Christmas Island casino urged by report

CHRISTMAS Island should get its casino back, according to a report on the future of the Australian territory submitted to the federal government.

The island, best known for housing hundreds of asylum seekers and hosting a phosphate mine, was also home to a casino resort for four years in the mid-1990s.

And after requests from resort owner David Kwon to consider reissuing a casino licence, the Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories recommended the Commonwealth grant his wish.

"The committee cannot see any reason for the Australian government not to facilitate this venture, especially as the commercial risk falls entirely on the proponents," the report said.

"The potential benefits to Christmas Island if the casino succeeds are considerable, (and) the probable outcome of failure is merely a return to the status quo."

The report pointed out that immigration detention was not expected to be a permanent fixture and tourism to the island had been underdeveloped.

It also referred to the limited life of the island's phosphate mine, which on Friday had its lease extended for another 21 years.

The committee also said the weight of numbers of asylum seekers being housed on the island was putting a strain on the hospital, and called for more resources so "the provision of services to asylum seekers is not at the expense of services for residents".

The report also called for an urgent upgrade of the immigration facilities on the Cocos Islands, which it said comprised of tents with cots in an old quarantine station, described as "a makeshift solution to a new phase of the asylum seeker directly arriving from Sri Lanka".

"A more permanent and better appointed facility, built to the required cyclone standards, is urgently needed," the report said.

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Poor English 'saved Japan bankers' in GFC

JAPAN'S banks emerged from the 2008 global credit crisis largely unscathed because senior employees did not speak English well enough to have got them into trouble, the country's finance minister says.

Taro Aso, who also serves as deputy prime minister, said bankers in Japan had not been able to understand the complex financial instruments that were the undoing of major global players, so had not bought them.

"Many people fell prey to the dubious products, or so-called subprime loans. Japanese banks were not so much attracted to these products, compared with European banks," Aso told a seminar in Tokyo.

"There was an American who said Japanese banks are healthy, but that's not true at all.

"Managers of Japanese banks hardly understood English, that's why they didn't buy," he said.

Aso's comments are the latest in a line of pronouncements that have raised eyebrows.

The one-time prime minister said in January the elderly should be allowed to "hurry up and die" instead of costing the government money with expensive end-of-life medical care.

In 2007 he had to apologise for a quip about patients with Alzheimer's disease and for making light of flood damage in central Japan.

But the deputy prime minister, who is known as a dapper dresser and is often seen sporting a jauntily-angled hat, on Friday boasted he had managed to keep his foot out of his mouth since Shinzo Abe came to power as premier in December.

However, the boast was somewhat undermined when he initially got the name of the prime minister wrong.

"I have made no gaffes in the past half year even as newspapers said the Aso administration's... No, the Abe administration's biggest problem is Taro Aso's gaffes," he said.

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NSW public servant wages to pay for super

PUBLIC servants will have to pay for superannuation increases out of their own wage packets after the NSW government tinkered with a loophole in its wages policy.

The move circumvents a ruling by the industrial umpire, which earlier this week found the mandatory superannuation increases didn't have to be absorbed into basic wages.

Unions claimed the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) ruling was a victory for public sector workers, saying they were entitled to both their pay rise and the quarter per cent superannuation increase.

But in a statement on Tuesday, NSW Treasurer Mike Baird said the government had "clarified the regulation" informing its wages policy.

It also intends to appeal against the IRC decision.

"The NSW government makes no apologies for taking every effort to ensure fair and affordable wages are provided across the public sector," Mr Baird said.

This means the 0.25 percentage point increase in super due to begin on July 1 will now be absorbed into the 2.5 per cent cap on wage increases for public servants, effectively giving them a 2.25 per cent increase

Mr Baird said the move could prevent the loss of 8,000 public sector jobs.

He conceded the IRC had upheld a submission by unions, but said it had "simultaneously suggested ways the regulation could be reworded".

The IRC had also confirmed superannuation was an employee-related cost, he added.

"It is therefore within the 2.5 per cent wages policy".

Unions NSW Secretary Mark Lennon said the government had shown an appalling lack of good faith in overturning the IRC's decision.

"The government has lost its moral compass when it comes to its employees," he said.

"This is a highly cynical move, announced late on a Friday afternoon while the public attention is fixed on Canberra."

Mr Lennon accused the government of trashing proper process.

"How does this government think it is going to attract the nurses, teachers, police and firefighters this state needs when wages are effectively stagnating or going backwards?" he asked.

Health Services Union NSW secretary Gerard Hayes said the government was making a mockery of the state's industrial laws.

