Qld blazes keep firefighters busy

A SERIES of bush and grass fires across Queensland is keeping emergency services busy and creating smokey conditions.

Fire crews were able to bring back within containment lines a large bushfire burning near Euleilah, north of Bundaberg on Saturday, after working through the night.

The blaze, burning since Tuesday, had forced an evacuation alert for the town on Friday.

A second fire at nearby Rosedale, which began on Saturday morning, was also brought under control by the afternoon.

Meanwhile, a scrub fire at Mount Low, near Townsville, did not threaten properties but caused a large volume of smoke and haze throughout the region.

Residents on the Gold Coast reported seeing a dense haze from a fire at Jimboomba, which was contained on Friday.

Closer to Brisbane, firefighters continued to backburn around a bushfire at Greenbank on Saturday, which has consumed over 1500 hectares since Monday.

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Last Aust sheep to be culled in Pakistan

MORE than 11,000 Australian sheep that have been in export limbo in Pakistan for more than a month will be culled on Saturday.

A shipment of about 21,000 sheep was sent to Pakistan on September 5 after being rejected in Bahrain due to health concerns.

However further disease fears emerged in Pakistan, leading to the brutal culling of thousands of the animals and reports that some had been buried alive.

Fremantle-based exporter Wellard says it has been informed the culling of the remaining 11,500 sheep will be completed in Karachi on Saturday despite proof the sheep are healthy and fit for human consumption.

Importer PK Livestock had been negotiating with the Sindh Livestock Department and the Federal Quarantine Department of Pakistan to guarantee the humane processing of the remaining sheep.

Pakistani livestock authorities have made assurances the cull will be "completed humanely".

However, Wellard said it was unable to verify the guarantee because its staff and PK Livestock staff were forcibly removed from the facility where the cull will take place.

Wellard spokesman Cameron Morse told AAP a group of Pakistan police arrived early on Saturday morning to remove the staff from the PK Livestock feedlot.

He said about three Wellard staff members were escorted off the premises but were not detained.

"We've exhausted every avenue, diplomatic, legal etc," he said.

Exports to Pakistan remain suspended, he said.

Mr Morse said the company was frustrated and sad that the animals would be killed despite proof the sheep were healthy.

The company said the issue has "undermined 20 years of incident-free livestock exports to Pakistan".

A spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture said Australian authorities were trying to confirm reports the cull was going ahead.

"A cull would contravene a previous agreement overnight by the local authorities and importer PK Livestock to hand full control of the animals to representatives of the importer and Australian exporter Wellard Rural Exports," she said.

"The agreement was reached after the Sindh High Court received test results from an independent international laboratory that confirmed the sheep were free from the tested diseases and fit for human consumption."

Australian Greens senator Lee Rhiannon said the culling showed that government regulation of the supply chain assurance system was failing.

"The whole thing underlines why the export trade must end," she told AAP.

The Greens want to debate to continue on their private member's bill to end live exports, when parliament resumes in a fortnight.

Animals Australia campaign director Lyn White said she was horrified.

"This again proves that once animals are outside of Australian control there is nothing we can do to prevent horrendous treatment," Ms White said.

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Job cuts rob Qld of $1bn in wages: unions

THE Queensland government's job cuts will rob the state's economy of more than $1 billion in wages, union figures show.

The Queensland Council of Unions (QCU) on Friday released a breakdown of the economic impact of the public sector job cuts.

It says the loss of 14,000 jobs equates to more than $1 billion in wages over a year, based on the average public servant wage of $75,000.

QCU president John Battams says the cuts will have a devastating effect on spending across the state.

"If you have take 100 public servants out of a town, their lack of spending will have a reverberating effect on the community," he told AAP on Friday.

He said regions with high unemployment rates, such as Wide Bay-Burnett, could not afford job cuts.

"When things are tough it's just not good economic management to be cutting jobs," Mr Battams said.

"It has devastating impacts on small businesses in regional communities.

"Even those with a job are not going to spend as much because there's a good chance the next round of job cuts might affect them."

He said more than 8000 public and private sector jobs had gone in regional Queensland since the Liberal National Party won government in March.

State-owned power supplier Ergon Energy announced this week it will axe 500 jobs in the regions.

Comment was being sought from the government.

