Family heartbroken after aged home deaths

THREE and a half years ago, Marie Darragh was frail, ill and on the brink of death.

SHE was placed in the St Andrews Nursing Home in Ballina as her family desperately hoped for the best.

Within years, her health had turned around.After giving up smoking, Ms Darragh turned to sugar to get her fix and earned the affectionate nickname "sugar fairy" for her fierce sweet tooth around the nursing home.It was this new-found health and happiness that made the 82-year-old's suspected murder in May all the more shocking."It's total heartbreak," daughter Janet Parkinson told AAP on Thursday."Because when she went in there she was ready to die. She was so frail and it has taken them three and a half years to get her where she was."They built her up and she had to go this way ... that's the heartbreaking thing."Ms Darragh and fellow resident and friend Isobella Spencer, 77, were found unconscious in their beds on May 10.They died hours later.The same night, a third woman was attacked at the home and admitted to hospital but survived.St Andrews Aged Care says she is in good health and is back at the facility.The fact Ms Darragh and Ms Spencer died unexpectedly, in the same location and on the same night, sparked a homicide investigation.Detectives believe they have a good idea of how both women died and have questioned nursing home staff."Obviously we are looking at the actions of staff members that night. However, we are keeping an open mind," Detective Superintendent Mick Willing said on Wednesday.Ms Parkinson said she had her own suspicions about what happened, but could not speak highly enough of the nursing home staff."Obviously I have missed something," she said.She said Ms Darragh, a grandmother to 11 and mother of three, "loved" living at the nursing home.Police have not disclosed any further details about the women's deaths but said there was no "existing threat" at the nursing home."I want to make it absolutely clear that we believe this is an isolated incident," Det Supt Willing said.In a statement, St Andrews Aged Care chief executive officer Pip Carter had no fears for the safety of residents."We understand the pain of losing a loved one and we are doing all we can to assist police," she said.

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Carr dishes up conundrum for NSW govt

EIGHT years after ending his reign over NSW, Bob Carr is still giving the state Liberals a headache.

THIS time, he's forced Premier Mike Baird to reconvene a "slimmed-down" joint sitting of parliament.

The procedure is so the former premier and foreign minister can be excused from the Senate and return to private life.Mr Baird was left with a conundrum after Mr Carr decided to retire from federal politics despite winning his Senate seat last year.The premier received legal advice that Mr Carr's resignation wasn't constitutional and a joint sitting of the NSW parliament was needed to replace him.But the problem was parliament was on Thursday preparing to close its doors for its winter recess and not planning to sit again until August, well after the July 1 date of the new Senate term.The premier eventually decided to hold a very short joint sitting session in July, which would only last a few minutes, to sort the issue out.Once that happens, Labor's Deb O'Neill will formally replace Mr Carr in the Senate.

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Labor, coalition fight for rural affection

IF you believe Labor, they are the party for farmers and rural Australia.

IF you believe the government, that's a complete joke.

Parliament took a country tone on Thursday when Labor's agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon brought on debate about the budget's impact on regional Australia.He was concerned about the fuel excise hike's impact on rural residents, which he says will go down as the Abbott government's "worst broken promise".Mr Fitzgibbon is behind Labor's new "country caucus" made up of regional MPs and senators who will influence party policy on rural issues.Labor has long been a champion of the bush, given it was partly born out of the shearing sheds of rural Queensland, Mr Fitzgibbon told AAP."Country Labor has been successful in NSW and it can be successful nationally," he said in a statement.But the coalition is having none of that.Liberal MP Dan Tehan derided Mr Fitzgibbon's topic for debate, given it came just after its country caucus was publicly announced."That's why we have this (debate) here today," he said."What an absolute joke."Mr Tehan said the country caucus came too late."You all should be ashamed of yourself, starting in the year 2014 a regional caucus and coming in here telling us who should stand up for regional and rural Australia."Nationals deputy leader Barnaby Joyce joined in the derision.If there was a friend for regional Australia, it was clear which side of the chamber they would find them in, he said.

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Ferry fraudster Smith 'had no choice'

A FORMER Sydney Ferries boss who racked up more than $200,000 on the company credit card says he felt he had no choice because he couldn't tell his emotionally fragile wife how desperate the family's financial situation had become.

FORMER naval admiral Geoffrey Smith on Thursday told his sentencing hearing he was hired to help turn the troubled transport company around in August 2006.

