Woman loses relatives in 2 Malaysia air disasters

SYDNEY (AP) — In an almost incomprehensible twist of fate, an Australian woman who lost her brother in the disappearance of #Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 learned on Friday that her stepdaughter was on the plane shot down over #Ukraine.

Kaylene Mann's brother Rod Burrows and sister-in-law Mary Burrows were on board Flight 370 when it vanished in March. On Friday, Mann found out that her stepdaughter, Maree Rizk, was killed along with 297 others on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which U.S. intelligence authorities believe was shot down by a surface-to-air missile.

"It's just brought everyone, everything back," said Greg Burrows, Mann's brother. "It's just ... ripped our guts again."

Burrows said his family was struggling to understand how they could be struck by such horrible luck on two separate occasions with the same airline.

"She just lost a brother and now a stepdaughter, so..." he said of his sister, his voice trailing off.

Rizk and her husband Albert, of Melbourne, were returning home from a four-week holiday in Europe, said Phil Lithgow, president of the Sunbury Football Club, with which the family was heavily involved. Albert, a real estate agent, was a member of the club's committee, Maree was a volunteer in the canteen and their son, James, plays on the club's team.

"They were very lovely people," Lithgow said. "You wouldn't hear a bad word about them — very generous with their time in the community, very community-minded, and just really very entertaining people to be with."

The club members planned to wear black armbands and observe a minute of silence to honor the Rizks at their game on Saturday, Lithgow said.

Despite the twin tragedies, Burrows said he holds nothing against Malaysia Airlines.

"Nobody could predict they were going to get shot down," he said. "That was out of their hands." AP

Australia Repeals Controversial Carbon Tax

In this July 2, 2014 file photo, smoke billows out of a chimney stack of steel works factories in Port Kembla, south of Sydney. Australia's government repealed a much-maligned carbon tax on the nation's worst greenhouse gas polluters on July 17, 2014, ending years of contention over a measure that became political poison for the lawmakers who imposed it. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith, File) | ASSOCIATED PRESS

SYDNEY (AP) — #Australia's government repealed a much-maligned #carbon tax on the nation's worst greenhouse gas polluters on Thursday, ending years of contention over a measure that became political poison for the lawmakers who imposed it.

The Senate voted 39 to 32 to axe the 24.15 Australian dollar ($22.60) tax per metric ton of carbon dioxide that was introduced by the center-left Labor government in July 2012. Conservative lawmakers burst into applause as the final tally was announced.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott's conservative coalition government rose to power last year on the promise of getting rid of the tax, assuring voters that removing it would reduce household electricity bills. He plans to replace the measure with a taxpayer-financed AU$2.55 billion fund to pay industry incentives to use cleaner energy.

"Today, the tax that you voted to get rid of is finally gone: a useless, destructive tax which damaged jobs, which hurt families' cost of living and which didn't actually help the environment," Abbott told reporters in Canberra.

Australia is one of the world's worst greenhouse gas emitters per capita, largely because of its heavy reliance on the nation's vast reserves of cheap coal for electricity.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten lashed out at Abbott after the vote, dubbing him an "environmental vandal."

"Today, Tony Abbott has made Australia the first country in the world to reverse action on climate change," Shorten told reporters. "History will judge Tony Abbott very harshly for refusing to believe in genuine action on climate change. Tony Abbott is sleepwalking Australia to an environmental and economic disaster."

The carbon tax, charged to about 350 of Australia's biggest carbon polluters, was controversial from the start. Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard had initially vowed not to introduce a tax on carbon emissions. But after her Labor party was elected in 2010, she needed the support of the minor Greens party to form a government — and the Greens wanted a carbon tax. Gillard agreed, infuriating a public that viewed the measure's imposition as a broken promise.

Labor's popularity plummeted, particularly when consumers saw their power bills soar. In reality, the tax accounted for a relatively small portion of that increase, but many blamed it for the hike nonetheless.

