Malcolm Fraser backs Greens senator

ADELAIDE, July 6 AAP - Australia's major political parties are engaged in a "race to the bottom" using fear to fuel the debate over asylum seekers, former prime minister Malcolm Fraser says.

Appearing at a public forum in Adelaide on Saturday, the former Liberal leader has thrown his support behind Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young in her bid to be returned at the coming election.

He has described her as a "resolute and far-minded voice" on asylum seeker policy.

He stressed his support was for the "person, not the party", though he also remained concerned at the prospect of either the Liberal or Labor parties gaining control of both houses of parliament.

"The state of the political debate in Canberra is wretched," Mr Fraser said.

"There's been a race to the bottom of the barrel on refugee and asylum seeker issues.

"They seem to believe that who can get toughest will win most votes."

Mr Fraser said the opposition's policy to turn back the boats would not work, and while recent talks between Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Indonesian authorities had made progress, the asylum seeker was a world-wide problem that required a global solution.

"Labor and Liberal talk as though Australia is the only target. It's not," he said.

"We are a tiny part of a world problem."

Mr Fraser said judging by the reaction on Twitter, he was aware his support for Senator Hanson-Young had angered some of his former colleagues.

"It's certainly pleased some people, but it's annoyed others," he said.

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Pussy Riot members plan appeal

Lawyers for the jailed members of Russian band Pussy Riot will appeal their clients' convictions. Source: AAP

LAWYERS representing the two jailed Pussy Riot bandmates have confirmed reports they will be appealing the women's hooliganism convictions.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina have served close to half of a two-year sentence handed down by a Moscow court last August after they were found guilty of organising a protest concert in a city church.

Lawyer Irina Khrunova has revealed she hopes to present the appeal to the Russian Supreme Court based on the argument that the verdict was illegal.

The appeal news comes after Alyokhina's bid to win parole was rejected in late May.

Khrunova also hopes to challenge that decision.

A third member of the group, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was also convicted for her part in the gig, but her sentence was suspended last October and she walked free.

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Home and Away big loss for NZ TV3

THE loss of Australian soap drama, Home and Away, could have big implications on New Zealand's TV3's ratings in the evenings, a television commentator says.

MediaWorks NZ, which owns TV3 and is in receivership, announced on Friday it had lost the Australian soap to TVNZ.

Throng.co.nz editor Regan Cunliffe says the move could have a large impact on TV3's ratings for the news hour and into the evening.

On Thursday this week the show drew more than double the number of viewers aged 25-54 than TV One at the 5.30pm timeslot, he said.

However, One News attracted more than double the viewers aged five plus than 3News.

"If that is as they say such as strong lead in for the news, what happens next? If you take that away from 3 how much further down will those 3 News ratings go?"

This could have implications on revenue, Mr Cunliffe said.

"If you've got all these advertisers that have been sold packages based on the strong 25-54 ratings then all of a sudden that's stripped away from them, that's not so good news for them."

TVNZ struggled for years to find something to fit the 5.30pm time slot and now TV3 was in the same position, Mr Cunliffe said.

KordaMentha partner and receiver Brendon Gibson said MediaWorks was disappointed the distributor had chosen to grant the licence to TVNZ.

"It is regrettable that TVNZ has convinced the distributor to cancel our agreement. However, this business is much bigger than one show."

MediaWorks management were focused on providing a top quality alternative to Home and Away, Mr Gibson said.

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Kiwi edges higher over the week

THE New Zealand dollar trade-weighted index is heading for a 0.9 per cent weekly gain as central banks in Australia and Europe kept their bias towards economic stimulation.

The trade-weighted index rose to 74.59 at 5pm in Wellington from 74.07 on Thursday, and was up from 73.89 at the start of the week.

The kiwi traded at 78.12 US cents from 73.87 cents at 8am, up from 77.79 cents on Thursday. The currency is heading for a 0.3 per cent weekly gain against the greenback.

The European Central Bank and Bank of England both indicated their key interest rates will stay near-zero for longer, as they deal with a region beset by sovereign debt woes. Earlier this week, the Reserve Bank of Australia said it still has scope to cut rates if its economic outlook deteriorates further.

"The broader theme coming to the fore with risk aversion feeding is New Zealand's relative economic story shining through," said Mike Jones, currency strategist at Bank of New Zealand.

"That's why the kiwi has outperformed through the week, particularly against those currencies whose central banks are still pressing the QE (quantitative easing) button."

The kiwi climbed to 60.53 euro cents from 59.87 cents on Thursday and to 78.40 yen from 77.68 yen. It was little changed at 85.51 Australian cents from 85.40 cents.

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One dead in Mumbai building collapse

A TWO-STOREY building housing apartments and garment makers has collapsed near Mumba killing one person and critically injuring two others, police say.

