Aus/NZ thalidomiders win compo fight

Australian victims of thalidomide will receive a total of $89 million after a class action settled. Source: AAP

PEOPLE left with birth defects after their mothers took thalidomide have won an $89 million settlement, but the company that made the drug will not pay a cent.

More than 100 Australian and New Zealand victims, including a woman who was about to lose her home, will be compensated in the landmark settlement announced to the Victorian Supreme Court on Monday.

The $89 million will be paid by the drug's distributor Diageo, with thalidomide's manufacturer Grunenthal not included in the settlement.

A class action against Grunenthal will no longer proceed.

The settlement ends a long compensation battle by the thalidomide victims, many of whom were born with missing or shortened limbs.

Monica McGhie was born 50 years ago without arms and legs and says the money will make her life a lot easier and help her stay healthy.

"I never thought this day would come," she said.

"This settlement will not take that hardship away but it means I can look to the future with more confidence, knowing I can afford the support and care I need."

Lawyer Michael Magazanik said that in a sense Grunenthal was getting off lightly because it partnered with a responsible corporate citizen in Diageo.

He described Grunenthal's conduct as appalling.

"Every single Australian thalidomider was injured by a drug made by Grunenthal in Germany," he said.

"Despite that, Grunenthal still will not pay a cent to its Australian and New Zealand victims.

"Fifty years on, Grunenthal will still not fess up to its shameful behaviour in relation to that drug."

Peter Gordon, another lawyer involved in the case, said it was a bittersweet victory for thalidomide victims.

"The result we have achieved today is a vindication of their courage, and it is a vindication of the proposition that right around the world there are people like them who have missed out and whose time has come," he said.

"I spoke to a woman last week who was about to lose her home and won't lose it now. There are stories like that."

Diageo corporate affairs director Ian Wright said the company was very sorry for what had happened and the suffering as a result of thalidomide.

"We hope very much that this will go some way towards helping them individually and as a group, to face the rest of their lives with some security and will bolster the bravery and dignity which they show every day," he told AAP.

"We believe that the settlement reached today is both fair and equitable to all involved in this very sensitive and difficult situation."

The settlement comes after Diageo last year reached a multi-million dollar settlement with prominent Australian thalidomide victim Lynette Rowe.

Thalidomide, a drug to counter morning sickness, was withdrawn from sale in 1961.

The drug was distributed in Australia and New Zealand around 1960 and 1961 by Distillers, which became part of Diageo in 1997.

Grunenthal apologised for thalidomide for the first time in August last year.

The settlement is subject to final court approval in February, with victims likely to receive payments as early as March.

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Politicians debate shark patrols in SA

A ROW has erupted over funding for shark patrols in South Australia in the aftermath of two fatal attacks interstate.

Family First MP Robert Brokenshire says full funding for regular helicopter patrols along metropolitan and south coast beaches must return.

Surf lifesavers say the helicopter patrols offer more versatility than fixed-wing aircraft but the loss of government funds last summer meant the chopper could now only take to the skies on weekends.

"Shark attacks are tragic for families and communities," Mr Brokenshire said on Monday.

"The most responsible way to manage shark proximity to our swimmers and surfers is to fund best-practice patrols."

But Emergency Services Minister Michael O'Brien said the fixed wing patrols funded by the government offered an effective means of detecting the presence of sharks.

"When a shark is seen near the shore or swimmers, the fixed wing aircraft will start a circular flying pattern and sound a siren to warn swimmers to leave the water as quickly as possible," he said.

Under the current arrangements, patrols by fixed-wing aircraft will be conducted along Adelaide's metropolitan coastline from North Haven, extending as far south as Rapid Bay.

They will operate from 11am to 8pm (CDST), seven days a week and will be extended to the south-coast between Victor Harbor and Goolwa on weekends, public holidays and during school holidays.

The patrols run from December to the end of March.

Over the last week, two people have died in separate shark attacks - a bodyboarder near Coffs Harbour on the NSW coast and a surfer off Gracetown in Western Australia.

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PM stands by election schools promise

PM Tony Abbott has denied the government is breaking its pre-election schools funding promise. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott insists the government will keep the promise it made on school funding before the election - not the promise some people think it made.

But the Opposition's education spokeswoman Kate Ellis says that's just "clever words".

And she hasn't ruled out backing any industrial action by teachers angry at the coalition reneging on school funding deals struck between the former Labor government and a majority of the states and territories.