In a desperate bid to improve their standing with the public, Labor replaced Gillard with previous Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who promised to get rid of the tax and transition it earlier than planned to a cap-and-trade scheme, which would have significantly lowered the per-ton carbon price.

But it proved too little, too late. Abbott's party swept to power in last year's elections by vowing to get rid of the tax for good.

In a fiery speech ahead of Thursday's vote, Sen. Christine Milne, leader of the Greens, called it an "appalling day for Australia."

"A vote for the abolition of the clean energy package is a vote for failure," she said. "If this parliament votes to abandon the clean energy package, you are voting against the best interests of the nation."
Huffington Post

Australian soldier dies on Mount Cook

Aoraki Mount Cook. File photo / Doug Sherring

New Zealand police have confirmed that an Australian man has died on Aoraki-Mt Cook after falling 40 metres down a crevasse on the Grand Plateau.

#Australian media have reported that the man was an Australian #soldier who was taking part in a training exercise.

Police said the 44-year-old man was one of a party of 10 people and fell shortly after midday today.

The victim's body has been recovered and has been flown back to the Mount Cook Emergency Service Centre. and police are now advising the next of kin.

The matter has been referred to the Coroner.

Alpine Guides manager Arthur McBride told the Herald he had heard one person had been "involved in an accident on the Grand Plateau".

"There were helicopters all over the place".

The location of the accident was "a long way away" from a large rock avalanche, reported yesterday, on the south face of Mt Cook, he said.

The Australian Defence Ministry was said to be preparing a statement.

- more to come
NZ Herald

Australian same-sex marriage support hits record-high: poll

Sydney (AFP) - Support for same-sex marriage has reached a record high in Australia, a poll showed Tuesday, as pressure mounts on Prime Minister Tony Abbott to allow a conscience vote on the issue.

Australian same-sex marriage support hits record-high: poll -AFP

The survey by Crosby Textor -- the national pollster for the ruling Liberal Party -- found 72 percent of #Australians supported marriage equality, with about half of those strongly supporting it.

Pollster Mark Textor said backing for #same-sex marriage had been steadily rising from the 38 percent recorded by another researcher, Newspoll, a decade ago.

"With Australians across all key demographics supporting marriage equality in record numbers, it's fair to say the public has made up its mind," said Australian Marriage Equality director Rodney Croome.

"The community debate is over, and it's time for politicians to act."

The survey released Tuesday of 1,000 Australians ramps up pressure on Abbott, whose sister is gay, to allow his MPs a conscience vote.

New Liberal Democratic senator David Leyonhjelm said Monday he may bring a private member's bill to parliament to redefine the Marriage Act.

The conservative government is opposed to gay marriage and a vote on the issue in 2012 was defeated 98 to 42 after Abbott refused to allow his MPs, then in opposition, to break with party lines, rendering it a null prospect.

Labor favours same-sex marriage and senator Penny Wong, who is openly gay, said she wanted the laws to change.

"We don't want this to fail again -- we want a debate which has the capacity of a bill passing, and marriage equality being achieved," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"But to get that we've got to have Tony Abbott being prepared to allow his party to vote with their conscience."

The Crosby Textor poll said 77 percent of people supported a conscience vote.

Australia continues to lag behind a growing number of countries on marriage reform, including neighbouring New Zealand, Britain and some US states.

Gay marriage was explicitly outlawed in Australia under a 2004 revision of the national Marriage Act by the conservative prime minister at the time, John Howard.

Same-sex couples can have civil unions or register their relationships in most states across Australia, but the government does not consider them married under national law. Yahoo News

Australia in row over boats carrying Tamil asylum seekers

Australia says it is trying to deter asylum seekers from making dangerous sea voyages

Australia is refusing to comment on the fate of more than 200 Tamil asylum seekers reportedly intercepted at sea to the north-west of the country.

It is believed two boats carrying the asylum seekers were stopped by Australian authorities in the Indian Ocean and that some passengers were handed over to the Sri Lankan navy.