Minister Assisting the Premier Glen Elmes said the union claim of huge job losses was "just plain wrong".

"The vast majority of the 10,600 positions to be made redundant are in Brisbane," he told AAP.

"Regional-based people who do take a redundancy will, in many cases, leave with more than a year's pay, so any immediate effect on local economies will be minimal.

The minister said the government flatly rejected the union's scaremongering tactics on teacher job losses.

"In fact we expect that teachers, teacher aide and support staff numbers in our schools will grow by 270 (full-time positions) from the start of the 2013 school year."

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Indigenous renos 'grand theft housing'

MANY refurbishments completed under an indigenous housing program have "paint jobs a six-year-old would not be proud of" and mismatched tiles, the federal opposition says.

In a potential repeat of Labor's criticised $15 billion Building the Education Revolution program, which provided schools with new facilities, Country Liberal senator Nigel Scullion attacked the work being done by contractors in the indigenous housing project.

Under the joint federal and NT program, $672 million is being spent on a Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program (SIHIP) to deliver 750 new houses, the rebuilding of 230 existing homes and 2500 refurbishments in 73 remote indigenous communities by 2013.

During a Senate budget estimates hearing in Canberra on Friday, Senator Scullion, the opposition spokesman on indigenous affairs, reported what he had seen during an inspection of some of the work.

He described paint jobs "that a six-year-old would not be proud of".

"There are holes in walls that have been painted over," he told the committee.

"We have been completely and utterly ripped off. This is grand theft housing."

Department of Indigenous Affairs officials told the committee between $20,000 and $100,000 was being spent on each refurbishment.

However, Senator Scullion said he hadn't been able to find a house that had been refurbished under the program where more than $20,000 had been spent, despite inspecting hundreds of SIHIP houses.

Department official Kate Gumley said the Commonwealth had a robust quality assurance program and was confident it was getting good value for money.

Refurbishments had to measure up to the residential tenancy standard and an Australian National Audit Office report supported the view the program was good value, she said.

"With respect I spend an awful lot more time in these communities than the bods who wrote that report," Senator Scullion replied.

He challenged Ms Gumley to visit the NT and see for herself what the builders were passing off as refurbishments.

Senator Scullion said in some cases tilers had used mismatched coloured tiles and had decided grouting "was not applicable".

But Ms Gumley said the use of mismatched tiles was better than nothing "while I understand that it is certainly more aesthetically pleasing to have colour-matched tiles".

"It may be that the house was constructed some time ago," she added.

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Outlook hasn't changed much: Treasury

TREASURY insists the economy hasn't changed "substantially" since the federal budget, even though mining investment projections have been scaled back due to a significant fall in key commodity prices.

However, Treasury executive director of domestic macroeconomic group David Gruen declined to be drawn on the timing of the Gillard government's Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO), which could be released as early as next week.

"It's a matter for government when MYEFO comes out," Dr Gruen told a senate budget estimates hearing in Canberra on Thursday.

Treasurer Wayne Swan says most of the information on the global economy required to formulate the MYEFO is already available.

But while Dr Gruen agreed uncertainty about the US and European economies would continue for years, there were plenty of other issues that remain unclear.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott believes the government will release the update to the May budget early, rather that wait until November like last year, to hide the truth about its financial woes.

"It's incapable of being honest about public finances and is trying to rush out MYEFO before the truth about declining revenues is categorically and finally exposed," he told reporters in Melbourne.

Dr Gruen said Treasury's assessment of Australia's economy was "broadly similar" to its budget-time assessment.

"It hasn't changed very substantially," he told the hearing.

But he agreed there had been "quite significant" falls in commodity prices for iron ore and coal of between 15 and 35 per cent, leading to a pull-back in some high profile investment projects.

"We were, at budget, expecting truly extraordinary rates of growth to continue in resource investment," Dr Gruen said.

"Resource investment will not grow as strongly as we previously thought."

However, investment growth will still be relatively strong, growing at 45 per cent in 2012/13, after 75 per cent growth in 2011/12, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data.

The investment peak will also be somewhat lower than previously thought but should be sustained until the middle of the decade.

Treasury executive director of international macroeconomic group Barry Sterland told the hearing that since May the global economy had remained subdued with a "highly uncertain" outlook.

