A 50-YEAR-OLD motorcyclist has life threatening injuries following a collision with a car in Melbourne's north east.
Police believe the motorcycle was struck by a car in Warrandyte South about 11.20am on Saturday morning.
The motorcyclist, who's believed to be from Scoresby, has been taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a critical condition.
The 28-year-old driver of the car is assisting police.
MORE than one in five Dutch people believe that euthanasia should be allowed for elderly people who are "tired of living", new research suggests.
Of 2000 Dutch people polled, 21 per cent said euthanasia should be allowed for people who no longer wish to live - even if they do not have a serious disease.
Dutch euthanasia law allows doctors to assist suicide for patients who are suffering unbearably from a medical condition with no prospect of improvement.
Hundreds of terminally ill Britons have travelled to receive assisted dying in countries where euthanasia is permitted, reports suggest.
There has been much debate in the Netherlands as to whether euthanasia laws should be extended so doctors can help elderly people who are not seriously ill, but who are simply tired of living, to die.
Researchers decided to examine the level of public support for the matter.
While one in five agreed with the prospect, just over half disagreed and a quarter neither agreed nor disagreed.
Those who supported euthanasia for older people tired of living were more likely to be highly educated and non-religious, researchers said.
Publishing their findings in the Journal of Medical Ethics, they wrote: "Although it is lower than the level of support for assistance in dying for patients whose suffering is rooted in a serious medical condition, our finding that a substantial minority of the general public supports physician assistance in dying for older people who are tired of living implies that this topic may need to be taken seriously in the debate about end-of-life decision-making.
A COUNTRY-WIDE licensing authority for a range of occupations including lawyers and real estate agents has been scrapped.
The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has agreed to scrap the National Occupation Licensing Authority which was set up by the former Labor federal government after a 2008 COAG meeting.
Most states decided at a meeting in Canberra on Friday not to proceed with the national scheme, citing the cost and other problems.
"Let's try to bring about the same outcome in a less cumbersome, less time-consuming and ultimately more productive way, and I think that's what we are going to do now," Prime Minister Tony Abbott said.
Mr Abbott said there should be a seamless national economy so people such as lawyers and plumbers could trade in every jurisdiction and not just where they were licensed.
He said mutual recognition could bring that about without the extraordinarily difficult and endless processes national schemes seemed to involve.
States were generally opposed to the scheme because it would mean they would miss out on licence fee revenue.
The authority will cease operations in early 2014.
A MAN who shot and decapitated his neighbour after an argument about a tree has been sentenced to at least 19 years in jail.
Jonathon Andrew Stenberg, 47, killed Edward "Ned" Kelly, 54, at his Broadwater home on the NSW north coast in June last year.
In sentencing him at the Supreme Court on Friday, Justice Monika Schmidt described Stenberg's actions as "brutal and unnecessary".
She said Stenberg was not remorseful, as he had failed to reveal what he had done with Mr Kelly's head, which had never been found.
"I am not convinced ... the offender has accepted necessary responsibility for his actions, which resulted in the brutal and unprovoked death of Mr Kelly, or that he has taken the step available to him to make reparation for what he has done," she said.
Mr Kelly's headless body was found on his kitchen floor with two blood-stained knives next to his neck.
The court heard the pair had a history of bad blood, dating back to 2008 when Stenberg bought a block of land neighbouring Mr Kelly.
On the morning of Sunday, June 17, 2012, Stenberg was cutting down a tree on his property when a row between the two erupted.
Around 3am the next morning, Stenberg stumbled home from the pub, telling his wife: "I got pissed off and shot our neighbour."
Stenberg fled and was found in July, hiding out in thick scrub just south of Darwin armed with a Glock pistol.
Justice Schmidt said Stenberg, who had served in the military for two years, had been "high-functioning and successful".
While he had a history of anxiety and depression, there was no evidence it was severe or debilitating, she said.
The court heard the global financial crisis had hit Stenberg hard and he was now bankrupt.
She sentenced him to a maximum of 25 years and five months.
His earliest date for release is in June 2031.
Outside court, Mr Kelly's sister, Margaret Simmons, said the murder had hurt the entire family, particularly his girlfriend Barbara Mikkelsen.
"An atomic bomb has been dropped on our lives ... his girlfriend is devastated ... She has nothing now, nothing."
A SOFT economy and government revenue decline have cancelled out the benefits from a prospering property market to deliver a big blow to NSW's bottom line.
Despite initial budget forecasts for a $1.89 billion deficit in 2013-14, NSW is now on track to plunge to about a $2.5 billion deficit.
The $656 million downfall will push out NSW's target for a surplus to 2016-17, according to the Half-Yearly Review released on Thursday.
NSW Treasurer Mike Baird said a fall in payroll tax revenue, despite the "shining light" property sector, contributed to the position.
He also attributed a shift in budget accounting and employee and superannuation expenses to the negative revision.
The NSW government is still reaping the rewards of a strengthening property market with stamp duty growth expected to exceed budget forecasts by between three and four per cent.
But the outlook shows it will not be enough to overcome the forecast $166 million decrease in payroll tax revenue for 2013-14.