The union has written to Mr Baird to request the government reimburse some of the union's legal expenses.

"If the government does not intend to live by the decisions of the Industrial Relations Commission it ought to refund the tens of thousands of dollars we have to spend in legal fees fighting their odious decisions," Mr Hayes said.

Opposition industrial relations spokesman Adam Searle said this was typical of a government that can't accept the decision of the independent umpire.

"This is a mean and tricky manoeuvre which will see the O'Farrell government dip its hand into the pockets of every public servant in the state," Mr Searle said.

"Superannuation is a basic condition that should never be used to offset the guaranteed 2.5 per cent wage increase public sector workers were promised."

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Vic police suspended for racist incident

Victoria's police chief commissioner has vowed to take significant action against racist officers. Source: AAP

TWO female Victorian police officers have been suspended after reportedly being photographed posing in a derogatory fashion behind a Sudanese man who they had under arrest.

Police say the two constables, one from northwest metro region and the other from transit safety, have been suspended with pay in relation to inappropriate email use.

"The Chief Commissioner has made it clear that inappropriate actions including those involving racism will not be tolerated," a police statement said.

The Nine Network reported on Wednesday that the pair were photographed posing in a derogatory fashion behind a Sudanese man who was under arrest.

In a video to officers obtained by the Nine Network, Chief Commissioner Ken Lay described the photo as worrying.

"It has shown me there is a dark, ugly corner of Victoria Police and I don't like it," he said.

"It embarrasses me and it should embarrass you.

"Overwhelming feeling was just one of utter disbelief. A very worrying photo that I've seen that had displayed a part of the organisation that I didn't like at all."

Mr Lay said there was no room for racism, bullying or corruption in the force.

"I have seen some behaviour that is just, I think you could describe it as mind numbing," he said.

The police statement said as the matter was currently under investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment further.

The suspension follows the production of 50 racist stubby holders by two sergeants at Sunshine police station.

Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Lay said he would take a hard line against officers found to have acted in a racist way.

"You'll probably see significant action by Victoria Police against members who behave in an overtly racist way," he told ABC Radio in Melbourne.

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Berlin marks 50 years since JFK's speech

GERMANY has hailed the endurance of transatlantic ties on the 50th anniversary of US president John F. Kennedy's stirring Cold War declaration "Ich bin ein Berliner", with celebrations across the reunited city.

Ahead of the main commemoration ceremony on Wednesday at the old West Berlin town hall where JFK addressed 450,000 people in 1963, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the historic speech remained "unforgettable for us Germans".

"Berlin was a divided city, the Cold War had separated Germans along the Wall," he said in a statement. "President Kennedy gave Berliners new hope in difficult times and all Germans new confidence."

Westerwelle said last week's visit to Berlin by President Barack Obama, in which he borrowed tropes from Kennedy's speech to call for stronger transatlantic cooperation on global crises, showed that the spirit of Kennedy's pledge was alive and well.

"Shared history has become vibrant German-American friendship, which in a world of fundamental change is as important today as it was then," he said.

"In his speech at the Brandenburg Gate, President Obama underlined the partnership of values that binds us together which Kennedy had hailed. That is a good foundation to weather the challenges of 21st century globalisation together."

Kennedy's eight-hour visit on June 26, 1963 came at a critical stage of the Cold War, and Berlin was on the front line.

It was only a year since the United States and Soviet Union nearly went to war in the Cuban missile crisis, and two years after East Germany's communist regime erected the Berlin Wall, cleaving the city in two.

In an electrifying 10-minute address, Kennedy gave Berliners what they wanted to hear: a condemnation of the Wall and a promise that the free world stood by them.

"Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us," the defiant president said, in a firm rejection of communist appeasement.

At the end, Kennedy uttered the immortal words: "All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words 'Ich bin ein Berliner' (I am a Berliner)."

His vow, just five months before he would be assassinated in Dallas, was greeted with rapturous applause from the crowds of Berliners thronging the square.

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Jackson son set to testify at AEG trial

Michael Jackson's son Prince (pic) will testify at his family's trial against promoter AEG live. Source: AAP

MICHAEL Jackson's son Prince is set to take the stand at his family's trial against tour promoter AEG Live, two days after fans marked the fourth anniversary of the singer's death.

A family spokesman confirmed that the 16-year-old, the eldest of the late star's three children, will testify at the civil trial in which AEG Live is accused of negligently hiring the doctor convicted over Jackson's death.

