Health focus for NSW Nats' Tablelands man

HEALTHCARE will be the priority of Nationals candidate Adam Marshall if he wins the NSW seat of Northern Tablelands.

The former Gunnedah mayor won Nationals preselection for the seat on Saturday after the mysterious resignation of independent MP Richard Torbay.

"There's $10 million on the table from the state government for the Armidale Hospital upgrade and I want to get the federal government to come to the table as well," Mr Marshall said.

"If I am elected next month that will be a top priority.

"Our local roads are also in need of some serious attention."

Mr Marshall served four years as Mayor of Gunnedah before moving to Armidale last year to study at the University of New England.

He was the youngest mayor of a shire in NSW and was elected chairman of the NSW Country Mayors Association.

The Nationals say they aren't wasting any time campaigning and have already established a campaign office in Armidale.

The seat was vacated when former speaker Mr Torbay quit the NSW parliament last month, a day after the Nationals asked him to step down as their candidate for the federal seat of New England.

The information that led to his axing was referred by the Nationals to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Mr Marshall will face competition for the seat when Northern Tablelands voters go to the polls on May 25, with NSW Labor announcing last week it would field a candidate.

Nominations for Labor candidates for the by-election close on Monday.

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Boston terror suspect's uncle speaks out

The uncle of the two Boston bombing suspects pleaded with his surviving nephew to turn himself in. Source: AAP

AN angry uncle of the two Boston bombing suspects has pleaded with one nephew still on the run to "turn yourself in and ask forgiveness" from victims of the worst US terror attack since 9/11.

In an impassioned 10-minute interview with reporters outside his Maryland home on Friday, Ruslan Tsarni said his nephews "put a shame on the entire Chechen ethnicity" and expressed a desire to apologise personally to the victims.

"I'm ready just to bend in front of them, to kneel in front of them seeking their forgiveness," a visibly moved Tsarni said, stressing that his own family has had "nothing to do" with his brother's family for several years.

Tsarni's nephews Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev are the prime suspects in Monday's bombings at the finish of the Boston Marathon.

Tamerlan died after a shootout with law enforcement, and the city is on virtual lockdown amid a massive manhunt for the younger brother.

"Dzhokhar, if you're alive, turn yourself in and ask for forgiveness," Tsarni said, adding he was "shocked" to see FBI images of his nephews on television and the internet.

Tsarni said he is legally in the United States and that his family are ethnic Chechen Muslims.

But he said the two suspects had never been to Chechnya, a mainly Muslim region in southern Russia, and were unlikely to be involved in the unrest of recent years there.

"If that happened, most likely somebody radicalised them."

Tsarni said his nephews arrived in the United States from Kyrgyzstan, in Central Asia, in 2003 and were given asylum, but he called them "losers" who could not integrate into American life.

Asked why they might have turned to terrorism, he said: "Hatred to those who were able to settle themselves.

"These are the only reasons I can imagine. Anything else, anything else to do with religion, with Islam, it's a fraud," he said. "It's a fake."

Tsarni, dressed in a light blue polo shirt and standing outside a brick home in Montgomery County, Maryland, sounded anguished about what had transpired.

"Of course we're ashamed," he said. "I respect this country. I love this country."

"This country, which gives chance to everybody else to be treated as a human being ... that's what I feel about this country."

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Man arrested over India girl's brutal rape

The kidnapping and brutal rape of a five-year-old Indian girl has triggered protests across India. Source: AAP

INDIAN police say they have arrested the suspected rapist of a five-year-old girl who is battling for her life in hospital after a horrific attack in New Delhi.

The 25-year-old suspect, identified as Manoj Kumar, was held in the eastern Indian state of Bihar on Saturday after he took shelter in his father-in-law's home in a village 70km from the local capital Patna, an official said.

Police say Kumar allegedly attacked his victim inside a locked room over a 48-hour period after abducting her on Monday in a lower-middle class area of Indian capital New Delhi.

"It is an act of a monster," police spokesman Ravindar Kumar told AFP in Patna hours after the suspect was detained by a joint team of detectives from New Delhi and Bihar.

The officer said the suspect reached Chiknouta village on Friday after fleeing New Delhi by train.

He will be sent back to face trial in the national capital.

"He should be punished as early as possible," Kumar said.

The child, found after a passer by heard her cries and alerted the police, was admitted to a New Delhi hospital on Wednesday and doctors on Friday described her condition as critical.

