Blazes lit in Melbourne's botanic gardens

A 100-YEAR-OLD pavilion was damaged and two others destroyed by an arsonist in Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens.

Firefighters were called to a large blaze in the gardens just before 6am on Saturday and arrived to find two more fires burning.

Police said the arsonist was potentially in the gardens at the same time that firefighters arrived.

"It's too early to say, but it appears that they are all linked because obviously they were all in very close time frames," detective senior constable Megan MacInnes told reporters.

Professor Tim Entwisle, chief executive of the Botanic Gardens, said two buildings were destroyed and another significantly burned.

"Some plants were damaged doing this as well, which for us in the botanic gardens is just as distressing," Prof Entwisle said.

He said the Lakeview rest house is 100 years old and had been damaged, while the William Tell rest house had been burned down.

A toilet block was also burned down.

Prof Entwisle said security patrols spotted the fire, and said it was tough to keep people from getting in at night.

"It's very hard - without putting razor wire around the Botanic Garden - to absolutely keep people out," he said.

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Oprah helps Barbara Walters say goodbye

Oprah Winfrey and Hillary Clinton have surprised Barbara Walters as she taped her final edition of The View.

OPRAH Winfrey and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have surprised Barbara Walters as the legendary American newswoman taped her final edition of The View to end a five-decade career on television.

Actor Michael Douglas, a longtime friend and frequent subject for Walters' interviews, also dropped by for the tribute.

Looking smart in a cream-coloured blazer and a black skirt, the 84-year-old Walters was presiding over a studio audience of friends, colleagues and fans on hand to witness a bit of history.

Although she will retain a behind-the-scenes role as executive producer of the talk show she created 17 years ago, she is ending her daily on-air involvement, while limiting her appearances to the occasional story or interview.

Oprah has helped journalist Barbara Walters tape her final edition of the View and retire from TV.

"I can't believe this day has come, and I can't believe it's for real," Clinton told Walters, who began her career in 1962.

Typically, Walters couldn't let Clinton get away without fielding the question on so many minds: Is she running for president in 2016?

"I am running," smiled Clinton. "Around the park."

A bit later, Douglas brought the subject up again with Walters.

"If Hillary runs," he said, "I bet you'd be a great vice president."

Some of the best moments happened during commercial breaks, never to be seen by viewers. Then audience members could snap photos and interact with Walters and her co-panellists (Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Shepherd and Jenny McCarthy).

The audience erupted at the sight of Winfrey, who told Walters, "You're the reason I wanted to be in television."

"You shattered the glass ceiling for so many women," said Winfrey, who then brought on a startling parade of them, some two dozen prominent on-air women including Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric, Robin Roberts, Gayle King, Connie Chung and Joan Lunden.

"You are my legacy," Walters, visibly moved, said to them as they crowded around her onstage.

The hour had its comic twist: In a pre-taped segment, Walters (who, after all, has interviewed everybody else) lobbed some questions at herself, in the person of former Saturday Night Live cast member Cheri Oteri doing a spot-on Walters imitation.

Walters brought the hour to a close with a heartfelt statement looking back with amazement on her career.

But a more telling moment took place during a break, as the throng of women she had paved the way for posed with her for a group portrait.

"I have to remember this on the bad days," Walters said quietly, "because this is the best."

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Police hunt two sex predators in Melbourne

A man has tried to sexually assault a woman in the inner Melbourne suburb of Brunswick. Source: AAP

THE hunt is on for two sex predators who attacked three women in the same Melbourne suburb where Jill Meagher died.

Police say an assault on Friday night in Brunswick is not linked to two similar attacks a week earlier.

A 21-year-old woman was walking through a park at 8pm on Hope St in Brunswick West on Friday when grabbed from behind.

The assault continued until she called out to a passing cyclist and the attacker stopped and ran.

Another woman has been assaulted in Brunswick, Melbourne overnight as police hunt two serial predators.

Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Michael Phyland said on Saturday police would like to speak to the cyclist and anyone else who might have seen the incident.

It came after another man grabbed two woman from behind and dragged them down side streets in Brunswick in the early hours of May 10.

Both were able to fight him off and escape.

Jill Meagher was raped and murdered after being snatched from a Brunswick street in 2012.

Sgt Phyland said men and women should be careful when walking at night in the suburb.

"Where you can, take well lit areas, be aware of your surroundings, take the safest path that you can," he told reporters.

Sgt Phyland said descriptions of the two men were different and the attacks were not linked.

The Friday night offender is described as Caucasian, with a medium to solid build, aged in his 30s, with dark hair, blood-shot eyes and a beard.

Police have released CCTV footage of the other man wanted for the May 10 attacks.

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Cabbie car-jacked in NSW Hunter region

A taxi driver has been beaten up, robbed and car-jacked in the NSW Hunter region. Source: AAP

A TAXI driver had his nose broken during a terrifying ordeal in which he was beaten up, robbed, kidnapped and car-jacked by a drunken passenger in NSW's Hunter region.

The cabbie picked up a man in Kurri Kurri on Saturday morning and was asked to drive to Newcastle.

