Archive for the ‘Nine news’ Category
Public sector wage spending will be capped at 3 per cent a year to fund the Queensland Liberal National Party’s election promises.
The cap on expenditure is part of the LNP’s costings for its election promises, which they say total about $4 billion and will be released on Thursday.
Labor says the LNP has promised about $8 billion in election sweeteners.
The LNP claimed on Wednesday night public sector expenses had been growing by an unsustainable rate of between 8 per cent and 11 per cent a year under Labor, The Courier-Mail reports.
Under the 3 per cent target, some departments delivering frontline services, such as Queensland Health, would be allowed to grow at a faster rate.
Others would have to reduce employee expenses so the overall growth rate could be reached.
The LNP hopes natural attrition in the public service will deliver the reduction in employee expenses, thus avoiding forced redundancies.
“It is affordable, it is sustainable, it is responsible,” shadow treasurer Tim Nicholls told News Limited.
“And it frees up resources to deliver frontline services for Queenslanders.”
The Bligh Government’s 2.5 per cent wages cap, which has been surpassed several times during wage agreements with unions, will be scrapped.
Article source: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8439336/lnp-to-cap-wages-bill-to-three-per-cent
The Brazilian student tasered by police was taking drugs and acting paranoid shortly before his death, according to reports.
Friends of Roberto Laudisio Curti said the 21-year-old had been partying at nightclubs for two days and at one point argued with a friend just hours before he was shot at least three times with a Taser gun during a confrontation with police in inner Sydney last weekend.
A close family friend told the Daily Telegraph a friend called Patrick, who went out with Mr Laudisio on Saturday night, said the English language student’s behaviour was “scary” that night.
“He was saying to Patrick things like ‘I know you wanna kill me’,” the family friend was quoted as saying.
Mr Laudisio reportedly argued with Patrick before taking a taxi to Kings Cross with $150 in his wallet.
Shortly before sunrise on Sunday police said the student had resisted arrest when he was confronted over an incident, reportedly involving stolen biscuits, at a CBD convenience store.
Officers used capsicum spray and a Taser on Mr Laudisio, who stopped breathing and could not be revived.
Ten seconds of security footage emerged on Monday showing police grappling on the street with Mr Laudisio, who breaks free and runs away, pursued by officers apparently pointing Tasers at him.
Brazilian newspaper A Folha said “Beto”, as he was called by family and friends in Sao Paulo, spoke with his sister on the phone shortly before he died.
She said it was a quick conversation and her brother said he was being threatened. She tried to contact him again, without success, the newspaper reported.
Mr Laudisio’s wealthy family has hired a Sydney law firm to conduct an inquiry into his death.
Friends in Brazil are planning to stage a protest outside the Australian consulate in Sao Paulo on March 30. They reportedly plan to dump biscuits at the consulate gates.
Police in Australia continue their investigation.
Article source: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8439381/taser-victim-acting-paranoid-before-death
Australia’s most wanted criminal, Malcolm Naden, is expected to appear before a NSW court on a murder charge on Thursday.
Officers surrounded and arrested the 38-year-old just after midnight (AEDT) on a private property near Gloucester, in the state’s mid north.
NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione has thanked all of the officers who played a role in ending his almost seven years on the run.
Mr Scipione told a Sydney news conference that no shots were fired and there were no injuries when Naden was taken into custody.
“I want to thank the officers who have been on this job and have given themselves in their entirety to making sure Malcolm Naden was arrested,” he told reporters in Sydney.
Assistant Commissioner Carlene York, the commander of Strike Force Durkin which was set up to capture Naden, said investigations were ongoing.
“He will at some stage later today be presented before a court,” she said.
Naden, a former abattoir worker, has been on the run since disappearing from his grandparents’ home in west Dubbo in 2005, after his 24-year-old cousin and mother-of-two Kristy Scholes was found strangled in a bedroom of the home.
Naden is also a suspect in the disappearance of another of his cousins, Lateesha Nolan.
He is expected to appear in Taree Local Court on charges of murder and indecent assault.
Asked what the charges would be Ms York replied: “Well, he was wanted on a warrant for a murder back in Dubbo six or seven years ago.
“He was also wanted on a warrant for an aggravated indecent assault upon a 15-year-old female.
“Those charges will be laid and there are also further investigations at the moment in relation to other events which may or may not be the subject of a charge.”
Mr Scipione said his thoughts were with the families of his alleged victims.
“My thoughts and condolences go out to the families of the victims that we will be alleging Mr Naden has been involved with,” he told reporters.
Naden hit headlines last year after allegedly shooting and wounding an officer during a raid on a remote campsite near the village of Nowendoc in the state’s north in December.
Since the shooting, around 50 officers had been involved in the hunt for Naden.
Ms York said efforts had been focused on the area where Naden was captured “for some time”.
She said specialist officers drove into the bush after they were deployed in teams, before setting off on foot through difficult terrain.
“They then surrounded the house and there were indications of movement inside … ,” Ms York said.
“Mr Naden came out of a doorway where he was confronted by the police, then quickly retreated back into the house.”
