NSW govt to extend home owner grant

Next week's NSW budget will extend eligibility criteria for a first home owner grant. Source: AAP

THE NSW government has freed land for 6600 new homes in Sydney's northwest and will extend the first home owner grant in this month's budget.

Land at Marsden Park North, Richmond and Blacktown has been released or rezoned for housing, Premier Mike Baird announced on Saturday.

The Marsden Park land has space for 4000 new homes and is close to where the North West Rail Link is being built, while the land at Blacktown is on an old golf course.

"In western Sydney, there is a massive housing boom occurring and the unlocking of up to 6600 new housing lots at three sites will boost housing supply and make homes more affordable," Mr Baird said in a statement.

The government claims 100,000 new homes have been built across NSW since the March 2011 election.

Treasurer Andrew Constance also announced that the June 17 state budget will extend eligibility criteria for the first home owner grant by $100,000.

It means first-time buyers who purchase new properties worth up to $750,000 will qualify for the $15,000 payment. The previous threshold was $650,000.

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New report spells out phone tap powers

Government tapping of people's phones is widespread around the world, a new UK report shows. Source: AAP

GOVERNMENT tapping of people's phones is widespread around the world with Australia among a long list of countries permitting access to phone networks.

But Australia rates better than some, a report compiled by one of the world's largest phone companies says.

The detailed report by UK mobile carrier Vodafone examines legislative frameworks for telecommunications interception in 29 countries where it operates.

It says this is its contribution to the global debate on telecommunications interception.

The report says Australian carriers have legislative obligations to assist law enforcement and national security agencies, including an obligation to disclose information where authorised.

Interception is authorised by warrants issued to law enforcement and security agencies - though it may occur without a warrant in specified urgent circumstances.

Of substantial concern is the revelation in Vodafone's report that in six countries, authorities can bypass all legal requirements such as warrants to directly access an operator's network.

"In those countries, Vodafone will not receive any form of demand for lawful interception access as the relevant agencies and authorities already have permanent access to customer communications via their own direct link," the report said.

Vodafone doesn't specifically say which countries.

But in a detailed appendix compiled by an international law firm, it says Albania, Egypt, Hungary, Ireland, Qatar and Turkey all have provisions allowing authorities to request unfettered access.

In two other countries, India and the UK, legal provisions are unclear.

The report doesn't spell out the extent of telecommunications interception in Australia.

But the 2012-13 annual report, required under the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979, says a total of 3330 interception warrants were issued, more than half to NSW police and the NSW Crime Commission.

Around two-thirds were for drug trafficking and organised crime.

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Senior SA Liberal to retire within a year

FORMER Liberal leader Iain Evans will quit the South Australian parliament within 12 months, which will spark a by-election.

The opposition treasury spokesman made the announcement on Friday after meeting state Liberal leader Steven Marshall.

He said he would not seek a shadow cabinet position in Mr Marshall's coming reshuffle.

"After 21 years representing the electorate of Davenport and my 46-year involvement in politics, I have made the decision to leave the SA parliament in the next 12 months and seek a new career in the private sector," he said.

Mr Evans, 55, has served as a minister, as SA Liberal leader and as deputy leader.

His announcement comes less than two weeks after former fellow frontbencher Martin Hamilton-Smith defected to become a minister in the minority Labor government.

Ten other MPS are on the Liberal front bench.

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NSW maintains AAA credit rating

CREDIT ratings agency Moody's has reaffirmed NSW's long-term AAA rating.

The agency says the rating reflects the state's diverse economic base, budget flexibility and secure and predictable grants from the Commonwealth.

"To obviously receive this endorsement in terms of the credit rating from Moody's a week or so out from the state budget is incredibly pleasing," NSW Treasurer Andrew Constance said on Friday.

NSW also holds a AAA credit rating with Standards & Poor, although the state is on negative watch.

The NSW budget will be handed down on June 17.

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Vic police investigate baby's injuries

A SIX-WEEK-OLD baby girl has recovered from serious injuries that Victorian police are treating as suspicious.

The six-week-old girl was taken to Sale Hospital with serious injuries on March 6.

The baby has since recovered, but detectives are treating the injuries as non-accidental and suspicious, a police statement on Thursday said.

Detectives from the Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team in Sale have appealed for more information about what happened to her.

Police asked a person who had previously provided information to call back on (03) 5143 5022.

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NZ dollar climbs from three-month low

THE New Zealand dollar has climbed from a three-month low as traders recovered lost confidence in the local economy, and lowered their expectations for a downgrade to the Reserve Bank's interest rate track.

The kiwi rose to 84.41 US cents at 5pm in Wellington from 84.15 cents at 8am and 84.13 cents on Wednesday. The trade-weighted index advanced to 78.90 from 78.67 on Wednesday.

