PUP campaign ads draw howls of protest

SCOTT Ludlam's slick TV ad campaign for the re-run West Australian Senate election is getting noticed, almost as much as his now famously blunt speech in parliament, which drew $100,000 in donations.

Even Clive Palmer praised the advertisements, saying they sounded at first "like a PUP ad", urging voters not to vote for Labor or the Liberals.

Conversely, Senator Ludlam said he found Palmer United Party's campaign "exceptionally annoying" and joined the chorus of politicians howling about the wealthy MP's multi-million dollar advertising blitz.

Despite the Greens being the second biggest spenders at the re-run election - after receiving the single largest personal donation in Australia's electoral history in 2011 - leader Christine Milne said the party wanted to see cash splashed on campaign ads limited.

"We would like to cap expenditure so that we don't have this buying of votes, the democracy for sale that's gone on in this election," she told reporters in Perth on Wednesday.

"This is the first time in Australian politics where we've had a rich individual being able to so manifestly influence the vote."

Senator Ludlam said his party's ad spending was different to PUP's because the funds came from a large amount of small donations.

"Thousands of people making small donations, ordinary West Australians right across traditional divides - not just traditional Greens voters - making a lot of small donations," he said.

His recent speech in parliament - in which he told the prime minister to take his "heartless, racist exploitation of people's fears and ram it as far from Western Australia as your taxpayer-funded travel entitlements can take you" - was an internet hit worldwide.

And while it drew $100,000 in donations, "it's really different to a coal billionaire writing out cheques for millions of dollars", Senator Ludlam said.

Deputy leader of the opposition, Tanya Plibersek, was less affronted.

It was obvious PUP was out-spending other parties, but that was their decision, she said.

"Of course it puts us at a disadvantage - they're out-spending us by a fortune - but that's democracy," she said.

"As long as a political party declares all its donations, as long as it abides by the rules, they've got every right to spend the money they raise."

But Prime Minister Tony Abbott took the same line as the Greens, saying Mr Palmer was trying to buy seats in parliament in a bid to further his own interests.

If PUP can win a WA Senate seat on Saturday, it will have three members on the upper house crossbench after July 1.

It has been estimated by monitoring agency Ebiquity that PUP spent 11 times more on advertising than Labor and 14 times more than the Liberals in March.

Mr Palmer said it was his personal money to do with what he wished.

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Aboriginal alcoholism worsening: inquiry

ALCOHOLISM in Aboriginal communities is bad and getting worse, says the chairwoman of a federal inquiry into the issue.

After hearings in Alice Springs and Tennant Creek, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Indigenous Affairs is in Darwin conducting its inquiry into the harmful use of alcohol by indigenous communities.

Chairwoman Sharman Stone says the feedback from communities is that the situation is dire.

"An overarching message is things are getting far worse than they've been before ... People now are desperate about finding a solution to these problems," Dr Stone told AAP.

"As a woman said to us in Tennant Creek yesterday, 'our young people are getting angrier and too many people are dying'.

"And that's just an appalling situation in a developed country like Australia - one of the richer countries in the world - to have this circumstance for its indigenous population."

Homelessness and housing pressures are a key factor in explaining why indigenous people drink to excess, the inquiry heard on Wednesday.

Indigenous people are highly mobile but often have trouble finding somewhere to stay when they come to cities such as Darwin to attend events, to see family or to seek work, and end up putting stress on relatives and overcrowding properties.

Those who end up in the long grass, or sleeping rough, are usually the problem drinkers, said Toni Vine Bromley, CEO of NT Shelter.

She said accessing the NT rental market was difficult enough before taking into account the obstacles Aboriginal people from remote areas might face when moving to towns.

The NT has 15 times the national average of homeless people, 30 to 40 per cent of which are children aged under 18.

Young disadvantaged women who drink during pregnancy are having babies with Foetal Alcohol Syndrome, and the inquiry is looking at its prevalence and whether it should be declared a disability.

Dr Stone called it a form of "cultural genocide".

"(Brain-damaged children) who will never be able to learn like others, who will probably end up incarcerated as soon as they reach adult status, who will be more likely to suicide, more likely to be victims of violence and to perpetrate violence - that is a tragedy for any community," she said.

Dr Stone also said she was disappointed the NT government would not permit its employees, such as the police and doctors, to give evidence to the inquiry, but rather would submit a "whole of government report".

"It's an inquiry loaded with politics and emotional stress for a lot of people, because the Australian population as a whole has a major problem with alcohol consumption," she said.