By early 2009, allegations of rorting had surfaced and he was brought up before the corruption watchdog.He has now pleaded guilty to one charge of cheating or defrauding the company he directed.Smith said two fatal crashes on Sydney Harbour in 2007 ushered in a five-month inquiry and intense scrutiny.On the home front, his wife - who had previously been hospitalised and subjected to electroconvulsive therapy in a battle with depression - was diagnosed with cancer."I'm deeply ashamed," Smith told the Sydney District Court."I've let down a lot of people and I've done something contrary to all the values I've lived my whole life."He said he always intended to reimburse Sydney Ferries for his personal expenses, and with a crippling monthly mortgage of $11,000 and medical bills stacking up, Smith says he knew he needed to sell his home in leafy northern Sydney.But he couldn't tell his wife.They'd been married for 26 of his navy years and moved 32 times."She never asked for anything except that when the time came for me to retire we would buy a house and settle down and have a semi-normal life," Smith said."I was intensely worried that if I spoke to her about selling the house it would have a profound impact on her."When he eventually spoke to his wife about the "parlous" state of the family books, the global financial crisis was in full swing, and the house's value had dropped from an estimated $2.2 million to $1.86m - too little to settle Smith's debts.But Crown prosecutor Sara Bowers said Smith was spending Sydney Ferries' money on extravagances including a family trip to New Zealand, jewellery, a new swimming pool and two BMWs, including one for his "bedridden" wife."Not the necessities of life, are they," she said."I didn't think I had a choice," Smith said.Smith says he still wants to pay the missing money back using earnings from his retail job at hardware chain Bunnings and his superannuation.Judge Michael Finnane has indicated he intends to sentence Smith to two years, but that this may be served in the community under an intensive correction order, rather than in jail.The hearing resumes in August.

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PNG's O'Neill sacks corruption watchdog

PNG PM Peter O'Neill has sacked his attorney-general as a court battle over an arrest warrant looms. Source: AAP

PAPUA New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has sacked the deputy police commissioner and shut down a corruption watchdog that was trying to arrest him over an alleged multi-million dollar fraud.

A POLICE warrant was issued for Mr O'Neill's arrest on Monday over allegations he siphoned $31 million of public funds to law firm, Paul Paraka lawyers.

Mr O'Neill denies any wrongdoing and on Wednesday shut corruption watchdog Task Force Sweep - effectively ending its investigation into the matter.The prime minister accused Task Force Sweep, which is made up of Justice Department staff and police, of colluding with unnamed politicians.Taskforce boss Sam Koim said shutting his organisation was the "gravest mistake".Mr O'Neill also sacked Police Chief of Operations Deputy Commissioner Simon Kauba, who was heavily involved in the case, accusing him of disobeying government orders.In a further development, new police commissioner Geoffrey Vaki was arrested in an apparent response by police to Mr Kauba's dismissal.He was reportedly being questioned by fraud squad officers.The upheaval, which may spark protests, came after a court case launched by Mr O'Neill's lawyers to stay the warrant for his arrest was adjourned until next week.The key evidence in the case against Mr O'Neill - which has gripped PNG for months - is a letter he allegedly signed authorising $31 million be paid to Paul Paraka lawyers.The prime minister has dismissed the note as a fake.Mr Koim revealed on Tuesday that Sydney-based private investigators believe the document is genuine."We have now received the forensic examination report from the Sydney-based Forensic Document Services Pty Ltd confirming that the signature on the letter ... directing payments to Paraka Lawyers is PM O'Neill's," Mr Koim said.Mr O'Neill on Tuesday announced a commission of inquiry into the allegations against him, led by Australian judge Warwick Andrew.The Paul Paraka affair - called Parakagate in Port Moresby - is one of PNG's longest-running fraud investigations.Mr Paraka, one of the most powerful lawyers in PNG, was arrested and charged in 2013 for allegedly receiving the state monies.Task Force Sweep had alleged the payments were spread over a seven-year period and ran into the "hundreds of millions".

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Defence abuse may join Royal Commission

Reports of historic abuse on HMAS Leeuwin may be investigated by the current Royal Commission. Source: AAP

THE rape and sexual assault of hundreds of teenage boys while training at a West Australian naval base may become part of the current royal commission.

THE offences against 207 junior recruits at the HMAS Leeuwin training facility between 1960 and 1984 would fit the remit of the current Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Defence Abuse Response Taskforce chair Len Roberts-Smith said.