Before the September election, the coalition said schools would receive the same amount of funding as under the so-called Gonski model.

"We are going to keep the promise that we made, not the promise that some people thought we made or the promise that some people would like us to make. We are going to keep the promise that we actually made," Mr Abbott told Network Ten on Sunday.

The prime minister refused to repeat the promise word for word, but said schools will get "the same quantum of funding over the four years that they would have under Labor".

The coalition will fund schools as planned for 2014 before introducing a new scheme from 2015, which Education Minister Christopher Pyne is trying to nut out with state and territory counterparts.

Labor says the coalition is making excuses.

"The government is clearly determined to break their word - that's what's happening," Labor senator Penny Wong told ABC TV.

"They aren't the government they said they'd be before the election."

Ms Ellis says there's no way the government can justify its move.

"A promise is a promise," she told Network Ten.

"They were very specific in their words before the election ... a promise they have now walked away from."

Ms Ellis said teachers and parents across Australia had a right to be angry about the government's decision and didn't rule out backing industrial action.

"I would certainly support ... us fighting to make sure these huge and important reforms are not tossed aside," she said.

State and territory leaders will get the chance to eyeball the prime minister about school funding at a Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting on December 13.

"It will absolutely be an agenda item," Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings said on Sunday.

"This Gonski reform is one of the top issues."

South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill, who faces a state election in 2014, said the school funding issue may filter through to be an influencing factor.

"(The government) know that they can't be seen to break a promise so that's why they're pretending that they haven't broken a promise," Mr Weatherill said.

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Jackson spruiks NZ in Hollywood

KIWI filmmaker Peter Jackson and Middle-earth have popped up in a swanky Beverly Hills hotel.

As part of a Tourism New Zealand promotion and on the eve of the release of the next chapter of Jackson's fantasy film, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, four replica sets from the movie were built inside the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Jackson's three Lord of the Rings films and last year's first Hobbit film have created a tourism bonanza for New Zealand and Saturday's event was designed to attract another wave of American visitors.

The Desolation of Smaug, set for release in Australia on Boxing Day, will be the second of three films based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.

Jackson shot all of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films in New Zealand and the Oscar winner joked he might even squeeze out a fourth Hobbit film.

"We have a few little corners of New Zealand that we're saving up for The Hobbit: Part Four," Jackson smiled.

"You never know."

Jackson was joined at the event by The Hobbit's stars Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans and Dean O'Gorman.

The sets at the Hilton included Laketown, shot at Lake Pukaki, Hidden Bay (Turoa, Ohakune), Forest River (Pelorus River) and Beorn's House (Paradise, Queenstown).

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Wilderness Society targets fossil fuels

An Australian environment group is shifting its focus to campaigning against fossil fuel mining. Source: AAP

THE Wilderness Society will shift its focus from protecting wildlife to campaigning against fossil fuel mining, saying fossil fuels are the greatest driver of climate change.

Australia's fossil fuel reserves make it one of the countries that can do the most to prevent catastrophic changes to the world's weather, Wilderness Society national director Lyndon Schneiders said as he announced the shift in focus on Saturday.

The group, which is Australia's largest environmental organisation, has vowed to fight to keep fossil fuels in the ground and out of the atmosphere.

Mr Schneiders said burning Australia's known fossil fuel reserves will take the world halfway to the two-degree tipping point of dangerous climate change.

"Australia's Climate Council says 80 per cent of our fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground if we are to avoid dangerous climate change," he said.

"Australia will be one of the countries most effected by climate change and one of the countries that can do the most to stop catastrophic climate change. We must act."

The organisation has identified six deposits that contain "globally significant" amounts of fossil fuels.

These sites, Maules Creek and Pilliga forest in NSW, the Cooper Basin (SA and Queensland), the Canning Basin (WA), Arckaringa Basin (SA) and the Great Australian Bight, will become the focus of its multi-faceted campaign.

The Wilderness Society will launch litigation, market campaigns, community-based activism and non-violent direct action to prevent the mining of fossil fuels.

The new focus will begin with support for a community blockade against a proposed Whitehaven Maules Creek coal mine in NSW.

"This is just the beginning," Mr Schneiders said.

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Honduran candidate calls for protest

OPPOSITION candidate Xiomara Castro has announced that she won't recognise the result of Honduras' presidential election because of alleged voter fraud and called on her supporters to protest the win by the ruling party candidate.

