Labor criticises changes to fire payments

DEPUTY opposition leader Tanya Plibersek has lashed out at the government for changing eligibility for bushfire victims to receive emergency funds as NSW communities reel from devastating fires.

"Australians certainly didn't vote for cuts to disaster-affected communities," Ms Plibersek told the South Australian ALP conference on Saturday.

"At this time when there is so much devastation, why would you withdraw that very modest amount that governments have given in the past to support people who are affected?"

Federal government payments of $1000 per adult and $400 per child are now available to people who are injured or whose homes are destroyed or damaged in the fires.

It's currently being offered to affected people in the local government areas of the Blue Mountains, Lake Macquarie, Lithgow, Muswellbrook, Port Macquarie-Hastings, Port Stephens, Wingecarribee, Wyong, and Wollondilly.

But Ms Plibersek said people who had to flee the fires then return to find their home still standing but in need of serious clean-up efforts would miss out.

In contrast, she said, payments under the Labor government helped 400,000 people clean up after the 2011 Queensland floods and another 63,000 after the 2009 Victorian bushfires.

She acknowledged Prime Minister Tony Abbott had praised people fighting the fires and given personal assistance to the effort.

Earlier in the week, Assistant Minister for Social Services Mitch Fifield said the eligibility changes were designed to ensure people most in need got assistance first and the government would continue to assess the situation.

Ministers responsible for the payments were asked for further comment on Saturday.

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Teen charged over Qld motel shooting

A MAN who allegedly opened fire at a Sunshine Coast motel is in custody.

Police say a man threatened a 29-year-old woman at a motel on Buderim's King Street on Thursday afternoon.

They say when the woman ran out the back door of the room, he fired a shot through the front wall.

Investigators have since charged a 19-year-old South Gladstone man with two counts of unlawful possession of a weapon, and one count each of threatening violence and attempted armed robbery.

The man is due to appear in the Maroochydore Magistrates Court on November 11.

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Vic teen may have fallen from roof: police

A MELBOURNE teenager who died in "unusual circumstances" may have fallen from a roof, police say.

The 14-year-old boy was found by family members with head injuries in the driveway of a Balwyn home, in the same street he lived in.

An ambulance took him to hospital around 5am (AEDT) on Saturday, but he later died.

Paramedics had been called to reports of a fall.

Victoria Police Sergeant Graeme Rodgers said the death was unusual given where the teenager was found.

"It's unusual circumstances in which the young person has died," he told reporters at the scene.

"Very tragic. Young male, full of life, enjoyed his sports and for some unknown reason has tragically died."

A police spokeswoman said they are investigating whether the boy fell from the roof.

Forensic officers set up a ladder to the roof of the home's carport on Saturday morning and scoured the area.

Homicide squad detectives have been called in to help local police.

A post-mortem examination will be held later to determine a cause of death.

The spokeswoman would not confirm media reports that the death is no longer being treated as suspicious.

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Another month of fixes for Obamacare

The White House says the bug plagued website for Obamacare scheme will be fixed by end of November. Source: AAP

THE end of November. That's when the Obama administration now says the new, trouble-plagued website for uninsured Americans to get health care coverage will be working well.

After a week of intensive diagnostics, the administration acknowledged on Friday the site has dozens of complex problems and tapped a private company to oversee fixes.

Jeffrey Zients, a management consultant brought in by the White House to assess the situation, told reporters his review found dozens of issues across the entire system.

It will take a lot of work, but Zients declared that HealthCare.gov is fixable. He stopped short of saying problems will completely vanish.

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Iran hangs 16 in reprisal for border clash

GUNMEN have killed at least 14 Iranian guards on the Pakistani border, in a rugged area used by drug traffickers, prompting Tehran to retaliate by hanging 16 "rebels," reports say.

The ambush on the porous border happened on Friday night in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, home to a large community of minority Sunni Muslims, unlike the rest of Shi'ite-dominated Iran.

"Fourteen border guards were killed during armed clashes in the region of Saravan, and five others were wounded," the official IRNA news agency said on Saturday, citing what it called an informed source.

The unnamed source identified the gunmen as "bandits or rebels opposed to the Islamic republic".

In retaliation for the attack, the Iranian authorities said that on Saturday they executed 16 "rebels" held at a prison in the region.

"Sixteen rebels linked to groups hostile to the regime were hanged this morning in the prison of Zahedan in response to the death of border guards in Saravan," Mohammad Marzieh, attorney general of Sistan-Baluchestan, was quoted as saying by Fars news agency.

"We warned the rebel groups that any attack targeting civilians or members of the security forces would not go unanswered," he added.

Deputy Interior Minister Ali Abdollahi said that the guards had been killed during the ambush set by Iranians who were "members of hostile groups".

He added that "three soldiers have been taken hostage and taken to the other side of the border in Pakistan," without giving further details.

The region has seen bloody clashes over the past few years and officials say that more than 4000 police officers and soldiers have been killed in three decades of fighting with drug traffickers.

Iran is a major transit route for drugs that originate in Afghanistan and is trafficked across its territory, with much of it bound for Western countries.

People smugglers also use the route to traffick illegal immigrants to Europe, via Iran and Turkey.

The Islamic republic says it is fighting a deadly war against drug traffickers who make up half its prison population.

But Sunni militant group Jundallah (Soldiers of God) has also launched attacks on civilians and officials in Sistan-Baluchestan, including a December 2010 suicide bombing in the city of Shabahar that killed 39 people.

The Iranian authorities hanged 11 suspected members of Jundallah at Zahedan prison in December 2010 in response to the deadly bombing of the Shi'ite mourning procession in Shabahar.

