Teen death sea race was 'safe': referee

ORGANISERS of a surf life saving championship allowed a fatal board race to go ahead despite pulling the pin on other events because the sea was too rough, an inquest has heard.

Matthew Barclay, 14, died while competing in an under-15 board race in large surf at Kurrawa Beach on the Gold Coast on March 28 last year.

He was the third teenage competitor to lose his life during the event at the same beach since 1996.

The championships' under-15 area referee Jenny Kenny told the coronial inquest on Tuesday that the board race was originally going to be held on March 29.

However, Ms Kenny said event organisers decided on the morning of March 28 to hold the board race that day after postponing the swim, board rescue and tube races because of unfavourable conditions.

She said those events were postponed because of the size of the 1.5 metre waves and the fact they were breaking far from the shore, creating a longer course.

The board races were considered safer for the conditions on March 28, she said.

"It wasn't an event in which we could see that there were any inherent dangers for the competitors," Ms Kenny explained.

"It was as per a pretty normal carnival in terms of the size of the surf on a surf beach, what the tide was doing, the amount of water safety we had, all those things indicated that that was a good event to hold at that time."

The official was one of the first on shore to notice a loose board in the under-15 board race shortly after the event began at 3.27pm.

She told the inquest she asked other officials on the beach if they could see the board's owner and when they replied no she raised the alarm.

Matthew's body was found the following day.

The inquest continues.

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Home loan approvals a good sign for RBA

A rise in home loan approvals is another sign that the record-low cash rate is working. Source: AAP

HOME loan approvals rose 1.0 per cent in October - another sign that low interest rates are doing what they're supposed to.

There were 52,305 approvals in the month, compared to 51,792 approvals in September, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released on Tuesday.

The rise is in line with economists' expectations.

"It looks like another fairly solid outcome," National Australia Bank senior economist Spiros Papadopoulos said.

"It's another indicator that points to the recent strength that we've seen in the housing market and growth in the investor sector.

"If you line that up with the building approvals data, which has seen quite a lot of growth in multi-level dwellings, or apartments, that suggests we're seeing a lot of investor activity in apartments coming through.

"It's a comfort to the Reserve Bank that low interest rates are working and with no interest rate rise on the horizon any time soon, you'd expect that housing finance approvals and other housing indicators continue to trend higher in coming months."

JP Morgan economist Tom Kennedy said he was encourage by the increases in housing finance for the purchase of new dwellings, and the construction of dwellings.

"When you look at the breakdown it was fairly broadbased," he said.

"Construction loans, which is the one that the Reserve Bank of Australia has been targeting, trying to get a bit of a lift in that sector, they were up about one per cent and that is its third consecutive monthly increase, there are tentative signs of life in that sector.

"This is really representative of strength in the housing market and the continual demand for property."

Mr Kennedy expects the housing sector to continue strengthening in the new year.

"We don't think at this stage that the uptick in house prices has been too much of a concern for the RBA and activity is coming off pretty low levels, so we think it has a while to run," he said.

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Recall makes positive debut on market

SHARES in Recall, the information management business formerly part of Brambles, rose on their first day of trading on the Australian share market.

Recall, which manages and stores documents and records, was recently demerged from Brambles, and its shares closed at $4.50 after opening at $4.15 at 1200 AEDT.

More than 32 million shares changed hands.

Chief executive Doug Pertz said it was an exciting day for Recall, a firm that serviced many large multinational companies.

"It is a strong business, with high quality customers and recurring revenue streams across a diverse geographic base," Mr Pertz said in a statement.

"Recall has excellent growth prospects in both developed and emerging markets, with strong cash flows from which to fund growth, innovation and dividends to shareholders."

Brambles, which retains its pallets business, announced the demerger of Recall in July 2013, after failing to sell the business.

Brambles earlier said the demerger enabled it to concentrate on growing its pooling solutions business, which provides reusable CHEP and IFCO pallets, crates and containers to industry.

Recall has about 312 million ordinary shares trading on the market.

Shares in Brambles dropped 42 cents to $8.86.

