Carlton AFL player charged with assault

A CARLTON AFL player charged with assaulting a fan will continue playing while the case proceeds.

SIMON White is with the club in Fremantle, where he has been named in Carlton's team for its Thursday night AFL game.

White allegedly punched a Carlton fan after a concert in the Melbourne CBD, the Herald Sun reports.Victoria Police spokesman Adam West said a man had been charged over the alleged assault."Police have charged a 26-year-old Brunswick West man in relation to an alleged assault which occurred in the CBD on May 14," he said."He has been charged with recklessly cause injury and unlawful assault and summonsed to appear at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on November 21."A statement from Carlton confirmed White had been charged and said his lawyers were going over the case."Simon and the football club have co-operated with police throughout the investigation," the statement said."Simon has the full support of the Carlton Football Club and will continue with his normal playing duties until advised otherwise."Carlton said the AFL integrity unit was "fully informed" throughout the investigation.The Herald Sun reported White and the fan gave different versions of the incident to police.White said he was taunted, while the fan said the alleged attack was unprovoked.

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UK AG won't challenge Harris jail sentence

CONVICTED paedophile Rolf Harris will not see his jail term challenged by the British government's chief legal adviser for being too lenient.

ATTORNEY-GENERAL Jeremy Wright will not refer the disgraced Australian entertainer's sentence of five years and nine months to the Court of Appeal, a spokeswoman in his office said.

Mr Wright's decision comes despite his office receiving 150 complaints about the leniency of Harris's sentence, of which he will serve half, although it only takes one complaint to trigger the review process.Harris, 84, a family favourite for decades, was finally unmasked as a prolific paedophile following his conviction for 12 indecent assaults at the end of last month.A spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office (AGO) said: "The Attorney General understands that his decision not to refer the case may be a disappointment to some people; however, he did give extremely careful consideration to this sentence and he concluded that he could not refer it."She added: "After very careful consideration, the Attorney General, Jeremy Wright QC MP, has decided not to refer the five year and nine month sentence given to Rolf Harris to the Court of Appeal, as he did not think they would find it to be unduly lenient and increase it."The sentencing judge was bound by the maximum sentence in force at the time of the offending."The judge made some of the sentences consecutive to reach the total sentence, but he could not simply add up sentences on individual counts; the overall sentence had to be just and proportionate to the overall offending."The judge was also required to take into account the age of the offender."

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Senator breaks into song during farewell

Senator Ursula Stephens has burst into song during her valedictory speech. Source: AAP

LEAVING parliament may be a blessing in disguise for Labor Senator Ursula Stephens, who looks prepped to shine on another stage - in showbiz.

THE Irish-born Australian stopped short of doing a jig during her valedictory speech in the Senate on Tuesday, instead providing the house with a shaky duck analogy, a famous Australian poem and a wee Irish melody.

After tipping her glass to the Irish ambassador, Senator Stephens burst into song to bid farewell to her colleagues."For all the comrades e'er I had, they would wish me one more day to stay," she reverberated clearly across the chamber.A little less clear was the duck analogy which the senator used to back into her message about caring for the 51 million people displaced around the world.The story goes: Canberra traffic was banked up on Senator Stephens' way to work recently because a duck had been injured and another duck had stayed by its side."And I thought to myself, yes, even a duck looks after its mate," she said.That was followed by the senator reciting Dame Mary Gilmore's Nationality poem which famously declares "this loaf is my son's bread"."We must find a way to feed our own son and also look after our fellow human beings in need."Leader of the opposition in the senate, Penny Wong, congratulated Senator Stephens on her 12-year term and said ending in song was a nice touch.

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Tax, security info at cyber attack risk

TAX and social security records and national security information remains vulnerable to cyber attacks, a new report shows.

AN auditor-general review of seven major government agencies found that none complied with the required cyber security measures which were due to be in place by mid-2014.