Medics said the girl was mutilated during the attack, suffering serious internal injuries and infection. She also has other injuries.

The incident comes just months after India was shaken by the horrific gang-rape of a student in Delhi on a bus last December.

In that attack the 23-year-old victim succumbed to her injuries 13 days after the assault in which her attackers drove an iron rod inside her, damaging her internal organs.

Her death sparked countrywide demonstrations and debate over the status of women and girls and their safety.

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Gay marriage vote policy may change: Pyne

Education spokesman Christopher Pyne says the Liberal Party may change its same-sex marriage policy. Source: AAP

THE Liberal Party may change its same-sex marriage policy to allow a conscience vote in the next parliament, education spokesman Christopher Pyne says.

Coalition MPs voted in line with party policy when the Same Sex Marriage Bill went before the parliament late last year.

Mr Pyne said the Liberal Party had gone to the last election with a policy of keeping the Marriage Act as it is, but this policy could change.

"In the next parliament we haven't got a clear policy on a conscience vote," Mr Pyne told the Nine Network on Friday.

"The party room will get to decide that.

"We might well end up with some recognition of same-sex couples."

On Wednesday the New Zealand parliament voted 77 to 44 in favour of making same-sex marriage legal in legislation backed by conservative Prime Minister John Key.

The move prompted NSW Liberal Premier Barry O'Farrell to declare his support for same-sex marriage.

He urged federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to allow MPs a conscience vote on the issue.

Mr Pyne acknowledged there was support for same-sex marriage.

"I think a lot of people believe recognising same-sex couples - especially for the children of same-sex couples - and supporting commitment is a positive step," he said.

"Tony Abbott's made it clear that he hasn't changed his mind on same-sex marriage but the party room could well decide between now and the election or just after the election that we'll have a conscience vote on it."

AAP

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Distraction blamed for train crash

A DRIVER may have been distracted by a brief conversation with a passenger just before a fatal crash with a train, north of Adelaide, an investigation has found.

A passenger in the car died when it was rammed by an ore train on a level crossing south of Port Germein in March last year.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) says the driver, who suffered serious injuries, recalled having a conversation with the passenger just before the crash and that may have been the reason the car entered the crossing.

The train driver had sounded the train's horn three times before the crash.

"The driver of the motor vehicle vaguely recalled hearing a horn at about the time of the collision and next remembered being on the crossing with the train looming over the car," the ATSB report said.

"It is therefore quite possible that the conversation with the passenger was sufficient to distract the motorist."

The investigation ruled out any problems with the train and said its speed and the action of the crew were appropriate in the circumstances.

The ATSB said there was little the crew could have done to avoid the crash.

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Gay marriage could happen under Abbott

Opposition leader Tony Abbott has hinted at the possibility of a new approach to same-sex marriage. Source: AAP

SAME-SEX marriage could be one step closer under an Abbott government after the opposition leader failed to rule out a conscience vote on the issue.

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell sparked renewed debate on the Liberal approach to gay marriage after saying the commonwealth shouldn't deny legal recognition to one section of the community.

He's called on Tony Abbott to reverse a decision not to allow his MPs a conscience vote in parliament on laws to amend the commonwealth Marriage Act to include same-sex couples.

It comes after New Zealand became the 13th country in the world to legalise gay marriage.

Mr Abbott on Friday confirmed his position in favour of the orthodox definition of marriage.

But he hinted at the possibility the coalition could have a new approach after the election in September.

"(It) will be a matter for the post-election party room," he told reporters.

Senior Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne said the Liberal Party could change its stated position.

"In the next parliament we haven't got a clear policy on a conscience vote," he said.

"The party room will get to decide that. We might well end up with some recognition of same-sex couples."

A NSW parliamentary inquiry is currently examining the constitutionality of the state going it alone on legalising same-sex marriage.

But Mr O'Farrell said it could find state laws would be subject to legal challenge.

"That's why I say, let's do it in the nation's parliament," he said.

His comments prompted outrage from Christian Democrat leader Fred Nile, who says he's considering pulling the party's vital support for the government in the upper house.

He also accused the premier of deliberately undermining Mr Abbott in an election year.

Western Australian Liberal Premier Colin Barnett, who doesn't personally support gay marriage, backed a conscience vote and said he "readily acknowledged" it had the backing of a growing number of Australians.

