Cash rate about as low as it will go

THE chances of interest rates getting any lower are very slim, following a recent surge in the housing sector and improved confidence in the Australian economy.

Eight out of 12 economists surveyed by AAP say the Reserve Bank of Australia won't reduce the cash rate in the foreseeable future, and most say it will raise it in late 2014 or early 2015.

A Melbourne Cup day cash rate cut is a non-starter for all of the those surveyed.

But four forecast a reduction in the first half of next year.

The RBA has slashed the cash rate by two per cent to a record low of 2.5 per cent in a series of reductions over the past two years.

HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham says he thinks improved business and consumer confidence, as well as strong rises in house prices means the RBA has finished its rate cutting cycle.

"The RBA is unlikely to deliver any more rate cuts for fear of over inflating the housing market," he said.

"Housing price growth has risen and timely auction market data suggest these trends have continued in recent weekends, despite a pickup in supply on the market.

"The upswing in the housing construction cycle also appears to be accelerating, with building approvals for new construction rising in September to their highest level since 2010."

Mr Bloxham said the rebalancing of the Australian economy away from one dominated by investment in mining and resources seems to be going well.

"It appears to be broadening beyond just a pickup in the housing sector," he said.

The RBA November board meeting is the first one after the release of very low September quarter inflation figures on October 23.

Melbourne Cup Day has been a popular day for cash rate cuts because it closely follows the inflation figures but Commonwealth Bank economist Diana Mousina says there will be other factors at work besides low inflation.

"The case for further rate cuts is far from compelling," she said.

"There are clear signs that the non-mining economy is picking up at a time when the threat of a mining capital expenditure pothole appears less threatening.

"The Australian dollar is trading at a lower range and is expected to depreciate further."

Westpac is the only institution predicting two more rate cuts, both by a quarter of a percentage point in February and May.

Senior economist Matthew Hassan said the reductions would be needed because, he expects, the local rise in confidence will be short lived and investment in the non-mining parts of the economy will remain weak.

"Global conditions are expected to continue to disappoint. That, coupled with weakness domestically, coupled with a softening in consumer sentiment and business confidence and a weak labour market will see the bank move again," he said.

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Kyle and Jackie O quit breakfast show

Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O have announced they will leave their 2Day FM breakfast show this year. Source: AAP

KYLE Sandilands and Jackie O will leave their 2Day FM breakfast slot at the end of 2013 after more than a decade on air together.

The decision was "mutual", said a statement on 2Day FM's website on Friday morning, and had been made in consultation with Sandilands and Jackie O (real name Jacqueline Henderson).

"Our focus will now turn towards developing a fantastic new show for 2014 with further announcements in due course," said the 2Day FM statement.

The pair will quit their breakfasts chairs on Friday, November 29.

Jackie O said on Friday, "We are excited about the next chapter" - although it is unclear what the pair's next career move will be.

"I think we've always been adamant that we would leave 2Day FM at a time of our choosing," Jackie O told listeners.

The Kyle and Jackie O Show has been a top-rating FM show, and this year the pair was named "best on-air team" in the Australian Commercial Radio Awards (ACRAs).

However, the program has also attracted plenty of controversy and criticism, mainly for Sandilands' outspoken comments and stunts.

2Day FM promised "a month of fitting celebrations" to farewell the duo.

Southern Cross Austereo's head of content Craig Bruce said he was proud of his breakfast team.

"Kyle and Jackie have not only given Sydney radio audiences the most entertaining radio show ever, they have also raised millions of dollars for charities and those in need whilst also enthralling listeners with the world's hottest music artists and exclusive interviews with famous Hollywood celebrities.

"They have certainly lived up to their show mantra 'Breakfast with the Stars!' None of which could have happened without the strong and dedicated team working hard behind the scenes."

The pair thanked a lot of people who had contributed to their show, and also told listeners a bit about their relationship on air.

"We do share really deeply personal moments in our lives," Jackie O said.

"Sometimes a bit of oversharing happens," Sandilands added.

The news of the pair's departure came weeks after Southern Cross Austereo pulled the plug on its duo Matt Tilley and Jo Stanley's long-running Melbourne's breakfast show.

The pair will wrap up presenting the FoxFM Matt & Jo Show at the end of the year.

Last month Southern Cross Austereo also axed Triple M's Merrick Watts and The Highway Patrol, with Julian Schiller and Rachel Corbett. There was conjecture that had been done so the network could afford to keep Sandilands and Jackie O.

Southern Cross Media shares plunged after the news was released.

Shares in Southern Cross Media, which owns 2Day FM, were down 10 cents, or 5.29 per cent, at $1.79 at 1433 AEDT.