The agencies included the Australian Tax Office, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Customs, Australian Financial Security Authority, the Department of Human Services and IP Australia.The agencies hold a wide range of personal, national security and economic information.The report said that in 2012 there were more than 1790 security incidents against Australian government agencies, of which 685 were considered serious.While the audited agencies had put in place internal security safeguards to protect their information "the selected agencies had not yet achieved full compliance with the top four mitigation strategies" mandated by the government in 2013.And none was on track to meet the mid-2014 compliance date.The agencies were found to have a "reasonable" level of protection from breaches from internal sources, but "vulnerabilities remain against attacks from external sources to agency systems"."In essence, agency processes and practices have not been sufficiently responsive to the ever-present and ever-changing risks that government systems are exposed to," the report concluded.The four strategies agencies have been asked to put in place include protections against malicious programs, security "patching" of applications, devices and operating systems and keeping administrative privileges to a small group of users.

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Bishop restates support for Fiji election

Last updated: June 24, 2014

FOREIGN Minister Julie Bishop has been updated on Fiji's progress towards its first democratic elections in nearly a decade.

Hoodie trio overdue for hotel heist

Brittany Vonow THEY'VE hit three hotels already, now a trio of hoodie-clad bandits who use ultra-violence are due for another heist, police fear.

Woolies' bid for Country Road

BUSINESS is such a tangled web. Woolies is making a takeover bid for Country Road but it has everything to do with its acquisition of David Jones.

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Labor, coalition in cost of living battle

Prime Minister Tony Abbott will personally reintroduce a bill to axe the carbon tax. Source: AAP

LABOR and the coalition have traded blows over cost-of-living pressures as the government reintroduced its carbon tax repeal bills.

THE government is adamant the repeal will improve the cost of living for average families by $550 a year and drive down electricity bills.

But Labor has seized on new economic modelling which shows budget changes to welfare and seniors payments will erode family budgets by thousands of dollars each year.Prime Minister Tony Abbott intends to have the carbon tax repeal bills passed through the lower house this week, in time for a special four-day sitting of the new Senate from July 7.The government is quietly confident of securing six out of eight crossbench votes, including three Palmer United Party senators, to pass its legislation.PUP leader Clive Palmer will outline at a media conference in Canberra on Wednesday night what it will take for his senators to back the bills."He will be fully transparent on Wednesday," his spokesman told AAP.Mr Palmer also has concerns about pension cuts and the Medicare co-payment which he says will cost pensioners $2500 a year.Environment Minister Greg Hunt on Monday seized on statements by energy retailers AGL, Origin and Energy Australia that prices would come down once the carbon tax was abolished."AGL today confirmed that price reductions will flow through to residential and small business customers if the carbon repeal legislation is passed by the federal parliament," the company said, adding the cuts would start from July 1 regardless of when the laws passed.Mr Hunt said all six new senators had gone to an election promising to get rid of the carbon tax."All of the signs are that they will fulfil their commitment," he said.Opposition Leader Bill Shorten in parliament referred to new modelling showing a couple on a single income of $65,000 with two children would be $1700 worse off in 2014/15 and short-changed by $6300 in 2017/18."Why should Australian families have to pay for the prime minister's dishonesty?" he asked Mr Abbott in parliament.Mr Abbott told parliament Labor's family payments were unaffordable, but the government was still providing a generous system while getting the budget back under control.Meanwhile, defeated Labor leadership contender Anthony Albanese rejected reports he has been privately critical of Mr Shorten's handling of strategy, policy, communications and internal party reform."Bill has done a good job of holding the government to account," Mr Albanese said.Mr Albanese later told parliament the media reports were "absurd, wrong, without any attribution, unprofessional and contradicted by cursory examination of the facts and recent history".

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Salvos sorry for abuse 'greatest failure'

The Salvation Army will again give evidence at the child sex abuse royal commission in Sydney. Source: AAP

THE Salvation Army says it is profoundly sorry for the abuse suffered by children in its care, and events revealed by the royal commission into child sexual abuse represent the greatest failure in its history.

HOWEVER, the organisation maintains sexual abuse was not widespread after the commission heard evidence of more than 100 cases of children suffering horrendous abuse in homes run by the Salvation Army in Queensland and NSW in the 1960s and 1970s.