"The prolonged uncertainty, including weakness in financial and credit markets, means we are looking at sluggish global growth outlook for the next 12 to 18 months," he said.

Treasury's evidence to the committee came as Australia's number one trading partner, China, posted its weakest annual growth rate in three years of 7.4 per cent.

But Dr Gruen said one important advantage Australia had compared to other advanced economies was the "considerable room" for the central bank to cut official interest rates.

"As the budget is returned to surplus, if growth disappoints, and if the Reserve Bank is comfortable with the inflation outlook, then it is in a position to lower interest rates if it sees fit," he said.

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National accounts key to budget update

THE national accounts are the most important piece of data for updating forecasts in the budget or the mid-year budget review, a Senate hearing has been told.

Acting Treasury secretary Nigel Ray, who was standing in for the absent Martin Parkinson at the Senate budget estimates hearing in Canberra on Thursday, said it takes weeks to do a full forecasting round once the national accounts have been released.

The June quarter national accounts were released in the first week of September.

Mr Ray said the earliest the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) has been released in the past was October 15.

"The other most important piece of information for putting together either a budget or MYEFO, and usually the last thing we get, is government decisions," Mr Ray said.

He also noted that under the charter of budget honesty, MYEFO can be released as late as January 31.

Questioning about the timing of MYEFO to Treasury's fiscal group, that has the lead role in compiling MYEFO for the government, came against the backdrop of speculation that Treasurer Wayne Swan will release the budget update next week.

Mr Swan has said that most of the information needed for MYEFO regarding the global economy is already in.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott told reporters in Melbourne the government was planning an earlier than usual MYEFO release to hide the truth about its financial woes.

A spokesman for Mr Swan this was "pretty rich" coming from Mr Abbott.

"Mr Abbott ... leads an opposition that has admitted on live television it has a $70 billion crater in its budget, whose 2010 election auditors were fined for professional misconduct and who hires catering companies to do their costings," he said.

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Tokyo stocks close 1.21% higher

TOKYO stocks closed 1.21 per cent higher on Wednesday after strong gains on European and US markets and Moody's decision not to downgrade Spain's credit rating.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange closed up 105.24 points at 8,806.55, while the broader Topix index of all first-section shares rose 1.01 per cent, or 7.39 points, to 739.79.

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EIS released for Qld coal project

THE Newman government has welcomed the release of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the $4.2 billion South Galilee thermal coal project at Alpha in central Queensland.

Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney says if the project goes ahead it will create about 2900 jobs in the construction and operation phases.

"The proposed project has an open cut and underground mining operation with an estimated mine life of 33 years and, if approved, could mine up to 17 million tonnes of coal a year for the global export market," he said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The AMCI and Alpha Coal joint venture has advised that it will employ around 1600 people during the two year construction phase of the project and up to 1290 workers when the mine is operational."

Mr Seeney said the scheme would include coal handling infrastructure, a mine water management system, access roads, an on-site accommodation village and a rail spur.

The minister has called for submissions on the EIS which will be available for comment until December 3 at www.dsdip.qld.gov.au/sgcp, the Barcaldine Regional Council, State Library in Brisbane and National Library in Canberra.

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Unions call for quad bike safety

UNIONS are calling for mandatory crush protection devices to be installed on all new quad bikes following another fatality.

Ahead of a national forum on quad bike safety later this week, the ACTU is demanding rollover protection devices be compulsory for all new quad bikes sold in Australia.

The death of a 58-year-old man in a quad bike incident at Murchison in northern Victoria on Sunday is the 160th such fatality since 2001, and the tenth in Australia this year, the ACTU says.

There are about 220,000 quad bikes in use in Australia, and the ACTU says they are the single biggest cause of workplace fatalities on farms.

Assistant Secretary Michael Borowick said 2011 saw a record 23 deaths, 18 of which occurred on farms.

He said the manner of the Victorian man's death, caused by the bike flipping and trapping him underneath, was common yet preventable.

"Half of (last year's) fatalities were from rollovers when the victim was crushed or trapped by their quad bike landing on top of them, or pinned underneath a quad in water and drowned," Mr Borowick said in a statement.

"Quad bikes have inherent problems with stability, with evidence indicating they may roll over even on apparently flat terrain."