Hearings will continue in Darwin on Thursday.

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Mine application filed despite concerns

A COMPANY under administration has applied to restart and expand work at a Blue Mountains mine rejected previously due to "unacceptable environmental impacts," environmentalists say.

Coalpac Pty Ltd on Wednesday put a development application to mine 315 hectares of the Ben Bullen Forest, near Lithgow, on public display, the NSW Nature Conservation Council said.

"It is very disappointing that Coalpac has been permitted to submit new plans to destroy a significant area ... that the Office of Environment and Heritage has recommended should be protected in a conservation reserve," the group's chief Pepe Clarke said.

NSW planning minister Brad Hazzard last October referred himself to the state's corruption watchdog over allegations of a conflict of interest relating to the mine.

Media reports at the time claimed his chief of staff, Kath McFarlane, failed to disclose owning properties near the previously proposed coal mine extension, which was rejected by the planning department.

It was abandoned despite the support of Treasury and Trade and Investment, which was in favour of 150 direct jobs being created.

The allegations, Premier Barry O'Farrell said, were "baseless."

In 2010 a report commissioned by then-premier Bob Carr found the mine had caused hundreds of cliffs to collapse, damaged Aboriginal rock art and polluted drinking water supplies.

Comment is being sought from the government.

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BP Brisbane workers weigh up their futures

DREW McQueen knew his two decades at BP's Brisbane oil refinery were coming to an end.

The 53-year-old crane rigger is one of 355 workers who will lose their jobs when the Bulwer Island plant ceases production in mid-2015.

The Pinkenba site in Brisbane's north will stop refining 102,000 barrels a day, ending half a century of history.

It will instead be used to store jet fuel, leaving another 300-plus contractors out of work.

The closure of yet another oil Australian refinery has energy experts predicting the end of a local industry within a decade, as Asian refineries continue to produce much higher volumes more efficiently.

The news also follows Holden and Toyota heralding the end of local car making by 2018, and a string of retrenchments at Qantas and throughout the resources industry.

Mr McQueen, who still has a teenage daughter to support, knew there was bad news before Wednesday morning's announcement.

"There's always been talk of closing these joints. Today we hear about it," he told AAP outside the front gates.

"I've been here 20 years. I've had a good run."

Fellow crane operator John, who is also in his mid-50s, said the news gave him "a bit of sadness" after seven years at the plant.

He is now weighing up whether to leave Brisbane to find work.

"I'm in a situation where I don't particularly want to do that but if it arises, then it's something I will have to eventually look at," he said.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union Queensland secretary Rohan Webb said the retrenched workers were "quite shell shocked".

"We're seeing massive job losses across the state so the employment opportunities for these workers are going to be somewhat short," he told reporters.

Addressing reporters on site, the Bulwer Island refinery's managing director Tim Wall said much higher production volumes in Asia were to blame, stressing Australia's carbon tax wasn't responsible.

"There's a very large difference between the operating costs of a 100,000-barrel-a-day refinery compared to a refinery ... in India that's operating at over a million barrels a day," he told reporters.

Australia has just four refineries left, including BP's Kwinana plant near Perth.

BP Australasia president Andy Holmes said its West Australian refinery was not yet earmarked for closure but declined to commit on its future.

The future is considered marginal for Brisbane's other refinery at Lytton, run by Caltex, and the other refineries in Geelong and Melbourne.

Energy analysts including Credit Suisse's Mark Samter and State One Stockbroking's Peter Kopetz believe the end of local refining may be less than a decade away.

BP's latest announcement follows Caltex closing its Sydney refinery during the second half of 2014 and converting it to an import terminal.

BP's latest announcement also comes just four months after the company sacked 300 workers at its Australian headquarters in Melbourne.

The Bulwer Island refinery was built in 1965 by Amoco and bought by BP in 1984.

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Aust students equipped to tackle problems

AUSTRALIAN students are relatively well-equipped to face the modern world, with new international test results showing they're better problem solvers than expected.

Australia came ninth out of the 44 countries examined in the Programme for International Student Assessment's 2012 problem solving tests.

The tests look at how well 15-year-olds can solve problems they have never encountered before, where there isn't a learned, routine solution.

Questions included working out how to use a virtual MP3 player they'd never seen before, buying train tickets from a machine and using GPS and traffic information to decide travel routes.

Students in Australia performed much better in problem solving than those in countries with similar average results for maths, science and reading.

The best students in maths also had excellent problem-solving skills, the results released on Tuesday showed.