Refugee campaigners say it is a violation of international law.

They say at least 11 of those on board had been tortured in Sri Lanka.

Australia has been taking a tough approach on asylum seekers who try to reach the country by perilous sea journeys.

Hundreds of would-be migrants have died trying to make their way to Australia by boat in recent years.

The government has made no comment for what it says are "operational reasons" and will neither confirm nor deny the existence of the two boats carrying Tamils from Sri Lanka, says the BBC's Phil Mercer in Sydney.

But Australian media say that some have already had their refugee claims rejected and have been transferred to the Sri Lankan navy, he adds.

Forcing asylum seekers back to their country of origin without properly investigating their claims is a flagrant breach of the Refugee Convention and international law, the Refugee Council of Australia said.

Chief executive Paul Power said: "For asylum seekers, this is a matter of life and death, particularly in Sri Lanka which has a long history of political violence on a scale unimaginable to Australians."

Ministers say, however, that Australia is upholding its international obligations.

The plight of refugees is a contentious issue in Australia

Tamil Refugee Council spokesman Aran Mylvaganam said he had spoken to relatives of some of those on the boats and that at least 11 had been arrested by Sri Lanka's intelligence forces "and had been tortured".

The UN refugee council earlier this week expressed "profound concern" about Australia's handling of the asylum seekers.

It has been six months since a vessel carrying refugees reached Australia after the military was called in to turn boats around.

Under current Australian policy, most asylum seekers who try to make their way to Australia by boat are sent to detention camps in Papua New Guinea or Nauru. If found to be refugees, they will be resettled there, not in Australia.

Australia says its asylum policy - which is also widely believed to involve towing back boats to Indonesian waters - is aimed at saving lives.

Our correspondent says stopping refugee boats from reaching the country was one of the main campaign pledges of Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Sri Lanka has been under heavy international pressure over alleged human rights violations during the final phase of the war against Tamil separatists which ended in 2009.

Rights groups say Tamils still face violence at the hands of the military. BBC News

Gun traffickers to get mandatory five-year terms under bill to go before MPs

Firearms seized in raids in Victoria. Photograph: Julian Smith/AAP

Laws setting minimum mandatory five-year jail terms for gun trafficking will be presented to federal parliament within weeks, as the Abbott government steps up its rhetoric about security.

The government flagged the forthcoming firearms legislation on Friday, adding to its previous announcement about an imminent bill to expand the powers of intelligence agencies, including to access the computers of people who are not the primary subject of an investigation.

The attorney general, George Brandis, also signalled this week that the government was likely to pursue another set of changes to address gaps in existing laws and evidence-gathering barriers to deal with Australians returning from fighting in Iraq and Syria.

The outgoing national security legislation monitor, Bret Walker SC, whose office is being axed by the Coalition as part of the “red tape” reduction push, identified clear “defects” in current laws, including the inability to use evidence obtained from surveillance in a foreign country without permission from officials of that country.

Tony Abbott opened a crime conference in Melbourne on Friday by pointing to the “emerging threats” from overseas as evidence of the need for vigilance.

The prime minister alluded to the government’s hardline border protection policies in building a broader narrative about national security.

“Right now we face serious challenges from international events and these new and emerging threats make it more important than ever that we work together to keep our borders secure and keep our communities safe, to keep people who would do us harm under the closest possible supervision,” Abbott said.

“Our job is not just to keep the peace, our job is to enforce the law. Our job is to take sides. Our job is to be on the side of the law-abiding citizen against those who would do law-abiding citizens harm or against those who would exploit our generosity to do all of us harm.”

Paving the way for parliamentary debate over security legislation, Abbott said the government would “have more to say about other measures to tackle crime and to secure our borders and in particular to respond effectively to the threat posed by radicalised and militarised people seeking to re-enter Australia after jihadist activities abroad”.

“There is a lot of heavy lifting that needs to be done to keep our borders secure and our streets safe,” he said.