Victorian Liberal Premier Denis Napthine said marriage law and the issue of a conscience vote was a matter for the federal parliament.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who doesn't personally believe the definition of marriage should be changed, gave Labor MPs the right to exercise their conscience last year when federal parliament voted down proposed amendments to the Marriage Act 98 votes to 42.

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Stock surge after Boeing 787 green light

SHARES in All Nippon Airways and battery maker GS Yuasa surged after a report that US and Japanese regulators were preparing to give the green light to the resumption of Dreamliner flights.

Japan's Nikkei business daily said aviation safety bosses in both countries could lift the grounding order on the Boeing 787, which has been parked up around the world since January following incidents involving its batteries.

ANA and its rival Japan Airlines (JAL) have invested heavily in the next-generation plane, and its grounding has played havoc with their schedules, forcing the cancellation of thousands of flights.

GS Yuasa, the company that makes the battery at the centre of the safety probe, saw its Tokyo-listed stocks rocket more than 11 per cent at one point, before easing to 410 yen, up 7.04 per cent.

Shares in ANA climbed 5.07 per cent to 207 yen at one point before easing to 206 yen, a gain of 4.56 per cent. JAL was up 0.82 per cent at 4,255 yen, after climbing 1.90 per cent earlier.

All the 50 Boeing 787 planes in service around the world were grounded in mid-January after a series of overheating problems with the cutting-edge aircraft's lithium-ion battery system.

The action came after a battery fire on a parked JAL 787 at Boston's Logan International Airport and an incident in which fumes from a battery forced the emergency landing of an ANA-operated plane in Japan.

The Nikkei said the US Federal Aviation Administration has notified Japanese officials of its intention to approve the aircraft for flight in light of the measures manufacturer Boeing is taking.

Japan's Transportation Ministry is expected to lift its own ban once the FAA makes an official announcement, the Nikkei said.

The paper did not identify its sources.

In the US, United Airlines may start flying Dreamliners as soon as late May, it said.

ANA is looking to bring back the Dreamliner for domestic service on June 1 and JAL, which flies the Dreamliner only on international routes, plans to resume in June, it said.

"We can't tell you right now when we will likely lift the ban on the grounding, as we are now in the process of evaluating Boeing's report on their safety measures," said an official at Japan's transport ministry.

"If Boeing shows that it has taken all measures against all possible root causes of the trouble, the aircraft will be able to resume flight again."

Spokesmen at ANA and JAL said they could not confirm the report, adding both airlines were waiting regulators' approval.

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MP Thomson wants civil case postponed

CIVIL proceedings against federal MP Craig Thomson should be postponed to avoid a potential miscarriage of justice in the criminal case against him, a court has been told.

Fair Work Australia (FWA) is trying to push ahead with the civil case, arguing that matters in the lawsuit that do not overlap with the criminal proceedings should not be stayed.

FWA alleges the former Labor MP misused union funds when he was the HSU national secretary between 2002 and 2007, using credit cards to spend thousands of dollars on personal expenses including prostitutes.

Thomson is also facing 154 criminal charges of fraud, allegedly committed while he was national secretary of the HSU.

Thomson's barrister Jim Pearce told the Federal Court on Thursday the entire civil proceedings should be stayed until the criminal matters had been dealt with.

He said the amount of publicity that the civil proceedings would attract and their proximity to the criminal hearings were reasons to stay the civil case.

Thomson would also face the burden of having to prepare for both sets of proceedings, he said.

He said a miscarriage of justice could occur if the civil case proceeded, because Thomson's defences in that case could disclose his defences in the criminal case.

"There is a possible miscarriage of justice due to the disclosure of defences which interrelate with the respondent's right to silence," he said.

Justice Christopher Jessup said Thomson would not be required to say anything about circumstances related to the criminal charges and that it was common for people to face multiple cases at once.

"It's not at all unknown for people, people in the business world, for example, to find that different applicants or different plaintiffs are making complaints about them at the same time," said Justice Jessup.

He said there was no evidence about Thomson's financial burden in defending both cases, including whether or not he had sought legal aid.

Stephen Donaghue, SC, for FWA, said while he accepted the matters would continue to attract great media attention, the chance of Thomson being prejudiced was reduced because the facts in each case were very different.

He said there was no evidence Thomson was burdened by the matters because he had separate legal teams for both cases.

There was, however, evidence of Thomson's salary and that he potentially stood to receive a lump-sum payment of $95,000 if he chose to contest the next election but lost, he said.