Jundallah, whose leader Abdolmalek Rigi was hanged in June 2010, has been waging a deadly insurgency in southeastern Iran for almost a decade.

The group says it is fighting for the rights of the ethnic Sunni Baluchis who make up a significant part of the province's population.

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Bronco turned outlaw bikie denied bail

A FORMER Brisbane Bronco turned outlaw motorcycle gang member has been denied bail over drug trafficking charges under harsh new laws designed to stop bikies walking free.

Michael Spence, 25, was one of eight men arrested on Wednesday in a police sting targeting the alleged ice trafficking outfit.

Spence was the sergeant-at-arms of the Hells Angels' Brisbane chapter and alleged debt collector for accused ringleaders and gang members Bruno and Nuno Da Silva.

The trio resigned from the gang nine days before contentious new laws targeting bikies were passed on October 17.

Under one part of the law, criminal gang members who apply for bail must now show cause as to why they should be released.

Spence's lawyer Jeff Hunter argued in the Brisbane Magistrates Court the new laws were passed too late to apply to his client, and that the case against him was weak.

But Chief Magistrate Tim Carmody ruled that the new bail laws did apply to Spence and ordered he be remanded in custody.

Mr Carmody accepted the argument by prosecutors that although Spence had resigned from the Hells Angels he was still in an allegedly criminal organisation by trafficking drugs with the Da Silvas.

He criticised the prosecution's material as "limited", but rejected Spence's lawyer's argument that the police case was too weak to keep the former footballer in prison.

There was enough information to show the prosecution had evidence capable of securing a conviction, the magistrate said.

"Accordingly the applicant has failed to discharge his onus and show cause why bail should be granted," Mr Carmody said.

Spence was remanded in custody until his next court appearance on January 20.

The Da Silva brothers' bail applications have been adjourned until Monday.

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Cambodian opposition rallies wrap up

Cambodian opposition supporters wrapped up protests against what they claim was a rigged election. Source: AAP

ABOUT 20,000 Cambodian opposition supporters have wrapped up a three-day demonstration to petition foreign embassies and the United Nations for intervention in what they claim was a rigged election.

While the international community is very unlikely to intervene in Cambodia's domestic affairs, the rallies served to highlight the opposition's demand for an independent probe into the July 28 poll, which it says returned Prime Minister Hun Sen to power illegitimately.

Throngs of cheering demonstrators marched through the capital this week as they delivered petitions to the French, British, US, Australian, Russian, Japanese, Indonesian and Chinese embassies and to the UN human rights office. The rallies ended peacefully.

The Australian embassy said in a statement on Friday that it had received the petition and that its ambassador, Alison Burrows, "urged both parties to continue their dialogue including on electoral reform." Official election results extended Hun Sen's 28-year rule and gave his party 68 seats in parliament, compared to 55 for the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party. The party says it was cheated out of a victory and that it will boycott parliament until the government has met its demands.

According to the petition - which the opposition says was thumb printed by 2 million people - the Cambodian government's failure to investigate election irregularities and its inauguration of the National Assembly without the opposition "take Cambodia back to a one-party system of governance."

The three-day demonstration coincides with the 22nd anniversary of the 1991 Paris Peace Accords on Cambodia, which laid the groundwork for UN-sponsored elections after the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge and years of civil war that followed. The countries that received opposition petitions were all signatories to the 1991 Accords.

The government denies election fraud, and has rejected opposition demands for an independent investigation. It maintains that its inauguration of a new parliament in September was legitimate and has filled parliamentary commissions with ruling party members.

Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, said that intervention from abroad was "not going to happen." Moreover, he said, seeking outside help was counterproductive to building democracy from within Cambodia.

"By going abroad, you're actually re-confirming this attitude of we need to depend on the UN jumping out of the sky, out of a plane or whatever, to rescue us," he said.

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UK police seize parts from 3D-printed gun

BRITISH police say they have seized components of a gun made from plastic on a 3-D printer.

The Greater Manchester Police force says a plastic magazine and trigger were seized along with a 3-D printer in a raid against suspected gang members.

The parts are being tested to see whether the gun would have worked.

Police said on Friday that if the gun was viable it would be the first such seizure in Britain.

Earlier this year a Texas company said it had successfully test-fired a handgun created with a 3-D printer. Such printers can be paired with a home computer to manufacture objects using layers of high-density plastic.

Authorities worry the technology could allow anyone to manufacture guns which would pass unnoticed through metal detectors.

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Energy costs push switch to new-builds

An industry body has found that older homeowners in the UK are opting for new-build properties. Source: AAP

OLDER people in the UK are increasingly opting for "cheaper to run" new-build homes amid surging energy costs, an industry body has found.

There has also been a marked drop in the proportion of under-25s purchasing a brand new property over the past five years, according to the National House Building Council (NHBC).

The proportion of newly constructed homes that are sold to over-55s has increased by one third from 17 per cent to 23 per cent since 2008.

The NHBC, a non-profit body which provides warranties and insurance for new-build properties, put the rise down to older people favouring houses that are well-insulated and require little maintenance.

Bosses of Britain's big six energy firms have been summoned to appear before a committee of MPs on the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee next Tuesday to explain a new round of price rises after SSE, British Gas, npower and ScottishPower all announced increases of more than STG100 ($A169.35) to an average dual fuel bill.

"Our figures show that the proportion of over-55s purchasing these properties has increased to nearly a quarter, while the numbers of young people buying new homes has decreased slightly," said Richard Tamayo, NHBC's commercial director.

"New homes are a particularly attractive option for the older generation as they are cheaper to run, easier to maintain, safer and provide protection through an NHBC warranty."

The NHBC figures also offer further evidence that young people are struggling to get a foothold on the property ladder despite schemes such as NewBuy and the first phase of Help to Buy.

