Ex-Vic police officer saves drowning woman

A former Victorian police officer has risked his life to rescue a woman struggling in rough surf. Source: AAP

A FORMER Victorian police officer risked his life to rescue a woman who was seen to be struggling in rough surf.

Matthew Paynter was at the Brighton Baths Health club in Melbourne's southeast on Saturday when he heard a woman was caught in waves about half a kilometre from shore.

He dived into the ocean and brought her safely to shallows where another man, Andrew Krzywniak, helped the pair out of the water.

Victoria Police said the conditions were "extremely rough", but Mr Paynter did not hesitate to rescue the woman.

Water Police Senior Constable Patrick Yeung said the situation would have ended tragically if had not been for the two men.

"These two men have risked their own lives to help a woman who needed assistance with no thought to their own safety," he said.

A 43-year-old Mount Waverley woman was taken to The Alfred hospital for treatment.

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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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NBN cost higher than predicted: Switkowski

The government's delivery deadline for the NBN looks likely to be blown out, a leaked report shows. Source: AAP

COST blow-outs, ageing copper, lower revenue and demanding deadlines.

The national broadband network (NBN) has struck another hurdle, with NBN Co chief Ziggy Switkowski telling a Senate hearing on Friday the cost of connecting homes and businesses now looks "materially higher" than all previous predictions.

Days before NBN Co is due to finalise a strategic review into the nation's largest infrastructure project, Dr Switkowski said costs were "rising as we speak".

"Many of the cost elements that NBN made about the rollout, that date back six months to a year, are so far away from the experience that I wouldn't use them to draw any conclusions," he said.

"The actual costs versus what I've seen to be in plans, there's a big gap."

Dr Switkowski's comments cast doubts over figures provided to the committee this month by NBN Co chief financial officer Robin Payne.

Mr Payne said the cost of connecting customers to the NBN had risen from $1100-$1400 in the 2013 draft corporate plan to about $1500.

Labor Senator Stephen Conroy blamed Dr Switkowski's predictions of "substantially higher" costs on renegotiations with contractors.

"If you choose to pay more money to settle contract disputes from companies that have failed to deliver on their contracts, that's on your head," Senator Conroy said.

Dr Switkowski replied: "I accept that."

The Senate committee in Canberra also heard that on top of Dr Switkowski's $180,000 annual salary as NBN Co chairman, he was earning $50,000 a month as acting chief executive for three and a half to four days' work a week.

Earlier in the hearing Dr Switkowski admitted it would be "tough" to meet the federal government's 2016 delivery deadline for the NBN, saying the next calendar year would be one of "stabilisation and transition".

The coalition has promised to deliver broadband services of 25 megabits per second to all homes by 2016.

"The end of 2016 as a deadline is very, very demanding," he said.

Senator Conroy asked whether talk of "transition" meant a decision on switching to a fibre-to-the-node (FTTN), or street corner, model had been made.

Dr Switkowski replied it was "the most probable scenario".

"It will have a higher element of FTTN than the current plan," he added.

Dr Switkowski's deadline comments mirror those in a brief note given to the incoming government, published by Fairfax Media, which stated that the 2016 target might not be met due to construction and technical issues.

The document also cut revenue projections by up to 30 per cent by 2021.

That was backed up by comments to the Senate hearing by Department of Communications secretaries on Thursday, who admitted a move from the fibre-to-the-premises NBN model for the cheaper but much slower FTTN would result in lower revenue projections.

The hearing also heard on Thursday from the communications union, which predicted up to 80 per cent of the copper wire pits NBN Co was planning to buy off Telstra were in a condition so "disgraceful" they had to be patched together by plastic bags or ring-barked cables.

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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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$1b-plus Qld flood class action

5000 flood victims are taking on Queensland to claw back more than $1bn lost in the 2011 disaster. Source: AAP

FLOOD-WEARY southeast Queenslanders had to first fight insurers, now they will take on the state to claw back more than $1 billion lost because of the 2011 disaster.

About 5000 people have registered to sue the state government, SunWater and Seqwater over claims too much water was released from Wivenhoe Dam at the peak of the floods to unnecessarily push up the Brisbane and Bremer rivers.

