Labor claims first home buyers locked out

The NSW opposition says investors are receiving more help to buy property than new home buyers. Source: AAP

INVESTORS are receiving NSW government help to buy property at nearly twice the rate that new home buyers are, the state's opposition says.

NSW Labor says statistics from the Office of State Revenue show that in the last year 9802 New Home Scheme grants have been paid to property investors and existing home owners buying a new home or block of land.

But only 5375 first home buyer grants have been paid out to first-timers buying a new home or block of land over the same period, Labor says.

These property debutants are eligible for a $15,000 grant when they purchase a new home, home off the plan or land that they intend to build on.

The New Home Grant scheme is open to people who already own property to do the same, but is worth $5000.

Opposition Leader John Robertson said on Saturday that offering grants to existing homeowners to buy more property was making it harder for first home buyers to gain a foothold.

"It is one thing to help first home buyers get that important first step into the housing market, but something entirely different to be doling out taxpayer-funded cash grants to property investors buying up multiple properties across the city," he said in a statement.

"All the O'Farrell government is doing is locking more and more first home buyers out of the housing market and putting the great Australian dream of owning your own home out of reach for many."

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President Obama meets Malala

US President Barack Obama (R) has met in Washington with Pakistani advocate Malala Yousafzai. Source: AAP

US President Barack Obama has met with 16-year-old Malala Yousafzai, an advocate for girls' education and the target of a Taliban assassination attempt who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Obama met with Malala on Friday, the same day the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The Pakistani teen had been considered a front-runner for the prize and was in Washington to speak at two events.

The teen said in a statement after the meeting that she was honoured to meet with the president, who is a Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

"I thanked President Obama for the United States' work in supporting education in Pakistan and Afghanistan and for Syrian refugees. I also expressed my concerns that drone attacks are fueling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people. If we refocus efforts on education it will make a big impact," she said.

She called for greater cooperation between the governments of the United States and Pakistan.

The White House said in a statement that Malala met with the president and first lady in the Oval Office where the president signed a proclamation to mark Friday as the International Day of the Girl.

The proclamation says in part that "on every continent, there are girls who will go on to change the world in ways we can only imagine, if only we allow them the freedom to dream."

Malala was shot in the head in October 2012 while she was going home from school. She was flown to a hospital in Britain, where she now lives. Her memoir "I am Malala" was published on Tuesday.

On Friday she spoke at a World Bank event and was scheduled to speak at a book event at the Sidwell Friends School, which Obama's daughters attend.

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Gun seized after Vic woman shot dead

POLICE have seized a firearm and are questioning a 34-year-old man after a young woman died of a gunshot wound at a Melbourne house.

In a bizarre twist, the bodies of two women were found in a house in the same street soon after the shooting, but their deaths are not being treated as suspicious.

Paramedics were called to a house in Meadowbank Drive in Sunshine North about 9am (AEDT) on Friday to treat a woman for upper body wounds, but were unable to enter until police declared the scene safe.

By the time they reached her in a rear bedroom of the home, the woman had died.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stephen McIntyre said the Sunshine North man, who is known to police, is believed to have known the woman but was unable to say how.

"The exact extent of their relationship is yet to be determined," Det Sen Sgt McIntyre said.

He said the man was assisting police and no charges had been laid.

However, police are in possession of a firearm.

Police have not revealed how many shots had been fired or how many wounds the woman, who is yet to be identified, sustained.

Det Sen Sgt McIntyre said he was unsure how long paramedics had to wait before they were able to enter the house.

"The scene had to be made safe prior to their entry," Det Sen Sgt McIntyre said.

"Given the fact that there was a firearm involved in this incident they obviously had to wait for police to attend."

The homicide squad is investigating.

Not long after the shooting, the bodies of an elderly woman and a middle-aged woman were found inside another house in the same street.

Police said their deaths were unrelated to the shooting.

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FTAs threaten cigarette packaging: Greens

TOBACCO companies will have the green light to sue Australia over plain packaging if the government fast-tracks free trade agreements, Greens leader Christine Milne says.

Senator Milne has warned Prime Minister Tony Abbott not to rush into the mooted Trans-Pacific Partnership with 12 regional countries.

Mr Abbott also wants to overcome years of stalemate to secure an Australia-China free trade agreement within 12 months.

But Tasmanian Senator Milne says Australia should not accept a weakened dispute resolution process she believes would lead to tobacco companies seeking to recoup lost profits.

