Qld man charged over fire truck joyride

A MAN has been charged after a fire truck was stolen and used on a joyride south of Brisbane.

Police say the 25-year-old man, from Wynnum West, stole the specialist vehicle from Beenleigh Fire and Rescue Station about 9.20am (AEST) on Saturday.

Officers were able to use the truck's GPS to track it to Tamborine Mountain Road, more than 20km away, and put the 30-minute joyride to an end by deploying tyre-deflating stingers.

The man has been charged with unlawful use of a motor vehicle and unlicensed driving.

He's due to appear in Beenleigh Magistrates Court on May 19.

No-one was injured and only the truck's tyres were damaged due to the stinger deployment.

11.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Police probe Vic woman truck jump

ANYONE who saw a woman jump from a moving truck on a Melbourne freeway, causing her serious injuries, is being urged to contact police.

The 30-year-old woman jumped out of the moving white 2002 Mitsubishi single cab tray truck on the Eastern Freeway in Kew on April 12, police say.

They believe she was travelling with a 35-year-old man about noon toward the city, when she jumped from the vehicle about 500 metres before the Chandler Road exit.

She was taken to the Royal Melbourne hospital for serious injuries.

Anyone who saw the truck, with JT Fencing signage, driving in the area prior to the incident should contact Crime Stoppers.

11.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Tinkler relaxed in ICAC witness box

NATHAN Tinkler has told the NSW corruption watchdog he donated thousands to the Nationals because of his devotion to the party even though he thought they were a "bunch of p****s".

But counsel assisting the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), Geoffrey Watson SC, says the former coal mogul considered his donations the price that had to be paid to win political support for a lucrative coal loader on the Newcastle foreshore.

The ICAC has obtained an email sent by Mr Tinkler after his business lieutenant Troy Palmer sent him a newspaper article suggesting the coal loader proposal had picked up traction.

In his note, sent shortly after the 2011 state election, Mr Tinkler wrote: "this is just to pacify me because I donated to the nats and they are doing f*** all about it ... we had a bunch of deadbeats before and now we have a bunch of p****s scared to make a decision".

Mr Tinkler agreed this was a reference to the coalition government replacing Labor but said all he wanted from the government was a fair hearing.

"Do you often donate money to a bunch of p****s?" Mr Watson asked on Friday.

"I've given more to worse people, yeah," Mr Tinkler laughed from the witness box.

It's alleged the embattled businessman offered a bribe to the ALP's ousted member for Newcastle, Jodi McKay - and when she turned him down, he helped ex-MP Joe Tripodi run a secret campaign against her.

Her replacement in parliament, Tim Owen, told reporters last week he was quitting politics after learning prohibited donors were "highly likely" to have contributed to his election campaign.

An emotional Ms McKay has previously told the inquiry she always suspected Mr Tinkler had been part of a plot to unseat her.

But Mr Tinkler has accused her of crocodile tears, telling the ICAC on Friday he had only broached the coal loader proposal with Ms McKay in a single two-minute conversation.

"I never took this to her, I never asked for her support," he said.

He has also denied arranging for two employees and their partners to make $5000 donations to the Nationals to sidestep electoral donation cap laws.

"That's ridiculous," Mr Tinkler said.

Despite a handful of tense exchanges with counsel assisting, Mr Tinkler appeared relaxed in the witness box, smiling and even earning laughs from the lawyers in the hearing room.

"I'm starting to see why this has been going for three weeks," he quipped at one point, after Mr Watson apparently rephrased a question one too many times.

11.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cabin crew 'attacker' refused bail

AN Adelaide man has been refused bail after allegedly attacking a cabin crew attendant on a flight to Sydney.

Andrew Nankivell, 30, is accused of launching the drunken assault during a flight from the Gold Coast on Thursday night.

The incident caused the pilot to send an emergency radio transmission and police arrested Nankivell at Sydney domestic terminal after the aircraft landed as scheduled.

The butcher and father of one from Findon, in Adelaide's west, appeared at Sydney's Central Local Court on Friday afternoon charged with assaulting the cabin crew staffer, endangering aircraft safety and offensive behaviour on an aircraft.

The offences, if proved, carry a combined jail term of more than 20 years.

Federal police allege Nankivell became intoxicated and abusive before attacking the flight attendant.

Magistrate John Bailey heard that he has a number previous convictions for alcohol and violence-related offences.

He refused a bail application that would have allowed Nankivell to travel back to Adelaide, where he has joint custody of his six-year-old daughter.

"The accused has been charged with some serious offences," Mr Bailey told the court.

"Acting like that within an aircraft puts other people at some risk and it's a matter of some great concern.

"I've no doubt this came about because of the intoxication of the accused.

"If we look at his record interstate there are matters of violence on his record, there are also matters in relation to alcohol."

The case was adjourned until June 25.

11.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Rudd accepts batt deaths responsibility

KEVIN Rudd has accepted "ultimate responsibility" for the "deep tragedy" caused by his home insulation scheme.

Queenslanders Matthew Fuller, Rueben Barnes, Mitchell Sweeney, and Marcus Wilson from NSW, lost their lives working under the then-Labor government's $2.8 billion scheme.

The former prime minister has told a royal commission into the program he had to accept the "good and bad" outcomes of his government's policies in 2009 and 2010.

"For those reasons, as I've said repeatedly before, I have accepted ultimate responsibility for what was not just bad, but in this case a deep tragedy, as it affected the lives of the families concerned," he told the commission on Thursday.

During his evidence, Mr Rudd said public servants should have requested more time to address safety concerns.