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Hockey says car industry must shape future

TREASURER Joe Hockey has declared the future of car manufacturing in Australia lies in the hands of the car industry.

But some of his Liberal-National coalition colleagues say a taxpayer lifeline will be thrown to Holden to prevent it from closing, after 65 years of car making in Australia.

Holden itself says local manufacturing cannot compete globally without public assistance of around $1 for every $3 invested by the company.

Media reports suggest the board of Holden's American owner General Motors has already decided to pull out of Australia from 2016, but won't announce the decision until early 2014.

"They are going. They will not want to put more money in after the current model run winds up in 2016," a senior industry representative told the Wall Street Journal.

Holden's future dominated question time in federal parliament on Monday, where Mr Hockey was asked by Labor to guarantee the company's future.

"The future of the car industry is in the hands of the car industry," Mr Hockey said.

The previous Labor government had let Mitsubishi close its operations in 2008 and Ford would follow in 2016, Mr Hockey said.

Mr Hockey said the best thing Labor could do for the car industry was repeal the carbon tax.

Holden estimates the carbon tax adds $45 per locally-made vehicle but says the cost is absorbed by the company.

Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane has been in talks with car makers in recent weeks and initiated a Productivity Commission inquiry into the industry, which will hand down an interim report on December 20.

Mr Macfarlane told parliament on Monday the government was "not working on the pretext that Holden is leaving the country", but was coming up with a solution.

"We have a purposeful, methodical, measured approach to assessing the future of the car industry in Australia," he said.

South Australian Liberal leader Steven Marshall, who is aiming to unseat the state Labor government at the March 15 state election, said the coalition would not let the industry die.

"I'm quite convinced if there is a deal to be done, the coalition will do that deal," Mr Marshall said.

SA Premier Jay Weatherill will meet Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Thursday to discuss the car industry's future and the federal government's election pledge to withdraw $500 million from assistance.

"The future of Holdens (sic) is in the hands of the prime minister," Mr Weatherill said.

Mr Abbott said last week the government would not provide a "blank cheque" to Holden and the company owed its workforce, suppliers and the public an explanation about its future.

Holden boss Mike Devereux is due to front a Productivity Commission inquiry hearing in Melbourne on Tuesday.

Holden's submission to the inquiry said it had generated $32.7 billion in economic activity in Australia from 2001 to 2012 during which time it received $1.4 billion in federal government assistance.

"Without public assistance, Holden's local manufacturing cannot compete globally," the submission said.

It said assistance needed to be "set at appropriate levels and be ongoing".

Holden said it built cars Australians wanted to buy and did so cost-effectively, but Australia lacked a "clear, long term national policy".

The company said Australia faced an "economic shock and significant unemployment" if car making ended.

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PNG speaker orders carvings destroyed

THE decision by Papua New Guinea's speaker of parliament to order the removal of traditional wooden carved heads adorning the parliament has been described as vindictive.

Theo Zurenoc ordered the carvings be removed last week, prompting the director of PNG's National Museum and Art Gallery, Dr Andrew Motu, to slam the directive.

"They believe that these things fitted with a pagan Asian and a mystic background, religious background and therefore are considered evil and ungodly and therefore they want to sort of purge and clean the House of Parliament," Dr Motu told Radio Australia.

"They are carved images, specifically carved to represent the whole of Papua New Guinea.

"All the installations in there are never associated with any, any ritual belief."

Mr Zurenoc had come under the influence of a small group of Christian pastors, Dr Motu said.

He said there was a plan to bring the heads to the national museum, however some of the carvings have been chopped into three pieces.

Catholic priest Father Giorgio Licini told the Port Moresby-based Post Courier newspaper the speaker's move was "ridiculous".

"PNG citizens should be aware of the rising religious fundamentalism," Fr Licini said.

"It sprouts from a mix of arrogance and insecurity, ignorance and cargo cult.

"Politicians should not court these movements."

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Investigation at Ranger mine underway

ENERGY Resources of Australia insists there has been no environmental impact from the weekend's spill of about one million litres of radioactive and acidic slurry from a tank at the Ranger uranium mine in Kakadu.

But environmental groups are calling on the Rio Tinto subsidiary to allow independent scientists on site to conduct their own investigations.