The New Zealand dollar arrested its slide this month as traders pared back expectations Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler will lower his forecast track for interest rate hikes this year at next Thursday's monetary policy review.

Traders started anticipating a slower pace of interest rate increases as dairy prices steadily declined this year, and local inflation stayed in check.

Traders are betting Mr Wheeler will hike the official cash rate 80 basis points over the coming 12 months, according to the Overnight Index Swap curve.

"The market is coming to their senses and realised they have overdone how much they think the Reserve Bank will downgrade the interest rate track next week," said Imre Speizer, market strategist at Westpac Banking Corp in Auckland.

"There was a very large gap that opened up between the Reserve Bank's latest forecast from March and where the market has priced it."

Investors will be watching the European Central Bank policy meeting on Thursday in Brussels, where president Mario Draghi is expected to announce new measures to stimulate the European economy.

The kiwi gained to 62.04 euro cents at 5pm from 61.79 cents on Wednesday.

It also increased to 90.90 Australian cents from 90.73 cents and to 86.56 yen from 86.35 yen.

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Shipyards warned projects may go overseas

THE federal government has warned local shipbuilders it could look overseas for new frigates if they don't lift their game in constructing three new air warfare destroyers.

The $8.5 billion AWD project is now running almost two years late and costing $360 million more than planned, with shipbuilders performing well below international standards.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann says the project is in serious trouble and getting worse.

A remediation plan - the third for AWD - aims to get it back on track, starting with "the urgent insertion" of an experienced shipbuilding management team into prime contractor, the government-owned ASC.

Construction of ship modules will then be re-allocated among three firms doing this work .

"This is a final opportunity to get this right - there's no two ways about it," Senator Cormann told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.

Defence Minister David Johnston warned there might not be local capacity for future projects if Australian firms couldn't achieve acceptable productivity.

"I don't believe the government will support an enterprise that cannot deliver productively," he said.

That includes eight new vessels to replace the Navy's Australian-made Anzac frigates.

Under the AWD project, launched in 2007, the Navy will field three high-tech warships able to defend vast areas of ocean against aircraft and missile attack.

But costs are over target and first ship, HMAS Hobart, will be delivered in March 2016 rather than December 2014.

A review conducted by former US Navy secretary Don Winter found a range of problems including inadequate management and contractor performance - in line with an audit office report and regular reviews by UK consultant First Marine International.

World benchmark for warship production is 60 man hours per tonne. Hobart is coming in at 150 man hours per tonne.

In its review of ASC and sub-contractors BAE Systems in Melbourne and Forgacs in Newcastle, FMI found in all but a few measures they were outside performance benchmark standards.

Under contract arrangements, cost over-runs are met half from Defence and half from final success fees to contractors.

Senator Cormann confirmed the commonwealth and taxpayers would face some costs.

"We will seek to minimise whatever exposure there is for the government and for the taxpayers," he said.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union says maintaining an experienced shipbuilding workforce cannot happen unless there is ongoing work.

That depends on government investment and support.

"We need them now to give the workforce the chance to build skills and experience," assistant national secretary Glenn Thompson said in a statement.

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Singapore predator joins Australand battle

A PREDATOR from Singapore has joined the takeover battle for property group Australand and won the endorsement of the takeover target's board.

Frasers Centrepoint has proposed an offer of $2.59 billion in cash for Australand, at $4.48 per Australand security.

It trumps Australian property developer Stockland's sweetened share-swap proposal put to the takeover target last week.

Australand, the owner of $2.4 billion in residential and commercial developments, has granted Frasers four weeks to exclusively complete due diligence, at the expense of Stockland.

Australand's board will recommend the Singaporean proposal to its investors if no superior offer eventuates.

"The board concluded that the conditional proposal would deliver a compelling value outcome for Australand securityholders and is superior to the final and conditional proposal received from Stockland," chairman Paul Isherwood said.

Frasers is an international real estate firm, with core markets in Singapore, China and Australia.

Frasers said the acquisition of Australand, if successful, would help achieve its aim of generating profit outside of Singapore.

Frasers already has a presence in Australia, but it wants to be bigger and accelerate its growth here because it believes that Australia has good long-term prospects.

"The proposal will catapult Frasers to being one of Australia's leading real estate companies with a portfolio of scale and quality," group chief executive Lim Ee Seng said.

Stockland said its board members would consider the company's options in relation to Australand.

Australand securities jumped 24 cents, or 5.6 per cent, to $4.55, while Stockland added seven cents to $4.01.

IG market strategist Evan Lucas said Australand's actions and comments suggested the proposal from Frasers was a "stellar" bid.