"Over the budget estimates, yes, stamp duty is up but it is pretty much offset by the payroll," Mr Baird said on Thursday.
"So the payroll weakness has come off (due to) two factors.
"Wages growth is not as strong and a slighter, weaker employment rate ... so that has driven the revenue down in terms of payroll." Property Council of Australia NSW executive director Glenn Byres said the stamp duty results showed the property market was one of the viable areas of the economy.
"Where we need to be cautious is stamp duty is a volatile source of revenue, so the state will need to immune itself against sudden shifts," he told AAP.
Mr Byres said the real challenge was making the property market upturn go past the usual "ebb and flow" cycle of one or two years.
Mr Baird said the budget would be in a worse position if not for the lease and sale of assets such as Port Botany and Kembla.
The asset sales have helped prop up NSW's infrastructure spending.
Mr Baird conceded the state had challenges but said he was not alarmed.
He also did not rule out further revenue raising actions to bring the books back into the black.
Based on figures from a new budget accounting standard that incorporates changes to how superannuation is treated, NSW is forecast to achieve a $320 million surplus by 2016-17.
That is later than the June forecast of a $157m surplus in 2015-16.
The NSW Business Chamber says it's not surprising payroll tax receipts are lower than expected with business confidence in the "doldrums" for two years.
"The NSW Business Chamber has long been a critic of payroll tax as a burden that does not encourage employers to hire new staff and is a perverse incentive to reduce employment during economic downturns," chief executive officer Stephen Cartwright said.
Opposition Leader John Robertson said it took an extraordinary level of incompetence to have tax takes, record dividends and job cuts but not a balanced budget.
"What this shows is this Liberal government with a treasurer in Mike Baird is inept and incapable of delivering a budget that is going to sustain NSW going forward," he said.
SYDNEY commuters may have to travel further to reach their bus stops next year and pay more to climb aboard following a raft of transport changes.
The NSW government's 20-year plan to redesign Sydney's bus system aims to streamline more than 600 bus routes.
The plan, Sydney's Bus Future, will introduce a three-tiered network and see more rapid routes, like the existing metrobuses.
The rapid routes will link major centres and create a "turn up and go service" with a bus every 10 minutes on weekdays.
However, routes will see fewer stops and commuters may have to walk further to reach them.
Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian announced the plan on Thursday, along with a public transport fare increase to start on January 5.
Opposition Leader John Robertson slammed the plan, saying it would create longer queues at fewer bus stops.
Customers on "suburban" routes will get a bus at least every 10 minutes in peak times and every 15 minutes during the day on weekdays.
"Local" services will have buses stopping every 400 metres.
The new plan's 13 "rapid" routes will link Sydney's hubs, but will only stop every 800 metres to one kilometre.
The government says the bus route changes will see 1.5 million Sydneysiders living within a 10 minute walk to "turn up and go" services on rapid or suburban routes.
Sydney Business Chamber executive director Patricia Forsythe said the government recognised that increasing buses was the problem, not the solution, for traffic congestion.
"The metro bus routes have been very popular and the development of more rapid services that have reduced stopping patterns, but faster trips, will be very attractive to passengers who travel over longer distances," she said.
The Tourism & Transport Forum supports the plan, but deputy chief executive Trent Zimmerman wants more services to Olympic Park.
"We are disappointed the plan does not include express bus services from Strathfield to cater for a growing workforce and we encourage the government to keep the door open on improving bus links to Olympic Park," he said.
While the government says it will not increase MyZone fares in line with an IPART recommendation, there will be an increase in line with CPI.
The hike will range between a 20 cent increase on single adult tickets up to a $2 increase for MyMulti weekly tickets.
However, Opal fares will remain unchanged.
QUEENSLAND'S auditor-general has questioned whether the state government got value for money from its CBD revamp.
No business case was developed for the William Street tower, a government agency hub to be built by the private sector opposite Parliament House.
Auditor-General Andrew Greaves says government policy wasn't followed and alternatives weren't investigated such as direct public sector ownership or leasing at other locations.
"While the costs associated with 1 William Street may represent value for money, it was not determined before the decision was taken, or subsequently, that it epitomises value for the state," the report said.
About 75,000 square metres of the tower will be leased back to the government for 15 years for $1.14 billion.
Once completed in 2016, some public servants will be moved over from neighbouring high rises, which were sold in May.
Mr Greaves criticised the government for not embarking on a traditional competitive sale process and instead offloading the high rises to government-owned Queensland Investment Corporation and the trust funds it manages.
The seven properties were bought for $527 million, $237 million, or 31 per cent less than the prior year's independent valuation, the report said.
Although the state obtained two independent valuations supporting the sale price, the market was not tested to determine if a higher or lower sale price would have been achieved.
Nor did it investigate whether it was better to sell the properties individually rather than as a portfolio.
"The absence of market competition, effectively means from the states perspective the transaction was not 'at arms length'," the report said.
"Without a competitive sale process and given the significant difference between the book value and the sale price achieved, prima facie it raises the issue of whether the state can demonstrate that it obtained best value for money for the assets it sold."