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Obeid paid in bundles of cash: ICAC

FORMER NSW Labor MP Eddie Obeid and his wife received bundles of cash from three Sydney properties in which his family had hidden interests, a corruption inquiry has heard.

Mr Obeid's eldest son Damian on Tuesday was giving evidence at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

The watchdog is investigating allegations Eddie Obeid lobbied several state ministers to have leases renewed on government land where the Obeids owned two restaurants and a cafe, without going to tender after their expiration in August 2005.

The inquiry heard Ms Obeid was for several years paid a "housekeeping fee" of $1000 a week from takings at the cafe and restaurants.

"We actually borrowed against her house to purchase the shops ... so we agreed she should be entitled to a housekeeping fee," Damian Obeid told the inquiry.

Mr Obeid was then asked if he knew whether his father was regularly paid with takings from Circular Quay.

"I can't recall my father ever actually directly receiving anything," he said.

But counsel assisting the inquiry, Ian Temby, said Obeid business associate Paul Maroon had earlier told the inquiry Eddie Obeid did receive payments.

"He said that every week there was $1000 in cash bundled up and provided through one of the brothers to your mother," Mr Temby said.

"And he has said ... that for a shorter period, but not just a few weeks, there was in like manner $1000 in cash bundled up provided for your father."

Damian Obeid said he couldn't recall that and that Mr Maroon was "mixed up between mum and dad".

He was also questioned about the structure through which the Obeids controlled the Circular Quay properties.

The restaurants and cafe were owned by a company which was owned by an Obeid family trust.

Damian Obeid said his uncle, John Aboud, ran the Circular Quay enterprises and was "the face of the business".

"Your family was, I suggest, hidden from view," Mr Temby said.

"Possibly," Damian Obeid replied.

He said the family felt like targets after Eddie Obeid won a defamation action against the ABC and The Sydney Morning Herald.

"We did that just to protect ourselves from media scrutiny," he said.

He denied that part of the intention was "to hide from view the fact that (Eddie Obeid), a member of parliament, had through his family extensive and expanding business interests."

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Crown's casino push affordable: Packer

Crown chairman James Packer says the company's push to expand in Asia and Australia is affordable. Source: AAP

BILLIONAIRE James Packer says an ambitious program to expand the number of Crown's integrated hotel and casino resorts in Asia and Australia is affordable.

The Crown chairman told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting on Wednesday that Crown was at a very important stage of its development as it seeks to tap into the "incredible power" of the rising Chinese and other Asian middle classes, including India.

Mr Packer said the expansion of Crown's joint-venture interests in Asia would be "self-funding", and the company would increase its debt to expand in Australia and continue upgrading existing operations here.

"Asia is self-funding, and we're going to build Sydney (a proposed $1.5 billion resort and VIP-only casino at Barangaroo) and Perth (a new six-star hotel) out of increasing our debt a little bit but retaining some earnings," Mr Packer said.

Mr Packer said about half of Crown's value as a company was now in its joint-venture hotel-casino operations with Melco International in Macau.

He said the Melco Crown Entertainment (MCE) joint-venture funded all of its own projects and was now almost debt-free at a parent company level.

Independent financing was in place for MCE's Studio City hotel-casino development in Macau and MCE's hotel-casino project at Manila in the Philippines.

"So what we'll be looking to fund from Australia is Sydney and Crown Towers Perth," Mr Packer said.

Mr Packer added that a proposal to develop a joint-venture $US400 million casino-resort in Sri Lanka would not require "an earth-moving cheque".

He said the Macau business would look to start paying dividends next year, which would provide additional cash.

Crown holds a stake of 33.7 per cent in MCE.

Mr Packer said the cost of Crown's investment in MCE was $US600 million but that stake was now worth about $US6.2 billion.

Crown currently operates casinos in Melbourne and Perth and has been upgrading them to make them more competitive with new casino-resorts in Asia and attract more high-rolling gamblers from China.

Crown is also negotiating the development of a six-star casino-resort in Sydney and has expressed interest in developing a casino-resort in Brisbane.

MCE in Macau operates the City of Dreams casino-resort and is developing the Studio City casino-resort.

MCE also has an interest in a consortium to develop and operate the City of Dreams casino-resort in Manila.

This month, Crown confirmed that it was in talks with the Sri Lankan government to develop a $US400 million casino-resort in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo.

Shares in Crown were 52 cents higher at $16.85 at 1453 AEDT.

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Oil sales drive Beach's high revenue

BEACH Energy's quarterly revenue is up 59 per cent to a record $270 million on the back of higher oil sales, prices and production.