As the royal commission moved to finalise its investigation into the church on Monday, counsel for the Salvation Army, Kate Eastman, challenged a statement from counsel assisting the commission that sexual abuse was "widespread" at boys' homes it ran.In an apology to survivors, Ms Eastman read a statement from the Salvation Army saying the organisation was "profoundly sorry for failing to care for you as you deserved, for the neglect, hurt, abuse and deprivation of human rights that all children are entitled to".Ms Eastman said the church "acknowledges that this is the greatest failure in its history in Australia".She said that in the 113 years from 1883 to 1996, the Salvation Army had 17,831 children in its care across four homes in NSW and Queensland and there had been 157 claims of abuse from children in that time.She said 115 of those children were from boys' homes and of 23 perpetrators identified, 19 were Salvation Army officers."We don't for one moment seek to diminish or oversimplify or justify by historical circumstances but we do submit that the total number of claims against the total number of children reflects a relatively small number of children reporting sexual abuse during their time at the home," Ms Eastman said.Counsel assisting the commission Simeon Beckett said the number of children abused in Salvation Army homes would never be known because many had not come forward or had not been able to speak out.The commission heard evidence from survivors of extreme sexual and physical abuse meted out by Salvation Army workers at homes in Indooroopilly and Riverview in Queensland, and Bexley and Goulburn in NSW.Hearings held in January and February heard evidence that the Salvation Army failed to investigate complaints that its staff were abusing boys and did not refer matters to police.Boys who did report abuse to officials were punished and many did not report abuse for fear they would not be believed and would suffer further punishment.Ms Eastman also revealed the Salvation Army has dismissed an officer accused of abusing children in the 1970s.John McIver was suspended by the Salvation Army in February after allegations he sexually abused two boys in a NSW home in the 1960s and 1970s, and whipped a boy with a strap and dislocated his arm during a beating at a home in Queensland in 1975.On Monday the commission heard McIver had been dismissed from the organisation in June and matters had been referred to police.The commission will now prepare its report into the events that occurred at Salvation Army homes in the 1960s and 1970s, and into separate events of alleged abuse that have occurred since 1993.

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Peter Greste jailed for 7 years in Egypt

Last updated: June 23, 2014

AUSTRALIAN journalist Peter Greste and his Al Jazeera colleagues accused of aiding the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood have been jailed for seven years in Egypt.

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Qld premier coy on chief justice pick

QUEENSLAND'S premier has held his first media conference in five days, but was coy when questioned about his government's controversial selection of Tim Carmody as the state's new chief justice.

SINCE Campbell Newman last stood before reporters, Judge Carmody's controversial addition to the Supreme Court has been approved by the state's governor.

Judge Carmody's meteoric rise has divided the judiciary, with critics arguing he's too inexperienced and too close to the government.But Mr Newman has declined to offer any new comment on the appointment of Judge Carmody, even though Court of Appeal justice John Muir has joined senior legal figures in slamming the appointment process."Go back to what I've said when I announced it about a week and a half ago," Mr Newman told reporters on the Sunshine Coast."You've got my comments."Late last week, Governor Penelope Wensley issued writs for the July 19 Stafford by-election, where the ruling Liberal National Party is considered the underdog despite its seven per cent margin.Asked why the media wasn't invited to that event, Mr Newman pointed to his June 5 speech to parliament."The announcement was made in parliament, look at the record," Mr Newman said, adding media weren't usually invited for by-election declarations."I've held many press conferences since I made the announcement in parliament."Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk accused the premier of hiding from voters during the past week, with Mr Newman's last media conference on Tuesday in Mount Isa."The premier has been in hiding now for over a week, afraid to front the music, afraid to talk to people in this state," she told reporters in Brisbane.The premier was on the Sunshine Coast on Sunday holding a community cabinet in Maroochydore, which is also in Clive Palmer's federal seat of Fairfax.A cabinet meeting is being held in the same beachside suburb on Monday.It would come three days after Mr Palmer lodged a defamation writ against Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney in the Supreme Court, after he alleged on the ABC that the mining tycoon had sought special favours for his Waratah Coal interests in the Galilee Basin in 2012.Mr Palmer is also suing Mr Newman for defamation after the premier claimed that he tried to "buy" the Queensland government.