Outside court, Thomson's lawyer Chris McArdle said it would be prejudicial for the civil proceedings to continue, but he was confident the matter would be resolved in a matter of days.

He said intense media scrutiny would make it difficult to select a jury that had not already heard of the matter.

Thomson has vowed to fight the charges and will next appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court for a committal mention on May 22.

Justice Jessup reserved his decision.

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Tokyo stocks close 1.22pc lower

JAPANESE shares closed 1.22 per cent lower, weighed by a stronger yen and losses on Wall Street after disappointing earnings reports.

Thursday's Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange ended down 162.82 points at 13,220.07 while the Topix index of all first-section issues fell 1.15 per cent, or 13.04 points, to 1,122.97.

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Buildplan workers need NSW govt support

THE NSW government must look after victims of the collapse of construction firm National Buildplan, which has left hundreds jobless and several subcontractors out of pocket, the state opposition says.

The NSW-based construction group announced on April 8 it had gone into voluntary administration after failing to successfully restructure and secure additional funding.

Buildplan, which owes tens of millions of dollars, had been commissioned by the state government to work on the redevelopment of the Nepean, Dubbo Base and Port Macquarie hospitals.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) says several subcontractors are owed money, including one owed almost half a million dollars.

Members of the CFMEU, the Nepean Hospital nurses' union and angry subcontractors picketed Liberal MP Stuart Ayres' Penrith office in Sydney's west on Wednesday, calling for the government to honour commitments to workers and subcontractors.

Addressing the rally, NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson said the state government should be held responsible to ensure subcontractors are paid.

"We have a government that thinks it can outsource all its responsibilities to someone else," Mr Robertson later told AAP.

"That cannot be allowed to occur when we've got subcontractors and workers who've done their work - done it in good faith - and haven't been paid."

Mr Robertson said he would raise the issue in parliament and call for the recommendations of the Collins review into building company collapses to be honoured, including the establishment of a trust to ensure subcontractors are paid first in the event of a company going under.

The CFMEU's joint assistant state secretary Rebel Hanlon said on top of the 160 workers who lost their jobs from Buildplan's collapse, another 120 employed by subcontractors have also been made redundant.

He said that could blow out even further.

"It's a state government-funded job. The state government ultimately holds responsibility on ensuring that the builder is compliant," Mr Hanlon told AAP.

A union protest is expected outside a Buildplan creditors' meeting in Sydney on Thursday.

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Floods will cost Queensland $2.5 billion

THE damage bill from this year's floods in Queensland will be more than $2.5 billion, Queensland Treasurer Tim Nicholls says.

More than half the payments have been to councils to fix infrastructure, costing in excess of $1.3 billion.

Repairs to state controlled roads will cost $900 million.

Mr Nicholls says the repair bill is half a billion dollars higher than the 2012 floods but about $4.5 billion less than the 2010/11 disasters.

One of the challenges facing the state is how it will pay for the recovery.

"How we rebuild and where we get the funds from to rebuild are important considerations as we move towards the coming state budget," he told parliament on Wednesday.

"We need to be sure that what we rebuild is better than what we lost, and will withstand future weather events."

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North Korea rejects negotiations with US

NORTH Korea will not be returning to the negotiating table with the United States, media reports say.

Pyongyang said while it was not opposed to a dialogue, it will not sit down at a "humiliating negotiating table with the party brandishing a nuclear stick," according to a statement by North Korea's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.

The insistence by the US that the North demonstrate its "will for denuclearisation" before any negotiation was "a very impudent hostile act," said the statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.

US Secretary of State John Kerry urged North Korea last week to take "meaningful steps" toward denuclearisation and allow the resumption of six-party talks involving the Koreas, Japan, the US, Russia and China.

The talks, aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program, stalled in 2009.

Meanwhile North Korea barred a delegation of South Korean businessmen from delivering food and supplies to 200 of their staff inside the closed Kaesong joint industrial zone.

Ten representatives of the 123 South Korean firms in Kaesong had applied for permission to visit the zone, two weeks after the North blocked all access amid soaring military tensions on the Korean peninsula.

"Moments ago, North Korea informed us that the request for a visit by 10 representatives of the business companies at Kaesong had been turned down," Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-Seok said.

"It is very regrettable that the North has rejected the request and disallowed a humanitarian measure," Kim said.