Deaths could be reduced by installing a crush protection device, such as a U-shaped bar or T-bar, which would reduce the risk of crushing at minimal additional cost, the ACTU says.

Mr Borowick said similar roll-over protection devices that have been compulsory for tractors since 1992 have reduced deaths by 80 per cent.

"We don't want to see quad bikes banned, but they must be made safer," he said.

Unions will raise the proposal for mandatory safety devices at a national forum chaired by Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten in Melbourne on Friday.

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Tas premier backs Gunns' farmers

TASMANIAN Premier Lara Giddings has written to the receivers for Gunns asking them to consider farmers hit by the timber company's collapse.

Farmers who grew plantation timber for Gunns were meeting with lawyers and financial advisers in Launceston on Tuesday evening.

Around 60 per cent of Gunns' 100,000-hectare plantation estate is leased from hundreds of farmers for around $12 million per year.

Local media reported around 100 leaseholders had turned up to the meeting, organised by the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association (TFGA).

Ms Giddings said she was seeking assurances from receiver KordaMentha that plantation management commitments would be met.

"This follows on from discussions I had directly with KordaMentha shortly after they were appointed last month," the premier said in a statement.

"In particular, we have reminded them of their previous commitments to plantation maintenance and lease obligations, particularly in relation to fire management and pest control."

Farmers have expressed pessimism about the value of their forest crops, particularly with the likely demise of Gunns' proposed northern Tasmanian pulp mill which was to be fed by plantation timber.

"It is my hope that a pulp mill will still be built in Tasmania, which is the best way of value-adding our significant plantation resource," Ms Giddings said.

"It is important that plantations are properly maintained to ensure we can take advantage of future opportunities in the forest industry."

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Super trawler science back in firing line

THE science behind the federal government's decision to ban a super trawler from Australian waters is again under fire, after the opposition targeted departmental advice given to fisheries minister Joe Ludwig.

Liberal senator Richard Colbeck on Monday grilled the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) about the advice it gave Mr Ludwig before he signed an interim declaration on September 20 preventing the Abel Tasman from fishing.

The minister's signature was required along with that of the environment minister, to slap the two-year ban on the trawler while an expert panel investigated the potential environmental impacts of the large-scale "fish factory" operation.

Senator Colbeck asked DAFF why Minister Ludwig cited concerns about the "uncertainty" of super trawlers, particularly the fact they could fish in one spot for a prolonged period of time.

He said the science was "incorrectly founded" and a number of scientists had disputed claims that schools of fish remained in one area for a long time.

"If the schools don't exist, and they disperse, how can that premise be real and why is that advice being given to the minister?" Senator Colbeck asked DAFF representatives at the senate estimates hearing in Canberra.

"That's your assertion," Senator Ludwig responded.

"I think that raises the issue of uncertainty again."

DAFF said as the Abel Tasman was the largest super trawler vessel ever to enter Australian waters, there was much uncertainty around its impacts.

"It is one of the issues that the expert panel ... will have to examine," said DAFF first assistant secretary of Sustainable Resource Management Ian Thompson.

DAFF said it consulted with ABARES - Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences - and the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) when considering the new laws.

Senator Colbeck, who voted in line with the coalition against the legislation to ban the trawler, questioned what "specific or practical" experience ABARES has in fisheries management.

His coalition colleague, Nationals Senator Ron Boswell, said he was concerned AFMA and other scientific bodies that initially defended the Abel Tasman had been "rubbished" by environmental groups during the debate around these laws.

"Will the minister guarantee not to further reduce the independence of AFMA or to in fact dismantle AFMA and take its responsibilities into the DAFF?," Senator Boswell asked.

Minister Ludwig said he rejected the premise of the question, inviting the senator to make a submission to the independent root and branch review planned for the Fisheries Act.

AFMA did originally state it found "no evidence" that larger such vessels posed a higher risk to fish stocks, by-catch or marine ecosystems than a number of smaller boats.

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Aust stocks close flat

THE Australian share market has closed flat, with gains in traditionally defensive sectors offset by weakness among resources-linked stocks amid quiet trading conditions.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed down 3.2 points, or 0.07 per cent, at 4,483.4 points on Thursday, while the broader All Ordinaries index fell 4.6 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 4,505.5 points.