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Newman says ALP wrong on TAFE fee rises

Last updated: June 22, 2014

QUEENSLAND'S premier has accused the opposition of playing Nostradamus over TAFE fee increases.

Explain your rant, former first bloke told

TIM Mathieson has been urged to explain himself after the former first bloke left an angry message on the Victorian Premier's electorate office phone.

Why wi-fi is not working at home

TECH-obsessed Australians are hooked up to more devices than ever before but many are finding that using wi-fi in the home is not working.

Maroons were robbed, says Harrigan

FORMER referees boss Bill Harrigan believes Queensland forward Sam Thaiday was robbed of a try that would have kept the Maroons' Origin dynasty alive.

High life of public housing tenant is over

HE'S part-owned a Melbourne Cup runner, competed in 14 Sydney to Hobarts and drives a gold Mercedes. Now this man's days in public housing are up.

Sexy mugshot guy's wife 'furious'

HIS chiselled features and piercing eyes have set hearts aflutter on social media but Jeremy Meeks' wife isn't quite so happy with the attention he's receiving.

'How much are they paying you?'

CHRIS Sandow has been sin-binned for asking a referee how much he was getting paid as controversy overshadowed the Eels' heavy loss to the Storm.

12 reasons why Australia is magnificent

AUSTRALIANS have been infected with the whinge virus. We need a self-esteem transplant. So Angela Mollard is here to remind us of what makes our country magnificent.

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GG visits Ord irrigation scheme

Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove has toured the Ord irrigation scheme near Kununurra. Source: AAP

GOVERNOR-GENERAL Sir Peter Cosgrove is hoping to shine a light on economic opportunities in agriculture and progress being made on indigenous issues during a tour of northern Australia.

SIR Peter said the second phase of the Ord irrigation scheme near Kununurra was beginning to come to fruition, largely due to Chinese investment.

"It's now possible to see, not just its future potential, but its present importance," he told reporters after a tour of the Ord Stage Two Development on Sunday."I hope that all the negotiations for the Ord River project phase two can continue and we can see waving fields of sugar, sorghum and other crops in this beautifully irrigated part of Australia."He said the area around Kununurra in north Western Australia could produce life saving food for international markets.Sir Peter is half way through a five day tour of the Northern Territory and north Western Australia, taking in the towns of Katherine, Kununurra and Wyndham as well as remote areas."I shine a light. I turn up to places where there is wonderful endeavour and it may not necessarily be solely economic, it might be more on social development or amenity for younger Australians," he said."Or it might be to watch indigenous Australians who, whilst acknowledging that there is a gap to be closed, are working hard with specific programs to enhance indigenous health and to extend life expectation, to reduce infant illnesses and keep kids in school."After planting a tree with Girl Guides and chatting to volunteers on Sunday morning he said regional communities such as Kununurra had a strong volunteering spirit."What I like about rural and regional Australia, the more remote in some ways the better, is you'll see the strength and interaction of communities," he said."In towns in rural and regional Australia you see the interaction up close."Sir Peter, also visited the Kimberley squadron of the Australian army's Norforce reserve unit."I've got a special place, I always will have a special place in my heart for people who put their country's uniform on. Military, navy, army and airforce, but police, SES, anybody who provides a sense of service before self who takes on burdens that are inconvenient and stressful and sometimes hazardous to help other people."However, Sir Peter, who was commander of defence forces when Australia deployed troops to Iraq 11 years ago, declined to comment on how he felt about a fresh batch of troops being sent to Baghdad."On those sort of issues which are contemporary I would say that's a matter for the government."Defence has sent a small unit of Australian Defence Force personnel to Baghdad to bolster security at the Australian embassy.In coming days Sir Peter will visit the TFS Sandalwood plantations, indigenous groups, schools and attend a football training session at the Clontarf Foundation, of which he is patron.