Police say that on the way, the passenger asked to be driven to a caravan park in Maitland to collect money for the fare.

Once at the caravan park, the driver and passenger went inside a cabin where it's alleged the passenger pulled out a knife, kicked the taxi driver in the head and took his wallet.

The passenger then allegedly forced the taxi driver into the passenger seat, cut the wires to the taxi meter, radio and CCTV system; and started speeding north on the Pacific Highway.

Police used road spikes to stop the taxi after detecting it travelling at 185km/h on the Pacific Highway at Moorland.

A 28-year-old man was arrested and taken to Taree Police Station, where a breath-analysis test returned an reading of 0.106.

He is still being questioned and is expected to be charged later on Saturday.

The taxi driver was taken to Manning Base Hospital suffering swelling, abrasions and bleeding to his face, and a broken nose.

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Israel designs hi-tech fin to save turtle

A prosthetic fin has been built to save the life of an injured sea turtle in Israel. Source: AAP

A BADLY injured sea turtle's prospects are looking up - thanks to a new prosthetic fin designed by an Israeli team and modelled on the wings of a US fighter jet.

The green sea turtle, named "Hofesh," the Hebrew word for "freedom," was caught in a fishing net off Israel's Mediterranean coast in early 2009.

With his two left flippers badly wounded, rescuers had to amputate, leaving him with a pair of stumps that made it difficult to swim.

Yaniv Levy, director of Israel's Sea Turtle Rescue Centre, said on Saturday Hofesh was initially fitted with a diver's fin but it provided little relief and he bumped into things as he tried to swim.

Shlomi Gez, an industrial design student at Jerusalem's Hadassah College, read about the animal on the internet and wanted to help.

He designed a prosthetic based on a fish's dorsal fin. The contraption provided some improvement but Hofesh still had trouble breathing and rising to the surface.

Then, inspired by the design of Lockheed Martin Corp's F-22 Raptor warplane, Gez designed a new prosthetic with two fins.

The device, somewhat resembling the aircraft's wings, was strapped onto Hofesh's back on Thursday, allowing him to move easily around his tank.

"I discovered it worked better than one fin on the back," Gez explained.

"With two fins, he keeps relatively balanced, even above the water."

Levy said Hofesh will never be able to return to the wild.

But he shares a tank with a blind female turtle named Tsurit, and researchers are optimistic the pair will mate, potentially adding to the local population of the endangered green sea turtles.

He said it is difficult to say exactly how old the two turtles are but they are estimated to be between 20 and 25 and approaching the age of sexual maturity.

"We have great plans for this guy," Levy said.

"They will never go back to the wild but their offspring will be released the minute they hatch and go immediately into the sea and live normally in the wild," he added.

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Frankie Valli wins decision on insurance

A court has reversed a decision that Frankie Valli's wife could claim his life insurance policy. Source: AAP

SORTING through the aftermath of music legend Frankie Valli's messy divorce, the California Supreme Court sang a tune that suggests that in some cases big girls may have to cry a little when it comes to splitting the spoils of marriage.

In a decision that dealt with a murky area of California divorce law, the state's Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously found that Valli's former wife, Randy Valli, is not entitled to the full amount of a life insurance policy taken out on the singer, best known for performing with the Four Seasons.

The case centred on Valli's decision in 2003, shortly before separating from his wife, to buy a $US3.75 million ($A4.06 million) life insurance policy, naming Randy Valli as the sole beneficiary.

When the couple divorced after more than 20 years of marriage, Randy Valli argued the $US400,000 value of the policy at the time was all hers - while lawyers for the singer argued the policy was community property under California divorce laws, paid for with their joint money, and should be split evenly with the rest of their marriage assets.

The Supreme Court took the case to resolve the question of whether such an insurance policy can be considered a wife's separate property in divorce proceedings, or is tied up as community property.

In this high-profile instance, the judges concluded it is community property, reversing an appeals court decision.

"(Frankie Valli) never expressly declared in writing that he gave up his community interest in the policy bought with community funds," wrote Justice Joyce Kennard, who recently retired from the court.

Valli was backed in the case by a group of family law professors, including former University of California, Berkeley law school dean Herma Hill Kay.

Randy Valli didn't need the justices' help in securing her financial future: she is pulling in $US500,000 a month from the now 80-year-old singer, celebrity website TMZ says.

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US mum convicted of killing her teens

US mother Julie Schenecker has been found guilty of the murders of her teenage daughter and son. Source: AAP

A FORMER US Army officer's wife has been convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of her two teenagers, with jurors rejecting her insanity plea.

Jurors on Thursday found 53-year-old Julie Schenecker guilty of killing her 13-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter in Florida in 2011.

Prosecutors say she was sane when she killed her children.

The defence argued she suffered from years of mental illness and was legally insane during the time of the killings.

Julie Schenecker wiped her nose and eyes, then the bailiffs handcuffed her as the verdict was read after just about an hour of deliberations. She started to cry.

Prosecutors chose not to seek the death penalty and she faces a mandatory life sentence. Sentencing was expected on Thursday.