Naden tried to escape out the back door, where he was again confronted.
“A short scuffle ensued, where he was then arrested,” Ms York said.
A semi-automatic rifle recently stolen from a nearby property was discovered inside the home.
Ms York said Naden was bitten by a police dog during the arrest but was not seriously wounded.
He has undergone a medical examination and appears reasonably healthy, despite his years on the run.
It is believed Naden visited the house before as part of his pattern of returning to properties.
“He was often going back to the same residence where he had done break and enters over a period of years, often using similar tracks,” Ms York said.
“It was that painstaking gathering of that evidence by my officers that assisted us in the successful operation last night.”
But Ms York refused to go into particular details about the arrest.
“At this stage I’ll only say that some intelligence was given to us,” she said.
“One of the successful parts of our operation is we had for some months been looking strategically at this area.
“The officers, the tactical teams, had been deployed to a number of tracks and paths around this area and had visited a number of houses.
“As result of that we took a lot of information in from members from the public, which we’re very grateful for.”
Ms York said police mapped out the area, how long it would take to get to places if Naden was sighted, and which paths were best to take.
She said the safety of her team always came first. One officer suffered an injured wrist during the arrest.
“It was at night and we have to worry about the safety of our officers travelling through darkness and knowing that there could be an armed offender out there creating some safety issues for our officers,” she said.
Article source: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8439359/naden-to-appear-in-court-on-thursday
Fugitive councillor Hajnal Black will hand herself in to authorities once her legal paperwork is in order, says her husband.
An arrest warrant for Ms Black, a Logan City councillor, was issued on Friday after she stormed out midway through a court hearing into whether she failed to declare a pecuniary interest while in public office.
Police have visited her home several times, which she shares with husband and fellow councillor Sean Black but she has not been found.
Mr Black said he had received an email from his wife overnight saying she was working on legal documents.
“I think Hajnal is working through the legal processes and that she will present herself to the courts once they have worked out a hearing date and an appropriate time for those appeals to be heard,” Mr Black told ABC radio.
“I am making that assumption that’s what she is doing to go forward.
“It’s hard to know what is happening when I am not actually talking with my wife.
“She’s just shut herself from the media and getting her paperwork together.”
Magistrate Trevor Morgan issued the warrant after Ms Black failed to appear at Beenleigh Magistrates Court on Thursday last week and then stormed out of an adjourned hearing on Friday.
The magistrate was to decide whether she had breached local government disclosure laws.
Ms Black had been seeking the overturning of a court decision that ruled she should have held $1.37 million in trust for an elderly man with dementia instead of transferring it into her own account.
The ruling in the Supreme Court in Brisbane gave Queensland’s Public Trustee the right to start pursuing the money taken by Ms Black in October 2009.
In the hearing late last year, David Jackson, QC, for the Public Trustee, told the court Ms Black, who was given power of attorney over the man’s affairs in April 2009, knew he lacked capacity when she transferred the money six months later.
Mr Jackson submitted that knowledge, along with the nature and size of the transaction, meant Ms Black had acted improperly.
However, Ms Black told the court she was acting in accordance with the 66-year-old man’s wishes when she made the transfer.
Justice David Boddice ruled in favour of the Public Trustee on the matter and ordered Ms Black pay costs.
Article source: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8439376/councillor-will-hand-herself-in-husband
Residents in NSW towns along the flooded Murrumbidgee River will be able to claim financial assistance from the federal government.
Payments of $1000 per adult and $400 per child can be claimed by people worst hit by flooding in the towns of Griffith, Leeton, Lockhart, Murrumbidgee, Narrandera, Urana, Wagga Wagga and Young.
Federal Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said the payments were over and above the support already provided by the joint NSW and federal government disaster relief fund.
“It’s clear these communities along the swollen Murrumbidgee are doing it extremely tough as a result of the floods,” Ms Roxon said in a statement on Thursday.
“This assistance will help them get back on their feet.”
People living in those communities may be eligible for personal hardship and distress assistance, which includes help replacing essential items of furniture and repairs to homes.
Farmers may also be granted concessional interest rate loans and transport subsidies.
The payments can be claimed by residents in those communities affected by the floods that occurred between late February and March.
Article source: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/floods/8439378/flood-payments-for-murrumbidgee-residents
Victorian nurses are a step closer to finalising their pay deal with the government after a marathon conciliation session.
Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) Victorian secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said the Wednesday night session before a Fair Work Australia tribunal went for more than five hours, allowing all parties to scrutinise a 200 page document that makes up the agreement.
“We believe that we have an agreed document (and) that document will be once again looked at by all the parties,” she said.
“But we’re very confident that it’s been finalised.”
She said nurses would officially vote on the agreement in a ballot provided by the Australian Electoral Commission.
A comment was being sought by the Victorian Health Minister David Davis.
The pay deal, struck last week, will include pay rises of between 14 and 21 per cent over four years, no health assistants to replace nurses, no split shifts and a maintenance of nurse-patient ratios, one of the main sticking points in the dispute.
