Westfield restructure plan on ice

Westfield chairman Frank Lowy has endured vocal criticism from shareholders over a restructure plan. Source: AAP

THE Lowy family has suffered a setback to its plans for a $70 billion restructure of Westfield following a revolt from small investors in its managed trust, who accused the shopping mall barons of using strong-arm tactics to get a crucial vote to go their way.

A meeting of Westfield Retail Trust (WRT) shareholders was adjourned suddenly on Thursday before the final outcome of a vote on the restructure was known.

Another vote is planned to be held within a fortnight.

The move followed a warning earlier in the day from Westfield founder and chairman Frank Lowy, who vowed to press ahead with plans to split Westfield's Australasian and global businesses regardless of the whether WRT shareholders supported the deal.

Under the restructure plan, Westfield's Australian and New Zealand businesses would merge with WRT to create a new entity, to be called Scentre.

Westfield Group's international business, which includes malls in Great Britain and at the World Trade Center in New York, would become Westfield Corporation.

But the board of WRT considered the warning from Mr Lowy to be a "material change" in the outlook for its investors, and they should have more time to consider the restructure plan, which was approved at a separate meeting of Westfield Group shareholders earlier on Thursday.

The surprise development came after shareholders in WRT appeared set to reject the overall restructure plan.

Steven Lowy, a director on the WRT board and Westfield Group board, told AAP the decision to adjourn the meeting was the right thing to do.

"What's the downside in giving another 10 to 14 days to consider this important proposal?" he said.

But Stephen Mayne from the Australian Shareholder's Association (ASA) said the board should not have delayed a vote on the restructure plan, calling the adjournment "outrageous".

"They lost the vote and shifted the goalposts," Mr Mayne told AAP.

"The independent directors should not have voted like that. It's a sorry tale all round."

Mr Mayne earlier in the day criticised Frank Lowy after the 83-year-old billionaire said a rejection of the restructure plan by WRT "would not diminish our determination to proceed with Westfield Group's strategic objective of separating the two businesses".

Mr Mayne accused Mr Lowy of trying to strong arm WRT investors, adding that his revised proposal to push ahead could devalue WRT by creating a competing investment vehicle.

In a fiery Westfield Group meeting on Thursday morning, Mr Mayne said Mr Lowy had run an "oppressive" campaign to get the deal across the line.

"It's oppressive and it shouldn't be happening," Mr Mayne said to Mr Lowy.

Mr Lowy responded by telling Mr Mayne he was living in "dreamland".

"Your characterisation is absolutely wrong," Mr Lowy said.

"You're in dreamland to say this is being done in an oppressive way."

Mr Mayne later said Mr Lowy was out of line to tell shareholders he would pursue the split regardless of the WRT vote, even before the result was known.

"I'm suggesting he's tying one last desperate attempt to strong-arm Westfield Retail shareholders to accept an unattractive offer," Mr Mayne told AAP.

Westfield had needed support from 75 per cent of investors in each company to push ahead with the restructure.

While 98 per cent of Westfield Group investors gave the nod to the plan, only 74.1 per cent of proxy votes cast by WRT investors.

Shares in Westfield Group and WRT remain in a trading halt.

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ASIO HQ a step closer: spy boss

TEN months have passed since its official opening, and in about another seven months Australia's spy agency should finally move into its new Canberra headquarters.

The $680 million building on the northern side of Lake Burley Griffin has been plagued by delays and budget blowouts, but Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) director-general David Irvine can see a conclusion.

"The first cohorts should be going in towards the end of the year (or) early next year," he told a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd officially opened the imposing, multistorey building in July 2013, more than a year after it was due to be ready.

Since then, windows have fallen off the building, and problems remain to be fixed.

"Further remediation work will still be required on the air-conditioning system," Mr Irvine said.

Those problems stem from difficulties with the building's automatic fire doors. The access system also has problems.

After the repairs, Mr Irvine expects to get the keys in mid-June, and after some top-secret tweaking, such as with the wiring and internal fitout, the workers can move in.

However, Mr Irvine will not get the chance to work in the new building. He retires in September.

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Cyber attacks on the rise

CYBER security attacks on business are on the rise, and the culprits appear to be competitors seeking commercial information.