Schenecker, a former Army linguist, fatally shot her daughter, Calyx, and son, Beau, in January 2011 while her now ex-Army officer husband, Colonel Parker Schenecker, was on a 10-day deployment to the Middle East.

Parker and his mother looked sad and exhausted as the verdict was read on Thursday. Julie Schenecker's sister cried softly.

All six mental health experts who testified said Schenecker was mentally ill, but three experts called by prosecutors said she was legally sane when she shot her children.

Defence lawyers said Schenecker is so affected by bipolar disorder and depression that she doesn't know right from wrong. Under Florida law, the inability to tell right from wrong is one of the criteria for a not guilty by reason of insanity plea.

Her lawyer, Jennifer Spradley, told jurors they needed to consider Schenecker's state of mind when she pulled the trigger, that she was suffering from such severe depression and manic depression that she didn't understand what she was doing.

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Land Council upset over NT township leases

THE federal government is trying to snatch back land from Aboriginal people by pressuring them to sign 99-year township leases, the Northern Land Council says.

The NLC is clashing with federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion over what it says is an attempt to convince traditional owners to sign over their lands and associated rights.

Township leases provide a surety to banks and give indigenous communities the opportunity to borrow against their land to buy their own homes and businesses.

Land councils serve to negotiate with the government on their behalf.

However, the NLC says leases signed under section 19A of the Land Rights Act designate an executive leaseholder to hold the rights to the land on behalf of the government and can make decisions without traditional owners' consent.

The NLC want the provision repealed in favour of the broader section 19, which offers traditional owners the same economic benefits of the lease while retaining full decision-making powers over their land.

"It's one thing to talk about normalising townships, it's another thing to talk about taking rights away," NLC CEO Joe Morrison said on Friday.

The NLC accused Senator Scullion of trying to divide and conquer communities by pushing section 19A township leases.

The community of Gunbalanya in East Arnhem Land is negotiating a 99-year lease with the government but NLC executive member John Christophersen told Mr Scullion he had a petition against it signed by 400 people, as well as eight of the 13 traditional owners.

"People are very concerned about it and want it to go away," Mr Morrison said.

"One can surmise that this is a land grab.

"Forty years ago no one really saw the value of Aboriginal land - it was wasted land, it was the domain of buffaloes and pigs.

"Now we understand Aboriginal lands are very valuable and everyone wants a slice, and we want to make sure we maintain control."

Senator Scullion said the NLC was playing power games.

"This is about a perceived loss of power ... (but) traditional owners are completely in control," he said.

Gunbalanya will decide whether or not to sign up to a 99-year lease later this year.

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Donation law concerns cost me job: Davis

CHRIS Davis says he was sacked as Queensland's assistant health minister partly because he raised concerns about changes to political donation laws.

Premier Campbell Newman sacked Dr Davis this week, saying his decision to speak out against some aspects of the government's agenda had breached the Westminster principle of cabinet solidarity.

Dr Davis had publicly raised concerns about reforms to the Crime and Misconduct Commission and new work contracts for doctors.

On Friday, he told the ABC he believed there was another factor in his dismissal.

He said he had raised with the premier his concerns about the government's move to ease restrictions on political donations, and he believed that played a part in the decision to dismiss him.

He cited revelations at the NSW corruption inquiry as proof powerful interest are involved in politics and it would be naive to think similar forces weren't at play in Queensland.

"You only need to look across the border to NSW to actually see under current arrangements how there are a number of very powerful interests in any political system," he said.

"We have at the moment on the table a great relaxation of caps and donations and so on, just at the same time the new premier of NSW, Mike Baird is actually saying that he needs to nail shut the back door to government because it is actually causing so much damage.

"You don't make an investment in business unless you make a return on it. You'd be naive to think that the political gene pool changed when you crossed the border from NSW to Queensland."

Dr Davis said he was not offered the chance to offer his resignation when he met with the premier this week, and instead was sacked.

He said he believed there'd been a number of complaints made against him, and the premier felt compelled to send a message.

"I think it was a signal on a number of fronts. I think it was not just a technicality of the cabinet solidarity message, I think I had trod on some very powerful toes," Dr Davis said.

"It doesn't sting me so much but if you look at social media there has been a lot of concern about what sort of message it sends in terms of our style of government in Queensland, our tolerance, I guess, of democracy."

Dr Davis did not say if he would contest the next election as a member of the Liberal National Party, saying his pre-selection was a matter for the party.

A spokesman for the premier told the ABC Dr Davis never raised any concerns about electoral donation laws with either himself or Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie and any claim that he did was completely wrong.

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Truck driver's arrest sparks SA drug bust

THE arrest of a truck driver in NSW has led to a drug bust in South Australia.

Police on Wednesday stopped a truck on the Sturt Highway, near Gol Gol, and found six bags of cannabis weighing about 160 grams, leading them to charge the 42-year-old driver.

Information about the arrest was shared with South Australia Police (SAPOL).

Members of SAPOL's Heavy Vehicle Enforcement Section on Friday searched the truck driver's home in Albert Park, SA, and allegedly located about two kilograms of dried cannabis, an amount of cash and a number of firearms.