Castro, whose husband Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a 2009 coup, told a news conference that she would demand a vote-by-vote recount of Sunday's balloting, which she described as "a disgusting monstrosity that has robbed me of the presidency."

Honduras' electoral court declared conservative Juan Orlando Hernandez the winner. The court says he received 36.5 per cent of the votes compared to 28.8 per cent for Castro, with 93 per cent of the votes counted. Six other candidates shared the remaining votes.

Claiming her campaign had found "innumerable examples" of voting irregularities, Castro said "we are not going to accept the results released by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and we will not recognise the legitimacy of the government that is the product of this shameful assault."

Castro, 54, presented what she described as evidence of fraud and provided a document detailing alleged irregularities. She called on her supporters to hold massive and peaceful street protests against the result.

Castro led for months in the polls until Hernandez, 45, erased her lead by presenting himself as the law and order candidate in an impoverished country with the world's highest homicide rate and much of the cocaine travelling from South America to the US.

The European Union and the Organisation of American States observer missions have released reports calling Honduras' election process transparent despite some irregularities.

The electoral court has acknowledged that there were delays in the vote count because 20 per cent of the vote tallies from the polling stations couldn't be fed into the scanner and needed to be counted by hand. Former President Zelaya said Wednesday that the fraud occurred in that 20 per cent.

But Jose Antonio de Gabriel, deputy head of the European Union's team of election observers, said the irregular votes came from all over the country and not from areas that heavily favoured Castro.

The US State Department issued a statement after the election congratulating "the people of Honduras for their strong participation" in the vote.

"We note that Organisation of American States and European Union electoral observation mission reports reflect a transparent process," it said earlier in the week.

Castro's campaign was considered an attempt at a political comeback by Zelaya, whose ouster left Honduras politically unstable. Poverty and violence have worsened over the last four years under outgoing President Porfirio Lobo.

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$A loses 6 US cents in 6 weeks

THE Australian dollar has fallen for the sixth consecutive week as the greenback strengthens on expectations that the US Federal Reserve's economic stimulus measures.

At 1700 AEDT on Friday, the local unit was trading at 91.02 US cents, down from 91.23 cents on Thursday.

The currency has fallen steadily over the past six weeks, losing six US cents since October 25.

Recent interventionist comments by the central bank have kept a lid on the local currency.

St George trader Janu Chan said a weak performance on Asian markets on Friday and the blocked bid for Graincorp had kept the Australian dollar under pressure.

"It's a combination of those factors and then there's the ongoing uncertainty of quantitative easing in the US and when that will start to unwind," Ms Chan said.

A key business group has also questioned the surprise decision that ended Archer Daniels Midland's $3.4 billion offer for Australia's largest grains handler Graincorp, saying it risks undermining the government's own statement that "Australia is open for business".

Traders expect some volatility in the Australian dollar next week because of the large amount of economic data coming out locally and the US.

The highlights of next week's local economic diary are the Reserve Bank of Australia's interest rate decision on Tuesday and Wednesday's release of September quarter national accounts, which includes gross domestic product data.

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Govt should prop up Qantas: Labor

Labor has slammed the government for its approach to a debate on foreign ownership of Qantas. Source: AAP

THE government should consider taking a small equity position in Qantas, the opposition says, after the airline called for urgent changes to foreign-ownership rules to stay competitive.

Treasurer Joe Hockey has called for a national debate on whether to loosen the airline's foreign-ownership rules.

However, Labor doesn't support changes to the Qantas sale act to allow foreign investors to hold more than 49 per cent of the airline.

"Qantas is an iconic Australian airline. Qantas must remain in majority Australian hands," opposition infrastructure and transport spokesman Anthony Albanese told reporters in Sydney on Friday.

"The government should consider measures such as perhaps taking a small equity position in the airline."

However, Mr Hockey said if Australians wanted to retain a national carrier with ownership restrictions, "there is a price that needs to be paid".

He would not comment on speculation that taxpayer money would be used to prop up the airline.

"I am not someone that is prepared to kick the can down the road on issues," he said. "If decisions need to be made, they will be made,"

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said while he had not seen a specific proposal on the future of Qantas, basic principles should be upheld.

"Qantas is a great Australian icon and the government wants to see a strong and continuing Qantas," Mr Abbott said.