"I think they're lying," said Dr Stuart Blanch, director of the Environment Centre NT.

"It's clear there's contaminated water from the burst tank on soil - they've said it's landed mainly on impervious surfaces, like cement, but it's clearly not."

On Friday night workers detected a hole in Leach Tank 1 within the processing area, which has a capacity of about 1.5 million litres.

At about 1am (CST) on Saturday morning the tank split, pouring out a slurry containing mud, water, ore and sulfuric acid.

ERA have not yet said how full the tank was at the time of the spill.

Senator Mathias Cormann said Australia's acting supervising scientist had provided the assurances after attending the site in the Kakadu National Park.

"The spill was contained within the plant area and there is no threat to the surrounding area or to human health outside of the immediate area," Senator Cormann told the upper house during question time on Monday.

The government has ordered an investigation into the spillage, and Senator Cormann said a clean-up has begun, including the installation of retaining walls to prevent the slurry spreading further if it rains.

There have been more than 200 safety breaches and incidents over the past 30 years at the site, according to the Environment Centre NT, which says the slurry spill overflowed levee banks designed to contain it and got into the mine's stormwater drain system.

"Over 30 years you think they'd be getting better at what they do, but in fact they're getting worse," said spokeswoman Lauren Mellor.

"We've had reassurances from ERA that these contaminants wouldn't reach Kakadu National Park and contaminate the groundwater there but we simply can't take them at face value - there's been no independent assessment of how fast they can spread."

The Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation (GAC), which represents the Mirarr traditional owners of the land, says it has no faith in regulators.

The federal regulator of the site, Supervising Scientist Richard McAllister, was a water and environmental engineer for an ERA subsidiary for several years during the 1990s.

"There's historically been a revolving door of personnel between the Office of the Supervising Scientist (OSS), the NT government and the company, and it speaks to the need for a clear independent assessment," GAC CEO Justin O'Brien told AAP.

An ERA spokesman said requests for independent scientific testing would have to be made to the OSS rather than to the mine operator.

Bryan Wilkins, regional organiser of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union, said that during the tank's construction and installation in 1993 or 1994 the welding was not properly tested.

"I know it wasn't - I was there," he said.

A full investigation to determine what caused the tank to give way is being commissioned, said ERA CEO Andrea Sutton.

She would not comment to the ABC on the age of the tank, possible causes of the leak, or how long operations will be stalled.

The GAC estimates it could be for as long as two months.

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Labor about values, not revenge: Bowen

TONY Abbott and Bill Shorten are heading to South Africa for Nelson Mandela's memorial service while MPs prepare to battle for some key coalition legislation in the final sitting week of federal parliament.

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen says Labor's moves to block the coalition in parliament are not motivated by revenge.

The party's position is about staying true to its values, he says, in a sign the government can expect more frustrations in the final sitting week for the year.

But the business of government will continue, with the coalition likely to suffer mixed fortunes on its legislation.

While the Greens have thrown the coalition a lifeline on debt, the stoush over the carbon tax is unlikely to be resolved despite the prime minister's threats of keeping parliament open until Christmas.

After a deal between the government and Greens, amendments that scrap the debt ceiling are expected to pass through the Senate on Monday.

But the government will have less success on another coalition pledge - laws to abolish the carbon tax and its associated entities, such as the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

With Labor accused of being obstructive, and of seeking revenge against Mr Abbott for his own obstructionism in opposition, Mr Bowen said: "We'll call it as we see it, and we'll call it on its merits."

"It's not revenge. It's staying true to our values," he told Sky News on Sunday.

"When people vote Labor, they expect us to stay true to our values, and we'll be doing that."

Environment Minister Greg Hunt on Sunday demanded Labor back the carbon tax repeal, which the opposition and Greens have vowed to block.

"We don't want delays. We don't want excuses," he told reporters in Melbourne.

"This is the week when the carbon tax should be voted upon and should be repealed.

"The Australian people voted. They chose a new government. They chose to repeal the carbon tax."

Question Time is expected to be dominated by debate over the future of the car industry and Qantas, as well as the secrecy behind the government's immigration policies.

