Call for Vic power workers to end dispute

Energy Australia has defended its actions in a dispute which has seen hundreds of workers protest. Source: AAP

ENERGY Australia says locked-out workers at Victoria's Yallourn power station have the power to end the dispute.

Workers at the power station, which provides about 20 per cent of Victoria's energy, started picketing the site on June 21 after Energy Australia locked out 75 workers over an industrial dispute.

On Friday, a few hundred protesters marched through central Melbourne to protest against the lockout.

Energy Australia group executive manager operations and construction Michael Hutchinson said the union only needed to demonstrate the lockout was financially harming its members to apply to the Fair Work Commission to have it terminated.

"Employees' families say the lockout is impacting them financially. The CFMEU should do the right thing and apply to the commission to terminate the lockout," Mr Hutchinson said in a statement.

"We will accept the independent industrial relations umpire's decision on a new agreement."

The Victorian secretary of the mining and energy division of the CFMEU, Greg Hardy, said Friday's rally was about highlighting the plight of the workers to the broader community.

"We're trying to focus some attention on a bad corporate citizen," Mr Hardy said.

"They're treating their workforce with contempt, they're setting a bad example for other companies in terms of enterprise bargaining."

Mr Hutchinson disputed that workers were being treated badly.

"Let's be clear about the grounds for this dispute: the company is not proposing to take away any existing rights or entitlements," he said.

He said the industrial action had cost the company more than $15 million and job opportunities for other workers.

Friday's march started at the City Square and ended at Energy Australia headquarters where union officials called on company representatives to come out to speak to locked-out workers.

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Greens happy with Melbourne ballot draw

The Greens' Adam Bandt drew one position above Labor on the ballot paper for the seat of Melbourne. Source: AAP

THE Greens have had their chances of retaining their only lower house at the federal election improved with Adam Bandt appearing above his Labor rival on the ballot paper.

Sixteen candidates will contest the seat of Melbourne - the most for any lower house seat in the country, the Australian Electoral Commission said at the close of nominations on Friday.

Mr Bandt drew the fifth position on the ballot, just above Labor candidate Cath Bowtell at number six.

Independent Anthony Main is in the top spot.

The 16 candidates represent a range of parties including the Palmer United Party, Stable Population Party, Sex Party, Animal Justice Party and Family First.

Mr Bandt said he was pleased with his position on the ballot paper, but it would only make a difference "at the margins".

"It's obviously better to be higher up than lower down, but I think in an electorate like Melbourne where people are pretty savvy and pay attention, and a very high proportion of people don't follow their how-to-vote cards anyway and vote the way that they want, I think if it makes any difference it will be minimal," he told AAP.

Ms Bowtell said being "in the middle of the ruck" meant people would have to decide to put Labor number one.

She said the Greens had the benefit of incumbency and it would be hard to beat Mr Bandt.

"We're convincing (voters) to put us number one, they're going to have to look for my name and we're going to hand them a how-to-vote card and hopefully they're going to follow that," she said.

"I think people in Melbourne are smart enough to work out who they're voting for and they will put number one who they want to vote for."

Ms Bowtell said a decision on where Labor will direct preferences will be made now they have the full list of candidates.

The Greens hold the seat by a six per cent margin.

Mr Bandt won the seat in 2010 with the help of Liberal preferences, but Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has directed candidates to preference the Greens last on September 7.

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Rural voters left wondering from campaign

THERE'S no point trying to ring Duncan Fraser on his mobile if he's at home on his property near Hay, in the western Riverina region of NSW.

The president of the National Farmers' Federation (NFF) lives in a "greyspot", and only gets limited mobile coverage from towers alongside a nearby highway.

"Sometimes if I go outside and up a windmill or jump up and down I can get reception," he told AAP.

As the head of the peak national farmers body, Mr Fraser was obviously pleased this week when the coalition pledged $100 million to improving a real problem for rural Australians - poor mobile phone coverage.

Even more than the policy itself, the NFF was glad to finally see rural issues rating a mention on the election campaign.

Farmers worry they'll yet again be overlooked this election as the major parties focus their energies on marginal urban seats.

After the first week of campaigning threw up nothing for rural voters, Mr Fraser and other farmers were "put through the torture" of watching the first leaders debate for any mention of agriculture.

There was one reference, toward the end of debate, when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd praised agribusiness and called on Australia's producers to reach out to Asian markets.

That was it.

"I think the clear message there is they don't see agriculture as a key issue," Mr Fraser said.

"They obviously just don't see it as a vote winner like policies on boat people or the budget deficit."

He said it had been frustrating trying to get the major parties to spell out their plans for regional Australia, with promises the details would be revealed later in the campaign.

Labor has its National Food Plan, but Mr Fraser said funding for the long-term plan wasn't assured and it was unclear where they saw agriculture in the future.

The coalition wants to cut regulatory burdens and says agricultural exports are one of the five pillars of the national economy, but hasn't offered much detail beyond that.

Mr Fraser said even though the Greens were "on the nose" in rural areas, their recent food policy had some merit.

Given both the major parties were only promising to maintain or even cut spending on rural research and development - a top priority for the NFF - the Greens had pledged an extra $300 million.

Mr Fraser said the federation would push ahead with plans to rate the agriculture policies of each of the parties, even if there wasn't much to work with.

"We can only go on what we've got at this stage. We can't just sit around waiting," he said.

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Asylum seekers peak in Switzerland

SWITZERLAND, which prides itself on its humanitarian principles, is facing a barrage of criticism over its treatment of asylum seekers.

The controversy broke last week when federal migration authorities said the small northern town of Bremgarten, with 6,500 residents, had been permitted to deny residents of a new asylum centre access to certain public spaces.

Initial reports that the asylum seekers would be barred from the public pool, gyms and even the town library and churches sparked outrage and charges of segregation and discrimination from rights activists.

