NSW releases freight and port strategy

SHIFTING truck movements to off-peak periods is just one of the ways the NSW government is hoping to cope with increasing pressure on the state's transport network.

The NSW government released its first Freight and Ports Strategy on Saturday, with the hopes of planning for the growth of the state's economy for the next 20 years.

The government said 409 million tonnes of freight was moved on the NSW transport network in 2011.

This number is expected to grow to 794 million tonnes by 2031.

The strategy notes the competing needs of passengers and freight on the state's rail and road network.

It suggests one way the state could deal with this is by shifting truck movements to off-peak periods.

"Currently, most road freight movements take place during daylight hours on weekdays. This means that freight and passenger movements largely happen at the same time," the strategy says.

"Moving freight trips to times outside peak periods will contribute to reduced congestion and, more importantly, can improve freight access and reliability.

"This will potentially lead to lower transport costs for the entire community."

The strategy says opportunities also exist to shift more freight to rail.

Roads and Ports Minister Duncan Gay said the strategy was a milestone.

"With the efficient and effective freight network underpinning the strength of our exports and reducing the costs of everyday goods and services, the strategy will ensure that freight is at the forefront of our economy," he said in a statement.

The strategy coincides with the announcement of funds to fix roads in regional NSW.

The first $1.5 million under the Fixing Country Roads program will allow Forbes Shire Council in the Lachlan Valley to boost vehicle access to the GrainCorp Red Bend grain silos.

President of NSW Farmers Fiona Simson said transport in regional NSW had been overlooked for some time.

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First day of gay marriage in ACT

A WA Labor MP has married his male partner as ACT marriage laws came into effect at midnight. Source: AAP

THE bride wore white and so did her wife.

Corinna Peck and Stacey Cowen were among some 15 couples to tie the knot in Canberra on Saturday as Australia's first same-sex marriage law came into play.

But while the outfits were bright and newlywed smiles beamed across the nation's capital, a dark cloud was hanging over the future validity of the same-sex unions.

On Thursday the High Court will rule if the ACT's Marriage Equality Act, passed in October, is at odds with Commonwealth law and therefore invalid.

The threat didn't dampen the enthusiasm of groom Ivan Hinton who vowed to make partner Chris Teoh his "lawful wedded husband".

"There should never be any rule in this country that disrespects the commitment that two people like us wish to express to one another," Mr Hinton told reporters after his wedding.

Ceremonies kicked off at 12.01am (AEDT) with two couples rushing to become Australia's first legally-recognised "husbands".

Australian Marriage Equality director Rodney Croome attended Mr Hinton's marriage and afterwards highlighted the historic nature of Saturday's events.

"In years to come people will look back and think 'what an historic moment that was,' but also, 'why did it take us so long to recognise the wonderful ordinariness of the love, (the) commitment of same-sex relationships?'," Mr Croome said.

The Australian Christian Lobby has criticised the ACT law, claiming it damages the institution of marriage.

"We hear about equal love all the time but we don't hear about what it means for children," Lobby spokesman Lyle Shelton told Sky News.

"Same-sex marriage means same-sex parenting, that means necessarily taking a child from its biological mother or father and giving it to someone else."

ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher defended the law and sent a message to critics: "the world will go on".

"This doesn't effect those people who don't agree with it. It doesn't change their life, it doesn't change their relationships. This is all about making sure everyone is treated equally before the law," she said.

Ms Gallagher insisted that the community response, including from religious groups, had been overwhelmingly supportive.

Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young congratulated the newlywed couples and thanked them for being part of an important first step to change.

"This is how laws change, it is how communities evolve, it is how social change happens, when individuals put themselves forward," she said.

"I think it's time that politics put aside the views of others and allowed couples right across this country to have their love celebrated and accepted and recognised."

The ACT government said 47 couple have registered an intent to marry under the new law.

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Abbott, Shorten to attend Mandela service

PM Tony Abbott and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will attend a memorial service for Nelson Mandela. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will present a united Australian front to honour and farewell Nelson Mandela.