More than two years on, some residents are still picking up the pieces, including Jen Robusto, whose Kenmore home was inundated past the second floor.

Damage to her pool and carpet weren't covered by insurance and she's out of pocket up to $100,000.

"I'm still having drama," she told AAP.

"I haven't been holding my breath for this class action, because disappointment is worse."

Litigation funder IMF Australia and Maurice Blackburn will rely on commissioned modelling that reveals flooding caused by the negligent operation.

The modelling has given IMF the certainty it needed to commit the millions of dollars required for the claim, which will be filed early next year.

IMF Australia executive director John Walker told AAP that lawyers would argue that engineers should have released more water earlier to reduce the peak, and would question why the flood centre was shut between January 2 and 6.

"There was an ongoing flood event. Under the manual they were required to be operating from a flood centre," Mr Walker said.

"Basically the allegation (is) the engineers permitted the dam to get to a level they ought not to have and they should have commenced water through the gates before they did and at greater levels than they did."

Premier Campbell Newman would not say if the government would consider settling.

Instead he offered applicants a warning.

"I just say to them, I hope they have got a very clear deal with the legal firms involved and I'd hate to see any payout to them, if that ultimately happened, being gobbled up in legal fees."

The flood inquiry had found that the engineers - John Tibaldi, Rob Ayre and Terry Malone - had breached the dam manual and it referred them to the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) to examine if they lied under oath and covered their tracks about which water release strategies they adopted.

After a five-month review, the CMC said in August 2012 there was no evidence the engineers colluded to mislead the floods inquiry about how the dam was managed before Brisbane and Ipswich flooded.

In line with the flood inquiry's recommendations, the CMC's probe was limited to documents the engineers prepared about their actions, and their oral testimony.

It did not look at whether their management of the dam's gates during the flood could amount to a criminal offence or official misconduct.

More than 78 per cent of Queensland was declared a disaster zone during the floods in December 2010 and January 2011, which affected more than 2.5 million people.

SunWater and Seqwater have been contacted by AAP for comment.

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Simon Gittany guilty of murdering fiancee

A Sydney judge is set to rule on whether Simon Gittany threw his fiancee off a balcony. Source: AAP

SIMON Gittany has been found guilty of murdering his fiancee, Lisa Cecilia Harnum, by throwing her off a high-rise Sydney apartment balcony.

Gittany, 40, stood stock still and his girlfriend Rachelle Louise started screaming as Justice Lucy McCallum handed down her verdict in the Supreme Court in Sydney on Wednesday.

Ms Louise yelled abuse at the judge, and was taken from the court in floods of tears.

Other family members stormed out of court and the judge briefly adjourned the verdict to restore calm.

Justice McCallum found Gittany was in a state of "uncontrollable rage" on the morning of Ms Harnum's death after he discovered she was leaving him.

"He maintained that rage and in that state, carried her to the balcony and unloaded her over the edge," Justice McCallum said.

In a verdict that took more than four hours to deliver, Justice McCallum gave a damning assessment of Gittany's character, finding he was "controlling, dominating and, at times, abusive" of Ms Harnum.

She found he lied "with telling ease" and distorted the truth when he took the stand in an attempt to discredit the woman he murdered.

"At many times in his evidence the accused struck me as being a person playing a role, telling a story which fit with the objective evidence but which did no more than that," Justice McCallum said.

"His account of what happened appeared to exist on borrowed detail.

"It lacked originality and the subtlety of actual experience."

Ms Harnum's family members smiled and embraced after the verdict was handed down.

In a judge-alone trial that gripped the public, the Crown alleged Gittany threw Ms Harnum off their 15th floor CBD apartment balcony on July 30, 2011 in a fit of "apoplectic" rage that she was planning to leave him.

Gittany maintained his innocence, saying Ms Harnum ran onto the balcony and disappeared over the edge as he desperately tried to reach her.

The trial heard allegations Gittany was brutal and controlling of his 30-year-old Canadian fiancee, subjecting her to the "most intense surveillance" imaginable.

Gittany installed CCTV in his apartment and used a computer program to monitor Ms Harnum's text messages, emails and internet usage.

He said he did so because she had a secret she refused to tell him.

Text messages showed Gittany was so jealous of other men, Ms Harnum had to look at the ground when she was outside, the court heard.