Article source: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8439383/vic-nurses-move-closer-to-pay-rise
University of NSW researchers have identified Australia’s most important wetlands for waterbirds following extensive aerial surveys.
Teams of observers in light aircraft surveyed 4858 wetlands across Australia in late 2008.
A subsequent analysis was released by the National Water Commission on Thursday and estimated there are 4.6 million waterbirds from more than 100 species across these wetlands.
“This is the first time in Australia that we have attempted a national audit of the value of our wetlands for waterbirds,” said Professor Richard Kingsford, director of the Australian Wetlands and Rivers Centre at UNSW.
“We can now make some relative comparisons about the importance of different wetlands across the continent, which will help long-term decision-making about water resource management and conservation.”
The survey found that few wetlands supported large numbers of waterbirds (more than 10,000) and that the top 20 wetlands held about 40 per cent of all waterbirds.
Wetlands with extremely high concentrations of waterbirds (between 30,000 and 300,000) were found in northern Australia, Western Australia, central Queensland and western NSW.
“This provides management authorities with an excellent opportunity to measure long-term changes for waterbird communities, using the most important subset of wetlands,” Professor Kingsford said.
“Many of them are already identified as important under the Ramsar Convention, for which governments have reporting responsibilities.”
The team also analysed long-term changes in waterbird numbers, using annual data collected during aerial surveys of eastern Australia.
They found long-term declines, although the recent floods have provided evidence of some recovery.
Article source: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8439385/surveys-identify-wetlands-for-waterbird
Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten insists a lift in the superannuation guarantee is not a tax on employers.
He also rejects claims workers will have to pay for increased super contributions through a reduction in pay.
Business has complained that an increase from 9 to 12 per cent will cost employers $20 billion a year.
Mr Shorten says the money will come from “deferred wage increases” worked out between employers and employees during wage negotiations.
“This is not a tax on business,” he told ABC Television on Thursday.
The increase would be phased in through “reasonable instalments” over seven years.
“This means employees and employers have time to adjust and take the increase into account in future wage negotiations,” he wrote in The Australian.
Mr Shorten rejected as “another fallacy” claims that increasing superannuation meant a reduction in wages.
The truth was that superannuation was part of an employee’s total remuneration.
“So, an increase in super means an increase in remuneration or wages by another name.”
Opposition workplace relations spokesman Eric Abetz said the government could no longer maintain the pretence that the superannuation increase would be funded by its new mining tax.
“Bill Shorten has finally acknowledged that the increase … will be paid by foregone wages of Australian workers who are already struggling to make ends meet,” he told reporters in Canberra.
Labor senator Doug Cameron said average workers would be $100,000 better off when they retired.
“I’m sure that over the period of time that this is being phased in, employers in this country can handle (the increase) easily,” he said.
Article source: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8439368/super-hike-not-a-tax-increase-shorten
Labor has promised 800 extra police over the next four years if returned to government in Queensland on Saturday.
Premier Anna Bligh says the boost will give the state one of the highest police-to-population ratios in Australia.
By comparison, the Liberal National Party last month pledged to deliver 1100 extra officers.
“Since 1998, the number of sworn police officers in the Queensland Police Service has grown by 57 per cent while the state’s population has increased 33 per cent,” Ms Bligh said in a statement.
“There are currently around 291 operational police officers per 100,000 residents, which is the third best ratio of all Australian states and well ahead of NSW and Victoria.
“If re-elected, we will deliver an additional 800 uniformed officers over the next four years.”
The pledge will be funded through the existing QPS budget and additional GST allocation at a cost of more than $98 million.
LNP leader Campbell Newman said in February his government would spend $275 million over four years for 1100 extra officers.
Article source: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8439360/qld-labor-promises-800-more-police
Firefighters will be ill-equipped to tackle major marine fires in Melbourne for at least another year, the city’s fire chief says.
Fire crews struggled to put out a blaze on a 28-metre luxury cruiser at the Yarra’s Edge marina at Docklands late on Wednesday afternoon.
Firefighters had access only to a dinghy and a small hose as they tried in vain to douse the fire, which burned for more than three hours and sent smoke billowing through the city.
The boat’s owners, who had sailed the cruiser from Queensland, had just filled the tank with 4000 litres of fuel when they saw smoke, and flames quickly engulfed the vessel, the Metropolitan Fire Brigade said.
The four people on board escaped unharmed and firefighters tied the cruiser off to prevent damage to other boats.
The blaze was extinguished only when flames burned down to the waterline, the MFB said.
The brigade has secured $10 million for a larger firefighting boat but it could take 12-18 months before such a craft was in action, its chief officer Shane Wright said on Thursday.
“It’s not just about buying boats, there’s a whole series of training initiatives that need to be put in place,” Mr Wright told Fairfax Radio Network.
Red tape had stalled the introduction of a new vessel, with two proposed firefighting boats having been rejected by authorities in recent months after being deemed unsafe, Mr Wright said.
Investigators will spend Thursday trying to determine what caused the fire.
Article source: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8439400/delays-in-fighting-melbourne-boat-fires