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Another Tamil man sets himself on fire

ANOTHER Tamil man has set himself alight, the latest in a spate of self-immolation cases involving asylum seekers who fear being sent back to Sri Lanka.

THE 40-year-old man splashed himself with petrol and ignited it, but his housemates intervened and managed to put out the fire.

It happened late on Friday at a home in the Melbourne suburb of Noble Park, according to a statement from the Tamil Refugee Council.There were similar incidents in May, when Leo Seemanpillai burned to death outside his Geelong home, and also in April when a Sydney-based Tamil man also set himself alight but survived with burns to 75 per cent of his body.In the latest case, the man suffered burns to his legs and was taken by ambulance to Dandenong Hospital."We are very lucky on this occasion that the man's housemates were aware of what he was planning to do otherwise we may have had another death on our hands," council spokesperson Sri Samy said."I have had seven young men tell me in the past few weeks that they are thinking of doing this."They are fearful of being sent back to Sri Lanka and say they would prefer to die here than be sent back to torture, which is what the Australian government is doing to many Tamil asylum seekers."The man involved in this latest case came to Australia by boat in 2012, and he was on a bridging visa awaiting assessment of his asylum claim.He fled Sri Lanka, leaving his wife and daughter behind, after security police broke his legs.The council said last week he had learned his brother, held in a Sri Lankan prison for four years, had disappeared and was feared dead.The man feared the same fate if returned to Sri Lanka."The previous Labor government, and the current Coalition government, have sent back more than 1000 Tamil asylum-seekers under an enhanced screening process," Mrs Samy also said."That does not allow time for proper assessment of asylum claims."She called on Immigration Minister Scott Morrison to alleviate fear among Tamil asylum seekers by granting protection to genuine refugees.* Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467

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Royals defend apartment spending

Drug turns bald man hairy

IN JOYFUL news for hundreds of thousands of men, researchers have used an arthritis drug to regrow a full crop of hair on a totally bald man.

Jamie's fruit and veg rotten

THEY look cute and cuddly just like their founder, but make no mistake Jamie Oliver's Garden Plus Toys are dangerous prompting a national recall.

Asylum seeker sets himself on fire

ANOTHER Tamil man has set himself alight, the latest in a spate of self-immolation cases involving asylum seekers who fear being sent back to Sri Lanka.

LIVE: Bomber blitz stuns Crows

ESSENDON burst out of the blocks with seven goals in the first quarter to build a commanding lead over Adelaide at Etihad Stadium. JOIN THE LIVE CHAT

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Hendra virus kills NSW horse

Hendra virus has killed a horse in northern NSW, causing authorities to quarantine a property. Source: AAP

HENDRA virus has killed a horse in northern NSW, causing authorities to quarantine a property as they run tests on its stablemates and the five people who handled the animal.

IT'S the first case of Hendra discovered in NSW this year.

"The 31-year-old stockhorse gelding died overnight on Thursday after being found in a dam earlier that day and receiving treatment from a private veterinarian for very low body temperature," NSW deputy chief vet Therese Wright said in a statement."Three people who handled the horse plus the veterinarian and an assistant are being assessed and monitored by NSW Health."In recent weeks no horses have moved off the property, west of Murwillumbah, and there are no dogs or cats about, Ms Wright added.The paddock where the horse was kept "has regular flying fox activity," she said.Horses are believed to contract the Hendra virus from feed contaminated by urine, saliva or birthing fluids from flying foxes."Do not place feed and water under trees and cover feed and water containers with a shelter so they cannot be contaminated from above," Ms Wright said.Hendra virus was found in four horses and a dog across four separate mid-north coast properties last year."Winter is the season when horses have been infected with Hendra in NSW in the past so now is the time to get a vaccine booster for your horse," Ms Wright said.In Queensland four people have been killed by Hendra virus since 1994.And in December councils across the state were given permission to trim trees and use smoke, lights and loud noises to drive flying fox colonies away from urban areas without needing a permit."If a horse becomes sick, owners should contact their veterinarian immediately," Ms Wright warned.

