fire and her new single, Brand New Me, at the 27th Annual ARIA Awards on Sunday, December 1, it was announced on Sunday.

It will mark her first Australian televised performance before she embarks on her national tour, supported by Grammy-winner John Legend.

Keys says she is excited to be the headline act at this year's ARIAs.

"It's been a little while since I've been in Australia and I'm ecstatic to be back. Being on tour is an incredible journey and I'm so honoured that I get to share it with my family all over the world," Keys said in a statement.

"No better way to set off the last leg of my worldwide tour in Australia than on the ARIA Awards stage."

Other artists to perform at the awards ceremony, to be held at The Star Event Centre, include Jessica Mauboy, electronic superstar Flume, last year's X Factor winner Samantha Jade, indie band Sheppard and rock group Tame Impala.

ARIA Week festivities kick off on November 26 and run through to December 4.

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Protest against 'racist' Dutch tradition

The arrival of the Dutch equivalent of Santa Claus has been greeted by protests. Source: AAP

THE Dutch equivalent of Santa Claus arrived in the Netherlands on Saturday to the delight of thousands of children.

But some adults protested vigorously against one element of the beloved tradition they find racist: his servant in blackface make-up, Black Pete.

In the annual Dutch Sinterklaas festival, St Nicholas arrives by steamboat in mid-November and spends a month in the country with dozens of the Petes - clown-like figures who leave cookies, chocolate and other treats for children. The affair ends in a night of gift-giving on December 5.

Protesters say the Petes - servants who wear blackface make-up, red lipstick and frizzy Afro wigs - are blatant racist caricatures and should be banned.

But in a country where 90 per cent of the people have European ancestry, a large majority feels there is no racial insult intended by Black Pete. They say he's a positive figure of fun and the dissent is a sign of political correctness gone overboard.

The debate over the figure has gone on for years, but it is now electrifying - and polarising - the Netherlands as never before.

"The world is watching, and the Netherlands has been found wanting," anti-Pete protester Quinsy Gario told a group of about 300 supporters in Amsterdam, most of whom were black.

Gario, a black artist who has emerged as the public face of the anti-Pete movement, has been subjected to unprintable insults and death threats for speaking out against the tradition. But at Saturday's protest, he had trouble at times being heard over supporters chanting his name.

He said the growing support underlined the change the national debate over Black Pete had recently undergone. Two years ago, Gario was thrown face down on the concrete by police and dragged away for daring to wear a T-shirt with the text "Black Pete is Racism" near the place where Sinterklaas was due to arrive.

The debate exploded in national media this year after it emerged that UN cultural experts were examining whether the tradition is racist.

Verene Shepherd, head of the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, said on Dutch TV she "does not understand why it is that people in the Netherlands cannot see that this is a throwback to slavery, and that in the 21st century this practice should stop".

One change anti-Pete activists have suggested is replacing his black face with smudges, since children are usually told his face has become black from going down chimneys.

But in two days following Shepherd's remarks, more than two million people responded by endorsing a Facebook petition to keep Zwarte Piet's image unchanged. That's nearly one-eighth of the Dutch population, indicating the depth of emotion over this issue in a country where religious or political debates are often met with a shrug.

Last month a black newscaster, Humberto Tan, read aloud on television responses he had received when he came out as anti-Pete, including a lynching threat.

Two white female Dutch celebrities who oppose Pete and have married black men - Victoria's Secret model Doutzen Kroes and singer Anouk - have been the target of ugly sexual insults.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte has sided with tradition. "Black Pete is black. There's not much I can do to change that," he said.

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Family heartache over Arctic 30 detention

The family of "Arctic 30" crew detained in Russia have spoken of their anguish over their detention. Source: AAP

RELATIVES of two Greenpeace activists detained with 28 others in Russia over an Arctic oil drilling protest have told of their heartbreak over their extended detention.

Tasmanian Colin Russell, 59, and Sydney resident Alex Harris, 27, are among the so-called Arctic 30 charged with piracy and hooliganism over a protest against the oil drilling in September.

Russian authorities announced on Friday they would apply for a three-month extension to their detention.

Mr Russell's daughter Maddy broke down on Saturday morning as she spoke about not having her father back by Christmas during a support rally near the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

"We've had only one call in the whole 60 days since this happened," Ms Russell, 24, said.

"I had a hope in the back of my mind that he would be home in time for Christmas and I don't know what to make of it now."

Ms Harris, who is a UK citizen living in Manly in Sydney's north, has been writing letters to her cousin and housemate Gemma.

"As she writes each letter, each time I read them she becomes stronger and stronger," Gemma said.

As part of a global day of solidarity, about a hundred people gathered in Hickson Road Reserve holding up big white letters that spelled out "Free the Arctic 30".

They also released 30 doves, one for each person detained.

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Sydney bikie associate charged over arms

A Hells Angels associate has been charged with weapons offences after a raid in southwestern Sydney. Source: AAP

A HELLS Angels associate has been charged after police seized a stun gun, ammunition and steroids from a house at southwestern Sydney.

The items were seized by police from Strike Force Raptor as they undertook a raid at a house in Ambarvale.

Police arrested a 20-year-old man at the house and he was charged with possessing an unauthorised pistol, possessing an androgenic steroidal agent, possessing a prohibited weapon and possessing ammunition.

He was refused bail and will appear in Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday.

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