"They have suspended due diligence for Stockland and opened their books to Frasers, so that would suggest that they believe that it is a really good bid," Mr Lucas said.

He suggested the rise in Stockland's securities flagged that some of its investors believed the play for Australand was too expensive and they would be glad to be out of it.

Stockland launched its move to take over Australand in April, with a proposed all-scrip offer of 1.111 Stockland securities for each Australand security.

The proposal valued each Australand security at $4.20.

Australand rejected the proposal as inadequate.

In May, Stockland lifted its proposed offer to 1.124 Stockland securities for every Australand security, at an implied price of $4.35 per Australand security.

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RBA's stance confirmed by data

THE Reserve Bank has confirmed it plans to keep interest rates steady, and the latest economic figures give no reason to suspect that plan will change in the near future.

In announcing the cash rate would be kept at its multi-decade low of 2.5 per cent, the central bank said the safest approach, the way the economy stands at the moment, "is likely to be a period of stability in interest rates".

That was much the same as the wording from every monthly announcement so far this year.

So was the rest of the statement, for that matter.

And economic figures released on Tuesday illustrate the reason for the RBA's fence-sitting.

One was the little-watched estimate of government spending.

It shows the government's direct contribution to economic activity - including investment in infrastructure and the cost of providing government services, which is mainly the cost of labour employed in the process.

Although public sector spending amounts to nearly one quarter of gross domestic product, it will add only 0.1 percentage points to GDP growth in the year to March.

And it will actually cut growth by 0.2 in the March quarter itself.

The rest of the economy will have to do the heavy lifting if economic growth is to be strong enough to stop unemployment from rising.

A lot of the nation's hopes rest on the shoulders of the mining sector.

There was goods news on this front from foreign trade figures from the ABS on Tuesday.

There was faster export growth, driven by minerals, which means a boost to GDP.

And there was a fall in imports, meaning a bigger slice of spending goes into local production rather than production offshore.

Those trends in trade will add 1.4 percentage points to economic growth in the March quarter.

That's a lot considering the long-run average for quarterly GDP growth is about 0.8 per cent.

But it's not as positive as it seems.

For a start, a good chunk export growth was achieved by running down stocks of minerals - a negative fro growth - rather than increasing production.

And the mining sector is heading into the mining phase, which requires fewer workers, and out of the more labour-intensive investment phase.

On the other side of the trade account, declining imports is generally a sign of a weak economy, not a strong one.

In this case the fall in imports was the result of an ongoing slump in imports of capital goods, which are now down by 27 per cent from their peak just under two years ago.

There's no sign in the imports figures of a growth surge outside of mining.

And this is what the RBA has been faced with all year.

Economic growth, yes, but just not quite strong enough and no real sign that things are about to change.

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Laid-off staff fear for entitlements

SIX hundred workers across Australia axed by a major electrical contractor have been left fearing their entitlements will not be paid.

Employees at PSG Elecraft offices in NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Queensland were told the news shortly after arriving at work on Tuesday morning.

The biggest number of job losses are in Victoria where about 200 staff, including many apprentices, were told to go home and not come back.

About 180 jobs were also expected to go in Tasmania.

The company, also known as Pacific Services Group, was placed in the hands of receivers KordaMentha at 6pm on Monday night.

It is understood the administrator is "endeavouring" to secure the entitlements owed to staff but has given no guarantee.

Secretary of the Victorian branch of the Electrical Trades Union, Troy Gray, called on the federal government to step in to head off a 40 week wait for entitlements, if they even get paid.

"These entitlements are what would be used to put food on the table for the families of these workers," Mr Gray told AAP.

"This is not just one or two workers. This is 600 across Australia. [The federal government] should intervene and make sure they get these entitlements in the next six weeks or so.

Federal Employment Minister Eric Abetz said workers could apply to the Fair Entitlements Guarantee to claim unpaid wages or entitlements.

"The government is deeply concerned about any job losses," Tasmanian Senator Abetz said in a statement to AAP.

"Job losses in Tasmania are particularly concerning, given that the state has the highest level of unemployment in the country."

The Tasmanian government said it had been in contact with the company and would "seek to assist affected staff".

Mr Gray said Victorian employees were told there had been "poor management at an upper level in PSG" and "some bad decisions made on major projects in Queensland", which racked up debts of $10 million.

Other major projects include the National Broadband Network rollout in Tasmania, the new Adelaide Hospital and the Adelaide Convention Centre.

Mr Gray said most Victorian staff would not find new jobs as construction continued to struggle.

"There's not a lot of work out there," he said.