In the witness stand, Gittany admitted some of his behaviour towards Ms Harnum was controlling, but he emphatically and repeatedly denied he threw her off the balcony.

Sixty-nine seconds before her death, Gittany was captured on camera dragging Ms Harnum back into the apartment as she screamed "Help me, God help me".

But the defence claimed Ms Harnum, who suffered from bulimia, may have climbed over the balcony to escape Gittany, as a cry for attention or in a suicide bid.

Justice McCallum firmly rejected suggestions Ms Harnum was suicidal that morning or that she deliberately climbed over the balcony to escape Gittany.

"I have stood on that balcony," the judge said.

"I simply can't accept any person with a will to survive could have regarded it as an option for escape.

"Lisa Harnum may have been impulsive, maladaptive and over-sensitive. She may have been in a state of acute fear.

"... But I do not think she was deranged."

A tear-stained Ms Louise briefly emerged from court and asked the dozens of reporters surrounding her for a cigarette.

She refused to comment.

Waiting for Justice McCallum to return to the bench, Gittany's sister told him, "You didn't get a fair trial".

"I know," he replied.

An ambulance has arrived at the Supreme Court, believed to be for Gittany's mother, who was said by relatives to be "in a state" after the guilty verdict.

She was unable to return to court to say goodbye to her son as he was led away.

Gittany will face a sentence hearing in February.

Speaking outside court, an emotional Joan Harnum told reporters, "there are no winners in this case".

"Two families have had their lives dramatically changed forever," she said.

"We will always mourn the loss of our beautiful Lisa Cecilia and are working towards making her legacy a powerful wake-up call to young women.

"My daughter used to say people can ask for help but children and animals cannot.

"And now young women who are caught up in situations like my daughter found herself in need a voice as well."

Ms Harnum said her daughter's favourite saying was "families are forever".

"Please go home and hug your kids and hug your wife and husband and make it families forever for everyone," she said.

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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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Qld oppn gets even on CMC saga

QUEENSLAND'S opposition got mad, but now they've got even in a tussle with the government over the latest Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) saga.

Three members of the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee (PCMC) sacked by the state government last week have been reinstated by Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk.

Labor MPs Jackie Trad and Jo-Ann Miller and independent Peter Wellington had been accused of prejudging acting CMC chair Ken Levy.

An investigation was underway into whether Dr Levy misled the committee over contact he had with the government before penning an opinion piece in support of contentious anti-bikie laws.

Ms Palaszczuk says she's standing up to the Newman government's bullyboy tactics, and protecting one of the most important committees in the parliament.

"We will not be dictated to about who we put on that committee," she told reporters on Tuesday.

The government now has four of the seven MPs on the replacement committee, including chairman Steve Davies.

Ms Palaszczuk says she has no faith in Mr Davies as PCMC chair, considering his inexperience and past involvement with organised criminal gangs.

It's reported he had contact with a bikie gang Sergeant At Arms to discipline a gang member that he was in a dispute with.

Mr Davies told AAP that before he was an MP he'd worked at the biggest motorcycle dealer in Brisbane and had many contacts with bikies.

"We dealt with them all the time actually, of all different ilks - outlaw ones, Bandidos, Black Ulysses, you name it, there's no big deal," he told AAP.

"I've never had a BBQ with them or anything, I just worked in the motorcycle industry."

Premier Campbell Newman warned the public would judge the opposition harshly for the reappointments, but conceded he would not move to sack the committee again.

"This is a remarkable lack of leadership from the leader of the opposition," Mr Newman said.

"She's perfectly entitled to do that ... but she has reappointed people who participated in a tainted, corrupt process."

Independent MP Liz Cunningham, who chaired the former committee, said last week was traumatic and voters are now questioning the government's integrity.

"I believe we were sacked for indefensible reasons," she told AAP.

"The feedback I've got from the community is that it has undermined their credibility. It undermines the community's belief that they are a good and transparent government."

The PCMC's investigation into Dr Levy has now been passed to a new Select Ethics Committee.

He is facing questions after failing to disclose that he met with the government's top media adviser Lee Anderson to discuss the article before it was published.

Dr Levy has denied any wrongdoing and intends to stay in his role until a permanent new chief can be found.

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