The opposition says Queensland taxpayers could be out of pocket $2.26 billion once rent for the sold properties, rent for William Street and the loss on sales is added up.
Deputy Leader Tim Mulherin said the fact a business case wasn't done showed the deal was quickly cobbled together.
"This deal was really a deal for the premier and his treasurer and the ministers around self-indulgence," he said.
Treasurer Tim Nicholls was unapologetic and is satisfied the state achieved value for money.
"There is no evidence to refute the calculations obtained by the state, nor is there any direct evidence presented ... that the state achieved less than market value through this transaction,."
THE pace of federal government spending has outstripped economic growth over the past decade, particularly under the former Labor government.
The independent Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) found that between 2002/03 and 2012/13 government spending grew by 27 per cent faster than the economy, after accounting for inflation.
Spending averaged 3.8 per cent a year during the period, when the economy was growing at three per cent on average.
During the first half of the decade - 2002/03 to 2007/08 - and during the latter years of the Howard government, spending grew by 13 per cent faster than the economy.
Spending also averaged four per cent annually, when growth averaged 3.6 per cent.
However, while economic growth slowed to 2.4 per cent over the second half of the decade under Labor - 2007/08 to 2012/13 - spending was 47 per cent faster.
The PBO said the rate of spending growth under Labor initially accelerated due to the fiscal stimulus measures adopted to combat the effects of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.
These measures were subsequently withdrawn by 2012/13.
The largest contributors to growth in spending over the 10-year period were social security and welfare, and health, which accounted for over one half of the growth in total spending.
The report is the first part of a study into government spending.
The second part will be released after the government releases the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook and will address forecast and projected spending trends over the 2013/14 budget forward estimates period.
The government is looking for ideas on how to boost the productivity of the agriculture sector. Source: AAP
THE federal government is looking for ideas on how to boost the productivity and competitiveness of Australia's agriculture sector.
Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce on Monday announced the terms of reference for a white paper, and the establishment of a task force to consult with stakeholders.
Mr Joyce said the goal of the paper was to generate jobs, improve farm gate returns, consider food security and increase agriculture's contribution to Australia's wider economic growth.
Australia's natural competitive advantage, and proximity to the fastest growing markets in the world, presented the agriculture sector with a strong future, he said.
"We are in the right place, at the right time, with the right product to sell, especially as Asia moves towards the middle class," he told reporters in Canberra.
An issues paper will be released in the coming weeks, ahead of consultation with industry and community groups.
Mr Joyce said he was hoping for the widest possible participation from peak industry bodies, farming groups and community organisations in this process.
"This gives the Australian people a chance to participate in Australia's agricultural future," he said.
The white paper will also examine whether the national guidelines for drought preparedness are adequate.
Nationals MP Andrew Broad said it was important the policy settings were right to deliver good outcomes for Australia's farming producers and exporters.
A national food plan announced by the former Labor government in May had "some value" and it would be worth keeping some of those ideas in mind, he said.
"I think it would be naive to just completely scrap everything," he told reporters.
Warren Truss (L) has led a condolence motion to mark the passing of Nelson Mandela in parliament. Source: AAP
FEDERAL parliament has paused to mark the passing of Nelson Mandela, with Acting Prime Minister Warren Truss describing him as a freedom fighter and a great man.
Leading a condolence motion in the House of Representatives, Mr Truss rose on Monday to record parliament's "deep regret" for the former South African president's passing.
"Madam speaker, our parliament pauses today to mark the loss of a great man, a freedom fighter who became a national healer, a prisoner who became a president," he said ahead of question time.
"Very few leaders in human history have embodied their cause in the way that Nelson Mandela represented a free and equal South Africa."
Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten left Australia earlier on Monday to attend a memorial service for Mr Mandela in South Africa on Tuesday.
A woman has been badly hurt in an assault in a shopping centre car park in the NSW Hunter region. Source: AAP
A WOMAN suffered severe head injuries after a man knocked her to the ground during an argument in a shopping centre car park in NSW's Hunter region, police say.
The 37-year-old woman was assaulted shortly before midnight on Saturday in East Maitland.
She was treated at the scene by ambulance paramedics before being taken to John Hunter Hospital.
A 30-year-old man was arrested at the scene and charged with recklessly causing grievous bodily harm and grievous bodily harm.
He was refused bail to appear in Maitland Local Court on Monday.
A 16-YEAR-OLD boy has died after being struck by a ute near Dubbo.
NSW police say the boy was hit on Old Dubbo Road about 10km south of Dubbo on Saturday night.
He died at the scene.
The ute driver, a 24-year-old man, was taken to hospital for mandatory blood and urine tests.
Investigating officers are inspecting a quad bike the boy was riding shortly before he was struck.
Earlier on Saturday night, a 20-year-old man died after a car crash near Cowra, also in the state's central west.
Police say three men were in the Holden Commodore when it hit a tree about 7pm, trapping the back-seat passenger who sustained head and internal injuries.
He was released by emergency crews and taken to Cowra Hospital where he died about 10pm.
The 20-year-old driver and 23-year-old front-seat passenger sustained minor injuries.
The driver has undergone mandatory blood and alcohol testing.