The share of new-build properties sold to under-25s dropped from over 8 per cent in 2008 to just under 6 per cent this year, a fall of a quarter.

Mr Tamayo said the findings showed that young people were still "finding it difficult to access the market".

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Artist turns disaster to artistic triumph

NSW artist Stephen King has won Sydney's 17th Sculpture By The Sea exhibition for Fallout. Source: AAP

THE Fukushima nuclear disaster inspired the sculptor who has won top prize at this year's Sculpture By The Sea in Sydney.

Stephen King, from Walcha, NSW, was awarded the $60,000 Macquarie Group Sculpture Prize - the highest cash prize for sculpture in NSW - for his work titled Fallout.

At the announcement on Friday, founding director of Sculpture By The Sea, David Handley, noted that King had been close to winning the main prize at the annual event a number of times.

King said his winning work had been inspired by the fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, but the wooden structure's concept and construction had morphed over three years.

King has been exhibiting in Australia and internationally since 1979. His work of the last 30 years will be the subject of a touring survey exhibition at Tamworth Regional Gallery in 2014.

Sculpture By The Sea, in its 17th year, is showing 106 diverse sculptures along the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk. The works are by artists from 14 countries.

The exhibition, which is free to the public, runs until Sunday, November 10 and is expected to attract 500,000 visitors.

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Mercedes sales boost Daimler profits

GERMAN car maker Daimler AG says net profit rose 53 per cent in the third quarter, helped by stronger performance from its luxury brand, Mercedes-Benz.

Net income rose to 1.90 billion euros ($A2.74 billion) from 1.24 billion euros in the same period a year ago. Revenue rose 5 per cent to 30.1 billion euros.

The company on Thursday credited an expanded range of compact cars that helped boost sales. Mercedes sold 14 per cent more cars in the period and raised its operating earnings by 23 per cent to 1.20 billion euros.

CEO Dieter Zetsche said in a statement that "this shows the high investments we have made were money well spent."

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Former fiery killed in Vic plane crash

A FORMER senior Victorian firefighter who died in a light plane crash in the state's north has been remembered as a much-loved community member.

Peter Brereton from Euroa in north-east Victoria has been identified as the pilot who died after his light plane crashed in Victoria's alpine region.

The wreckage of the single-engine Cessna was found by a search helicopter about 20km west of Mt Hotham on Thursday morning.

Mr Brereton had been in the Country Fire Authority (CFA) for 39 years and was a former officer in charge of the Shepparton fire brigade.

He was on long-service leave pending retirement at the time of the crash, where he was understood to be doing private work to help out with the NSW bushfire effort.

CFA regional director for the Hume region, Peter O'Keefe, said Mr Brereton was highly regarded among his colleagues.

"He was one of our much respected senior officers in the CFA," Mr O'Keefe said.

"Peter was a very capable, thorough and much respected crew member, greatly experienced and a very thorough and thoughtful person.

"By virtue of his job, he was well known, well respected, much loved and he'll be sadly missed."

Mr O'Keefe said one of Mr Brereton's passions was flying and he was an experienced pilot.

"He did have that passion. He'd flown planes all around Australia," he said.

Mr Brereton's plane went missing after it took off from Moruya on the far south coast of NSW at 8.15am (AEDT) on Wednesday and never made it to its destination at Mangalore Airport, about two hours north of Melbourne.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is investigating.

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NSW bushfire crisis refuses to let up

The RFS Commissioner became emotional as he spoke of the firefighter pilot who was killed in NSW. Source: AAP

A FIREFIGHTING pilot has become the second fatality of the NSW bushfire crisis as the biggest blaze in the state edged closer to homes.

The 43-year-old pilot was killed when his fixed wing waterbomber crashed in rugged country on the south coast on Thursday morning as he fought a blaze near Ulladulla.

Fires prevented rescue crews retrieving his body from the difficult terrain.

A day after lauding the great work of firefighters who averted the greatest threat of the week-long crisis on Wednesday, Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons became emotional as he spoke of tragedy.

"We've suffered a huge tragedy on one of our firegrounds today," said Mr Fitzsimmons, who lost his own father fighting a fire 13 years ago.

"It's a tragedy for the fire fighting community but first and foremost it's a tragedy for this man's family.

"He's a husband with young children and we're all acutely aware that there's a family suffering today because their dad didn't come home."

Mr Fitzsimmons said the father of three, who was a contractor for the RFS, was doing extraordinary work and "making a real difference to his community."

"It's a sober reminder just how dangerous fire fighting can be."

Some 60 bushfires continued to burn across NSW and tiny bush communities on the fringes of the Blue Mountains spent much of the day on emergency notice as the massive State Mine Fire flared up.

The State Mine Fire has burned through nearly 50,000 hectares since it was sparked during an army explosives training operation near Lithgow last week.

Waterbombing operations in the area have helped crews gain the upper hand and the fire was downgraded back to watch and act early on Thursday evening.

Mr Fitzsimmons said the tiny communities of Mount Irvine and Mount Wilson had been forced to shelter in place because fire had blocked major access roads, while residents from Berambing and Mount Tomah were able to flee east towards Bilpin.

The Department of Defence apologised on Thursday for starting the State Mine Fire, which has already destroyed three homes.

Acting Chief of Defence, Air Marshall Mark Binskin, said a small fire that started during a routine training exercise at Marrangaroo on October 16 was responsible for the blaze.

"I do apologise, because it has been identified that this fire was the start of this mine fire," he told reporters at RFS headquarters in Sydney on Thursday.

Defence has launched its own investigation into the incident.

Defence personnel acted quickly after an explosion sparked a small blaze but were hampered by the live ordnance around them.