"He is ready for it! He is very confident," family spokeswoman Angel Howansky told AFP ahead of the scheduled start of testimony in a Los Angeles courtroom on Thursday morning.

Prince Jackson will be by far the most prominent witness so far at the wrongful death trial, which started at the end of April.

Jackson died at his rented Holmby Hills mansion in Los Angeles on June 25, 2009 of an overdose of surgical anaesthetic propofol, administered by his personal doctor Conrad Murray to help him sleep.

Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2011 over the death of the 50-year-old self-styled King of Pop.

Jackson's mother Katherine is suing AEG Live, alleging that they negligently hired Murray, a cardiologist, and should have known that he was unsuitable to care for the singer.

The current trial, and the 2009 court case, have aired details of Jackson's long-time struggle with insomnia and abuse of a number of drugs, including propofol.

Jackson's daughter Paris was also listed before the AEG trial as among witnesses due to be called. But it is now thought unlikely she will testify, after she was hospitalised earlier this month following a suicide attempt.

Fans of the singer gathered on Tuesday at the Forest Lawn celebrity cemetery, just north of Los Angeles, where Jackson's body is buried. Huge numbers of flowers were placed on his mausoleum.

"You are not alone. In a distance we are apart. Thoughts of you are always in our hearts," read a banner held aloft by one of hundreds of fans, many dressed in black.

As well as thousands of roses, there were hundreds of cards with poems, portraits of Jackson, little banners in front of the mausoleum, and paintings of roses, sunflowers and hearts.

A couple of people had Jackson umbrellas, one had a silver right glove, while a couple of Jackson impersonators had pictures taken with fans.

Yoli Leung, from Hong Kong, said she came every year on the anniversary of Jackson's death. The manager of a Canadian electronics company, she was there with four other Chinese fans.

"It is a long long flight, too tired. We love Michael, we want to be with him," she told AFP. Asked why they love him, she said: "Not only for his music and performance, but also for his message of love and his heart."

Back at the courtroom downtown, a handful of fans turned up, as many of them have almost every day since the AEG trial started.

Spanish fan Raquel Tormo, 35, said she came from Madrid with her 16-year-old daughter Graciela, to pay tribute to Jackson. Her dream was to see Katherine Jackson, who has also been in court regularly, including on Tuesday.

"Michael is not dead, it's all a game," she told AFP. "Michael staged a fake death." Asked why she thinks he is still alive, she replied: "Because I am a believer."

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Study shows cancer cells adapt to travel

CANCER cells travel by adapting their behaviour to different environments, scientists have found.

On flat surfaces, they tend to "crawl" while in a web-like meshwork they become rounder to help them squeeze through gaps.

The findings, from observations of tumour cells in different conditions, could aid the development of new treatments to curb the spread of cancer.

Metastasis, the spread of cancer around the body, is usually what kills patients with the disease.

Scientists are trying to develop new drugs that can halt the march of mobile cancer cells.

Dr Melda Tozluoglu, from the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute, a member of the team whose work is published in the journal Nature Cell Biology, said: "For cancer to spread, cancer cells actually need to move inside the body, from one point to another, stop, and start a new tumour.

"Our work focuses on understanding how the cancer cells move in the body, so that we can hamstring them - lock them into place so that other treatments can destroy them.

"Our study shows that cancer cells need different molecular mechanisms to navigate in different environments, just like you would need light running shoes to jog in the park but strong boots to hike in hills in the rain.

"We also know that cancer cells have the ability to use all different methods of movement, so stopping just one route will not stop them spreading through the body.

"In other words, if we take their hiking boots away, they will switch to running shoes and, although they may not be as fast, they will keep moving. This means we need to use drugs that target the many different types of movement that cancer cells can take advantage of."

Dr Julie Sharp, senior science information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: "Stopping cancers from spreading to new parts of the body is an important aim of our researchers and it's essential for making treatments more effective."

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Desal cost to hit Melbourne water prices

MELBOURNE'S low-income households will be hardest hit by water price hikes of up to $222, the state's peak welfare body says.

Water bills across Melbourne will rise an average 22.4 per cent, plus inflation, from Monday, mostly to cover the cost of Victoria's desalination plant.

The increase, however, is less than original proposals from water retailers, who wanted increases of between $269 and $355.

The Victorian Council of Social Service has called on the state government to urgently reform the water concession to better target the vulnerable.

"By not reforming the water concession so that it is more effective in assisting vulnerable households, these price increases will hurt those least able to manage the extra expense, including pensioners," acting CEO Carolyn Atkins said.

Ms Atkins commended the Essential Services Commission for forcing water companies to reduce the rises they originally wanted.