On the ASX 24, the December share price index futures contract slipped seven points to 4,481 points, on volume of 21,365 contracts traded.

The local market opened about 0.02 per cent lower and was at similar levels at noon before slipping further into negative territory during the afternoon session.

CMC Markets senior trader Tim Waterer said investors looked past Chinese economic data, published on Monday, which showed exports on the rise in September.

Figures from China showed exports rose 9.9 per cent in September, well above the median market forecast of a 5.5 per cent improvement.

"The Australian share market traded in a rudderless fashion to start the week, with investors showing surprising indifference to the Chinese data," Mr Waterer said in a research note.

"The market's over-reliance on stimulus is on display, with the good Chinese data result doused by lowered expectations of further PBoC (People's Bank of China) easing measures, which explains the largely unmoved market response."

The telecoms sector was the best-performing sector on Monday, having risen 0.31 per cent, according to IRESS data.

There were also gains in the consumer staples sector (up 0.28 per cent) and financial stocks, which advanced 0.28 per cent.

By contrast, the gold sector fell 2.34 per cent, and metals and minerals companies declined 1.09 per cent.

BHP Billiton slipped 19 cents to $33.35 and Rio Tinto declined 58 cents to $55.82.

The spot price of gold in Sydney finished at $US1,745.15 per fine ounce, down $US24.96 from Friday's local close of $US1,770.11 per ounce.

Making news on Monday, Origin Energy said production had resumed at its Yolla gas project in Bass Strait, but part of its upgrade has been delayed.

Origin closed down six cents at $11.50.

Fairfax Media, which reached a fresh all-time low on Friday, fell half a cent to 38.5 cents, with 26 million shares changing hands.

Other media stocks finished mostly lower.

Seven West Media slipped 2.5 cents to $1.275 and Ten fell two cents to 35 cents, but News Corporation advanced two cents to $24.15. News Corp non-voting scrip rose four cents to $23.75.

National turnover was 1.6 billion securities worth $2.6 billion, with 441 stocks up, 505 down and 339 unchanged.

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Burma's ruling party meets on leadership

BURMA'S ruling military-backed party has kicked off a four-day convention to choose leaders and strategies for the 2015 general election.

More than 900 members of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) met on Sunday at their headquarters in Naypyitaw, 350 kilometres north of Rangoon.

The assembly is expected to vote for a new executive board on Tuesday, sources said.

President Thein Sein is expected to be replaced as party chief by Shwe Mann, speaker of the lower house. Both are political reformers, but Shwe Mann is more ambitious to lead the party in the crucial 2015 polls, analysts said.

The USDP, seen as the political arm of the military establishment that has dominated politics for decades, is packed with former officers. Thein Sein and Shwe Mann were both generals and members of the junta that ruled during 1988-2010.

The party won the November 7, 2010, national election, which was boycotted by the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

But the NLD trounced the USDP in an April 1 by-election, winning 43 out of 45 contested seats.

That outcome was a wake-up call for the ruling party.

"Only if they can build a party that can earn the trust of the people can the USDP dream about winning the 2015 election," Sai Hsaung Hsi, vice chairman of the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party, told the Myanmar Times.

"The people expressed their judgment of the party in the last by-election," he said.

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Tunisia sets elections for next year

TUNISIA is to hold presidential and legislative elections next year, with the first round scheduled for June 23, 2013.

A second round in the presidential ballot is to take place on July 7, the ruling Islamist Ennahda party announced.

The announcement was contained in a statement also signed by the other two parties in the current coalition, the leftist Ettakatol and the secular centre-left Congress for the Republic (CPR).

The three parties have also agreed on the political system to be enshrined in the constitution of the North African country that sparked the Arab Spring protests when it ousted longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011.

The parties have agreed "on a mixed political system in which the president will be elected by universal suffrage for a better balance of power, including at the heart of the executive branch".

Disagreements over the nature of the political system has been delaying the drafting of the new constitution by Tunisia's interim parliament.

The Islamist Ennahda has been pushing for a purely parliamentary system while the other parties have wanted important powers to remain in the hands of the president.

A first draft of the constitution is due to be submitted to the assembly in November, and then each article is to be debated between December and January before parliament votes on the text.

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