The man was rearrested and charged with trafficking cannabis and firearms offences.

NSW Police Traffic and Highway Patrol Operations Commander, Superintendent Stuart Smith, said officers will continue to target the heavy vehicle industry to curb drivers and operators who break the law.

" ... whether that's through unsafe driving practices or criminal activities such as transporting drugs across borders," Supt Smith said in a statement.

The man was granted conditional bail to appear in Wentworth Local Court on July 8.

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Uncensored Rudd reveals batts flaws

Kevin Rudd move to expose cabinet discussions about insulation scheme had a short-lived opposition. Source: AAP

OPPOSITION to Kevin Rudd's plan to reveal the innermost secrets of the federal government lasted for a little less than 16 hours.

The former prime minister's 31-page statement to the royal commission into the 2009 home insulation program was initially heavily blacked out or "redacted" at the insistence of government lawyers intent on protecting cabinet confidentiality.

Mr Rudd's lawyer had insisted his client could not tell the truth about the disastrous program that claimed the lives of four young workers if he was not permitted to tell his story in full.

Resistance was strong on Wednesday afternoon but evaporated on Thursday morning, when government lawyer Tom Howe QC said the Commonwealth supported "public ventilation" of everything Mr Rudd wanted to say.

What emerged from the document was Mr Rudd's portrait of the prime minister and his ministers as entirely reliant on the information and advice placed before them by the public service - the people he described at the commission as the "wicketkeepers" of his home insulation scheme.

Starting with the reason for implementing the insulation scheme, Mr Rudd reveals that an all-weekend sitting of senior cabinet ministers - Julia Gillard, Wayne Swan, Lindsay Tanner and himself - in October 2008 was warned that Australia faced recession and a nine per cent unemployment rate if nothing was done to combat the unfolding global financial crisis.

One response was the $2.8 billion home insulation scheme, devised as a make-work scheme to boost the economy.

Much of what was initially redacted from Mr Rudd's statement is simply anything mentioning cabinet processes, however mundane, but some reveal that even after people started dying, no alarm was raised about the program.

Mr Rudd described a briefing system used by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to warn cabinet about "any programs going off the rails".

The reports were colour-coded: green for "on track", amber for "maintaining close watch" and red for "in difficulty".

From its July 2009 inception to until February 2010 when its immediate closure was urged, the program was never rated anything other than green for "on track".

Among other details is Mr Rudd's recollection of a January 28, 2009, cabinet meeting that considered the rollout of the Home Insulation Program.

Issues discussed concerned timelines and costs, Mr Rudd says, but workplace safety standards never came up.

The statement also shows a public service task force was set up four days after the February 4, 2010, death of Mitchell Sweeney, who was the last worker to die during the life of the scheme.

On February 17, the taskforce advised Mr Rudd's cabinet committee of senior ministers of "significant program design risks, notably safety risks ... and the need to exit the overall program".

The same day the committee accepted the taskforce's recommendation to terminate the program.

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Johnston fights for more funds for defence

DEFENCE Minister David Johnston needed to convince colleagues defence would be unable to mount short-notice missions such as its search for the missing Malaysian airliner if it did not get more cash.

In hard negotiations before the government's expenditure review committee, Senator Johnston made the point that defence would face serious problems if it had to endure more cuts.

As it turned out, defence was a big winner from the tough budget, with an increase of more than six per cent, taking funding to $29.3 billion in 2014/15.

Senator Johnston said finance and treasury officials acknowledged that defence had done it hard in the past five years, losing $16 billion.

"If we had to endure more cuts or absorb measures, there would be serious capability issues and we would be courting substantial difficulties," he told AAP.

Missions such as the ongoing search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which at its peak featured four Orion maritime patrol aircraft and five ships, could only be launched at short notice because these units were maintained at a high level of readiness, he said.

The same applied to aid missions following the Japanese earthquake and the Philippines typhoon.

Most recently, at Christmas, two RAAF transport aircraft were despatched to help the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.

Senator Johnston said it was expensive to maintain the level of readiness needed to be able to launch such missions at short notice.

"Those are the sorts of things we would not be able to do (without sufficient funding) and we would have to tell the national security committee and the prime minister we can't do this because we haven't got the money," he said.

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Rudd accepts batt deaths responsibility

FORMER prime minister Kevin Rudd has accepted "ultimate responsibility" for Labor's home insulation debacle, but has used secret cabinet documents to deflect blame onto his ministers and public servants.

On a day when confidential cabinet processes around the scheme were made public, Mr Rudd told a royal commission in Brisbane that bureaucrats failed to bring any safety risks, including the potential for death, to his government's attention.

Queenslanders Matthew Fuller, Rueben Barnes and Mitchell Sweeney, and Marcus Wilson from NSW lost their lives while working under the $2.8 billion scheme.

Mr Rudd's uncensored statement says reports to the cabinet committee designed to alert ministers to programs "going off the rails" stated the pink batts scheme was "on track" even after the deaths.

But he says the buck stops with him because as prime minister at the time he has to accept the "good and bad" outcomes of his government's policies in 2009 and 2010.