"And what we want to see is a strong and competitive aviation sector here in Australia."

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen said Mr Hockey acted irresponsibly by slating changes to foreign-ownership restrictions in Qantas.

"What's not appropriate is for the treasurer to float big ideas ... which are market sensitive, which saw the Qantas share price move, and it's quite irresponsible and frankly naive for him to do that," Mr Bowen told ABC Radio on Friday.

Qantas shares surged over five per cent on Thursday before ending at $1.22, 3.6 per cent higher than the opening price, after news broke of Mr Hockey comments.

Mr Bowen said launching a discussion paper or white paper would have been the more responsible approach to the issue.

Laws require there be a majority Australian shareholding in Qantas as part of a deal that gives the national carrier privileges including airspace priority.

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Three critical after Vic tank accident

THREE people are fighting for their lives after being overcome by fumes while cleaning a tank at a Victorian dairy farm, with another seven who rushed to their aid also affected.

The three became ill as one man was using an ammonium cleaning agent to clean the tank, which contained stockfeed.

Others who went to help, along with two police officers and at least one paramedic, were also affected by the fumes at the Cloverlea property, near Warragul in the state's east.

Ambulance Victoria said the man cleaning with ammonium was the first to be overcome by a lack of oxygen.

"The chemical is not toxic, but it does replace the oxygen in the tank," Air Ambulance operations manager Paul Holman said.

"A number of other people have been overcome. They were all very sick ... in a low-oxygen environment."

The seven people injured while offering aid were taken to the Warragul hospital in serious but stable conditions.

Mr Holman said they suffered from nausea due to the smell of the chemical.

The trio in a critical condition were flown to Melbourne hospitals.

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Aust and Indon envoys to heal rift

Indonesia says Australia will have to agree to a code of conduct before relations can normalise. Source: AAP

FOREIGN Minister Julie Bishop could be given the delicate job of helping mend the diplomatic rift with Indonesia over allegations of Australian spying activities.

While her appointment as special envoy hasn't been confirmed, it's understood Ms Bishop is a strong candidate given the likely Indonesian counterpart will be Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Wednesday agreed with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's proposal that trusted envoys meet to start the process to rebuild ties between the two nations.

The president wants a new code of ethics between Australia and Indonesia that would include guarantees about spying activities.

He insists an agreement must be signed by him and Mr Abbott before the relationship can be fully normalised.

While he will take time to fully respond to Dr Yudhoyono's statement over the next few days, Mr Abbott embraced the idea of an envoy meeting.

"I think that's a good way forward," he told reporters in Melbourne.

The prime minister is keen for a quick resolution built "on a strong and lasting basis".

"That's why I want to reflect for a short period of time ... then the trusted envoys need to sit down and work through some of these issues," Mr Abbott said.

The prime minister has proposed the establishment of a security round table, so both nations could build greater mutual trust.

"Obviously, that relationship does depend on a great deal of intelligence sharing," he said.

"I want to deepen and extend that in the weeks and months ahead."

Dr Yudhoyono suspended military, security and people-smuggling co-operation last week after revelations Australian spies targeted his mobile phone, and those of his inner circle.

He remains disappointed a letter to him from Mr Abbott did not apologise for the 2009 phone-tapping activities.

But he did welcome Mr Abbott's commitment that "Australia would not do anything in the future" to harm or damage relations with Indonesia.

The task facing Australia's envoy is unlikely to be easy.

Indonesian Industrial Minister Mohamad Suleman Hidayat was quoted in the Koran Tempo newspaper on Wednesday as saying Dr Yudhoyono was angry.

"The president is not embarrassed, he's angry. Tell Australia, I'm angry," Mr Hidayat reportedly said.

Mr Abbott wouldn't comment on the contents of his letter to the president.

Meanwhile, Trade Minister Andrew Robb appeared to break protocol and stray from the government script by confirming the phone tapping did take place.

"It's unfortunate that this taping that took place several years ago has been made public," he told ABC television.

"But it's there. It's a fact of life. We've got to deal with it."

Later, Mr Robb backed away from his remarks, saying he wasn't privy to specific details of intelligence matters.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten was sticking to his promise not to make political hay out of the Indonesian rift until he received a briefing on the negotiations from the government.

"We're pleased Indonesia is providing some initial signs of working with Australia," he told reporters, adding Labor wanted the relationship back on track.

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