In relation to gun laws, Abbott said the justice minister, Michael Keenan, would introduce a bill in the next few weeks ensuring uniform minimum mandatory five-year jail terms for illegally trafficking firearms into the country.

The prime minister said 250,000 illicit “long arms” and at least 10,000 illicit handguns were estimated to be in Australia. The measure was an election promise.

The Greens senator Penny Wright said the laws would do little to improve community safety because most illegal guns were not trafficked into Australia but were stolen from registered owners.

“That’s really where the focus needs to be,” she said, calling on the government to wait for the results of a forthcoming Senate committee inquiry on gun crime.

“Mandatory sentencing does not reduce crime – it only locks people up once the damage has been done.”

Abbott announced the forthcoming legislation at the first meeting of the Law, Crime and Community Safety Council, which brings together state, territory and federal ministers and law enforcement agencies.

He acknowledged the states and territories were mainly responsible for law and order, but said he was attending the meeting because the federal government wanted to do whatever it reasonably could to support the efforts.

The government, whose budget measures have proved to be unpopular with the public and will face difficulty in the Senate, has progressively stepped up its rhetoric about national security in the past few weeks.

Last month Abbott said the government would protect the country “not just from illegal boats but from returning jihadis as well”. But legislation to tackle the issue is yet to be presented to parliament.

The government has also stressed the need to work together with the Islamic community in Australia to prevent “radicalism and violent extremism”.

In a speech to imams last week, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, the parliamentary secretary to the minister for social services, said it was “vitally important that the positive narrative of your contribution to Australia is not overshadowed by the negative publicity generated by the actions of a few”.

Members of Australia’s parliamentary intelligence committee will travel to London next week for an international conference pondering the challenges of effective intelligence oversight after disclosures by Edward Snowden. The Guardian

Australia moves to remove memory of sex offender Rolf Harris

Veteran Australian artist and entertainer Rolf Harris with his wife Alwen Hughes leave Southwark Crown Court in central London on June 30, 2014 (AFP Photo/Niklas Halle'n )

Sydney (AFP) - #Australia moved Tuesday to purge the memory of entertainer Rolf Harris after he was convicted on 12 counts of indecently assaulting #girls, in case that caused widespread revulsion both in his homeland and adopted Britain.

Australian-born Harris, 84, was found guilty of all the charges against him after a six-week trial in London, capping a spectacular fall from grace.

The TV presenter, artist and musician assaulted four girls and young women aged from seven to 19 between 1968 and 1986, including his daughter Bindi's childhood best friend, the court found.

He will be sentenced on Friday and almost certainly faces jail.

"I feel gutted and dismayed but it's very important that we do everything we humanly can to protect vulnerable young people," Prime Minister Tony Abbott told ABC radio of a man adored by children and adults alike.

"It's a terrible, terrible business.

"#Sexual abuse is an utterly abhorrent crime ... and it's just sad and tragic that this person, who was widely admired, seems to have been a perpetrator."

Harris was one of Australia's best-loved entertainers, who headed to London when he was 22 and made his name in Britain.

He shot to fame with his signature instrument, a wobble board, and songs about kangaroos and a man called Jake who had an extra leg, ultimately painting Queen Elizabeth II's portrait on her 80th birthday.

He was made a CBE in 2006 -- one of the highest honours the queen can bestow -- and performed at a concert marking the monarch's diamond jubilee outside Buckingham Palace in 2012.

- 'Heinous crimes' -

The Australian media, which has reported blow-by-blow accounts of the trial, said it was clear he had a dark side.

"Guilty: Harris abused teens for years," screamed the Sydney Daily Telegraph, while Fairfax Media dredged up a 20-minute anti-child abuse video Harris shot in the 1980s called "Kids Can Say No".

"In the period when the video began to be widely shown in schools, youth clubs and health institutes in the United Kingdom, the court found he was also having sexual encounters with his daughter's best friend," Fairfax said.