"This was not deliberately starting a fire, this was an accident as part of a training activity on a day there wasn't a fire ban," Air Marshall Binskin told reporters.

He said Defence was "not shying from our responsibilities" but stopped short of offering compensation to those affected by the bushfire.

An RFS spokesman has warned there will be little respite for communities who have been on edge for over a week and for the 1400 firefighters still on the job.

He told reporters late on Thursday that high fire danger weather was likely to linger for at least the next three or four days.

He conceded any residents who are asked to leave their homes yet again may become "frustrated" but he's urged people in bushfire areas to continue to heed official warnings, saying the danger remains real.

Governor General Quentin Bryce will tour bushfire hit parts of the mountains on Friday.

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Don't play politics with RBA, Wong says

The opposition has accused Treasurer Joe Hockey of playing politics with the Reserve Bank. Source: AAP

THE opposition has accused Treasurer Joe Hockey of playing politics with the Reserve Bank of Australia, while a former RBA board member says the treasurer's predecessor, Wayne Swan, is guilty of economic vandalism.

Mr Hockey this week announced a one-off $8.8 billion grant to the RBA to buffer it against what he said was an volatile economic environment.

The treasurer described it as a necessary measure that should have been taken by the former Labor government, which instead withdrew "extraordinary" dividends from the RBA and weakened its position.

That sparked an angry response from former finance minister Penny Wong on Thursday, who accused Mr Hockey of playing politics with the RBA.

The central bank should be above politics, she said.

"It really demonstrates that Joe hasn't quite made the transition from opposition to being the treasurer of the Commonwealth of Australia," Senator Wong told Sky News.

"The suggestion that he made that this was because, that Labor somehow had been asked for this, or that Labor had somehow done something wrong in relation to the RBA isn't correct."

Warren McKibbon, whose 10-year tenure on the RBA board was not extended by Mr Swan in July 2011, later told ABC's 730 on Thursday that the year his term expired the RBA had made a large loss due to the high Australian dollar.

The following year there was a small profit of over a billion dollars, he said.

"The treasurer was requested not to extract that from the balance sheet of the bank," he said.

"He ignored that request and took half a billion dollars so that he could reach the budget surplus in 2012/13.

"That to me is economic vandalism."

Mr Swan, who was judged by Euromoney magazine in 2011 as the world's greatest treasurer, told 730 he was not surprised by Mr McKibbon's criticism after not reappointing him to the RBA board.

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Mackenzie backs BHP's green credentials

BHP Billiton boss Andrew Mackenzie has defended the resource giant's environmental credentials in the face of criticism from a former chairman of the Australian Coal Association.

Ian Dunlop, now an environmental campaigner, is standing for election to the company's board claiming BHP doesn't understand the threat posed by dangerous climate change.

"Climate change is relevant to us all," Mr Mackenzie said on Thursday at the company's AGM in London.

"As a significant user of energy, we are working to drive down our greenhouse gas intensity and we are seeing results.

"Our current emissions are below our 2006 baseline despite the substantial growth of our business since then."

Mr Mackenzie, addressing his first AGM as chief executive after replacing Marius Kloppers earlier this year, insisted "we are environmentally responsible".

BHP is Melbourne-based, but is listed in both Australia and London. The Australian AGM will be held in November in Perth.

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Safe to return home: RFS

A fire at Springwood was elevated to the highest emergency level after being fanned by strong winds. Source: AAP

THE worst of the unparalleled fire risk faced by the Blue Mountains has been averted as it emerged army explosives training started the massive blaze which has threatened thousands of homes and lives.

The Rural Fire Service (RFS) said an investigation had found the Department of Defence training exercise last week was responsible for causing the State Mine blaze near Lithgow which has burnt out more than 46,000 hectares and sparked fears of turning into a "mega-fire".

"The investigation has concluded the fire started as a result of exploding ordinances on the range on (last) Wednesday," a RFS spokesman said.

But the department would not confirm its responsibility on Wednesday, only repeating it was investigating the exercise on army land at Marrangaroo.

After the anticipated dire conditions arrived in the mountains and the Hunter region on Wednesday, RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said high risk strategies from firefighters had paid off.

"We have seen today, and indeed building throughout the week, one of the most significant threats to the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury communities that is unparalleled," he said.

"Never before have we seen the extent of damage and destruction and wide scale fire activity at this time of the year."

But, late on Wednesday afternoon, he followed that with words the hundreds of Blue Mountains residents who had left their homes had been hoping to hear.

"It would be safe to head back home tonight because the risk has been averted," he said.

Only one fire, near Gateshead at Lake Macquarie, remained subject to an emergency alert early on Wednesday evening.

Mr Fitzsimmons said the Gateshead fire was now burning right through the middle of the two towns it had initially threatened - Redhead and Dudley.

As hot and windy conditions began to ease on Wednesday afternoon, a major blaze at Minmi that closed the M1 near Newcastle and caused the evacuation of two schools was also downgraded to watch and act.

The Springwood blaze in the Blue Mountains, which had showered homes with embers as strong winds sprang up earlier on Wednesday has also been downgraded.

After all schools in the Blue Mountains were closed on Wednesday, only a select few will be closed on Thursday.

Mr Fitzsimmons said he was surprised backburning in the Blue Mountains had held out in the extreme fire conditions.

Authorities are preparing for a south westerly change on Thursday that will bring lower temperatures but could still pose a risk to some communities.

"It has the very real potential to present new challenges and particularly in the northern end of the Winmalee Springwood fire where you could see ... that fire could pose threats tomorrow to communities in the Yarramundi Valley area and communities up through Grose Valley and communities to the north east," Mr Fitzsimmons said.