Commission chair Ron Ben-David says the decision to lift rates is about "two thirds to three quarters" due to the desalination plant, which began operating last December.

Dr Ben-David said the price increase was higher than last time because the desal plant's final cost had ballooned above forecasts.

"Now that the desalination plant is operating we have to account for its true full cost to the state and to Melbourne Water."

City West Water, South East Water and Yarra Valley Water customers will face a significant price rise in 2013/14, then increases in line with inflation.

Western Water customers' price increases will happen more gradually over five years because the company is less reliant on the desalination plant.

Dr Ben-David said Melbourne Water would have to return to the commission by 2016 with a new plan covering the period until 2021.

Dr Ben David estimated Melburnians' water bills had about doubled over the last five years.

Premier Denis Napthine blamed the rises on the previous Labor government's expensive north-south pipeline and desal plant projects.

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Court played calls from doomed asylum boat

Frantic calls from a stricken asylum seeker boat have been heard at an inquest into the disaster. Source: AAP

THE phone line was terrible, the language barrier insurmountable and the consequences horrific.

The croaky and increasingly frantic caller pleaded for help for the Siev 358, which eventually sank in waters between Indonesia and Christmas Island in June last year, leading to the deaths of more than 100 asylum seekers.

The inquest into how 17 of those drowned was told it took Indonesian and Australian authorities nearly two days to decide who was in charge of the rescue after they finally established a GPS position from the termite-ridden boat.

By then it was too late for 102 men from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran fleeing the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Indonesian and Australian authorities were both lambasted by counsel assisting the coroner, Marco Tedeschi, who accused them of binding themselves in red tape as the boat floated to its doom.

West Australian coroner Alastair Hope heard the ramshackle fishing vessel had been loaded with 210 asylum seekers as it left Java with little water, few life jackets and immediate problems.

The opening day of the inquest was played the repeated phone calls to the Australian Rescue Co-ordination Centre (ARCC), where the men on board pleaded for help to leave the leaking, damaged ship.

"For me to help you, you need to tell me where you are," the ARCC tells the boat at one point.

Ironically, when the authorities got the position, they were fatally delayed.

The boat's first position was given as 36 nautical miles south of the Sunda Strait, which prompted Australian rescue authorities to tell those aboard they were in Indonesian waters and should turn back.

But Mr Tedeschi outlined a 2004 agreement stating the nation that receives the first distress call is responsible for a rescue - meaning Australia should have acted.

"The reality was (Australia) has responded to distress calls ... and was under an obligation to commence rescue operations," he said.

"They needed to do more, they needed to issue distress calls, they needed to think whether they were best placed."

Indonesian authorities accepted responsibility for the rescue 11 hours later, but no helicopter, marine police or merchant vessel responded, no naval vessel was ever called, and an offer from Australia to issue another mayday call was rejected.

About 33 hours after the first distress call, the boat capsized.

It is believed almost all those who died were in the hull.

A further eight hours after it sank, a Customs plane saw the stricken boat, and Australia called all ships in the area to assist.

Merchant vessel MV Dragon responded within two minutes, and was rescuing survivors within 90 minutes.

It has also emerged through media reports a people smuggler known as Freddy Ambon admitted his involvement in the tragic voyage, referring to the asylum seekers as "goats".

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Locked-out Vic workers to picket Yallourn

WORKERS locked out of a Victorian power plant are planning an around-the-clock picket line at the Latrobe Valley site.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) members were locked out of the Energy Australia power station on Friday after undertaking industrial action to limit operations, before a fire broke out.

Non-union workers have brought two of the three units back online.

CFMEU mining and energy division district president Luke van der Meulen says locked-out workers, along with union members from other industries, would form a picket line at Yallourn starting Tuesday.

"There will be a picket line established and we will be doing whatever we can to get whatever help we can from not only our own members across the Victorian power industry but also more broadly," he said.

"They will be certainly trying to discourage people from doing work that they should be doing.

"We will be digging in for the long haul to try and bring the company to the table and settle this long-standing negotiation."

Mr van der Meulen said he was not suggesting there would be any violence.

Police are investigating reports of equipment tampering at Yallourn, but say they are yet to determine if the blaze is suspicious.

The CFA deemed the fire non-suspicious.

Energy Australia says it will operate the station without the union workers who were locked out in a long-running industrial dispute.

"We intend to operate the station without the 75 CFMEU operators who refuse to do their job," company group executive manager operations and construction Michael Hutchinson said.