It is the fifth deadly collapse around the Indian financial capital in the past few months.

Rescue teams rushed to the scene late Wednesday in Bhiwandi city in western Maharashtra state, about 40 kilometres northeast of Mumbai.

"One is dead and two more critical in the building collapse Wednesday midnight," a police inspector in Bhiwandi said, declining to be named.

At least 20 people have already been rescued from the caved-in block, which housed apartments and small garment-stitching shops and warehouses, he said.

Four other apartment blocks have collapsed in or close to Mumbai in recent months, including one in April that killed 74 people.

They have highlighted pervasive poor construction standards in India, where massive demand for housing and endemic corruption often result in illegal buildings and a lack of safety inspections.

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Qld cop fires as teen drives car at him

A TEENAGER has been charged with the attempted murder of a Queensland police officer.

Police were investigating an attempted armed robbery of an Ipswich convenience store about 3am on Thursday when a 17-year-old boy allegedly drove a car at a policeman.

The car struck the 31-year-old constable in the arm.

The officer shot at the car, which also carried a 15-year-old girl.

The police service's ethical standards command is investigating.

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Aust shares post heavy falls

THE Australian share market has fallen heavily due to weaker than expected economic data from China and Australia's retail sector.

At the close on Wednesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 89.9 points, or 1.86 per cent, at 4,744.1, while the broader All Ordinaries index was down 82.5 points, or 1.72 per cent, at 4,727.8.

On the ASX 24, the September share price index futures contract was 82 points lower at 4,707 with 36,2878 contracts traded.

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SA police investigate koala theft

A FOUR-YEAR-OLD koala has been stolen from the backyard cage of an Adelaide wildlife carer.

The female, named Kao, is in need of medical attention, police say.

She was one of three koalas in the cage but was the only one taken from the Trott Park property, between 7pm on Tuesday and 9am on Wednesday.

Police have urged the thief to return the koala as a matter of urgency.

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Carr says there is now consenus on boats

FOREIGN Minister Bob Carr says there is now consensus with the coalition in some areas of asylum-seeker policy but the major divide remains Tony's Abbott's "reckless promise" to tow boats back to Indonesia.

Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers in Brunei, Senator Carr said he stood by his remarks last week that there were cases of boats arriving in Australian waters where 100 per cent of those on board were not bona fide refugees.

The change in narrative from Labor has been criticised in some circles in Australia with the president of the Human Rights Commission, Professor Gillian Triggs, saying 90 per cent of asylum seekers were found to be genuine refugees.

"So I think that Senator Carr is making an assumption for which there's no evidence," Prof Triggs told the ABC.

However, Senator Carr said on Tuesday that he had seen the evidence and that he did not back away from his position that Australia needed a "harder-edged" assessment process.

"I absolutely stand by it because I've seen the data from some of the boats, and on some of the boats, after screening, it's clear that 100 per cent are motivated by economic factors and are not fleeing persecution," he told AAP.

"There is now consensus in Australian politics that this is the case because you can't ignore the evidence."

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said on Tuesday that Labor had "finally woken up to the fact that the vast majority of these people are not fair dinkum refugees".

"They're economic migrants pure and simple," Mr Abbott said.

Senator Carr said that while there was consensus in some areas in the asylum-seeker debate, there was still a clear divide in terms of other policy responses.

"But whatever government is elected faces the same challenge and has the same set of policy tools apart from a reckless promise from the coalition to tow boats back and set them adrift in Indonesian waters," he said.

Senator Carr said the Labor government supported a "cooperative approach" that seeks a regional solution.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will have the opportunity to pursue a cooperative response to the record flow of asylum seeker boats to Australia when he meets with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta this week.

Mr Rudd will discuss a range of bilateral matters with the Indonesian president, but the asylum seeker issue is expected to be high on the agenda.

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University reopens after explosives scare

THE bomb squad has given the all-clear after investigating a potentially explosive liquid found at a Perth university campus.

It's understood a technician found two bottles of an unidentified liquid in a laboratory in the biomedical research precinct of Curtin University's Bentley Campus late on Tuesday morning.

Shortly after, all staff and students in the area were evacuated and a 300 metre exclusion zone was set up while the bomb squad investigated.

An emergency response team from the nearby ChemCentre was also on site.

A university spokeswoman could not confirm the accuracy of reports that the bottles were marked with the year 1973 and that the liquid was believed to be celloidin, which is used in tissue processing.

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China law forces children to visit parents

A CHINESE law requiring family members to visit their elderly relatives has come into effect to howls of online ridicule, as the country's huge population ages rapidly.

The regulation "forces" children to visit their parents, the state-run Global Times newspaper said, with concerns growing over increasing numbers of "empty nest" homes.

China's rapid development has challenged its traditional extended family unit, and reports of elderly people being neglected or mistreated by their children have shocked the country.