He warned there was still a lot of difficult and dangerous firefighting ahead, possibly for weeks.

Premier Barry O'Farrell lauded the "magnificent planning and preparation" of the emergency services which helped avert the worst.

As of 6pm on Wednesday, there were still 73 fires burning in NSW and 29 uncontained blazes, but no further loss to property.

While the risk was averted, fire activity throughout the day instilled fear in many communities.

Minmi Hotel kitchen manager and chef Sharon Wilson was holed up inside the hotel waiting for instructions from firefighters during the day.

"We've been spraying the pub down and the grass around it," she told AAP.

"There's a lot of embers and ash flying over us."

Two schools were also evacuated in the Minmi area.

Springwood resident Rae Tebbutt said the atmosphere in the normally carefree community was tense.

"Everyone is terrified. I've got three friends who have lost everything," she told AAP.

Ten public schools in the Blue Mountains will remain closed on Thursday.

"The wide scale nature of school closures today will not continue tomorrow simply because the risk for those areas will not be as widespread and will not affect the broad area of the Blue Mountains," Mr Fitzsimmons said.

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Safe to return home: RFS

Residents of the Blue Mountain have been advised by the RFS that it's safe to return to their homes. Source: AAP

THE major fire threat has been averted and it is safe for Blue Mountains residents to return to their homes, NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said.

Mr Fitzsimmons said the high risk strategies of firefighters have paid off in extreme conditions on Wednesday.

He said residents who left the mountains earlier in the day can return in the early evening.

"It would be safe to head back home tonight because the risk has been averted," he said.

Hundreds of Blue Mountains residents had fled their fire-threatened homes for evacuation centres outside the mountains.

Mr Fitzsimmons paid tribute to the emergency services and the community for heeding the advice of the RFS as fires flared up in the mountains and new blazes erupted in the Hunter region near Newcastle.

But he warned there was still a lot of difficult and dangerous firefighting being carried out.

Premier Barry O'Farrell lauded the "magnificent planning and preparation" which helped avert the worst on a day Mr Fitzsimmons had said would be "as bad as it gets".

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YMCA fell short on best practice: inquiry

THE YMCA was not meeting best practice at a Sydney child care centre when it was assessed by the NSW Department of Education after allegations were made against staff member Jonathan Lord.

Ruth Callaghan, the department's general manager of early education and care directorate gave evidence at the national inquiry into child sex abuse in Sydney on Wednesday.

She said there was an unannounced visit to the Caringbah centre by a department monitoring team in January 2012.

Lord was stood down by the YMCA in late 2011.

While the visit was not totally related to Lord, the team was monitoring how the centre was adapting to major legal changes around childcare provision, she said.

The new law had only been in place for two weeks at that stage, but it provided for the first time a standardised national regulation of child care services.

The directorate team that visited Caringbah found the centre was complying with the requirements, but some follow-up actions were needed.

One of them was the use of personal vehicles to transport children.

Over the past few days, the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, has heard that Lord, a former YMCA worker, drove children in his car during outings.

Lord is serving 10 years in jail for sexual assaults on children, with most of the offences occurring when he was employed at YMCA.

In response to a question from Gail Furness SC for the commission, Ms Callaghan said: "Based on what I know of the monitoring visit, I would not say that the evidence I have indicates best practice by the YMCA."

There were two subsequent visits to Caringbah, an educational one in June 2012 and another monitoring one in May this year.

In May a number of areas of non-compliance were identified, including that an educator didn't have a Working With Children Check (WWCC).

Commission chair Justice Peter McClellan said the YMCA did have a substantial policy book but he asked Ms Callaghan if there was any process where the directorate could check whether staff actually knew the policies and were capable of implementing them.

She said the directorate staff would not quiz childcare staff but said overall assessment and rating certainly included scrutiny around staff qualifications.

Earlier on Wednesday, the commission heard from YMCA child care workers who were based in south Sydney where Lord had also worked.

Chloe Starr, who was trained for two weeks by Lord to take over his job as co-ordinator at St Patrick's Child Care Centre, said he was like a role model.

"I was put in the beginning, in sort of like a role model type role with Jon. I worked with him and he was showing me how to run the centre," she said.

Ms Starr said she didn't see him do anything unusual.

"When I was being trained by him I thought he was very enthusiastic and had a passion for his job."

The commission heard that Lord, who was in his early 20s at the time, had babysitting jobs on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

In retrospect Ms Starr said she thought this suspicious.

Ms Starr who had a casual job at YMCA when she was still at school, said she did not provide a resume, references or referees before getting the full-time job as co-ordinator.

She had no recollection of receiving any child protection training.

Both she and other workers say it was only after the Lord allegations that child protection training became compulsory.

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Melbourne raincoat robber on the run

VICTORIAN police are searching for a robber in a yellow raincoat who was last seen with a knife tied around his neck, fleeing on a bicycle.

He robbed a convenience store in St Albans in Melbourne's west about 2.15am (AEDT) on October 9 after demanding cash from the attendant.

He then fled on a push bike and was last seen riding south along Station Road in Deer Park.

The man was wearing a knife tied around his neck on a lanyard and carrying a black and red tool box.

He was also wearing a yellow rain coat, black trousers, work boots and black sunglasses.

He is described as aged between 30-40 and about 170cm to 175cm tall.

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Dedication for cops murdered by Kelly gang

THE "cultural adoration" of bushranger Ned Kelly led the three policemen murdered by his gang to suffer an injustice in death, Victoria's top cop says.

Chief Commissioner Ken Lay will attend a dedication service on Thursday of the graves of Constables Scanlan and Lonigan and Sergeant Kennedy who were murdered by the Kelly Gang.