But none of them can be held personally responsible.

"I cannot point to any of the public servants involved or any of the ministerial or parliamentary colleagues involved and say 'this person is ... a negligent person'," he said.

"The public servants that I have known in this process are of the finest quality."

Mr Rudd said several oversight mechanisms, including appointing Mike Mrdak as coordinator general and senator Mark Arbib as parliamentary secretary, were put in place but it was clear some didn't work.

He said the relatives of the four men who died deserved to know what processes failed them.

"They have bore the brunt of this in terms of what's happened to them and their loved ones," he said.

"Therefore, it's important to understand which of these levels of implementation and oversight failed to deliver or which number of them."

Former environment minister Peter Garrett has already told the royal commission he bore ultimate responsibility as the minister in charge of the stimulus measure.

Lawyers representing the families of the four young men have begun cross-examining Mr Rudd.

Earlier, the father of a dead insulation installer, Malcolm Sweeney, told the inquiry no family should have to endure what his did, when his son Mitchell was electrocuted laying sheeting in February 2010, at a home in far north Queensland.

The home insulation program was cancelled after Mr Sweeney became the fourth fatality.

The inquiry continues.

11.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Abbott, Hockey stand by budget

Prime Minister Tony Abbott is confident he can get controversial budget measures through parliament. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott is confident his first budget can survive a two-pronged attack from state premiers and the Senate.

State and territory leaders have organised a meeting for this Sunday to discuss concerns over the federal budget's $80 billion cut to school and hospitals funding.

Labor and the Greens are poised to block many of the budget measures, with the government left to horse-trade with new Senate cross benchers after July 1 to pass a new Medicare co-payment and pension and welfare changes.

Mr Abbott does not believe the Senate will frustrate the budget, but he is open to negotiations.

"I'm not going to be absolutely unreasonable," he told Sky News on Thursday.

However, the prime minister put the responsibility in Labor's hands, arguing the previous government created the budget mess and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten needed to offer his own solutions if he did not accept those of the coalition.

Mr Abbott said Labor previously had supported co-payments for health services while pensioners would have more money in their pockets after the carbon tax was abolished.

Offering an olive branch to the states, Mr Abbott said he had indicated to the premiers the government would fund schools and hospitals based on rises in line with inflation "plus population factor".

Treasurer Joe Hockey says the states will still receive $400 billion in the six years from 2017 for schools and hospitals, once the agreements signed with the previous Labor government expired.

"It is not cost-shifting because we don't run the schools or hospitals," he told ABC TV.

Asked whether he was prepared to horse-trade with senators, Mr Hockey said any changes to the budget would mean debt and deficit would be reduced at a slower rate and medical research would not receive extra funding.

Mr Shorten, who will deliver his budget-in-reply speech on Thursday night, said the budget cuts would rip $5000 a year out of the average family budget.

"I've got some advice for Tony Abbott ... why don't you horse-trade away your paid parental leave scheme ... and perhaps leave the pensioners alone."

Labor has yet to decide whether to support a temporary income tax rise for people earning more than $180,000 a year, but it will oppose the Medicare co-payment, pension changes and the fuel tax lift.

Mr Hockey said the $7 Medicare co-payment was only about the cost of two "middies" of beer and much less than the $22 cost of a packet of cigarettes.

Mr Shorten said the treasurer's comments showed he was out of touch with ordinary Australians.

The Greens will support the fuel tax rise.

11.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Axed minister now free to criticise:Newman

THE Queensland premier says his sacked assistant health minister will now be free to criticise government policy - from the backbench.

Campbell Newman sacked Dr Chris Davis just before the federal Budget was handed down on Tuesday night.

He said Dr Davis had breached the convention of cabinet solidarity after he publicly aired concerns about the government's changes to the state's crime and corruption watchdog and new work contracts for doctors.

Mr Newman has told reporters Dr Davis is a man of integrity and he hopes he remains in the Liberal National Party and is re-endorsed to stand again for the party in Stafford.

He said Dr Davis would now be free of the rules that govern cabinet ministers.

"He's not bound by that rule anymore," Mr Newman told reporters on Wednesday.

"And I think he'll be liberated by that, and that's a good thing."

He said he was yet to determine who would take over as assistant health minister.

Earlier, Treasurer Tim Nicholls and Transport Minister Scott Emerson said the premier did the right thing in sending a message about what was expected of ministers and assistant ministers.

"In those circumstances where the premier did clearly ask him whether he understood he'd stepped outside those boundaries ... it really left the premier with no alternative but to terminate his appointment as assistant minister," Mr Nicholls told the ABC.

He said Dr Davis had admitted he'd breached the convention, and had apologised for doing so.

Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk said the timing of the announcement was clearly designed to limit political damage.

"It shows how weak the premier is, and it also shows this premier will not tolerate anyone's views other than his own," she said.

Independent MP Peter Wellington said the premier clearly couldn't stand anyone expressing an independent opinion.

"I think he's using Dr Davis to send a message to all his backbenchers - and some of them certainly are nervous and a bit anxious at the moment - don't dare speak out, or look out," Mr Wellington told the ABC.

Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk believes the sacking will be followed by a wider cabinet reshuffle ahead of next year's state election.

"Unfortunately Chris Davis has felt the brunt of Campbell Newman when Campbell Newman has stood by other ministers in the past, it doesn't add up, it doesn't stack up," she told reporters.

"It begs the question,'why now?'

"Obviously a reshuffle is on the cards."

11.27 | 0 komentar | Read More