It suggested this meant that in Australia top maths students have access to the kinds of learning opportunities that are also useful for improving their problem-solving skills.

Particular strengths for Australian students were exploring, understanding and representing problems and formulating hypotheses about them.

But their weaknesses lay in planning and executing solutions.

In general, Australian students performed better than expected on problems where all the information needed is given at the start and doesn't change, known as static tasks.

About one in six got top level results while a similar number were at or below the bottom level.

Singapore, Korea and Japan topped the countries tested.

In Singapore, nearly one in three students achieved top results - twice as many as in Australia.

Some 85,000 students around the world took part in the problem-solving tests.

PISA says testing students' skills in tackling real-life problems helps them and their teachers and schools identify better ways to give young people the skills they'll need to be employable in the 21st century.

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New plan to save Brisbane from floods

The Queensland government says a new strategy for could spare Brisbane from future flooding. Source: AAP

SOME Brisbane Valley locals are happy to be isolated for longer during a flood if it means saving hundreds of homes downstream in Queensland's capital.

The state government wants to rewrite the manuals of Somerset and Wivenhoe dams so more water can be dumped earlier during a major deluge.

Operators would no longer have to consider keeping six rural crossings open in the initial stages of a disaster.

It means that bridges in the valley, 30km upstream from Brisbane, would go under sooner and residents would be isolated for longer.

Modelling shows the plan would reduce the flood peak in Brisbane by 10 per cent and save between 500 and 1500 homes from flooding.

It's also hoped that insurance premiums would be reduced.

Karana Downs local Linda has lived on the river in the valley for eight years.

Despite being fully isolated for five days during the 2011 floods, she would rather the sacrifice of a few to save the many.

"We're near three river crossings, we decided to live here," she told AAP.

"I'd rather the inconvenience of me having to travel further or being isolated, than people having their homes flooded."

Neighbour Sylvia Johnson said there was no easy way for the government.

"I don't see how they can win, it's a lose-lose situation," she said.

The government would consider building one bridge at Colleges Crossing with money raised from proposed asset sales.

In 2011, Wivenhoe dam banked too much water and authorities were later forced to make massive releases quickly.

About 22,000 properties in Brisbane were inundated.

Premier Campbell Newman said he hoped insurance companies would take note of the new modelling.

"It could provide premium relief for up to 1500 properties," he said.

Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale said faster water releases were the right way to go, given the conditions surrounding the 2011 flood should never have been allowed.

"What happened in 2011? They opened all the gates up and said: 'You defend yourself, city'," he said.

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Search for MH370 could drag on: Houston

Authorities are in a race against time to locate the black box in the Malaysia Airlines plane wreck. Source: AAP

AS Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak prepares to travel to Perth to thank those searching for Malaysia Airlines flight 370, Australia's former defence chief has warned the operation could take a long time.

Mr Razak will arrive on Wednesday and stay until Thursday, visiting the RAAF Pearce air base to the city's north, the departure point for the seven-nation search effort.

Danica Weeks - the wife of missing Perth passenger, Paul Weeks - visited the air base on Tuesday, prompting Air Chief Marshal Houston to urge the mother-of-two to come to the new Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre near the West Australian parliament for a full briefing.

He also passed on his personal phone number to her.

Air Chief Marshal Houston is leading the centre, which has taken over from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority in co-ordinating the search and distributing information about it.

He said the operation would be pursued with vigour but with no objects pulled from the Indian Ocean identified as being from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight, it could drag on for weeks, maybe months.

"I have to say in my experience - and I have got a lot of experience in search and rescue over the years - this search and recovery operation is probably the most challenging I have ever seen," he told reporters in Perth on Tuesday.

The last known position of the plane was a long way away from the area being examined and until some debris was found to narrow down the search, it "could drag on for a long time".

"I say that because the starting point whenever you do a search and rescue is the last known position of the vehicle or aircraft.

"In this particular case, the last known position was a long, long way from where the aircraft appears to have gone.

"We've been searching for many, many days and so far have not found anything connected with MH370."

Air Chief Marshal Houston said it was not known what altitude and speed the aircraft was travelling at and authorities were relying on the best information available.

"I think at this stage that it's very important to pursue all the leads," he added, as 10 planes and nine ships, some with helicopters, resumed the search.

He also said updated information about the pilot's final words provided some "clarity".

The pilot was originally reported as signing off: "All right, goodnight".

But it emerged on Monday that he had actually said: "Goodnight Malaysian three seven zero".