The central Australian Cooper Basin-based company produced oil at record levels supporting sales volumes of 2.9 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) in the three months to the end of September.

It produced 2.5 mmboe, up 17 per cent on a year earlier.

The company's Western Flank oil and condensate production was driving the oil production and maintaining the company's position as the largest net oil producer in the region, chief executive Reg Nelson said.

Beach realised a 17 per cent higher oil price of $A128.10 a barrel.

Cash reserves at the end of the quarter were up 16 per cent to $402 million along with its $320 million debt facility.

Beach has rejected takeover speculation after it upped its stake in Cooper Basin neighbour Cooper Energy from 9.5 per cent to 18.4 per cent on Monday.

Beach shares were a quarter of a cent lower $1.353 at 1315 AEDT.

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$A will eventually fall: RBA governor

The Reserve Bank's boss has warned investors that the high Australian dollar will eventually fall. Source: AAP

THE Reserve Bank of Australia boss has warned investors that the Australian dollar is still high and will eventually fall from its historically high levels.

"These levels of the exchange rate are not supported by Australia's relative levels of costs and productivity," RBA governor Glenn Stevens told a Citi Group investment conference in Sydney on Tuesday.

"Moreover, the terms of trade are likely to fall, not rise, from here.

"So it seems quite likely that at some point in the future the Australian dollar will be materially lower than it is today."

The Australian dollar stayed above parity with the US dollar for most of the time between 2011 and May this year.

The currency was supported by a combination of record high commodity prices, the safe haven appeal for Australian bonds and relatively high interest rates.

However commodity prices are steadily falling, the RBA's cash rate has been cut by two per cent since 2011 and the Federal Reserve is expected to taper its bond purchase program next year.

The Australian dollar is currently around 96 US cents, compared to its post-float average of 75.5 US cents.

Mr Stevens said a lower exchange rate will help the Australian economy move away from one mainly reliant on mining investment.

Retail spending, local tourism and manufacturing are sectors that have suffered from the high Aussie dollar.

National Australia Bank senior economist David de Garis said the RBA governor is ramping up the rhetoric on the persistently high local currency.

"Clearly there is a degree of frustration building there," Mr de Garis said.

"The bank noted their expectation that part of balanced growth would be expansion in some of the trade-exposed sectors that have been squeezed by the high exchange rate."

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Britain braces for worst storm in a decade

About 60 flights have been cancelled at Heathrow Airport due to predicted hurricane-force winds. Source: AAP

BRITAIN is facing travel chaos and more than 10,000 homes are without electricity in northwestern France as a massive storm sweeps in from the Atlantic Ocean.

Britain's national weather centre the Met Office has warned of falling trees, damage to buildings and disruption to power supplies and transport as the storm hit England's southwest coast on Sunday night.

Between 20mm and 40mm of rain is predicted to fall within six to nine hours as the storm tracks eastwards across Britain.

It will be followed by widespread gusts of 97 to 113km/h across southern England and south Wales, with winds reaching more than 130km/h in some areas, forecasters say.

The Met Office issued an "amber" wind warning for the region, the third highest in a four-level scale, and urged people to delay their Monday morning commute to work to avoid the worst of the bad weather.

In northwest France more than 10,000 homes were without electricity early on Monday after wind gusts reached 133km/h in some areas knocking down power lines but no major damage or injuries.

London looked set for a chaotic rush-hour after train companies First Capital Connect, C2C, Greater Anglia, Southern and Gatwick Express services all said they would not run services on Monday until it was safe to do so.

Network Rail has warned commuters to expect severe disruption and major airports also warned of disruption to flights with London hub Heathrow expecting approximately 30 cancellations.

Cross-channel train service Eurostar says it will not be running trains on Monday until 7am am (1800 AEDT).

Ferry operators say they have cancelled some cross-Channel services and Irish Sea crossings.

Meanwhile, the rough conditions led to rescuers abandoning the search for a 14-year-old boy who was washed out to sea from a beach in East Sussex on England's south coast.

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Inquiry hears of bullying at YMCA

EVEN a year after a pedophile had been jailed for abusing children while he worked for the YMCA, the organisation still had not carried out a full audit of working with children checks.

Catharine Clements, who was employed by the not-for-profit organisation as child protection and compliance officer in July 2012, told a hearing in Sydney that within a few weeks it had become clear to her the YMCA's concepts of child protection and child care were blurred.

Ms Clements was let go four months later.

In a document tendered to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Monday, she said her main concern was the closed nature of how business was done at the Y.