Mr Lay says the policemen became nothing more than footnotes in history while debate raged on about the historical meaning of Kelly.

"It is a shame that in death, another indignity befell Sergeant Kennedy and Constables Lonigan and Scanlan," he said in a statement.

"They became pawns in the long-running historical conjecture about the meaning of Ned Kelly.

"In other words, they became nothing more than footnotes to the lives and excesses of those who killed them."

Mr Lay said the simple fact was that these policemen were asked to do a difficult and dangerous task because it was their job to do it.

"There was barbarism and loneliness in their final moments, and the cultural adoration of their killers doesn't change that," he said.

Mr Lay will be joined by Police Minister Kim Wells for the service at Mansfield cemetery, northeast of Melbourne, on Thursday afternoon.

Kelly was hanged in 1880 for shooting dead the three policeman.

He was laid to rest in January this year beside the unmarked grave of his mother at a cemetery in the tiny northeast Victorian town of Greta, not far from Glenrowan where he had his last stand in June 1880.

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Debt ceiling lifted as audit announced

Treasurer Joe Hockey will ask parliament to lift the cap on borrowings to $500 billion. Source: AAP

TREASURER Joe Hockey will ask parliament to lift the cap on borrowings to $500 billion to give the federal government room to cope with global economic uncertainty.

The federal cabinet decision comes as Mr Hockey announced that Business Council of Australia president Tony Shepherd will head a wide-ranging commission of audit to ensure spending is controlled and the debt ceiling is not breached.

The audit, which mirrors that undertaken by John Howard after he won the 1996 election, will look for ways the government can save money, remove duplication and raise extra revenue to balance the books.

Mr Hockey said he's been advised the existing debt limit of $300 billion would be reached on December 12 and was projected to exceed $400 billion by 2015/16.

"We need to move quickly to deal with this, particularly in the wake of what has been revealed in the United States in recent times," Mr Hockey said.

"This is a significant issue and we need to put it beyond any doubt so we do not have to revisit this issue again."

The government wants a buffer between $40 billion and $60 billion for "unanticipated events".

Mr Hockey said the commission of audit would help fix the "legacy of a bad Labor government".

Assisting Mr Shepherd will be former Howard government minister Amanda Vanstone, NSW prices watchdog chairman Peter Boxall, former Treasury secretary Tony Cole and former trade official Robert Fisher.

The commission will report on its initial work by January and finalise its report by the end of March.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann says the previous Labor government had boosted government spending by $120 billion over the six years from 2007/08 - a real increase of more than four per cent a year.

The audit will look at whether the states, local councils, charities or the private sector can take on some of the roles now played by the commonwealth.

It will also examine the use of new technology to streamline services, privatising assets, new charges for services, merging agencies and the wide-ranging "anything that is reasonably necessary or desirable to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government generally".

Senator Cormann said the only asset the government currently intended to sell was Medibank Private, with details released soon.

The commission is to find savings equal to one per cent of gross domestic product before 2023/24 and its findings will be adopted in the 2014/15 budget.

Opposition finance spokesman Tony Burke said the government was already breaking election promises.

"They have a commission which is aimed at cuts which will go all the way across all areas - areas we were told were immune are not immune," Mr Burke said.

"And the party that said they were all about turning around debt has now asked for permission to go to half a trillion dollars."

He said Labor would want to see updated budget projections before voting but would deal with the debt ceiling legislation "responsibly".

Public sector union boss Nadine Flood said such audits were a "shopping list for razor gangs".

Business Council chief Jennifer Westacott said the community should welcome the review as an act of a responsible government.

Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia chief Lee White said the commission needed to adopt a return-on-investment approach to cost savings to ensure savings in the long term.

"One of the central mandates of the commission should be to assess which policies and programs deliver a strong return on investment versus those that underperform," he said.

"Some savings measures could unintentionally have an adverse affect on our economic outlook, so they need to be talked through with experts and other stakeholders in the relevant industries to ensure they are structured correctly," he said.

Mr Hockey said the government's pre-election promises of paid parental leave and not making cuts to the budgets of health, education, defence and health and medical research would remain.

"But it doesn't mean that you can't identify waste in those areas and reallocate it to other priorities in the same portfolio," he said.

"The suggestion that there isn't waste in budgets of tens of billions of dollars is absurd. So what we've got to do is prioritise the expenditure in those areas but overall the envelope of committed expenditure in those areas will continue."

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Funding 'unacceptable' for 200 NSW schools

The Teachers Federation has criticised the NSW government's new school funding model. Source: AAP

THE NSW Teachers Federation says it is "unacceptable" that nearly 190 schools will receive less money under the state's new needs-based funding model.

While they said the new system announced by the government on Tuesday is a "significant development", it was "unacceptable" that 187 schools could be as much as $50,000 a year worse off.

"On behalf of these school communities, the Federation will be calling on the Minister to allocate the relatively modest amount of additional funding required to ensure no school dips below current funding levels," President Maurie Mulheron said in a statement.

She also criticised the government's Resource Allocation Model, which will see schools, rather than the government, manage their budget, saying it opens the way for buck-passing.

"Devolving responsibility for budgets, resources and staffing to the local school level like this has been used to blame school principals and staff for the shortfalls and problems caused by a reduction in government investment," she said.

The new system distributes money based on students' socio-economic backgrounds.

The funding, which includes an additional $100 million from the federal government's Gonski agreement, will be rolled out across state schools from next year.

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Bikie gangs akin to the mafia: Bleijie

Queensland's attorney-general has likened criminal bikie gangs to the mafia. Source: AAP

CRIMINAL bikie gangs are Australia's answer to the mafia, Queensland's attorney-general says.