"I have accepted ultimate responsibility for what was not just bad, but in this case a deep tragedy," he told the inquiry on Thursday.

But during his evidence, Mr Rudd suggested the senior ministers responsible for the scheme, Peter Garrett and Mark Arbib, were also to blame.

"The position in which I found myself in was to take advice from the portfolio minister responsible and the public servants advising me," he said.

But the former Labor leader was hesitant to point the finger at anyone in particular.

"I'm reluctant to say x, y and z failed because a, b and c didn't do their job," he said.

Mr Rudd also refused to point out specific problems with the rollout, saying it was the commission's role, not his, to judge what went wrong.

But he said if his children were victims, he would be just as eager as the affected families to find answers.

"All the families are entitled to feel confused, angry, let down by this system, which ultimately didn't perform to protect the lives of their loved ones," he said.

At the heart of the system, he said, were public servants who failed to brief senior ministers on serious safety concerns.

He said he only became aware of flaws after Mr Sweeney became the fourth installer to die in February 2010, eight months after the program's rollout.

This left him "exasperated, disappointed and despairing".

While Mr Rudd said one industrial fatality was one too many, he never considered suspending the program after Mr Fuller's death because nobody told him to.

"That advice was not put to me," he said.

Mr Sweeney's father, Malcolm, said on Thursday the commission "will go a long way in helping to make sure something like this doesn't happen again".

Mr Rudd has been excused from the inquiry, but might be recalled even though he is flying back to the US on Thursday night.

Former Labor frontbencher Greg Combet, who oversaw the program's closure, will take the stand when the commission resumes on Friday.

Mr Fuller's father, Kevin, and Mr Barnes' sister Sunny, are expected to address the inquiry after Mr Combet's testimony.

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Labor pounce on second staffer conflict

LABOR has vowed to continue probing a second Abbott government minister over conflict of interest allegations.

William "Smiley" Johnstone resigned as an adviser for Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion after it was revealed he was also chief executive and majority shareholder of the Indigenous Development Corporation.

Senator Scullion has defended Mr Johnstone's employment, saying his sole role of devising the school attendance strategy meant his private activities did not create a conflict of interest.

But Opposition Senate Leader Penny Wong says Mr Johnstone's employment showed an "arrogant disregard" for the standards for ministerial staff.

Senator Scullion told the Senate on Thursday there had been "a couple of items that required follow up" in Mr Johnstone's private interests disclosure, filed at the time of his employment.

Five months later, that process was still under way when a media inquiry forced Senator Scullion's office to address the potential conflicts and ask Mr Johnstone to "amend some of his personal affairs".

Mr Johnstone never intended to stay on fulltime and chose to resign, Senator Scullion said.

Senator Wong promised to explore that in more detail.

"The Australian people are entitled to know why not one but two ministers in this chamber happen to have staff who have interest in the portfolio that they administer."

In February, Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash's staffer Alastair Furnival resigned over conflict of interest allegations.

Mr Furnival had a shareholding in his wife's public relations company, which has links to the junk food industry.

Unlike the case of Mr Furnival, who was accused of ordering the removal of a Health Department healthy food-rating website, there are no allegations Mr Johnstone made calls that affected his private interests.

The Abbott government's revised guidelines for ministerial staffers require divestment from private companies with a direct interest in their minister's portfolio.

The standards also forbid directorship of any company without written agreement of their respective minister and of the Special Minister of State.

Senator Wong asked Special Minister of State Michael Ronaldson if he had provided a written agreement regarding Mr Johnstone's employment on Thursday, which he took on notice.

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Borders commander warns vigilance is vital

THE army general charged with preventing asylum seeker boats from reaching Australia says ongoing vigilance is vital.

There have been no successful people smuggling ventures to Australia since late December, but Lieutenant General Angus Campbell says people smugglers are opportunistic, organised criminals looking to exploit any vulnerabilities.

"To modify a well-known and very apt phrase - the price of border security is eternal vigilance," the Operation Sovereign Borders commander told an Australian Strategic Policy Institute dinner in Canberra on Thursday.

Threats to Australia's border security remain as asylum seekers bide their time in Indonesia, holding out for policy or operation changes, he said.

"There are too many prospective travellers susceptible to believing that Nauru is a town in Australia."

His team is proud to be preventing asylum seekers from drowning during dangerous voyages from Indonesia to Australia.

And Lieutenant General Campbell says safe procedures are in place, consistent with international obligations and domestic law, in relation to the policy of turning back boats.

He expressed doubt about whether authorities could have reduced arrivals without it.

The willingness of Nauru and Papua New Guinea to accept asylum seekers might not endure if the flow of people continued, he said.

Tuesday's budget allocated funds to establish a new super frontline agency, Border Force Australia, from July 2015, which the government says will absorb Operation Sovereign Borders.

The new agency will replace Customs and take on some functions of the Immigration Department.

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Indonesia to get asylum seeker cash

INDONESIA will receive big bucks to help deal with thousands of stranded asylum seekers who can't reach Australia after the federal government's border security crackdown.