Swiss migration authorities maintain the reports were based on a misunderstanding, insisting the asylum seekers will only have restricted access to so-called "sensitive areas" where access is also restricted to the Swiss public, like schools and sports facilities during school hours.

The rules were merely aimed to help "organise the cohabitation between the asylum seekers and the town population", Federal Migration Office spokeswoman Gaby Szoelloesy told AFP.

Denise Graf of Amnesty International's Swiss section is unconvinced, maintaining that the rules, which require asylum seekers to among other things request permission from the town before accessing the pool, "are clearly discriminatory".

She says residents in one centre near the central city of Lucerne have been barred from taking the shortest route to the train station, while other centres impose strict curfews.

Police meanwhile moved in this week to remove 10 asylum seekers who had been camped out for days at the Solothurn train station in northwestern Switzerland to protest their living conditions in a subterranean bunker they described as "unworthy of a human being".

Switzerland is one of the countries in Europe that welcomes the most asylum seekers in proportion to its population, with some 48,000 people currently in the process of applying for asylum, including 28,631 who arrived in 2012 - the highest number since 1999.

But the Swiss public in June overwhelmingly voted to tighten the country's asylum laws.

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Palmer eyes Labor, coalition preferences

LABOR and the coalition see each other as the devil, Clive Palmer says, so he wouldn't be surprised if both preferenced his party.

The Palmer United Party (PUP) has had inquiries about preferences from "everybody who's standing", but Mr Palmer is tight-lipped on he'll choose.

"When the nominations close, and we know who the candidates are well then we can make a public announcement about preferences, but until that happens we really can't," he said.

However, Mr Palmer wouldn't be surprised if the coalition and Labor both preferenced his party.

"Why not? Why wouldn't they if they're supposed to hate each other, and one's supposed to be the devil and supposed to be the good guy," he said.

"I don't know who's the good guys and the devils, to me they're all just the same."

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Cell clue to Parkinson's treatment

TARGETING poor housekeeping in cells could lead to new treatments for Parkinson's disease, scientists believe.

Research has linked the disease to a genetic defect that stops cells clearing out defective mitochondria, tiny metabolic generators that supply energy.

Dysfunctional mitochondria are potentially very harmful. Cells normally dispose of them through a "hazardous waste" management system called mitophagy that causes the bean-like bodies to be digested and broken down.

Scientists have now discovered a biological pathway that allows mutations in a gene called FBxo7 to interfere with mitophagy.

In people with Parkinson's, this leads to a build-up of defective mitochondria that may result in the death of brain cells.

The study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, indicates that mitophagy might be the key to new treatment options for the disease.

Dr Helene Plun-Favreau, one of the researchers from the University College London Institute of Neurology, said: "These findings suggest that treatment strategies that target mitophagy might be developed to benefit patients with Parkinson's disease in the future.

"What makes the study so robust is the confirmation of defective mitophagy in a number of different Parkinson's models, including cells of patients who carry a mutation in the Fbxo7 gene."

Co-author Dr Heike Laman, from Cambridge University, said: "This research focuses the attention of the Parkinson's disease community on the importance of the proper maintenance of mitochondria for the health of neurons.

"We are really only at the very beginning of this work, but perhaps we can use this information to enable earlier diagnosis for Parkinson's disease patients or design therapies aimed at supporting mitochondrial health."

Professor Hugh Perry, chair of the neurosciences and mental health board at the UK's Medical Research Council which part-funded the study, said the work raised "interesting questions" about brain cell death related to Parkinson's.

"The more we understand about the basic molecular events which contribute to the onset and progression of Parkinson's disease, the better placed we will be to develop treatments to stop it in its tracks," he said.

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Popular US singer Eydie Gorme dies at 84

US singer Eydie Gorme (R), best known for her TV duets with husband Steve Lawrence, has died. Source: AAP

EYDIE Gorme, a popular nightclub and television singer as a solo act and with husband Steve Lawrence, has died. She was 84.

Gorme had a huge solo hit in 1963 with Blame it on the Bossa Nova.

Her publicist, Howard Bragman, says she died at a Las Vegas hospital on Saturday following an undisclosed illness.

Gorme was a successful band singer and nightclub entertainer when invited to join the cast of Steve Allen's New York television show in 1953.

She sang solos and also did duets and comedy skits with Lawrence, a rising young singer who had joined the show a year earlier.

When the program became NBC's Tonight Show in 1954, the young couple went along.

They married in Las Vegas in 1957 and later performed there.

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Abbott must come clean on costings: PM

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has challenged Tony Abbott to stop being evasive on the coalition's costings when the pair meet for the first leaders' debate on Sunday night.

During a visit to Queanbeyan, Mr Rudd said he was "delighted about the opportunity to debate Australia's future", and claimed it was time the opposition leader levelled with the public about his plans for the budget.

Labor is trailing the coalition according to a host of polls up published over the weekend and it is critical Mr Rudd wins the National Press Club debate if he is to reclaim some of the momentum lost during the first week of the election campaign.

Mr Rudd told reporters "you can be evasive up to a certain point, I suppose" but not during the national televised debate.

"Based on today's polls if there was an election yesterday Mr Abbott would be prime minister today and therefore he can't be evasive tonight about where his $70 billion in cuts in heath, education and jobs will fall," he said.

"I think it is a pretty basic expectation of Mr Abbott."

Mr Abbott began his day ahead of the debate running in Sydney's iconic City2Surf.

Asked how he prepared for their first showdown, Mr Rudd said he had sought "a bit of divine solace" on his regular Sunday morning visit to church.

Mr Rudd said he started the day with a long walk with son Nicholas, managing to escape the TV cameras.

"I had peace and equanimity," he said.

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