The pair will this week fly to Johannesburg to join world leaders past and present, mourning the former South African president who died at his home on Thursday (local time) aged 95.

A huge memorial service is planned for the nation's first black leader on Tuesday, with US President Barack Obama already confirming his attendance.

On Saturday Mr Shorten's office said the Labor leader had accepted an invitation from Mr Abbott to accompany the prime minister to South Africa. Both men will miss most of the final 2013 parliamentary sitting week.

It is unknown how long the men will be out of Australia.

"There is a long bipartisan history of Australian support for South Africa and the campaign to abolish apartheid," Mr Abbott said, announcing his intention to attend the service.

After facing criticism for not lowering flags at the news of Mr Mandela's death, Mr Abbott said Australian flags will be set at half mast on the day of the official memorial.

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Urban, Lorde receive Grammy nominations

Keith Urban has been nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Country Duo/Group. Source: AAP

VETERAN rapper Jay-Z topped nominees for the 2014 US Grammys with nine nods, while Taylor Swift and Daft Punk were among those in the running in major categories.

Australia's Keith Urban has been nominated for Best Country Duo/Group Performance category for his collaboration with Tim McGraw and Taylor Swift, called Highway Don't Care, while New Zealand teenager Lorde was nominated for four awards, mostly for her debut single Royals.

The 17-year-old schoolgirl, who performed live during the Los Angeles ceremony, is in the running for song of the year, record of the year, best pop solo performance and best pop vocal album for Pure Heroine.

In second place with seven nods apiece were California hip-hop star Kendrick Lamar and rapper Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, as well as Justin Timberlake and Pharrell Williams, while rapper Drake scored five.

The nominees in key categories were announced during an hour-long concert at the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, including video-link performances by Swift from Australia and Katy Perry live from Canada.

In the coveted Album of the Year category, songstress Swift's Red will compete with French electro duo Daft Punk's Random Access Memories, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis's The Heist, Lamar's Good Kid, M.A.A.D City and Sara Bareilles' The Blessed Unrest.

Record of the Year candidates are Daft Punk and Williams' ubiquitous Get Lucky, Lorde's Royals, Radioactive by Imagine Dragons, Hawaiian crooner Bruno Mars' Locked Out Of Heaven and Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines, made infamous by Miley Cyrus' twerking at the MTV Video Music Awards show.

Shortlisted for Song of the Year - for songwriters, as opposed to performers - were Just Give Me A Reason sung by Pink Featuring Nate Ruess; Locked Out Of Heaven sung by Bruno Mars; Roar sung by Katy Perry; Royals sung by Lorde, and Same Love sung by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis was also nominated for Best New Artist, up against James Blake, Kendrick Lamar, Kacey Musgraves and Ed Sheeran.

While big-hitters Jay-Z and Timberlake scored lots of nods, they were mostly in rap and pop/R&B categories respectively. Neither the rapper's heavily marketed Magna Carta ... Holy Grail, nor Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience made it onto the Best Album shortlist.

The 56th annual Grammys show - music's version of the Oscars - will be held on January 26 at the Staples Center.

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Crews monitor Sunshine Coast blaze

At Sippy Downs. The buildings are University of Sunshine Coast. Picture: Kaye Keioskie Source: Supplied

FIRE crews are asking Sunshine Coast residents to avoid an out-of-control grass fire near Mountain Creek.

7.45pm: CREWS are still monitoring the fire at Kawana Waters which is burning in containment lines.

There are still two urban crews and nine rural crews at the scene.

They are likely to stay on scene for several more hours.
 

Sinead Duncan took photographs of the fires from Buderim and closer to Kawana Way. "We're just trying to get out of Brightwater at the moment .... it's getting bad." Reader picture: Sinead Duncan

3.50pm: Sinead Duncan took photographs of the fires from Buderim and closer to Kawana Way.

"We're just trying to get out of Brightwater at the moment because we've been visiting friends," she said.