Mr Roberts-Smith described the abuse of the junior recruits, who were aged between 15 and 17, as horrific.Victims told of being scrubbed daily with sandsoap until their skin bled, being held down while boot polish was smeared onto their genitals, and having an object such as a mop handle forced into their anus.Mr Roberts-Smith, a former WA Supreme Court judge, said the few victims who overcame intimidation and threats to seek help were told to go away and be quiet, "in almost every instance".He said 63 per cent of the abuse at the naval base was perpetrated by other junior recruits and the remainder by staff.Victims' lives had been shattered by the offending, he said."Quite often they became alcoholics, they took to drugs, they had mental and psychological issues, they were angry constantly, and all of this reflected in their lives, which were devastated by the abuse that happened so long ago," Mr Roberts-Smith told ABC radio.Former Leeuwin recruit Graham, 61, said he wanted to kill the two men who raped him on the same night at Leeuwin."I've lived with that for 46 years. I still live with it. I have terror every day. I can't get it out of my mind. I hate nights. I can't sleep."I'm not a healthy man. I'm a complete mess mentally."I've never felt like a complete man."I'm sure the other victims are still suffering as I am today."He said it was comforting that his story had been accepted and to know the cases may be examined by a royal commission."I think the government needs to come clean with what I think was a cover-up for all this time," he said.Mr Roberts-Smith said the victims had great difficulty telling their stories, but were adamant they wanted them heard."They want people to know ... because they don't want it to happen again to anyone else," he said."These were children for whom Defence and the Navy had a special duty of care, standing in the place of their parents."We must learn the lessons of history."According to the report, the pattern of abuse at Leeuwin was such that Defence knew or ought to have known it was occurring, but failed to stop it.One in 10 of all abuse complaints the taskforce has received relate to Leeuwin.Defence Force chief General David Hurley and Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Ray Griggs said the incidents should not have occurred.Both said they were confident the abusive environment at Leeuwin didn't exist in the modern defence force, but the report would help Defence to continue working towards cultural change.

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PM Abbott steps up budget pitch

The Abbott government plans to send out almost 2.5 million newsletters to win over pensioners. Source: AAP

THE Abbott government is planning to send out almost 2.5 million newsletters to win over pensioners on controversial budget measures.

BUT Labor, which has taken a solid lead in the polls on the back of budget unrest, has criticised the campaign as misleading.

The News for Seniors newsletter - which was also produced under Labor - will include information on age pension payments, the change of indexation from 2017, the rise in the pension age and the introduction of the Medicare GP co-payment.Opposition Leader Bill Shorten told parliament the government would be wasting taxpayer money if it went ahead with the newsletter."Does the prime minister seriously expect the people of Australia to believe him when he said this is an honest budget?" he said on Wednesday.Prime Minister Tony Abbott said any letter that went to pensioners would only include truthful information, unlike that being peddled by Labor.He pointed to a newsletter from Mr Shorten which said the carbon tax would be abolished under Labor."He is a serial deceiver of the Australian people," Mr Abbott said.Labor frontbencher Stephen Jones told parliament the Liberal MP for the NSW seat of Hume, Angus Taylor, had issued a newsletter stating: "The GP co-payment will not apply to those who cannot afford to pay.""PM, why are you, your MPs and ministers continuing to tell falsehoods about the budget?" Mr Jones asked.Mr Abbott said the co-payment "should hardly hurt at all", but would make the health system sustainable.The prime minister and Treasurer Joe Hockey described the budget as facing a "crisis" if Labor did not back budget-related bills.Labor and the Greens on Wednesday rejected for a second time a government bill abolishing the Clean Energy Finance Corporation funded by the carbon tax.Under the constitution, the government can use the rejection to trigger the dissolution of both houses of parliament and call an election.Mr Hockey said the government would bring the carbon tax repeal bills back to parliament next week.Greens leader Christine Milne challenged the government to bring on an election."If you are so convinced that ignoring climate change is the way to go, go to an election on it," she said.The prime minister also moved to head off an internal battle over his paid parental leave scheme.Mr Abbott is under fire from some coalition colleagues who want to make the leave scheme less generous or delay it until the economy improves."There's quite a lot of time to put legislation in parliament," he said, adding the government's immediate priority was to repeal the carbon and mining taxes and legislate the budget.

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Therapy need sent abuser abroad: Marists

THE former head of the Marist brothers in Australia has denied he made a hasty decision to put a prolific child sex abuser on a plane to Canada three days after it became known police were investigating him.