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Asaleo gears up for market debut

PERSONAL hygiene products maker Asaleo is hoping to raise up to $690 million ahead of its stock market debut in July.

The maker of Sorbent toilet paper and Libra feminine hygiene products is pricing its offer at up to $1.80 a share, which could see the new entrant valued about $1 billion.

Chief executive Peter Diplaris said Asaleo's float followed two years of working to transform the company to improve its capacity and profits.

"We have been focused on reorganising the business functions to ensure better alignment with each product category and increased investment in brands and innovation to improve product category performance," he said.

"At the same time, the business has implemented a major capital investment program totalling more than $100 million to improve product quality and innovation and improve efficiencies."

Asaleo employs more than 1,000 workers in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.

According to its prospectus, which was unveiled on Monday, Asaleo will issue between 383.8 million and 408.9 million shares.

The shares will be priced between $1.55 and $1.80 each, with the final price to be determined after a bookbuild ahead of Asaleo's July 3 market debut.

Asaleo, formerly known as SCA Hygiene Australasia, plans to use money raised from its initial public offering to reduce its near $300 million debt pile.

The company is currently half owned by Sweden's Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget SCA and local private equity outfit Pacific Equity Partners.

After Asaleo's market debut, SCA's stake will fall to about 33 per cent, while Pacific will pull out completely.

The company's earnings have improved in recent years, with pro forma net profit rising to $61.5 million in calendar 2013 from $47.6 million the previous year.

Asaleo has forecast a 14.7 per cent rise in pro forma net profit to $70.6 million in 2014, while sales are expected to lift 2.7 per cent to $642.2 million.

Its prospectus said Asaleo intends to pay investors an unfranked dividend of between 4.7 and 4.9 cents a share for the second half of 2014.

Asaleo's stable of products also includes the TENA incontinence range, Handee paper towels and Deeko tableware.

The company is chaired by Harry Boon, who also is chair of Tatts Group.

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Brown wooed as face of Tasmanian tourism

BOB Brown is being wooed as the face of Tasmanian wilderness tourism.

The former Greens leader has been sounded out by the state's tourism industry to promote Tasmania's World Heritage Area.

The idea builds on the recent Go Behind the Scenery campaign, which sought to make the state's environmental battles a point of interest for tourists.

Tourism Industry Council boss Luke Martin has said Dr Brown defines the state's recent history.

But the Greens' patriarch may not be easily wooed.

Tasmania's new Liberal state government wants to open up national parks to eco-tourism development, a move Dr Brown has called "stupid" and "greedy".

Premier Will Hodgman is also backing a federal government move to cut 74,000 hectares from the World Heritage Area.

Dr Brown says he already pushes destination Tasmania but there would be conditions to him fronting a tourism campaign.

"I'm very woo-able but not unless they get the (balance) right," he has told the Hobart Mercury.

"Private development should be outside World Heritage and outside national parks, and developments inside national parks should be public and they should be well funded."

The Hodgman government has called for potential investors to pitch "sensitive and appropriate" eco-tourism ideas.

Mr Martin says they are the norm in countries such as New Zealand and Canada, where green groups support them.

Greens leader Christine Milne said the tourism industry should oppose the federal government's World Heritage wind-back.

"It's a bit rich for the Tourism Industry Council to be appealing to Bob Brown to help it sell tourism in World Heritage Areas while the Abbott government is trying to destroy them," she said in a statement.

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Vic taxi driver bashed unconscious

A taxi driver has been attacked while filling his car at a Melbourne petrol station. Source: AAP

A TAXI driver has been kicked and bashed unconscious in an unprovoked attack in Melbourne.

The driver was filling his taxi at a Spotswood service station when a man began kicking the car and striking it with a windscreen cleaner. The incident happened early on Sunday, police said.

When the taxi driver challenging the man he knocked the driver to the ground, kicked him in the head and continued assaulting him until he was unconscious.

The offender continued to damage the taxi, then fled.

The victim was taken to the Western Hospital with serious injuries.

Police have described the man as Caucasian appearance, bald and aged in his 30s or 40s. He wore an Essendon AFL jumper with number 27 on the back, dark pants and white sneakers.

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NSW police reach stricken yacht

A YACHT stranded off the coast of Port Stephens, on the NSW mid north coast, is being towed back to Coffs Harbour after engine trouble.

The sole person on board - a 46-year-old man from Sydney - is not believed to have been injured, police said on Sunday.

The 16-metre single-masted sailing boat sent a distress radio beacon on Saturday night, 200 nautical miles offshore, reporting engine problems.

Water police left Port Stephens late on Saturday, reaching the stricken boat on Sunday afternoon.

The vessel, believed to have been sailing to New Zealand, is now under tow back to Coffs Harbour.

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