But the prime minister and opposition leader won't be taking part until Thursday, when they are expected to return to the hurly burly of Canberra.

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Woman dead, another woman in custody in NT

A crime scene has been set up after the death of a woman in Alice Springs overnight. Source: AAP

A WOMAN is dead and another woman is in police custody after an incident in Alice Springs.

A crime scene has been established and major crime detectives are assisting local police.

No further details are available.

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Free transport urged for fire recovery

THE NSW government should provide free bus and train rides to and from the Blue Mountains these holidays to help businesses recover from the October bushfires, the state opposition says.

The government needs to encourage visitors back with the message that the Blue Mountains is open for business, Opposition Leader John Robertson says.

Analysis by Blue Mountains Lithgow & Oberon Tourism and Blue Mountains Economic Enterprise estimates 200 jobs and more than $47 million in tourism revenue have been lost in the six weeks following the bushfires.

Domestic day trips alone are estimated to be down by more than 144,000.

Mr Robertson says there are dozens of bus and train services to the Blue Mountains every weekend.

"These public transport services should be free and promoted across the Sydney Trains network to encourage families and tourists to plan a trip to the mountains."

Opposition transport spokeswoman Penny Sharpe says she's written to Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian asking that Labor's proposal be implemented immediately, effective until the Australia Day long weekend.

"For a family of two adults and two children it would cost $34.80 on a Saturday to travel from Central to Springwood by train ... that's $34 better spent in a Blue Mountains small business."

Blue Mountains Mayor Mark Greenhill says many visitors had been scared away by the bushfires.

"We have hundreds of thousands of hectares of world heritage listed National Park with breathtaking scenery, pristine waterways and amazing walking tracks," he said.

"We welcome any proposal that encourages visitors and their wallets to our region."

Ms Berejiklian said in a statement that the NSW government had announced funding for a campaign to encourage tourists to visit the Blue Mountains and continued to work with the community to help those impacted.

"An auction of Sydney Trains lost property items held on Saturday raised thousands of dollars that will be donated to victims of the Blue Mountains bushfire," she said.

The minister also said the government had announced residents would not be charged for water used to defend their homes during the bushfires.

Fees to replace documents such as birth certificates and driver licences had also been waived along with fees for taking bushfire waste to the tip, Ms Berejiklian said.

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Keith Urban among Grammy nominees

Keith Urban has been nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Country Duo/Group. Source: AAP

AUSTRALIA'S Keith Urban has been nominated for a Grammy Award.

The country music star is a nominee in the Best Country Duo/Group Performance category for his collaboration with Tim McGraw and Taylor Swift, called You Can't Make Old Friends.

Jay Z easily led Grammy Award nominations, announced on Friday night, with nine, but left-of-centre rappers Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Kendrick Lamar were among a group of new stars who took many of the major nominations.

New Zealand teenager Lorde was nominated for four awards, mostly for her debut single Royals.

The 17-year-old schoolgirl, who performed live during the Los Angeles ceremony, is in the running for song of the year, record of the year, best pop solo performance and best pop vocal album for Pure Heroine.

Macklemore and Lewis' gay marriage anthem Same Love was among song of the year nominees and the Seattle rap crew joined Los Angeles rapper Lamar with seven nominations apiece, including best album and best new artist of the year.

Pharrell Williams had four major nominations among his seven and Justin Timberlake also had seven.

Joining Lorde with four nominations apiece were Swift, Daft Punk, Bruno Mars and Kacey Musgraves.

Competing against Lorde's Royals for record of the year are Imagine Dragons' Radioactive, Mars' Locked Out of Heaven, Daft Punk's Get Lucky and Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines.

The Lorde and Mars entries also are up for song of the year with Pink's Just Give Me a Reason, Katy Perry's Roar and Same Love.

The show featured some of the year's top songs.

Lorde performed a starkly different version of Royals, while Swift performed her hit I Knew You Were Trouble in a performance pre-taped in Australia.

Urban performed a duet with US singer Miguel, while Thicke, TI and Earth, Wind & Fire teamed on Blurred Lines.

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