The nation's northern neighbour will pocket $86.8 million over three years as part of a regional cooperation agreement to manage the large asylum seeker populations living on its shores, the budget papers show.

Asylum seeker boat arrivals peaked under the previous Labor government but there hasn't been an arrivals since the start of 2014, after the coalition implemented policies to turn back vessels and send arrivals to Papua Guinea and Nauru.

As a result of the success of Operation Sovereign Borders, the government will deliver $2.5 billion saving over five years.

The government is now turning its attention to a huge back log of asylum seeker claims in Australia.

There's 24,000 asylum seekers on bridging visas in the community, 4700 in Australian detention centres, 3100 in community detention and 1300 on Christmas Island.

Asylum seeker support services will cost $564.1 million over five years, according to Tuesday's budget.

The government will go ahead with a mutual obligation pilot program with 300-400 asylum seekers in the community on bridging visas.

It will require them to undertake volunteer and community work and employment-readiness programs.

There's also $149.9 million over five years to deal with the backlog of claims and removals.

Unaccompanied minors will get extra supervision, costing $27.3 million over two years.

As expected, a new frontline super agency called Australian Border Force will operate from July next year and will replace Customs and Border Protection and take in border functions of the immigration department.

The new force will get a $480.5 million package, funded through efficiency savings, increased revenue and reallocation of existing cash.

An Australian Border Force training academy will be set up at a cost of $53.6 million.

Child asylum seekers on Christmas Island will get better access to full time schooling after the government allocated $2.6 million.

Christmas Island will also receive infrastructure upgrades and extra health staff.

Australia will donate two retired Bay Class boats to Malaysia from 2015/16 in an effort to help combat people smuggling.

Meanwhile, the government is set to save $283 million over four years by closing a total of ten detention centres and garner another $38.4 million by scrapping the displaced persons program.

The Migration Review Tribunal and Refugee Review Tribunal will be amalgamated with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal from January 2015, saving $20.2 million over four years.

There will be $77.5 million in savings over five years by re jigging and renegotiating offshore detention centre service provider contracts.

The overall migration intake of 190,000 places will remain unchanged in the 2014/15 financial year.

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Australians slugged $7 for doctor visits

HEALTH groups and Labor for months have been warning the Abbott government was about introduce a "GP tax".

And Treasurer Joe Hockey obliged in his first budget on Tuesday by confirming Australians would be slugged $7 to visit the doctor.

The measure spells the end of free GP care for most people.

Only concession card holders and children will escape the payment, but then only after 10 visits, with their annual co-payments capped at $70.

From July 2015 those who now pay nothing to visit the doctor will have to fork out $7, with $5 going into the soon-to-be-created Medical Research Future Fund.

Even those who aren't bulked billed will pay $5 more, with cuts to their Medicare refund.

The measure means $3.5 billion will be pumped into the medical research fund over five years.

The co-payment is certain to anger health groups who have argued it signals an end to universal health care.

They warn some people will skip treatment, and clog hospital emergency departments.

But Mr Hockey said health services had never been free to taxpayers, and Australians were simply being asked to make a "modest" contribution to their cost.

"Australians are always prepared to make a reasonable contribution if they they're money is not wasted," he told parliament.

On top of the Medicare co-payment - which also applies to out-of-hospital pathology and imaging services - Australians will also have to pay more for subsidised medicines.

The government wants a $5 increase in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme co-payment, arguing current spending on the PBS was more than $9 billion a year.

Concession card holders will have to pay an extra 80 cents for each subscription, in a measure that will save the budget $1.3 billion over four years.

Australians will also be hit by measure to pause the indexation of non-GP Medicare rebates for two years, and by not indexing the income thresholds for the Private Health Insurance Rebate and the Medicare Levy Surcharge for three.

The PBS safety net, which protects patients who require a lot of medicine, will also be increased to $1597.80 from next January.

The change means they'll have to pay almost $150 more before being eligible for cheaper medicines.

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Work requirements for disability pension

GEN X and Y Australians on the disability support pension will be required to undertake work experience or some form of employment activity.

Some of those under 35 years of age, who were granted the pension between 2008 and 2011 under more lenient rules, will have their claims reviewed against the current impairment tables.

The measure is expected to save the budget $46.4 million over five years.

Recipients will be required to have a participation plan that encourages work experience, training and work for the dole activities.

The compulsory program, aimed at increasing work force participation, will receive $29.3 million over five years.

People with severe impairments, terminal illnesses or who have an assessed work capacity of less than eight hours a week will be exempt.

There are 800,000 people on the disability support pension with projections of a 27 per cent increase by the end of the decade.

From January 2015, recipients will only be able to travel abroad for four weeks - down from six - before their payments are cut off.

People with terminal illnesses or severe impediments will be exempt.

Meanwhile, the government is establishing a disability and carers advisory council.

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World best research fund, but we'll pay

THE Abbott government will create the world's largest medical research fund which Treasurer Joe Hockey says could help save Australian lives.

But Australians will be asked to pay for the multi-billion dollar initiative, through a $7 GP co-payment and more expensive medicines.

