NT schools to double in attendance program

AT the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Thamarrurr Catholic College in the remote indigenous community of Wadeye in the north-western Northern Territory, average school attendance rates are about 51 per cent.

But the federal government is hoping to change that, now that it has almost doubled the number of schools signed up to its Remote School Attendance Strategy.

An additional 210 school attendance officers and 60 supervisors will be employed to boost attendance rates in a further 30 schools nation-wide from Term 2, Minister for Indigenous Affairs Nigel Scullion said on Friday.

Fifteen of the new schools will be in the NT, seven in Queensland and three in Western Australia, with another five in other jurisdictions.

The schools were identified following consultation with state and territory governments, the minister said.

The Wadeye community faces numerous obstacles to getting students to school, says Principal Dr John Young, due to the 22-plus different clans based there.

"When there's fighting in the community the attendance drops pretty dramatically," he told AAP.

"There's a lot of clan conflict issues, and a lot of kids don't get the amount of sleep they should, which has a real major effect on learning."

Factors affecting children's sleep and school attendance include loud music, parents gambling late into the night and overcrowding at home, where 16 people can live in a three-bedroom house, Dr Young said.

Some of the conflict spilled into school.

"Whether people say it's payback from the old days or they're fighting because every clan here has their own country, I don't know who to blame. Why is the government putting everyone in one place when years ago they wanted to kill each other?" resident Harold Anderson told AAP.

"The generation coming through now are hearing the same stories and the violence is getting worse and worse."

Dr Young said the key attendance data measures how many students attend school at least four days out of five.

22 per cent, or 177 students are coming to school 80 per cent of the time or more, he said.

"Those kids are making very good progress; the best thing we can do is move the 111 students who come 60 to 80 per cent up to coming four to five days a week... That makes the biggest difference."

School attendance personnel are already working in more than 40 schools across Australia and some schools in the NT have reported increases in attendance of nearly 20 percentage points since the strategy was implemented at the start of school this year, Minister Scullion said.

Early data from schools involved in the scheme's first stage show encouraging signs of increased school attendance, with more than 600 more children in school this year compared to last year.

Total government funding for the strategy now stands at $46.5 million.

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US Marshals take custody of Brown

US singer Chris Brown has been taken into custody ahead of his misdemeanour assault trial. Source: AAP

THE US Marshals Service has taken R and B singer Chris Brown into custody to transport him to Washington for his upcoming misdemeanour assault trial.

Marshals spokeswoman Laura Vega says Brown was transferred into the agency's custody from a Los Angeles jail on Wednesday.

She declined to say when the Grammy winner would be sent to Washington.

Brown is scheduled to go on trial later this month on the misdemeanour charge.

The singer and his bodyguard are accused of hitting a man outside a hotel in October.

Brown has been in a Los Angeles jail since mid-March, when a judge ordered him taken into custody after the singer was dismissed from a court-mandated rehab program.

Brown's attorney Mark Geragos had been seeking to block Brown's transfer into the marshals' custody.

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BP Brisbane workers weigh up their futures

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Cancer risk for 1000 Fukushima children

A GROUP of children exposed to higher radiation levels from the Fukushima nuclear accident faces a slightly higher risk of thyroid cancer, UN experts say.

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PM labels PUP 'one man personality cult'

Labor MP Jason Clare (pic) says the coalition will regret its pre-election attacks on Clive Palmer. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has taken another swipe at Clive Palmer, dismissing his political outfit as "a personality cult for one person".

Mr Abbott has repeatedly accused Mr Palmer of trying to buy seats in parliament in a bid to further his own interests.

And on Wednesday, he asked what it meant for democracy when candidates were "a proxy for a minor party that is a personality cult for one person".

"It's something for voters to ponder in the lead-up to Saturday," he told ABC radio in Perth on Wednesday during the West Australian Senate election campaign.

On the party's appeal, Mr Abbott said: "I think there is a certain novelty value and obviously there has been a massive, massive, massive advertising spend.

"So far, the gentleman in question has spent - presumably from his own money - far more than the combined spending from both the Liberal Party and the Labor Party," he said.

But Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek, also campaigning in Perth on Wednesday, said it was up to each party to determine how much was spent on a campaign.

"We believe in a democracy," Ms Plibersek said.

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

Despite the Greens being the second biggest spenders in the re-run WA Senate election, leader Christine Milne said the party wanted to see expenditure on campaign ads capped in light of the Palmer United Party ad blitz.