Kaesong, which lies 10km inside North Korea, was established in 2004 as a shining symbol of inter-Korean co-operation.

Of the nearly 900 South Koreans who were in the zone when the North first cut off access on April 3, around 200 have opted not to leave in an effort to keep their companies running.

But the North's action has left them without supplies of daily necessities, as well as raw materials.

"We again strongly urge the North Korean authorities to take responsible measures for meeting the most basic needs of the staff at Kaesong," Kim said.

The North withdrew all its 53,000 workers and suspended operations in Kaesong on April 8.

Seoul's offers of dialogue to resolve the situation have been dismissed by the North as a "crafty trick".

On Tuesday, North Korea said the South was seeking to shift responsibility for Kaesong's closure, which Pyongyang insists was forced by Seoul's policy of "confrontation" and its "war-mongering" statements.

"The puppet regime can never escape from the criminal responsibility for putting Kaesong in this grave situation", the North's state body in charge of special economic zones said in a statement.

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Book made Schapelle's mum sick: court

Schapelle Corby's family are suing publisher Allen & Unwin over the 2011 book Sins of the Father. Source: AAP

THE mother of Schapelle Corby says it was a long time before she could pick up a book telling the "untold story" of her daughter's alleged drug run - and when she did, it made her sick.

The Corby family are suing publisher Allen & Unwin over the 2011 book titled Sins of the Father.

The family claim five photographs used in the book, including a shot of Corby with friends at Brisbane airport and of her as a child on Santa's knee, were used without the family's permission in breach of copyright.

Corby's mother Rosleigh Rose told the Federal Court in Sydney on Tuesday the Santa photo was taken by her at a David Jones store because she couldn't afford a professional picture.

"I didn't have $5, $6, $7 spare to spend on a photo," she said.

"I just sent the children up there and took the photo."

The book details allegations that Corby's father, Michael Corby, was behind the attempt to smuggle marijuana into Bali in his daughter's bodyboard bag.

Ms Rose said she couldn't get herself to read or look at the book for a long time after it came out.

"When I read the book I said it's disgusting, it's making me sick."

She then called her other daughter Mercedes Corby who contacted lawyers, Ms Rose said.

Ms Rose said she still had no idea how to "control the media" since her daughter's arrest eight years ago.

She said when she first gave out the photo of her daughter with friends at Brisbane airport she hoped it would be used "in a positive way".

However, the photo of the convicted drug smuggler started being used alongside negative news articles.

"We had no way of knowing how to control the media and we still don't. I don't," Ms Rose said.

Mercedes Corby, who survived a mugging attempt in Bali last month, was present in court and pointed out different photos in the book to her lawyer as her mother gave evidence.

Allen & Unwin says all the pictures were given either to the book's author, Fairfax journalist Eamonn Duff, or to "the media in general" for publication.

Schapelle Corby was jailed for smuggling marijuana into Indonesia in 2004.

The hearing continues.

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New Melbourne Airport terminal approved

The federal government has approved a new $400 million domestic terminal for Melbourne Airport. Source: AAP

A NEW domestic terminal at Melbourne Airport will ease congestion and help drive economic growth, the federal government says.

The terminal, capable of handling up to 10 million passengers a year, is part of the $400 million first stage development of the airport's long-term southern precinct project.

The project, due to open in mid-2015, will include 17 new aircraft parking bays, extra car parking, ground transport facilities and road upgrades.

Approving the development on Tuesday, federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said expanding airports is necessary to connect Australia to the world and drive economic growth.

He said increasing capacity will help the airport deal with an expected doubling of its annual number of passengers to 64 million by 2033.

"What that means is jobs and economic growth and positioning Australia in the Asian century," he told reporters in Melbourne.

Melbourne Airport chief executive Chris Woodruff said the development will create jobs and provide a boost to the Victorian economy.

He said the expansion was driven by strong domestic passenger demand and will provide for further growth.

The works will focus on the area south of terminal 3 and around terminal 4.

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Acrobat didn't know sex spread HIV: court

A CIRCUS acrobat accused of intentionally giving his girlfriend HIV says he thought condoms only prevented pregnancy and he didn't know the virus could spread through sex, a Gold Coast court has heard.

Despite being first diagnosed in 1998, Geoffrey Zaburoni, 34, told police in a 2010 interview played on the second day of his trial at Southport District Court that it wasn't until he attended a sexual health clinic in 2009 that he was made aware HIV could be spread through sexual intercourse.