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Thai govt to mediate in Aussie's case

THAILAND'S foreign ministry is pressing for a mediated settlement in a bid to end a legal conflict between the Royal Thai Navy and an Australian journalist who faces a possible lengthy jail term over defamation charges.

ALAN Morison, originally from Melbourne, and Thai reporter Chutima Sidasathian face jail terms of up to seven years on the charges of criminal defamation and breaches of the Computer Crimes Act.

The charges came after Morison, editor of the online English language news service, PhuketWan, in July last year republished excerpts of a Thomson Reuters report alleging the involvement of Thai navy personnel in the trafficking of ethnic Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.The navy later launched a case against Morison and Chutima, but only recently began legal proceedings against Thomson Reuters and its reporters, who were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.Morison and Chutima made brief court appearances last month, but no pleas were entered. Their next court appearance is scheduled for March 18, 2015.But a senior Thai foreign ministry official, Songsak Saicheu, director-general of the Americas Department, says the ministry is working closely with the Thai navy and the Australian embassy in a bid to settle the matter out of court.Mr Songsak told reporters the four-way consultations would include the navy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Australian embassy, and Morison."So the navy is ready to consider any possibility that if anything can be settled out of court, of both parties are satisfied with the conversation, with the deal, together it can be possible," Songsak said.Thailand's National Human Rights Commission had also taken steps to mediate between the journalists and the navy. But talks previously scheduled for May 23 were scuttled a day after the Thai military staged a coup d'etat.The foreign ministry's stance comes as Thailand is under pressure from the US over its rights and human trafficking performance in recent years, and faces a possible downgrade with the release of the State Department's 2014 "Trafficking in Persons" report.Morison welcomed the Thai ministry's intervention in the case."Any possibility of an outcome at which we could all walk away content would be excellent," Morison told AAP."It would be great. If the (Thai) foreign ministry is working behind the scenes and taken note of what's been said in Washington that would be fantastic. That's really good news," he said.The Thai National Human Rights Commission has rescheduled a mediation meeting of the parties for July 7.

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WA Police charge former hostel warden

CHILD abuse squad detectives have charged a 69-year-old West Australian man, who is currently in prison, with two additional charges relating to historic child sex offences.

POLICE allege the offences occurred between 1975 and 1988 when the offender was a warden at a regional WA hostel.

He is expected to appear in the Katanning Magistrates Court on July 15.

18.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

PM not concerned about ministers' safety

Last updated: June 20, 2014

THE government isn't concerned about the safety of its members, despite reports four ministers have had their security detail beefed-up, the prime minister says.

Palmer sues Seeney for $1.1m

CLIVE Palmer has sued Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney for $1.1 million, saying he was defamed in a recent television interview and has "suffered hurt and embarrassment".

Man exposes himself to teen girl

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Baby in HIV test after breast milk mix-up

A THREE-week-old baby is undergoing tests for HIV after being given breast milk from the wrong mother in a southeast Queensland hospital.

Cop facing drug charges

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Rudd hired ex-Obama staffers

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Palmer sues Seeney for $1.1m

CLIVE Palmer has sued Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney for $1.1 million, saying he was defamed in a recent television interview and has "suffered hurt and embarrassment".

Chobani yogurt 'not Greek' — lawsuit

CHOBANI Greek yogurt is taken to court in New York with plaintiffs claiming "there is nothing Greek about the products" and that they are unhealthy.

Late Mail: News on Hoppa, Hodko, Gal, Scott

WILL Hopoate and Paul Gallen set to play, Trent Hodkinson in massive doubt, Matt Scott and Michael Jennings out for six weeks.

South Melbourne pub ahead of its time

REVIEW: O'CONNELL'S calls itself "the original gastronomic pub". I'm not able to verify the accuracy of that, but one thing's for sure: this is a corner hotel that sets the bar very high.

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Labor, coalition fight for rural affection

IF you believe Labor, they are the party for farmers and rural Australia.

IF you believe the government, that's a complete joke.