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

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

Mr Palmer said PUP's advertising cash splash was his personal money to do with what he wished.

He said he had only spent a third of what the Liberal Party did at the 2013 federal election.

"No matter how much money you spend on advertising, if you have a bad idea people won't vote for you," Mr Palmer told Network Ten.

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

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Palmer plans 'anonymous' news website

Clive Palmer is planning a news website containing anonymous posts by professional journalists. Source: AAP

A NEWS website filled with anonymous editorial written by journalists is being set up by wealthy businessman and federal MP Clive Palmer.

After lodging a trademark for The Australian Times last year, the Palmer United Party leader continues to toy with the idea of taking on media mogul Rupert Murdoch in the same spirit as his bid to break the nation's political duopoly.

He said it should go live before the end of the year.

"I'm setting up a website - I haven't got time to do it at the moment - called News on News," Mr Palmer told AAP in Perth, where he was campaigning on Tuesday for Saturday's re-run West Australian Senate election.

"I'm trying to get the editor of one of the newspapers to be the editor of it.

"And I'm trying to have it so that news (reporters) worldwide can log on and post an anonymous article - what's happening in Cincinnati, what's happening in Australia - all over the world.

"You might be a journalist who for some reason can't run a story, you can go and put it on News on News."

Mr Palmer said he still avoided speaking with News Corp Australia, saying he was often denied a right of reply, but still thought its journalists were largely nice people just following orders.

"There's only a point talking to a journalist if you get some fair coverage. You might get 10 per cent fair and that's still worth putting your point of view. But if you get zero coverage, you're only talking to them because they're looking for a headline."

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Gas industry shrugs of job loss worries

AUSTRALIANS should welcome the nation's looming gas boom, despite warnings it will cost thousands of jobs, a global industry body says.

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Govt defends asylum seeker transfer

THE Abbott government has defended relocating dozens of asylum seekers in Sydney to the other side of Australia while the Villawood detention centre undergoes renovations.

A letter sent from the Immigration Department to 83 detainees says they will be moved from Villawood in Sydney's west to a facility in Curtin, thousands of kilometres away in Western Australia.

A spokesperson for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said facilities across the detention network were "designed to be flexible and adaptive to changes".

"The detention network is not run at the convenience of asylum seeker activists and detainees," the spokesperson told AAP in a statement on Tuesday.

"It is run to optimise its management for both government and the taxpayer."

Decisions on whether people are returned to Villawood will be made at a later time.

The planned move comes a day before 16 of the Villawood group are due to have a legal challenge against the Australian government heard in court.

The 16 took legal action after the details of every asylum seeker in Australian detention was inadvertently published on the department's website last month.

Their lawyer has suggested the move could be seen as "either trying to frustrate the justice system and/or punish my clients".

But Mr Morrison's office said detainees would continue to receive the same level of services now available to them, including communication with legal representatives.

The transfers to Curtin will start this month.

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Search for fishing boat suspended

A SEARCH has been suspended for a fishing vessel believed to have got into trouble off Antarctica, with authorities saying it's unlikely anyone survived.

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Fortescue wants to be global safety leader

Fortescue Metals Group wants to become a global leader in mining safety, says CEO Nev Power (R). Source: AAP

FORTESCUE Metals Group wants to become a world leader in mining safety, as it examines its use of contractors following two workers' deaths.

The contractors died in separate incidents at Fortescue's Christmas Creek mine in WA in 2013, sparking multiple investigations and orders for the company to improve safety.

Chief executive Nev Power said the Pilbara iron ore miner had made a lot of safety improvements so far in 2014.

"We're committed to making a step change in our safety performance and become global leaders in safety leadership," he said.

"We're already global leaders in so many areas of the field and we want to now ensure that we're also leaders in safety."

Fortescue has reviewed its lockout and isolation procedures for workers, and is now exceeding industry standards in most cases, he said.

A review of the company's use of contractors is continuing, Mr Power added.

"We consistently and constantly review across all of our operations to determine what's the appropriate model to operate, whether that's a contracting model or a direct employment model and that process will continue into the future," Mr Power said.

Fortescue recently bought out two crushing plants at Christmas Creek which were operated by contractor Crushing Services International (CSI).

A 24-year-old man was crushed to death while carrying out maintenance work in CSI's crushing plant in August 2013.