And while many companies reported cyber security incidents, others didn't, raising concerns they don't know what's really happening on their networks.

Australia's national Computer Emergency Response Team says 56 per cent of companies it has surveyed reported one or more cyber security attacks in the past year.

Forty-four per cent reported no incidents. But CERT, part of the Attorney-General's Department, says in a new report that anecdotal evidence indicates some businesses were unaware of the full scope of unauthorised activity on their networks.

"Most of the incidents were in the form of targeted emails, followed by virus or worm infection and trojan or rootkit malware," CERT said.

"This is consistent with the finding that respondents viewed cyber security incidents to be targeted at their organisation, rather than random or indiscriminate."

Attorney-General George Brandis said the most commonly reported was what's called "spear phishing", sending emails to specific individuals, often using personal information to create credibility. Clicking on links will download spyware, he said in a statements.

The main motivation is considered to be competitors seeking commercial advantage.

CERT's survey was directed at big business with a quarter of the 135 respondents in the defence industry sector.

All businesses used varying levels of network security but CERT found potential problems.

More than 60 per cent think their IT staff, chief executive and directors need to improve security skills and practices.

Forty-seven per cent use the now superseded Windows XP operating system and almost all were aware that Microsoft no longer provided technical support after April 8.

But 13 per cent had no plans to move to another operating system and eight per cent didn't know.

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Melbourne Zoo seal Gordo dies

GORDO the seal has died at Melbourne Zoo, more than a decade after being rescued when found emaciated and dehydrated on a Victorian beach.

The sub-Antarctic fur seal suffered a cardiac arrest while recovering from an anaesthetic procedure, zoo head vet Dr Michael Lynch said on Thursday.

The 11-year-old was having problems with his kidneys and vets were investigating whether he had a degenerative renal condition. Dr Lynch said it was possible that condition contributed to the arrest.

Gordo was found emaciated and dehydrated on the main beach at Warrnambool in August 2003.

As a yearling not adjusting well to life away from his mother he was not suitable for re-release and was kept in the zoo's care, the zoo said.

Wild Sea keeper Mark Keenan said Gordo was good natured and hundreds of thousands of zoo visitors witnessed his acrobatic skills in daily shows.

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Man, 21, burned in Sydney gas fireball

A GAS-FUELLED fireball in a busy northern Sydney shopping plaza has left a man with serious burns.

The 21-year-old was rushed to Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital with burns to his lower body after a gas main caught alight about 1pm (AEST) on Monday at the front of a shop in Lane Cove.

He was reported to be in a stable condition.

The local primary school was locked down and about 150 people were moved to safety as firefighters monitored the fire.

They decided not to put the fire out, opting instead to ask the gas company to shut the gas down - which it did an hour later.

"It's actually safer to allow the gas to burn," Superintendent Ian Krimmer told AAP.

"If you put the fire out, you create a bigger problem because the gas leak could go to other areas and cause explosions in other locations."

As the gas was being shut off, six fire crews were protecting buildings, while police kept Longueville Road closed to all traffic.

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Speaker stands by fundraising event

Speaker Bronwyn Bishop must explain what took place in her suite on budget night, says Labor. Source: AAP

SPEAKER Bronwyn Bishop has refused to reveal details of how her parliamentary office was used for a Liberal Party fundraising event.

Labor says a $2500 a head budget night function in the Speaker's Parliament House office - revealed in weekend newspaper reports and not denied by Ms Bishop - is unprecedented and breaches the independence of the role.

Ms Bishop told parliament on Monday that all members of parliament were entitled to use their suites "for their own purposes, but not for illegal purposes".

The opposition asked her to reflect on her ruling, but she stood by her statement.

Now Labor has written to the privileges committee asking for an investigation.

A motion asking the House to refer the same was voted down.

"This is a motion about smear and innuendo directed at the speaker's office," Leader of the House Christopher Pyne said, noting political fundraising events were held in Parliament House all the time.

As long as the costs were covered privately or by a political party there was no breach of the rules, he said.

Opposition frontbencher Tony Burke said the speaker's suite was a special case and the fundraiser represented "improper interference" in the independence of the office.