Parliament took a country tone on Thursday when Labor's agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon brought on debate about the budget's impact on regional Australia.He was concerned about the fuel excise hike's impact on rural residents, which he says will go down as the Abbott government's "worst broken promise".Mr Fitzgibbon is behind Labor's new "country caucus" made up of regional MPs and senators who will influence party policy on rural issues.Labor has long been a champion of the bush, given it was partly born out of the shearing sheds of rural Queensland, Mr Fitzgibbon told AAP."Country Labor has been successful in NSW and it can be successful nationally," he said in a statement.But the coalition is having none of that.Liberal MP Dan Tehan derided Mr Fitzgibbon's topic for debate, given it came just after its country caucus was publicly announced."That's why we have this (debate) here today," he said."What an absolute joke."Mr Tehan said the country caucus came too late."You all should be ashamed of yourself, starting in the year 2014 a regional caucus and coming in here telling us who should stand up for regional and rural Australia."Nationals deputy leader Barnaby Joyce joined in the derision.If there was a friend for regional Australia, it was clear which side of the chamber they would find them in, he said.

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Carr dishes up conundrum for NSW govt

EIGHT years after ending his reign over NSW, Bob Carr is still giving the state Liberals a headache.

THIS time, he's forced Premier Mike Baird to reconvene a "slimmed-down" joint sitting of parliament.

The procedure is so the former premier and foreign minister can be excused from the Senate and return to private life.Mr Baird was left with a conundrum after Mr Carr decided to retire from federal politics despite winning his Senate seat last year.The premier received legal advice that Mr Carr's resignation wasn't constitutional and a joint sitting of the NSW parliament was needed to replace him.But the problem was parliament was on Thursday preparing to close its doors for its winter recess and not planning to sit again until August, well after the July 1 date of the new Senate term.The premier eventually decided to hold a very short joint sitting session in July, which would only last a few minutes, to sort the issue out.Once that happens, Labor's Deb O'Neill will formally replace Mr Carr in the Senate.

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Ferry fraudster Smith 'had no choice'

Last updated: June 19, 2014

A FORMER Sydney Ferries boss who racked up more than $200,000 on the company credit card says he felt he had no choice because he couldn't tell his emotionally fragile wife how desperate the family's financial situation had become.

NRL Late Mail: Origin takes toll

WE reveal who will and won't back up from a brutal State of Origin clash, plus all other injury news and training gossip.

No straights here — just gays

A GATED housing community built solely for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people is being proposed for a European city.

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Therapy need sent abuser abroad: Marists

Last updated: June 18, 2014

THE former head of the Marist brothers in Australia has denied he made a hasty decision to put a prolific child sex abuser on a plane to Canada three days after it became known police were investigating him.

Machete-wielding men spark siege

TWO men are in police custody following a siege at a suburban house in Brisbane's southwest.

Coles lied about 'freshly baked'

COLES faces more than $3 million in fines after claiming bread baked overseas and shipped to Australia was "freshly baked" in store.

How did a dead koala end up here?

A DEAD koala has been found in a very unlikely place. Now authorities want to know exactly how it got there.

Would you buy this house?

IT'S the house in a blue chip Brisbane suburb that's sat dormant for two decades. The roof could collapse and rats roam in overgrown lawns. Would you buy it?

How bus attack pair will plead

LAWYERS for two young women accused of bashing an elderly vision-impaired man on a Gold Coast bus have indicated how they are likely to plead.

Blog: Qld lead after torrid start

QUEENSLAND has opened a four point lead late in the first half of Origin II after a torrid start to the encounter. Join us for our live blog!

Celebs that get mistaken for other celebs

IT'S bloody annoying having to sign autographs and pose for photos with fans who think you're another celeb. Here's how some stars deal with the confusion.

Blog: Qld lead after torrid start

QUEENSLAND has opened a four point lead late in the first half of Origin II after a torrid start to the encounter. Join us for our live blog!

Men and makeup? Yep, it's a thing

DON'T be surprised if you bump into a bloke next time you're shopping for makeup. More Aussie men use skincare and makeup in their grooming routines.

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