Less than four months later a 33-year-old, employed by contractor Global Surface Mining, died while carrying out maintenance on a large piece of mining machinery at a heavy vehicle workshop.

The most recent death prompted the mining regulator to issue a special order to improve safety procedures at the mine.

At the time the WA Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP) suspended operations and ordered Fortescue to improve its safety procedures at all of its operations.

Also in 2013, a contractor had his leg amputated after a truck crash on a Fortescue site.

Fortescue has expanded rapidly on the back of strong Chinese steel demand, using a host of contracting companies to build and operate its iron ore operations in the Pilbara.

The company opened the final stage of a $US9.2 billion expansion of its Pilbara operations on Friday, lifting the company's production capacity to 155 million tonnes.

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Garrett 'over the moon' at whaling result

FORMER environment minister Peter Garrett says he feels vindicated that the UN's top court has ruled that Japan's whaling hunt is not scientific and should cease immediately.

Four years ago Mr Garrett helped launch legal action against Japan in the International Court of Justice to try and put a stop to its controversial Antarctic whaling program.

It was the first time any country had used an international court to try to stop whaling.

The ICJ on Monday ruled that Japan's hunt in the Southern Ocean was not a scientific program and it should cease with "immediate effect".

Mr Garrett said he felt vindicated by the decision Labor made in 2010 to pursue the case against so-called "scientific whaling" in The Hague.

"I'm absolutely over the moon, for all those people who wanted to see the charade of scientific whaling cease once and for all," the former Midnight Oil singer told ABC Radio on Monday evening.

"I think (this) means without any shadow of a doubt that we won't see the taking of whales in the Southern Ocean in the name of science."

He wasn't the only one celebrating the outcome, with many taking to Twitter to share the news and pay tribute to the anti-whaling activist group Sea Shepherd.

Sea Shepherd Australia chairman and former Australian Greens leader Bob Brown congratulated the captain of the fleet that made its name in daring clashes with Japanese whalers in Antarctica.

"A whale of a win! Paul Watson is a global hero and Australians can all feel proud. Sea Shepherd Australia chairman," Mr Brown posted.

Current Greens leader Christine Milne also paid tribute to the "champions" at Sea Shepherd, calling the ICJ verdict "justice at last".

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Plane diverted from MH370 search

AN Australian air force plane has been diverted from the search for Malaysia Airlines flight 370 to respond to a fishing boat's emergency distress beacon near Antarctica.

The P3 Orion was on Sunday afternoon sent from the Indian Ocean search zone to look for a fishing boat in trouble about 3240km southwest of Perth and 650km north of the Antarctic mainland, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said.

"The rescue coordination centre was unable to establish communications with the vessel and the nature of distress is unknown," AMSA added.

Authorities sent the P3 as it is capable of dropping survival equipment.

"A broadcast to shipping has been issued, however due to the remoteness of the location it is unlikely that any other ships will be near the area," AMSA said.

"The weather forecast for the area is extremely poor with low cloud, rain, snow and a water temperature of 2 degrees Celsius."

The beacon is registered to a fishing vessel, but no details of the nationality, crew or size of the vessel have been released.

To replace the Orion in the search for MH370 a civilian jet has been dispatched from Melbourne.

That jet is expected to take five hours to travel nearly 4000km to the search zone, where it can fly for a further two hours before having to turn back.

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20 rescued from broken Perth chairlift

EMERGENCY workers have rescued 20 people trapped on a chairlift at a Perth adventure park.

WA's Department of Fire and Emergency Services were called to Adventure World in Bibra Lake on Sunday afternoon, after the chairlift ground to a halt with almost two dozen people on board.

After almost three hours, the last of them was rescued, with 12 firefighters using a cherry picker to free the stranded patrons.

The trapped riders have been provided with water while work continued to free them.

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Increased fines for misbehaving drunks

Flash flooding slows SEQ motorists

UPDATE: Southeast Queensland motorists have been urged to drive with caution, after flash flooding causes havoc on roads.

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Man dies at Gold Coast mall shooting range

POLICE and ambulance crews have attended a shooting range in Cavill Mall where a man has reportedly died from a gunshot wound.

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Duo charged after alleged cop hit-run

UPDATE: TWO men have been charged with attempted murder after a police officer was alleged hit by a car during an RBT.

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Latest Sunday morning market venture

FARMERS have a new venue in Brisbane to sell their fresh "off the back of a ute" produce directly to the public from today.

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