ALTHOUGH he knew the brother had confessed to molesting a boy who later committed suicide, Brother Alexis Turton, the order's provincial in 1989, thought it best to get Gregory Sutton therapy at a Canadian centre for priest sex offenders.

He denied repeatedly at a child sex abuse royal commission hearing in Canberra on Wednesday that he sent Sutton to the Southdown centre near Toronto because police had begun asking questions.Sutton was extradited from Canada and jailed for 12 years in 1996 after pleading guilty to multiple charges of assaulting children in schools in NSW, ACT and Queensland from 1975 to 1986.He had quit the Marists in 1991 and Br Turton said he lost track of him after that.Br Turton said he sent Sutton to Canada because treatments in Australia had not worked.One Australian therapist had said he could not work "with this man (Sutton) because he does not have sufficient self awareness to have true therapy with me".A document dated August 31, 1989, produced at the commission showed that Sutton was telling people at the centre his provincial had sent him "due to the fact that investigations were occurring on himself for school activities five years ago regarding his child abuse."Br Turton said on Wednesday: "No. That is incorrect. That is wrong."When it was put to him that sending Sutton to Canada was first raised by him on August 15 and he was on a plane on August 18, Br Turton said: "I didn't see it as excessive haste, I saw it as continuing the process that we had been through to get him through to intensive therapy".At the time, parents of children at St Thomas More School in Campbelltown, NSW, had gone to police alleging Sutton had abused Year 5 girls.Simeon Beckett, counsel advising the commission, put it to Br Turton that his account to the commission of why he sent Sutton to Canada was false."That is not correct your honour," Br Turton said.He also denied writing a memorandum detailing Sutton's history of abusive behaviour with children going back to the 1970s.The document used a name other than Sutton's and Mr Beckett suggested the false name was an attempt to deceive readers such as police or civil litigants."I am totally mystified by this document. I can't make any other assessment of it," Br Turton said.He was also asked if it was Marist Brothers' practice to transfer a brother from a school where an allegation or admission of child sexual abuse had been made."I can't say it was the practice. Certainly we have a number of cases (where) that happened. Yes."The commission has been told that the order normally moves brothers around a lot.Br Turton said assurances by alleged offenders they would cease their inappropriate behaviour was often accepted when no complaint of specific sexual molestation was received.

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Banned flu vax still given to young kids

REPORTS of some doctors giving young children a banned flu vaccination "defies belief", Australia's chief medical officer says.

THE bioCSL Fluvax was suspended from use for children under five years old after an increase in febrile convulsions in children was linked to the vaccine in 2010.

Earlier this month a five-year-old Perth girl received a confidential multi-million dollar payout after becoming severely disabled after receiving the bioCSL Fluvax in 2010.Despite this, in 2013 there were 43 reported cases of the bioCSL Fluvax administered to children under five. So far this year there had been 31 cases, Professor Chris Baggoley said.He admitted this figure was low, considering 48,360 children under five were given flu jabs last year. There were also no reports of adverse events.However, Prof Baggoley said it "defies belief" that some GPs said they were not aware of the ban, despite receiving a letter from him about it and other measures to inform them."In context, it's minuscule, but for every child that's been put at risk it makes me profoundly cranky," he said in Melbourne on Tuesday at the National Immunisation Conference.The federal department of health advises that the bioCSL Fluvax should not be used for children under five years. Other suitable vaccines are available.It advises that the vaccination should only be used in children five to nine years old after careful consideration of the benefits and risks.

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Fewer dollars for farmers next year

Farmers will have less cash in their pockets from exporting their goods next year, new data shows. Source: AAP

FARMERS will have less cash in their pockets from exporting their goods next financial year.

BUT they will still have more than they've had in the past decade.

There will be a six per cent drop in farm export earnings in 2014-15, with earnings set to drop to $38.5 billion from this year's $41 billion, the government's agricultural commodity forecaster ABARES says.That's because there will be less to send offshore - with farm production to fall by four per cent next year.Production of barley, canola, beef and veal, rice and horticulture, are all set to drop.But the earnings will still be above the 10-year average.ABARES says it will still be about nine per cent above the average of $35.5 billion over the 10 years to 2012-13 in real terms.Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce was keeping positive by spruiking the benefits of the Korea-Australia free trade agreement, which is expected to come into effect in 2015.Beef and cheese exports will be boosted under the trade deal, he said.There's better news for farmers exporting sugar, live cattle, and live sheep - all set to rise next year.

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