The Medical Research Future Fund will be the biggest of its kind in the world, worth $20 billion by 2020.

The government will start the research fund, a surprise announcement of the federal budget, with $1.1 billion from an existing health and hospital fund.

However, from July next year every $5 from the $7 co-payment will be directed to the fund.

It will also be topped up with $1.3 billion over four years in savings to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, because most people will pay an additional $5 for medicines.

Changes to the national hospital agreement, and an end to national partnership agreements with the states on dental and preventative health, will pump a further $2.5 billion into the fund over the next four years.

Mr Hockey said the fund would start providing money to medical research from next year, and by 2022-23 would distribute about $1 billion a year.

It will amount to a doubling of the government's direct funding to medical research.

It may be an Australian who discovers better treatments and even cures for dementia, Alzheimer's, heart disease or cancer, the treasurer told parliament on Tuesday.

"This new and historic commitment in medical research may well save your life, or that of your parents, or your child."

The research fund will also receive $1.7 billion over five years by pausing the indexation of non-GP Medicare rebates for two years, and by not indexing the income thresholds for the Private Health Insurance Rebate and the Medicare Levy Surcharge for three years.

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Families, pensioners face budget pain

THE Abbott government will impose a $7 charge for GP visits, wind back pension rises and hike income tax for people earning over $180,000 in a bid to get the budget back into the black.

Treasurer Joe Hockey's first budget sets a course to slash by half Labor's $123 billion deficit over the next four years.

The budget forecasts a deficit of $29.8 billion for 2014/15, trimmed back to a $17.1 billion deficit the following year.

"It is time, for all of us, to contribute and build," Mr Hockey said.

From July 1 next year previously bulk-billed patients - including children and pensioners - will pay $7 per visit including out-of-hospital x-rays and pathology.

But $5 from the charge, as well as a lift in the price of medicines, will go towards a new $20 billion medical research fund.

Mr Hockey said health services had "never been free to taxpayers", so patients should make a modest contribution towards their cost.

To drive jobs, the government will add $11.6 billion in funding for roads, funded partly by the reintroduction of six-monthly petrol tax hikes from August 1 and $5 billion from state asset sales.

About 800,000 businesses will benefit from a 1.5 per cent cut in corporate tax from July next year, but the government will save over $845 million from industry handouts.

Pensioners can expect less in their pockets from September 2017, when rises are indexed to inflation rather than wages.

Mr Hockey said this kept the coalition's election pledge not to touch pensions this term, but would make them more sustainable in the long-term.

The pension age will gradually lift to 70 by 2035.

Older Australians will get a better chance to enter the workforce with a $10,000 bonus to businesses that give a job to an unemployed over-50.

To get spending under control growth in the foreign aid budget will be cut by $7.9 billion over five years and 16,500 public servants will be shed, with 230 government bodies to be axed.

Freezing family assistance rates for two years and limiting Family Tax Benefit part B to families with children under six, as well as other tightening of family payments, will save $6.9 billion over four years.

In a bid to get all young people "earning or learning", from 2015 unemployed people under 25 will get Youth Allowance, not Newstart, and there will be a six-month waiting period for under-30s to get the dole.

Universities will be able to set their own tuition fees from 2016, but this won't affect those already in the system and the fees won't need to be repaid until a student is working and earning over $50,000 a year.

Stopping the boats and closing nine immigration detention centres is set to save $2.5 billion.

The jobless rate is expected to stay around 6.25 per cent for the next two years, while economic growth is forecast to average 2.5 per cent in 2014/15.

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Puffing Hockey silent on cigar tax

Treasurer Joe Hockey has avoided a question about a tobacco tax after being caught having a cigar. Source: AAP

JOE Hockey probably hoped he had got away without being questioned about having that sly cigar with his finance minister.

But in any interview there is always that last question.

Twitter has been abuzz since Friday ridiculing photographs of the treasurer and Senator Mathias Cormann having a cigar after putting together their first budget.

"There's nothing like the satisfying flavour of other people's dreams ... going up in smoke!" was one tweet.

Having a puff is not illegal, but having a celebratory drag on a fat cigar when you are about to impose the budget with the toughest impact on Australians in almost two decades isn't a particularly good look.

The latest ribbing came in a more traditional form.

In an interview on Channel Nine on Sunday, political stalwart Laurie Oakes just had to ask one last question after a 15-minute grilling that covered broken promises, infrastructure, rising petrol prices and a freeze on politicians pay.

"For some reason there has been speculation on Twitter about the impact for the budget from the price of cigars. Will tobacco excise go up?" Mr Oakes teased.

Mr Hockey declined to comment on that.

"But I do note that I think in the first budget in 1901 they had taxes on opium, so I can assure you that's certainly not in the budget. There is certainly nothing to tax there," he said.

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Dozens hurt in China protest

At least 29 police have been injured in China during a protest over a proposed waste incinerator. Source: AAP

A PROTEST in eastern China over a plan to build a waste incinerator has turned violent with state media reporting at least 10 demonstrators and 29 police injured in clashes.