"The last communication was more formal than what was reported some weeks ago," Air Chief Marshal Houston said, and declined to comment further.

Defence Minister David Johnston said about a week remained to find the plane's black box, given the satellite "pinger" had about 30 days of battery life and the aircraft vanished on March 8.

"It depends on the temperature of the water and water depth and pressure as to how long the battery power will last," Senator Johnston told ABC radio.

He said it would take two or three days for the Australian naval vessel Ocean Shield, which has been fitted with a pinger locator, to reach the search zone, some 1850km west of Perth.

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Bushfire threatens homes in Vic town

An out-of-control bushfire is threatening homes in the small Victorian town of Narrawong. Source: AAP

RESIDENTS whose homes are threatened by a fast-moving bushfire near the small Victorian town of Narrawong have been warned to leave.

An emergency warning has been issued for the blaze in Victoria's southwest and a relief centre has been set up in the town and community meeting held for residents.

The fire has already burnt through more than 270 hectares.

It is travelling in a southerly direction from Golf Course Road, Mt Clay State Forest and towards Mt Clay fire tower, a Department of Environment and Primary Industries spokesperson says.

Residents in the vicinity of the bushfire have been warned they should leave now, before conditions become too dangerous.

The message applies to residents in the vicinity of Blackers Road, Devlins Road, Beavis Road, Brabender Lane, Kerrabrae Road and Angelino Road.

Community meetings were held at the Narrawong Hall and Portland Civic Centre on Tuesday night and a relief centre has been set up at the Portland Civic Centre.

Several roads have been closed and should be avoided.

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Transurban buys Sydney tunnel for $475m

SYDNEY'S Cross City Tunnel has been bought by toll road owner Transurban for $475 million.

The 2.1 kilometre tunnel connects the west side of Sydney's CBD to Rushcutters Bay in the east, and cost $1 billion to build.

It was placed in receivership in September 2013 in the wake of a legal dispute with the NSW government over stamp duty.

Transurban bought all of the toll road's senior debt in November, and has now struck an agreement with the tunnel's receivers and managers to take control of the road.

The proceeds of the deal will be used to clear the tunnel's senior secured debt.

The Cross City Tunnel has had a troubled financial run since its opening in 2005.

It was placed into receivership in 2007, before being bought for about $700 million by Royal Bank of Scotland, EISER Infrastructure Partners and Leighton Contractors.

Transurban already owns or part-owns several major toll roads in Sydney - the M2, M5 and M7 motorways, the Lane Cove Tunnel and the Eastern Distributor, which links to the Cross City Tunnel.

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Investors set to flock to Medibank float

Investor interest in the float of Medibank Private is likely to be strong, analysts say. Source: AAP

THE Abbott government's sale of Medibank Private is likely to be a good opportunity for investors, but bad news for the health insurer's staff.

Analysts say there will be plenty of market interest in the company when it is publicly floated in the 2014/15 financial year.

The government is likely to offer a relatively cheap price to ensure the initial public offering (IPO) is well received, Invast chief market strategist Peter Esho said.

"The government is mindful of the fact it needs to set a good precedent so it can offload the other assets that are sitting there, like Australia Post," he said.

"I think it will be a successful IPO."

IG market strategist Evan Lucas said the healthcare sector was a strong performer in recent times, which would add to investor interest.

Medibank rival NIB has seen its share price rise by more than 30 per cent each year for the past three years.

"There is certainly an appetite for Medibank private," he said.

Another attraction for investors was the tendency for privatisation of government enterprises to produce greater efficiency, mainly through cost cutting.

"You tend to see staff costs coming off quite heavily and a lot of bureaucracy coming out of the businesses as well," he said.

"Inside 18 months a business that was maybe struggling under a government arm is all of a sudden very profitable because of those changes that private enterprise can enact," he said.

Within a few years of its float, Telstra announced plans to sack 16,000 staff, while rail operator Aurizon has axed at least 1,600 jobs since it was sold by the Queensland government in 2010.

Australian investors have traditionally done very well out of government sell-offs in the long-term.

Commonwealth Bank was floated at $5.40 per share in 1991, and is today trading at around $76 a share, having paid out a considerable amount in dividends along the way.

Vaccine maker CSL, which was floated at $2.30 per share in 1994, now trades above $70 per share.

An obvious exception is the second offering of shares in Telstra at $7.40 each, which then fell sharply.

Fifteen years on, the shares are still worth less than investors paid for them, though Mr Lucas said those who bought into the first and third Telstra offerings fared much better.

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