"The smoke is still thick and billowing, but thankfully the wind is keeping most of the smoke away from the houses."

The grass fire near Mountain Creek. Picture: QPS/Sara Matulich

GALLERY: Reader pictures of Sunshine Coast blaze

Jackie Clark said aerial support was trying to control the situation.

"It's getting bad," she said.

Resident Nadine Brooks took these pictures from her vantage point at nearby Grand Pde, Parrearra. Reader picture: Nadine Brooks

"Police, fire and ambulance have set up on Kawana Way."
 

GALLERY: Reader pictures of Sunshine Coast blaze

Resident Nadine Brooks took these pictures from her vantage point at nearby Grand Pde, Parrearra. Reader picture: Nadine Brooks

3.30pm:  Resident Nadine Brooks said there seemed to be two or three different blazes from her vantage point at nearby Grand Pde, Parrearra.

"It looks like they are moving north," she said.

"We are lucky the smoke is not coming (our) way."

3pm: TRAFFIC is heavy along the Sunshine Coast Motorway thanks to a large grass fire.

Motorists are reporting congestion from the Dixon Rd turnoff to Mountain Creek.

Kawana Way has been closed as 16 fire crews battle the blaze.

GALLERY: Reader pictures of Sunshine Coast blaze

1pm: The fire at Kawana Way, near Brightwater Estate, was first reported at 11.20am.

Helicopters are currently water bombing the fire between Brightwater Estate and the Chancellor Park area, and 16 fire crews are battling the blaze.

No property is under threat, but a large smoke haze has settled over Mountain Creek and neighbouring suburbs.

Residents have been advised to close windows and doors, with reports of ash the size of fingernails falling on the area.

Motorists using Kawana Way have been urged to drive to conditions.

GALLERY: Reader pictures of Sunshine Coast blaze

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Barnett won't be rushed on new WA laws

WEST Australian Premier Colin Barnett has defended the state government's efficiency at passing legislation, saying parliamentarians shouldn't be rushed to vote on bills.

The state government has come under fire for not introducing by the end of this year a planned law that would send violent home invaders straight to jail.

It was the first election pledge by the Liberals in February before they convincingly won a second term.

And parliamentary debate over some of the bills that have been introduced has become bogged down, with a proposed law to increase regulation of the taxi industry descending into filibustering.

But Mr Barnett said he wasn't going to rush, reintroducing bills when necessary.

"Given there was a significant number of new members, I was not going to simply reinstate legislation at the stage it was before the election," he told reporters on Friday.

"That would have meant you would have had a significant number of members of parliament voting or conceding, if you like, on legislation that they hadn't had the chance to see.

"So I said we would actually go back and reintroduce legislation that had not finished its passage.

"I think that was a very proper thing to do."

Mr Barnett said he hoped bills on workplace reform, amalgamation of port operators, and the merger of utilities Verve and Synergy would be passed through the upper house next week.

Thursday was the last sitting day of the year for the Legislative Assembly but the Legislative Council has another week.

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DFAT confirms Dili embassy protest

FEDERAL authorities have confirmed a protest was held outside Australia's embassy in East Timor amid a spying row between the two countries.

About 100 protesters in East Timor's capital Dili reportedly threw rocks at the Australian embassy on Thursday, with police responding by using tear gas.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) on Friday confirmed a protest had taken place outside the embassy.

"The Australian Embassy in Dili has advised that a small-scale protest was held outside the embassy on 5 December," DFAT told AAP in a statement.

More details on the protest are being sought from DFAT.

A spokeswoman for East Timor said the protest was small and non-violent. Further details are being sought.

The protesters, mostly students and young Timorese rights activists, carried banners reading "Australia is a thief" and "Australia has no morals", Agence France-Presse reported.

The protest comes after East Timor expressed outrage over reports that Australia secretly bugged ministerial deliberations in Dili in 2004 to gain leverage in negotiations on an oil and gas revenue-sharing deal.

On Tuesday, Australian intelligence agents raided the Canberra office of a lawyer representing East Timor in an arbitration case at The Hague over the deal.