Zaburoni is charged with deliberately infecting a former girlfriend with the virus and could face 14 years in jail if found guilty.

The Zimbabwe-born circus performer was interviewed three times by police in May 2010, saying he kept taking blood tests in the hope his HIV would disappear.

"I thought it was from needles, cuts or blood transfers," Zaburoni said.

"I didn't know it would happen to people like this."

Zaburoni said he suspected he had given his girlfriend the virus when she told him she had tested positive six months after their relationship ended in September 2008.

In the near two-year relationship, Zaburoni told police he and the woman had unprotected sex only twice and denied her claims he had told her he found sex without a condom more pleasurable.

Zaburoni, who told police he had never attended high school, said he had been unaware condoms were used to control sexually transmitted diseases at the time of their relationship.

In his third interview with police, Zaburoni admitted to faking a blood test for immigration purposes in 2005.

He told police he asked a friend to take the test for him so his HIV status wouldn't be revealed, fearing a positive result would have seen him returned to Zimbabwe where he believed he might be killed.

"I was so afraid," Zaburoni said.

"We both didn't know it would put us in trouble or was a big thing."

Zaburoni's girlfriend called her situation "a nightmare" in a recorded phone conversation played in the court.

"I want to believe so much you didn't purposely do this, Godfrey, but there's too much there to say that you knew," the woman, who cannot be identified, said.

In the police interviews, Zaburoni denied claims by the woman that they had regularly discussed whether he had HIV during their relationship.

The trial continues.

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Low interest rates boost home loan numbers

AUSTRALIA'S housing sector is in the tentative stages of a recovery as investors and home owners take advantage of low interest rates.

The number of home loans taken out in February rose two per cent, the first monthly rise since September last year.

That's despite the percentage of loans given to first home buyers falling to its lowest point in nine years.

Of those who took out home loans in February, 14.4 per cent were first home buyers, the lowest level since June 2004.

St George senior economist Jo Heffernan said the rise in approvals was a sign low interest rates were providing a boost for the housing sector.

"We are expecting to see some further pick up from here, but we would need to see a few more months' data to confirm a pick-up was underway," she said.

Home prices rose 2.8 per cent in the March quarter, according to property research firm RP Data, while building approvals for new homes rose 3.1 per cent in February, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Housing is one of several underperforming sectors the Reserve Bank of Australia is counting on to improve during 2013 to help offset an expected slowdown in mining investment.

The RBA cut the cash rate 1.25 percentage points in 2012, bringing it to its current low level of three per cent.

But while builders welcomed February's improvement in home loans, they said more needed to be done to stimulate growth in housing construction.

"The concern is today's figure could be another in the volatile series of rises and falls witnessed over the past year," Master Builders Australia chief economist Peter Jones said.

"The Reserve Bank must continue to act by cutting interest rates and ensuring a sustained building industry recovery can take place and boost the non-mining economy," Mr Jones said.

CommSec chief economist Craig James said investors were driving the nascent recovery in the sector.

But he said the continued fall in first home buyers was concerning.

The percentage of loans taken out by first home buyers has been falling since October when New South Wales and Queensland stopped giving out first home owner grants to people buying established properties.

"Perhaps the state governments need to rethink about the way that the incentives are provided so they can provide some assistance to the market," Mr James said.

But Ms Heffernan expects first home owner numbers to improve as 2013 rolls on.

"It (the weakness) has continued longer than we would have expected following those state government changes," she said.

"But at some point you would expect to see that turn."

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PrimeAg shareholders approve sale

PRIMEAG shareholders have approved the sale of some of its assets to a US-based farm investor, as it moves towards delisting from the share market and winding up.

Investors in the Australian rural property holder approved the sale to TIAA-CREF Global Agriculture LLC at a meeting of shareholders in Sydney on Monday.

TIAA-CREF is the financial services provider behind Global Agriculture, which is invests in farmland in the US, Australia and Brazil.

PrimeAg has been advised that TIAA-CREF Global Agriculture had received approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board for the purchase of the PrimeAg assets.

In February, PrimeAg agreed to sell four properties - Goondiwindi in Queensland, and Mullala, Crooble and Milchengowrie in NSW - to TIAA-CREF Global Agriculture.

PrimeAg also has an option to sell either the Warra Aggregation or Dodds/Lower Box properties to TIAA-CREF Global Agriculture.