Jarrod Bleijie says he has no self-doubt about his crackdown on outlaw bikie gangs, despite savage criticism from civil libertarians and lawyers who represent bikies.

During an interview on Fairfax radio, he agreed with one caller's views that outlaw motorcycle gangs are Australia's answer to the mafia.

"Yeah, these are criminal gangs, criminal bikie organisations," Mr Bleijie said.

He again acknowledged there would be a transition period where some law abiding riders could be caught up as police work to nab bikie criminals.

"There is going to be a level of inconvenience," he said.

"As we all get pulled over for random breath tests, when you get screened at the airport, there is a level of inconvenience.

"The feedback I'm getting from motorcycle riders (is) they are happy for a period of time to undergo that period of inconvenience if we are getting the bad guys off the street."

A lawyer who acts for members of unnamed outlaw bikie gangs on Monday said he'd mount a High Court challenge to the new anti-bikie laws as soon as possible, arguing they are unconstitutional.

Peter Shields says the laws have been so poorly crafted that clients of his have been left with no process by which they could satisfy police they'd severed their gang links.

"Someone from the government, who is responsible for this legislation, needs to put in writing what it is a bikie must do so they're no longer considered a bikie," Mr Shields said.

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China faces human rights scrutiny in UN

FACED with a United Nations review of its human rights, China has acknowledged it still faces shortcomings but insists it has reduced poverty, deepened judicial reforms and protections of ethnic minorities.

China put its pride and promise to better itself on display on Tuesday at the UN's Human Rights Council, which reviews each nation's record once every four years.

But at the same time human rights groups and activists called attention to what they described as serious abuses and violations of international protections such as crackdowns on human rights defenders and ethnic Tibetan and Uighur populations.

A special envoy for China's foreign ministry, Wu Hailong, launched the three-hour session in the 47-nation Council with a speech that the nation has made many improvements but acknowledged the difficulties of a big, fast-growing country with more than 1.3 billion people and 56 ethnic groups.

Other nations called for better treatment of women, disabled people, and ethnic minorities and for a wide range of judicial improvements, such as an easing in death penalty cases and detentions of human rights defenders.

China said that since the last such review in 2009, when it accepted 42 recommendations by other countries, the country had reduced poverty, deepened reforms of the judicial systems and protections for ethnic minority groups, along with helping to spread "the right to development" among other developing countries.

"We are soberly aware that China still faces many difficulties and challenges in promoting and protecting human rights," Wu told the Geneva-based Council.

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Thailand mulls tourist medical fee

Thailand is set to impose a $A16.60 entry fee on tourists. Source: AAP

THAILAND is mulling slapping a 500-baht ($A16.60) entry fee on tourists to help cover foreigners' unpaid medical bills at hospitals, officials say.

"The policy is the result of foreign tourists who have accidents or fall sick in Thailand and seek treatment at our hospitals but then can't pay their bills," the Health Ministry's Deputy Permanent Secretary Charnvit Phrathep said on Tuesday.

Foreign tourists' unpaid hospital bills cost the state about 700 million baht ($A23.25 million) per year, according to the ministry.

"We try to send the bills on to the respective embassies but they always say they have no budgets," Charnvit said.

"We will be the first country to implement such a policy, but Britain and Cambodia are considering something similar."

The Interior Ministry, Health Ministry and Tourism Ministry had agreed on the policy, Health Minister Pradit Sintavanarong said in an interview with the Bangkok Post over the weekend.

The ministries were to try to draw up a regulation that would not require new legislation, and implement it from January 1.

The new policy might help prevent "trash" tourists from entering the country, Pradit was quoted as saying.

The 500-baht fee would apply to air arrivals. Tourists entering by land would pay a fee of 30 baht per day spent in the country.

Charnvit acknowledged that most Western tourists had health insurance, but said they would still have to pay, and would benefit from the policy.

"In the longer term it will add value to the tourism industry," he said. "We think most foreigners can afford 500 baht and if they come here and have a heart attack they will be happy to know they can get treatment at the nearest hospital with no questions asked."

But representatives of the tourism sector were less enthusiastic, and warned of a possible deterrent to tourists.

The chairman of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, Martin Craig, told AAP the fee would drive travellers elsewhere.

"It's a sledgehammer to crack a nut and it doesn't smell right to me."

He said the fee would include a large number of Australian arrivals, now approaching one million a year. Samphan Panphat, adviser to the Thai Hotels Association, said most foreigners who came to Thailand on tours "already have medical insurance so this fee would be redundant".

"And there are questions about the transparency of the scheme.

"If Thailand does something strange like this, there could be a long-term negative impact on the whole industry," Samphan said.

Thailand last year attracted 22 million tourists, earning the country $US32 billion ($A33.22 billion) in foreign exchange revenues.

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17 die as truck falls into gorge in India

SEVENTEEN people returning from a wedding are dead after the truck they were riding in careened into a gorge in northern India.

Another 28 people were injured in the accident late on Sunday near Kaladungi, a town almost 400 kilometres northeast of New Delhi, police said.

The driver lost control of the vehicle following a brake failure on a mountainous road in Uttarakhand state, local officer, Dinesh Pant said.

He was among those killed.

The bride and the groom survived as they were in another vehicle, he said.

India has the world's deadliest roads, with more than 110,000 people killed annually. Most crashes are blamed on reckless driving, poorly maintained roads and aging vehicles.

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Microsoft pulls Windows update

Microsoft has pulled a Windows update for tablets from its website to fix a glitch. Source: AAP

MICROSOFT has pulled a Windows update from its website after it caused problems on some customers' devices.

The company didn't give details about the problems but says it's investigating. It removed the RT 8.1 update from the Windows store during the weekend.