The Greens leader said food multinationals like Monsanto could also challenge Tasmania's genetically modified crop free status.

"Tony Abbott is considering allowing cigarette companies to sue the Australian government because we have plain packaging legislation," Senator Milne told reporters in Hobart.

"It would mean that Monsanto could sue the Australian government because Tasmania is GMO-free."

Senator Milne said rushed agreements could mean greater foreign ownership of agricultural land and water.

"Everybody knows the Chinese say absolutely they won't tolerate any kind of strengthening of our foreign investment laws," she said.

"So what's it to be - Monsanto, cigarette companies, selling out the farm in Australia simply to fast-track these free-trade agreements or are we going to get what we would regard as fair trade?"

Senator Milne said environmental care costs and labour standards should be built into any FTA.

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WA's top cop rejects raising drinking age

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch has backed a call by Australian of the Year Ita Buttrose for an increase in the drinking age.

Ms Buttrose said this week that a trial rise of the drinking age to 21 was worth exploring as she was alarmed by the number of children who end up in hospital because of alcohol abuse.

Mr Murdoch says the idea is "useful" and can "add an edge to the debate about the appropriate use of alcohol".

"No commentary in that regard is wasted," he told reporters in Sydney on Thursday.

"It's valuable and almost certainly it is a conversation we need to have as a community, as a society, to get to the bottom of this problem because what we are doing currently is making a difference but it is very much incremental progression.

"We need some really robust conversation to get some transformational change."

Mr Murdoch was launching the sixth annual NSW Police operation to deal with drunks who ruin summer festivities in central Sydney.

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Collision system failed on Qantas plane

QANTAS says two jets that had a near miss over Adelaide were never on a crash course, despite coming within 3km of each other and a collision avoidance system on one of the planes not working.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) began an investigation into the September 20 incident after a "loss of separation" between Airbus A330 VH-EBO (EBO), travelling from Sydney to Perth and Airbus A330 VH-EBS (EBS), travelling from Perth to Sydney.

EBS was cruising at 39,000 feet when the EBO pilot was cleared to climb to 40,000 feet, but the controller soon cancelled the clearance and the aircraft descended back to 38,000 feet.

The EBS crew received an alert from their traffic collision avoidance system but EBO's flight crew did not receive any indication on their system about EBS, the ATSB said.

Data from the two aircraft showed the minimum vertical separation was 650 feet when they were 8km apart laterally.

The minimum lateral separation was 3km when the aircraft were 870 feet apart vertically.

A Qantas spokesman said the traffic collision avoidance system failure mid-flight was not a contributing factor in the near miss because planes could function for a short time without it, due to other safety measures built into aviation systems.

"The aircraft were on diverging one-way routes and were never going to cross paths," he said.

Qantas also said the aircraft was compliant with Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) regulations and it continued to provide accurate positional information to air traffic control and the other aircraft.

The faulty system has also been replaced.

ATSB's interim report noted that although all air transport aircraft were required to have a traffic collision avoidance system, it rarely failed.

In such situations, a flight crew is usually provided with a fault message, and the flight crew must advise the controller.

The ATSB investigation is continuing and will include examining radar and audio data, analysing the controller's actions, examining the traffic collision avoidance system computer and related components from EBO, and a review of the reliability and availability rates of traffic collision avoidance systems.

The ATSB expects to complete its investigation by September 2014.

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Trade above US gridlock: expert

AN international trade expert does not believe the political upheaval in the United States will have an impact on the country's trade policy despite the obvious major differences between its two major parties in other areas.

US President Barack Obama was forced to withdraw from the APEC summit in Bali this week because of the political gridlock at home that has partially shutdown its government and risks defaulting in nine days time if an agreement to lift the debt ceiling is not reached.

The president is a strong advocate of a 12-nation regional trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that was due to be completed this year, and an agreement that would include Australia.

Ed Gresser, executive director of Progressive Economy, - a trade and globalisation network - says there is a bitter gap between his country's political parties.

But the visiting trade scholar says that since 2005 both parties have been moving more and more to a free-trade or pro-trade agreement view of the world.

"Somehow or other trade has remained insulated from this more general polarisation of politics and difficulty in policy making," Mr Gresser told AAP on Wednesday.

"I don't see why that would change."

He expects the political standoff will go to the wire because at the moment the Republicans don't have anywhere to go "except backwards".

So while its impact will be felt for another week or so, he doesn't feel it will make trade policy any harder, "but you can't 100 per cent rule it out".

"It's a question of wait and see, optimistically."

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