The Australian broadsheet said he left Southwark Crown Court "shattered as he walked some of his last steps as a free man".

"Harris's fall from grace will be complete when authorities move to strip him of all his royal and Australian honours following his conviction," it added in its online edition.

Harris' home town of Bassendean in Western Australia, where he was considered a hero, said it would consider at a special meeting on Thursday whether to remove his status as a freeman.

"These are heinous crimes. All privileges should be stripped from Mr Harris," Bassendean Mayor John Gangell told ABC radio.

"Unfortunately that world stage that he's put Bassendean on has now come crashing down."

A West Australian Education Department spokeswoman told reporters that several Harris artworks would be removed from the Perth Modern School, where he studied from 1943 to 1947.

City of Perth Mayor Lisa Scaffidi added to Fairfax radio that the council would likely also tear up a footpath plaque in his honour.

"It's a very sad issue and something we need to deal with," she said.

Labelled a "sinister pervert" by the prosecution, Harris is the second person to be convicted under Operation Yewtree.

The high-profile investigation was set up in 2012 after allegations that the late BBC presenter Jimmy Savile was a prolific sex offender. Yahoo News

Australian PM Abbott defends unpopular budget

Australian Prime Minister

#Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott Wednesday defended his tough first #budget which saw swingeing cuts to health and education spending in an attempt to slash the country's massive deficit.

The moves triggered anger and claims of broken election promises, but conservative Abbott said his administration was being upfront with the public about the state of the nation's finances.

"This budget is not about making the government popular," Abbott said.

"This budget is about doing the right thing by our country and that, in the end, is what the voters want."
The plan released Tuesday aims to bring the deficit down from its current Aus$49.9 billion (US$46.6 billion) to Aus$29.8 billion next year, with the government planning to reach a surplus around the end of the decade.
It includes federal cuts of Aus$50 billion to health funding and Aus$30 billion to education over the next 10 years, leaving state governments to pick up the slack.

A new tax will be levied on high earners while welfare and family benefits will be tightened and young people will have to wait six months before claiming unemployment benefit.

The pension age will rise to 70 by 2035 and people will have to pay a modest fee to visit the doctor, with some of the revenue raised directed towards a medical research fund.
- 'Kick in the guts' -

Abbott faced a barrage of questions in parliament about whether he had broken a pre-election promise of no new taxes as he attempted to sell the policies on Wednesday.
"This is a fundamentally honest budget," he said.

"The most fundamental commitment I made was to get the budget back under control."
The cuts to health and education have prompted a furious reaction from state governments, who now face shortfalls from the winding back of the commitments promised by the previous Labor government.
"What we saw last night from Canberra was a kick in the guts to the people of New South Wales," state Premier Mike Baird, a fellow conservative, told reporters in Sydney.

"What services would (they) like us to cut here in New South Wales on the back of the funding cuts that we've seen overnight?"

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman called for an emergency meeting of state and federal governments, saying Abbott had not been transparent about what he termed "unacceptable cuts".
Labor has vowed to vote against some of the government's decisions, including a Aus$7 payment to see the doctor and the raising of the pension age.

The party's treasury spokesman Chris Bowen said while a medical research fund was a good idea, it should not be funded by a fee charged at the doctor's door.
"It should not be funded by Australia's sick and vulnerable people," he told Sky News, adding that Labor would also oppose raising the pension age to 70.

"Not one country in the OECD has a pension age of 70," he said.
The budget also reduces foreign aid by Aus$7.9 billion over five years, shaves funding to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and makes petrol more expensive thanks to a rise in a fuel levy.
Thousands of public service jobs will go in the next three years while scores of government agencies will be abolished or amalgamated.

Question time in parliament was dominated by the budget, with Abbott forced to fend off questions about whether his promises of no new taxes amounted to deceit.
"After six years of dysfunction, the people of Australia were looking for some leadership," Abbott told parliament.

"They were looking for a government that was prepared to make not the easy decisions but the hard decisions."

Source: Yahoo News