Last year a farmer in the eastern province of Jiangsu faced a barrage of online criticism after domestic media revealed he had kept his 100-year-old mother in a pig sty.

More than 14 per cent of China's population, or 194 million people, are aged over 60, according to the most recent figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The growing proportion of the elderly is the result of China's controversial one-child policy, which was launched in the late 1970s to control population growth.

Many aged live alone in "empty nest" homes, as a result of their children finding work in other areas of China.

But while internet users generally express concern for elderly people -- who are highly respected in the close-knit Chinese family unit -- many took to China's Twitter-like microblogs to criticise the new measures.

"A country actually legislates respecting its parents?" said one of the eight million people to comment on the story on Sina Weibo.

"This is simply an insult to the nation."

Another poster said: "The government should have thought of how they would address this problem when it brought in the one-child policy."

The state-run Shanghai Daily said the new law gives parents the power to apply for mediation or bring a case to court, but experts are unclear about how the measures will be enforced, or how often visits are required.

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Rudd continues to mull election date

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is still weighing up the date of the federal election. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd is still weighing up the date of the federal election.

With a September 14 poll now apparently off the table, Labor has four dates available in August and October.

The odds continue to shorten on August 24 or 31, with a 33-day campaign starting on July 22 or 29.

However, an earlier election has pitfalls as well as benefits for Labor.

It could face a Liberal-National coalition that is well-funded, and arguable better prepared.

But Labor may also want to capitalise on the "honeymoon effect" of the change in leader to Rudd from Julia Gillard and take advantage of the current bump in the opinion polls.

Political history shows most new leaders get an initial spike in popularity.

The only recent exceptions was when Labor's Simon Crean replaced Kim Beazley in 2001 and Kim Beazley took over from Mark Latham in 2005.

A short and sharp campaign would also minimise the risk of any further discontent developing in Labor's ranks as Rudd beds down his election platform.

An early poll could mean Labor has to parachute in candidates to the safe seats of Lalor, Hotham, Rankin, Perth, Charlton and Kingsford-Smith, which are being vacated by mostly Gillard ministers.

The other option is to go to the electorate on October 19 or October 26, with the election writs being issued on September 16 or 23.

Rudd says the election date should take into account the Group of 20 industrialised leaders' summit in Russia on September 5 and 6.

An October election would accommodate this and allow the former foreign minister to strut the world stage while attending the G20 event as the host of the 2014 summit in his home city of Brisbane.

However, the timing would also put in jeopardy his attendance at two other summits: APEC in Bali on October 7-8 and East Asia Summit in Brunei on October 9-10.

An October election would give Rudd time to develop a policy agenda, and perhaps a mini-budget.

New ministers would be able to get their feet under their desks, if parliament returned for two or three weeks of sittings after the winter break.

The prime minister would need a good reason to bring back parliament - and shifting the fixed carbon price to a floating price emissions trading scheme a year earlier in 2014 could be it.

An earlier ETS start date could help safeguard Labor's carbon pricing regime from a coalition promise to scrap the carbon tax, if it wins government.

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Gunpowder blast kills man in Qld

A MAN is dead and two others have been seriously injured after gunpowder exploded in far north Queensland.

Police say the men were believed to have been trying to dispose of expired gunpowder in a burn-off on a rural property west of Mareeba on Saturday morning.

It caused an explosion, killing a 58-year-old Cairns man and seriously injuring another 58-year-old man and a 33-year-old man.

One suffered chest injuries and the other had serious lacerations to his arm.

Police say the cause of the blast is not suspicious.

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RM Williams farms put under receivership

A PRIVATE carbon farming company run by former News Limited chief Ken Cowley has been placed into receivership.

RM Williams Agricultural Holdings, which owns carbon and cattle stations in Queensland and the Northern Territory, appointed insolvency firm PPB Advisory as administrators last week.

Mr Cowley, the Sydney-based company's chairman, is also the chief shareholder.

The receivership does not affect the well-known RM Williams fashion and boot retailer, which Mr Cowley also owns in partnership with private equity.

"These entities will continue to trade on a business as usual basis," PPB Advisory said in a statement.

PPB Advisory receiver Stephen Parbery said the administrators were "working closely and collaboratively with the board of RM Williams Agricultural Holdings to conduct a review of the business".

RM Williams Agricultural Holdings owns the 516,800 hectare Henbury carbon farm in the Northern Territory.

It also owns the Labelle Downs and Welltree stations in the Northern Territory, and the Mirage Plains and Inglewood Farms properties in Queensland.

RM Williams Agricultural Holdings, formed in May 2009, was named after the late Australian bush entrepreneur Reginald Murray Williams.

Mr Cowley, a former chairman and chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd, was a close friend of Mr Williams until his death in 2003.

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