East Timor says it won't be deterred from challenging the multi-billion dollar oil and gas treaty with Australia despite the raid.

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Brooks 'agreed to buy William snap'

A court has heard Rebekah Brooks agreed to pay an armed forces member for pics of Prince Harry. Source: AAP

FORMER News International executive Rebekah Brooks sanctioned a payment of STG4000 ($A7,300) to a public official for a picture of Prince William dressed as a Bond girl in a bikini at a Sandhurst party, a UK jury has heard.

The Old Bailey heard that Brooks, then editor of the Sun and known as Rebekah Wade, was asked for her opinion on paying a member of the armed forces for the story.

Less than 10 minutes after she was sent an email by a Sun news editor saying the military contact who was offering the picture wanted STG4000, she responded by saying "OK", the jury heard on Thursday.

It led to a page seven exclusive in The Sun in September 2006 with the headline "Willy in a Bikini" together with a mocked-up picture of the prince wearing a green swimsuit and Hawaiian-style flowers.

The article claimed that "Prince William caused a stir at a Sandhurst 007 bash by dressing as a Bond Girl" and said his girlfriend Kate Middleton dressed in a wetsuit.

The court heard that a payment dated June 16, 2006 and headed "Prince William wearing a bikini exclusive" for the amount of STG4000, to be collected by the wife of the member of the armed forces, was made at a Thomas Cook branch in Slough in Berkshire.

The Sun reporter who was working on the story told his superior in the email later forwarded to Brooks that the picture had come via his "best contact at Sandhurst".

He claimed that although STG4000 "sounds like a lot", it would "open the door for future exclusives and info", the jury heard.

"I'm worried if we don't meet his demands, this opportunity will pass," he said.

Brooks denies conspiring with others to hack phones between October 3 2000 and August 9, 2006.

The trial was adjourned until Monday.

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Smog at hazardous levels in Shanghai

SHANGHAI authorities have ordered schoolchildren indoors and halted all construction as China's financial hub suffered one its worst bouts of air pollution, bringing visibility down to a few dozen metres and obscuring the city's spectacular skyline.

The financial district on Friday was shrouded in a yellow haze and noticeably fewer people walked the city's streets. Vehicle traffic also was thinner, as authorities pulled 30 per cent of government vehicles from the roads. They also banned fireworks and stopped all public sporting events.

Protective masks and air purifiers were selling briskly at local stores.

"I feel like I'm living in clouds of smog," said Zheng Qiaoyun, a local resident who kept her six-month-old son at home. "I have a headache, I'm coughing, and it's hard to breathe on my way to my office."

Shanghai's concentration of tiny, harmful PM 2.5 particles was 602.5 micrograms per cubic metre on Friday afternoon, an extremely hazardous level that was the highest since the city began recording such data last December. That compares with the World Health Organisation's safety guideline of 25 micrograms.

The dirty air that has gripped Shanghai and its neighbouring provinces for days is attributed to coal burning, car exhaust, factory pollution and weather patterns, and is a stark reminder that pollution is a serious challenge in China.

Beijing, the capital, has seen extremely high smog several times over the past year. In the far northeastern city of Harbin, some monitoring sites reported PM 2.5 rates up to 1000 micrograms per cubic metre in October, when the winter heating season kicked off.

As a coastal city, Shanghai usually has mild to modest air pollution, but recent weather patterns have left the city's air stagnant.

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Apple guides shoppers with iBeacon

GPS will tell you how to get to the nearest Apple store. With iBeacon, Apple hopes to guide you around once you're inside.

On Friday, Apple will begin using the technology at its 254 US stores to send you messages tailored to where you are inside, provided you have downloaded the Apple Store app and have given Apple permission to track you.

The company demonstrated the technology in New York this week.

One day, commuters might get information on subway delays as they stand on the platform, while museum visitors might get details on the painting they are standing in front of.

In-store location technology does raise privacy concerns, though many shoppers have shown a willingness to be tracked for discounts.

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