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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Duo beat Vic man in street robbery

A Melbourne man has been beaten by two men during a late night street robbery, police say. Source: AAP

A MELBOURNE man has been beaten by two men during a late night street robbery.

The 28-year-old had been walking along Sydney Road in Brunswick when two strangers started talking to him.

Police say one of the men then grabbed him from behind while the other punched and kicked him before fleeing with his phone.

The man is recovering from head injuries sustained during the attack, which happened last Tuesday evening.

The two robbers are described as young men of African appearance with skinny builds.

One of them was wearing a grey beanie, pink long-sleeved top, jeans and brown shoes.

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