State-run Xinhua News Agency says 30 vehicles were overturned as protesters on Saturday set two police cars on fire and blocked a highway linking Hanzhou with another city.

One protester and a policeman have been reported seriously injured.

An official in the city's Yuhan district government confirmed the incident on Sunday but would not offer details.

An online statement posted by the district government says construction on the incinerator would not begin until the project had won public support.

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Buswell light rail report light on insight

Ex-WA treasurer Troy Buswell's report on his taxpayer-funded trip to Europe has few fresh insights. Source: AAP

FORMER West Australian treasurer Troy Buswell's light rail report from a taxpayer-funded trip across Europe is so paltry it could have been compiled in his office, the state opposition says.

Mr Buswell came away from the trip to Europe and China with six key findings about light rail as he planned a network for Perth.

Mr Buswell, now a backbencher after quitting cabinet following a car crash controversy in March, visited Switzerland, Germany and France in August and September last year to study light rail systems.

Before making the trip, Mr Buswell had said non-essential government travel would be temporarily banned and instructed the public service to tighten its belt amid spiralling state debt.

And in December, the state government shelved its MAX light rail project due to WA's ailing finances.

A 20-page report since submitted by Mr Buswell on the trip contained six insights about light rail, with the fact it could be a "very effective, embedded and highly valued component" of a public transport system split over two bullet points.

Mr Buswell also used two bullet points to report that trams could operate effectively in confined urban settings at sensible speeds and with clear community awareness of the operation.

His other points were that right of way for light rail in congested parts of a city was important and that a tram system could be delivered effectively via a public-private partnership, particularly in a greenfields environment.

Opposition transport spokesman Ken Travers said Mr Buswell could have compiled the light rail report from his Perth office and saved taxpayers money.

In China, Mr Buswell met with state-owned conglomerate CITIC and Industrial Bank of China about investment opportunities including Perth Stadium and the long-awaited Oakajee port.

And with his then-fisheries minister hat on, he also held several meetings about artificial reefs, shark barriers and seafood trade.

The total cost of the trip is expected to be tabled in parliament in coming weeks.

On his return to parliament as the Member for Vasse last week, Mr Buswell told reporters it was "entirely appropriate" for ministers to travel for work.

Mr Travers said on Sunday Mr Buswell's report, which used swathes of general information from websites, was light on insights.

"I don't think there was anything in that report that added value to what we do," he told AAP.

He believed Mr Buswell already knew funding for the MAX project was questionable before he got on the plane.

While Mr Buswell provided a brief report to parliament one month after the trip, the full report took eight months to be tabled, said Mr Travers, who admitted he'd once returned a late travel report too.

He expected more than $20,000 had been spent on the light rail trip.

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Militants kidnap, kill 20 Iraqi soldiers

A series of bombings in Iraq has killed 19 people, authorities say. Source: AAP

MILITANTS who attacked a military base in north Iraq kidnapping 20 soldiers later shot them dead.

The soldiers were abducted by a large group of militants in several vehicles from a small base in the Ain al-Jahash south of Mosul, and their bodies were found in the area on Saturday night, sources said.

But accounts of when the attack took place varied, with a police major and morgue employee putting it on Saturday night, while an army major general said it had taken place earlier in the week.

The police major said the soldiers had been shot in various parts of their bodies and that their hands had not been bound.

The attack comes after militants killed 12 soldiers and wounded 15 in an April 17 assault on a military base west of Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province.

The province is one of the most consistently violent areas in Iraq.

Militants opposed to the Iraqi government frequently target members of the security forces, but it is rare for such a large number of soldiers to be kidnapped at once, especially from a military position.

The killings come as Iraq suffers a protracted surge in bloodshed, the worst to hit the country since the brutal sectarian fighting that peaked in 2006-2007 and killed tens of thousands of people.

The government has repeatedly blamed the unrest on external factors such as the civil war in neighbouring Syria.

But analysts and diplomats say widespread anger in the minority Sunni Arab community over alleged mistreatment at the hands of the Shiite-led authorities has also played a major role in the violence.

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Missing Queensland girl found safe

Police say 3 men and a woman who abducted Queensland toddler Bella Goulding are known to her family. Source: AAP

A TWO-YEAR-OLD girl abducted from her father's southeast Queensland home has been found safe and well in a Brisbane suburb.

Bella Rose Goulding was located at Archerfield, in the city's south, on Sunday night and police say they're questioning a man and a woman.

"Investigations are continuing," the Queensland police service said in a statement.

"A man and a woman are currently assisting police with inquiries."

Bella was taken from a house at Willowbank, near Ipswich, on Saturday night and police say her abductors are known to the family.

On Sunday evening, police released the names and images of Lisa Maree Carroll, 21, and Michael Kenneth Winning, 42, saying they say may be able to assist their investigation but refusing to disclose details of their relationship to Bella.

The 8pm abduction occurred on Sancroft Street, which is near a park and the Cunningham Highway.

The girl's father Steven declined to speak publicly on Sunday.

Witnesses saw the abductors in a white Holden Commodore and a silver Mitsubishi sedan.

Further information is being sought from Queensland police.

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