"This is not an ordinary venue," he told parliament.

"Your job is not owned by the Liberal Party."

Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who is understood to have attended the fundraiser, told parliament Labor was looking for distractions from its lack of policy.

"They worry about what might be in what room at what time in this parliament," he said.

Taking aim at Labor leader Bill Shorten the prime minister said: "Really and truly, this man is no Bob Hawke - he is no leader."

Labor has been critical of Ms Bishop's appointment from an early stage, especially in her handling of question time and biased language.

She has suspended 101 opposition MPs from parliament, but none from the government.

That image was reinforced when Ms Bishop said, after Mr Burke finished his speech: "I find it a bit rough to be lectured on morality from you."

Earlier, the secretary of the Department of Parliamentary Services, Carol Mills, told a Senate estimates hearing she was unaware of any rule preventing such a use of the speaker's suite.

"It is up to the speaker, president or the other holders of special suites to decide how to use them," she said.

Greens senator Lee Rhiannon asked for a list of events held in Parliament House over the past three years to ascertain how many were party fundraisers.

Two previous speakers, Anna Burke and Harry Jenkins, have said they never used the suite for political fundraising events.

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Housing prices suffer winter blues

THE weather across much of Australia is unseasonably warm, but the housing market is cooling down right on schedule.

After falling by 0.9 per cent the week before, prices in the five mainland state capitals were down by another 0.6 per cent over the week to Sunday.

According to the RP Data's analysis of the residential property market, all five capitals recorded falls last week, from 0.2 per cent in Brisbane to 1.0 per cent in Adelaide.

It was the third week in a row that prices had posted significant falls, but not necessarily an indication that the market has topped out and, at long last, begun the slump that pundits have been forecasting for years now.

There are two reason to doubt that the boom is now going bust.

One is that the market dipped at the same time last year, and to about the same degree - around two per cent or a bit more by RP Data measure.

Both times it had recovered all the lost ground by the end of June.

There is an obvious seasonal pattern.

The other is the auction clearance rates remains high.

Just over 66 per cent of properties whose auction results were tabulated by RP Data last week were sold.

The week before it was 65.4 per cent.

That was still down from the peak of over 75 per cent reached a couple of months earlier as buyers and sellers returned from summer holidays, but it remains high.

It's about level with clearance rates seen at the same time last year.

In other words, it still appears that demand is rising more rapidly than supply.

That could all change, of course.

Consumer confidence figures since the budget the week before last suggest households have had their equilibrium disturbed.

So the coming few weeks, especially the latter half of June when prices would normally be expected to recover from their winter blues as they did last year and the year before, will be a critical time for the housing market.

If the recovery does not proceed as normal, investors will be prompted to wonder whether the easy ride is over.

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Letter bid to block Vic child abuse bill

ANTI-VIOLENCE groups want three Nationals MPs to block new Victorian laws that they fear will turn women who fail to report child sexual abuse into criminals.

Opponents say they broadly support the child protection bill's aim but one clause risks criminalising women who fail to report child abuse in their family out of fear for their own safety.

With the Legislative Council set to debate the bill this week, leaders from nine organisations have jointly written to the three National MLCs - Danny O'Brien, David O'Brien and Minister for Sport, Recreation and Veterans' Affairs Damian Drum - asking them to vote it down.

Dr Chris Atmore of the Federation of Community Legal Centres said the bill ignores previous research and best practice in the field of domestic violence.

"We hope that at least one Nationals MP will vote based on the evidence and not political expediency," she told AAP.

"We have had very little in the way of a response to our concerns from government MPs but in contrast we have had a fair amount of discussion with the opposition and the Greens, who are concerned about reducing domestic violence but seem to understand our concerns with (the) clause."

A spokesperson for the Nationals said a bi-partisan committee had strongly recommended that all adults have a duty to tell police about child sexual abuse.

"The legislation makes clear that a person does not commit an offence if they have a reasonable fear for their own or someone else's safety and if it is reasonable for them not to inform police in the circumstances of family violence they face."

Labor and the Greens hold 19 seats in the 40-seat Legislative Council and are likely to vote against the bill.

The Liberals have 18 seats and their coalition partner the Nationals hold three seats.

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