In place of the update, Microsoft posted an apology for the problem and said it's trying to resolve the situation quickly. The company says it will give updates as soon as possible. It says the problem affected only a limited number of users.

The company says RT 8.1 is an operating system for tablets and light, thin personal computers. It only runs built-in apps or apps downloaded from the Windows store.

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8 Filipino troops killed in mine attacks

EIGHT Filipino soldiers and militiamen have been killed in separate land mine attacks launched by communist rebels in the southern Philippines.

Regional army spokesman Lieutenant Nasrulah Sema says about 50 New People's Army rebels detonated a land mine then opened fire on Monday on an army truck, killing seven soldiers and militiamen in a mountainous region in Tulunan town in North Cotabato province.

At the time, the soldiers were on their way to deliver cash allowances to militiamen at a rural outpost.

Sema said a truckload of soldiers was deployed to hunt down the attackers but they were hit by another land mine and came under rebel fire in a second attack that killed a soldier and wounded four others in North Cotabato's Makilala town.

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Firies get 24 hour reprieve before D-Day

Firefighters are warning of a return to high temperatures and dry winds across NSW on Monday. Source: AAP

FIREFIGHTERS battling on scorched firegrounds across NSW will have 24 hours of kinder weather before severe conditions return to test the state on Wednesday.

Sixty-two fires were burning across the state on Monday with 17 uncontained and emergency warnings for residents of the Blue Mountains townships of Bilpin, Berambing and Springwood.

Rural Fire Service (RFS) Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said the prospect of three fires in the Blue Mountains linking up to form a mega blaze may have been successfully thwarted by extensive backburning on Monday.

The Rural Fire Service is also hoping to capitalise on lower temperatures on Tuesday and a drop in the north easterly winds.

But Wednesday was shaping as "D-Day", the RFS said.

"The weather situation continues to firm up as being problematic over the next 48 hours with a continuance of similar conditions to today, albeit a marginal reduction of temperatures for tomorrow, before we see wind strengths dominate much of the fire affected areas," Mr Fitzsimmons said.

"But also more broadly right up through the Hunter and the Central Ranges Metropolitan and Illawarra regions, we can expect to see most of those areas with widespread severe fire danger ratings."

Mr Fitzsimmons said there was the potential for extreme fire danger in the greater Sydney area.

And, while the Springwood backburning may have averted a mega fire, there were still concerns the Mount Victoria and State Mine blazes will merge on the western edge of the mountains to form a massive fire.

"Earlier projections were that it had every potential of all three fires joining together," RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said.

"We can't rule it out but hopefully at this stage, with everything that's been going on in the last 24 hours or so, we've lessened the likelihood of that occurring."

Spotfires had hampered back burning efforts in the State Mine fire late on Monday, while lightning strikes across the state without any rainfall will also cause problems overnight, Mr Fitzsimmons said.

NSW remains in a state of emergency and premier Barry O'Farrell defended the powers emergency authorities have been handed to order evacuations.

"We do know in these situations at times there are people who resist the request of emergency authorities to leave, that not only puts their lives at risk but also puts at risk the lives of emergency personnel," he told ABC TV. "You do need to have these (powers), as draconian as they appear, to ensure that people obey the law at these times."

An emergency alert issued for Wilton in the NSW Southern Highlands from a fire at Balmoral was downgraded to watch and act on Monday night after residents were threatened by ember showers and spot fires.

Emergency alerts remained in place for the tiny village of Berambing on Monday night, with embers from the nearby State Mine Fire on Bells Line of Road blowing towards the community.

Residents in nearby Bilpin have also been told to shelter with increasing spot fire activity in the area.

Meanwhile five children, including an 11-year-old boy, have been arrested accused of lighting the blazes that ripped through parts of NSW last week.

Police arrested a 15-year-old and the 11-year-old for their alleged roles in a bushfire that burnt through 5000 hectares in the Hunter Valley, forced the Newcastle Airport to close and destroyed a number of sheds.

A 14-year-old was also arrested for allegedly lighting a fire at Rutherford on Sunday and two girls, 12 and 14, are accused of sparking a blaze at Bonnyrigg last Friday.

NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said it was disturbing young people had been arrested.

"We have been sending messages and the message I continue to send to parents is this: look after your children, understand where they are if you can, know who they are with, know what they are doing," he told reporters.

More than 200 homes have been lost in the bushfires, with the insurance bill hitting $94 million with 855 claims.

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Malala inspires school curriculum

A university the US is creating multimedia tools to accompany a book released by Malala Yousafzai. Source: AAP

THE 16-year-old Pakistani teen targeted for a Taliban assassination because she championed education for girls has inspired the development of a US school curriculum encouraging advocacy.

George Washington University announced on Monday that faculty members are creating multimedia curriculum tools to accompany a book recently released by Malala Yousafzai.

Several faculty members will pilot the curriculum early next year for both college and high school instruction.

Free of charge, it will focus on themes such as the importance of a woman's voice and political extremism, the university said.

The tools won't just look at the teen's story, but also how the same issues get reflected elsewhere, such as when girls face child marriage and pressures to leave school, said Mary Ellsberg, the director of the university's Global Women's Institute.

"It's going to be really interactive and really encourage students to do ... activities outside of school, it will encourage them to get engaged in the communities and as well to help the Malala Fund directly," Ellsberg said.

The university's Global Women's Institute is partnered with the Malala Fund, a nonprofit that seeks to ensure girls around the world have access to education.

In 2012 a Taliban gunman walked up to a bus taking Malala and other children home from school in Pakistan's volatile northern Swat Valley and shot Malala in the head and neck. Another girl on the bus was also wounded.

Malala now resides in Britain, where she was flown for medical care.

Her memoir is "I am Malala."

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