"There was an unspoken anxiety (among staff)... an unease about raising concerns with managers," Ms Clements said.

She said she saw it as critical to children's safety that anyone who works with them can have access to managers.

"There appears significant levels of bullying and concomitant levels of personal distress", Ms Clements wrote in a document she put together to clarify her concerns and difficulties in doing her job with the association.

She denied to Gregory Sirtes, SC for the YMCA, that she wrote the document after she had left, saying she had written it during her employment to articulate for herself the difficulties.

She was submitting it only now because she had mentioned it to one of the legal counsels for the NSW government who had asked for it.

Ms Clements also told the commission that the YMCA Human Resources manager had told her they had initiated a working with children check (WWCC) across all staff after the Jonathan Lord incident.

One year on, that audit was still not completed, she said.

There were 1,800 checks completed and 400 still to go. A year after Lord was arrested the audit was still ongoing.

Asked by Mr Sirtes why she had not outlined her staff bullying concerns to Liam Whitley, the child services manager to whom she was reporting, she said she did not feel she could raise it yet.

"I had the same problems raising concerns as other staff."

Her communication with Mr Whitley was through email and she raised issues with him weekly because she did not get another face-to-face meeting with him until she had been in the job 10 weeks.

She told the commission she found it very hard to get clarification from the YMCA about what exactly they wanted in terms of child protection.

The hearing continues.

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Govt must justify $9b RBA payment: Bowen

LABOR is demanding Treasurer Joe Hockey justify his reasons for giving the Reserve Bank nearly $9 billion in what it's calling a bid to score "expensive political points".

The federal government this week announced it would make an $8.8 billion payment to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to ensure it was in the best shape to face the financial challenges ahead.

Mr Hockey said RBA governor Glenn Stevens had written to him indicating the bank wanted to boost its reserve funds, which had been depleted in recent years by the high dollar and "extraordinary" dividend withdrawals by the former Labor government.

Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen called on Mr Hockey to publicly release this letter, saying the government was trying to score "expensive political points" instead of justifying its decision.

"If he can't, then he's got something to hide," he told Network Ten on Sunday.

There was a case for allowing the RBA to build up its reserve funds but Mr Hockey had come nowhere near justifying how this payment was necessary, he added.

Mr Bowen said at no point did he or former treasurer Wayne Swan receive advice from the RBA or Treasury suggesting it would be appropriate for such a payment to be made.

"On the contrary, the former Treasurer received explicit advice that that would be a retrograde step," he said.

Labor has also questioned Mr Hockey's other decision this week to seek parliamentary approval to raise the debt ceiling to $500 billion.

Mr Bowen said the treasurer would have to release the midyear economic forecast before putting the legislation to raise the cap to a vote in parliament.

"I don't believe he's come anywhere near yet justifying that extraordinary increase to the debt limit," he said.

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Jewish community reps condemn Sydney brawl

AN anti-semitic fuelled brawl in Sydney's east has highlighted the need for effective criminal laws addressing racial attacks, the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies believes.

Four men, 66, 48, 39, 27, and a 62-year-old woman were taken to hospital after a melee broke out on Blair Street in Bondi early on Saturday morning.

NSW Police say it received reports the group walked past eight men who made anti-semitic comments to them.

The eight males also allegedly assaulted the group.

Fairfax Media reported the five adults had been returning from a Jewish Sabbath dinner.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president Yair Miller said while Australia was a peaceful country, there were some people motivated by hatred and racism.

"...which has no place in our society and the attack in Bondi is the worst incident of anti-semitic violence in Sydney for many years," he said in a statement.

"We express our concern for the welfare of the family who were assaulted and are grateful to the NSW police for their swift and comprehensive response."

Mr Miller said the brawl highlighted the need for "effective criminal law" against racial incitements as current legislation has proved unworkable.

The NSW Anti-Discrimination Board president Stepan Kerkyasharian confirmed the body would investigate the attack.

"There's been severe racial vilification here, that's a term under the legislation, and I think we should look at taking action," he told Channel Seven.

Federal MP for Wentworth, which encompasses Bondi, Malcolm Turnbull said "we should have zero tolerance".

"Violence of this kind and in particular racist violence, anti-semitic violence, is completely unacceptable in our society," he told the Nine Network.

All five adults were injured during the brawl, suffering concussion, a fractured cheekbone, possible broken nose, lacerations and bruising.

They were taken to St Vincent's Hospital.

Two 17-year-old males were charged with affray and breach of bail.

They were refused bail to appear at children's court on Sunday.

A 23-year-old man was charged with affray.

He was granted bail to at Waverley Local Court on December 3.

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