"We now have generation up and running which means we can support all of the jobs we currently have on site."

Mr van der Meulen said key issues in dispute included rostering, dispute settlement procedures and consultation with staff.

Yallourn supplies around 22 per cent of Victoria's energy.

The workers' pay and conditions agreement expired last September and negotiations have been ongoing since August 2012.

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Journo wanted to help priest abuse victims

A JOURNALIST has told an inquiry that she wrote a series of newspaper articles about child sexual abuse by priests because she wanted to help the victims.

Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy's articles, over two years from 2010, led to the establishment of the special commission of inquiry into child abuse allegations in the Hunter region and won her a top national award for investigative journalism.

"It was my only objective," Ms McCarthy told Commissioner Margaret Cunneen in the Newcastle Supreme Court on Monday.

"It was about having the victims and their families looked after.

"I didn't want to go the police.

"I wanted the police to investigate."

Ms Cunneen is examining how police and Maitland/Newcastle Catholic Church priests and officials handled child sex allegations, particularly those involving Fr Denis McAlinden and Fr James Fletcher, who are now dead.

Some of Ms McCarthy's articles were based on information from whistleblower Detective Chief inspector Peter Fox who asserted that church leaders covered up crimes and were assisted by a "Catholic mafia" within police ranks.

A succession of police took to the witness stand during the commission's first session last month denying Det Insp Fox's allegations.

Ms McCarthy, who will continue giving evidence on Tuesday, said the community, the media and politicians had to overcome a "but-this-is-the-church" attitude and ensure child sexual abuse crimes were appropriately investigated and victims cared for.

Earlier on Monday the officer in charge of a taskforce investigating complaints by four alleged victims of the two priests, Detective Sergeant Jeffery Little, said a police report on the matter by Det Insp Fox was "written on a saddle of lies".

Sergeant Little said the report included "significant" inaccuracies and comments made by Det Insp Fox were "a manipulation of the truth".

"I was absolutely mortified by (his) comments that the strike force was a sham and set up to fail," Sgt Little said.

Ms Cunneen is scheduled to report her findings to the state government by September 30.

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'I'll hurt her': Kiesha's mum

Kristi Anne Abrahams was sick of her daughter Kiesha (pic), a sentencing hearing has heard. Source: AAP

KRISTI Anne Abrahams said she was sick of her daughter Kiesha. She wanted to "hurt" and "kill" her.

Eventually, she did.

The final night of the six-year-old's short life - as described by Abrahams - was outlined in the Supreme Court in Sydney during the first day of her sentence hearing.

But the full truth of what occurred may never be known, with Abrahams not expected to give evidence and with the Crown alleging her version of events is inconsistent with the forensic evidence.

In April 2011, eight months after Abrahams and her partner Robert Smith reported Kiesha missing, Abrahams confided to an undercover police officer that the little girl was dead and buried.

It was an admission that led to her being arrested and charged, but Abrahams only pleaded guilty to murder on the first day of her trial last week.

She told the undercover officer that Kiesha had been crying one evening in July 2010 and Abrahams, who wanted her to get into her pyjamas, gave the child "a little nudge with her foot".

This caused Kiesha to jump and hit her head on the bed, Abrahams said.

She said she put Kiesha in the shower to try to wake her up, but Kiesha was making "weird noises" and her body felt like "jelly".

Despite this, Abrahams and Smith put her to bed, where she was found dead the next day.

Abrahams also told the officer while there was no blood, "there could be blood in her bedroom from previous injuries".

"(Abrahams) said there was a happy family environment in which her daughter Kiesha was well cared for and loved," crown prosecutor Christopher Maxwell, QC, told the court on Monday.

But the evidence showed a very different picture, he said.

Abrahams told her own father she was "sick" of Kiesha, who she said "sh**s and pisses in bed" and "f***s up in school".

"I'll hurt her. I'll kill her," Abrahams allegedly said.

After Kiesha's death, Abrahams and Smith stuffed her body in a suitcase and kept it in her bedroom for some days.

They then donned disguises, took a taxi to nearby bushland at Shalvey, burned her body and buried it in a shallow grave before eventually reporting her missing on August 1.

When her decomposed remains were eventually recovered, a post-mortem examination could not ascertain an exact cause of death.

But the court heard Kiesha suffered fractures to four of her teeth consistent with being punched several times in different directions.

Forensic dentist Dr Alain Middleton told the court he believed an "absolute minimum" of three "forces" was involved, with at least four or five blows the more likely scenario.

Abrahams remained expressionless throughout the sentence hearing, which continues on Tuesday.

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