If the option to sell either Lower Box or Warra is exercised before April 30, the value of the total transaction with TIAA-CREF Global Agriculture will be around $123 million to $126 million.

PrimeAg also said on Monday that it was still in talks with several parties in relation to the sale of its remaining assets.

Shareholders on Monday passed a resolution that the remaining assets, including other properties, water and other licences, and non-property assets, could be sold.

Shareholders also gave approval for an initial reduction in the company's share capital by about $106 million, which will be repaid to shareholders at 40 cents per share.

After distributing excess cash and proceeds from the sales to shareholders, PrimeAge intends to delist from the Australian Securities Exchange and commence a voluntary wind-up.

PrimeAg decided in 2012 to embark on a sale of assets and capital returns in a bid to unlock value for shareholders.

Shares in PrimeAg were down 0.5 cents at $1.225 at 1542 AEST.

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SA not ready to sign off on school funding

SOUTH Australia isn't ready to sign up to the federal government's new school funding proposal, Premier Jay Weatherill says.

SA will get $600 million under the plan, proportionally less than other states because the state government already spends more on education for each student.

That has raised issues of fairness from the state's education sector.

Mr Weatherill says there are still substantial negotiations to be completed.

"There is a long way to travel," he said.

"We will be protecting South Australia's interests in those negotiations."

Mr Weatherill said moves by other state government to strip money from education would be central to South Australia's discussions with the federal government.

He said whether or not SA could come to an agreement with the commonwealth was a practical matter about what the state was offered.

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Shorten tells Canadians it's tough for ALP

THE federal government's landmark reforms will be at risk if Labor loses this year's election, a cabinet minister says.

Financial Services Minister Bill Shorten has told Canada's opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) that despite their Australian counterpart's achievements the opinion polls haven't been favourable.

"It's going to be tough for Australian Labor to win in September," he said at the NDP's federal conference in Montreal on Saturday.

"But we can win - because we must win - because we know what is at stake."

Mr Shorten said Labor's achievements on workplace law, superannuation boosts for low paid workers, carbon pricing, the National Broadband Network and National Disability Insurance Schemes were at risk from a new government led by coalition leader Tony Abbott.

"The reforms our government has made since 2007 ... will take years to work their way through the economy, the community, the environment," he said.

"In the meantime those gains are at risk."

Mr Shorten said the opposition wanted to turn back the clock on workplace rights, pretend climate change doesn't exist, ignore secure retirements for workers and exile people with disabilities as second class citizens.

"Our opponents are not looking forward, but backwards," he said.

The coalition's "demonisation" of unions didn't recognise unionists also had families and wanted productive jobs in profitable companies.

Mr Shorten, a former Australian Workers Union national secretary, told delegates their great purpose was to deliver on jobs because the key to a prosperous Australia and Canada was a highly educated and creative workforce.

"All the challenges we face ... all of them come back to the brains and ability of people," he said.

"Booms will come and go."

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Vic govt wants a say in schools reform

THE Victorian government says it is being held to ransom over proposed education funding reforms.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says a total of $14.5 billion would be pumped into the sector from next year, with the commonwealth providing the bulk or 65 per cent.

Victorian schools will receive $4 billion, Ms Gillard said.

However, Victorian Education Minister Martin Dixon said the federal government was demanding how the money be spent.

"The federal government are putting the states in a very difficult position," he told reporters in Melbourne on Sunday.

"Basically they're saying, 'here's a whole bunch of money, but you've got to do it our way'.

"They should be working with us, not holding us to ransom."

Mr Dixon said he would seek more detail about the proposed changes from his federal counterpart this week.

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New graphic ads focus on smokers' families

A NEW wave of hard-hitting ads will focus on the suffering caused by smoking to try to slash smoking rates.

The ads for the federal government's Stop Before The Suffering Starts campaign will run on television, radio, online and print media, as well as social media, from Sunday.

They highlight the toll taken by smoking-related illnesses and the impact on smokers and their families.

"Many medical conditions caused by smoking can result in not just death, but in living for years of suffering with disabling health problems," Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said in statement on Sunday.

The goal was to reduce smoking rates from around 25 per cent of the population to 10 per cent by 2018.

Tobacco smoking remains the single largest cause of preventable premature death and disease in Australia, killing 15,000 Australians each year and costing the economy $31.5 billion.

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