Mirvac on track to hit earnings targets

PROPERTY group Mirvac says it is on track to reach its full year earnings targets as it works to put a disappointing 2012/13 result behind it.

Mirvac expects to lift profit to between $428 million and $443 million in the 2013/14 financial year, after project writedowns saw its full year profit fall by 66 per cent to $139 million in 2012/13.

The property developer reaffirmed its guidance for annual earnings of 11.7 to 12 cents per share in its quarterly operational update on Tuesday.

It expects to pay dividends of between 8.8 and 9.0 cents per share over the full financial year.

Mirvac chief executive Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz said the company's investment portfolio continued to perform strongly and was underpinning the group's earnings.

Ms Lloyd-Hurwitz said Mirvac's development business was well positioned with "strong visibility of earnings into the future", while its residential business performed strongly in the September quarter, thanks to its NSW apartment projects.

She said the company was looking to take advantage of an improvement in the housing market.

"While we are finally starting to see housing volumes and pricing improve, albeit off a low base, we believe that in order to best take advantage of the residential markets its all about having the right product, price point and location," Ms Lloyd-Hurwitz said.

Mirvac shares gained 3.5 cents, or two per cent, to $1.795.

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Facebook shows beheadings but bans boobs

BEHEADINGS yes, boobs no.

That is essentially Facebook's new stance after confirming it will allow users to watch videos of people having their heads chopped off.

But it won't allow bare female breasts.

The internet is, weirdly, full of videos of people being decapitated - from soldiers being executed, to one purportedly showing a Mexican having her head lopped off after cheating on her husband.

Facebook's justification for allowing beheading footage is that it wants people to condemn the videos.

"Facebook has long been a place where people turn to share their experiences, particularly when they're connected to controversial events on the ground, such as human rights abuses, acts of terrorism and other violent events," a Facebook Australia spokesman told AAP.

"People share videos of these events on Facebook to condemn them.

"If they were being celebrated, or the actions in them encouraged, our approach would be different."

Facebook, with nine million daily users in Australia, temporarily banned beheading videos in May after the Family Online Safety Institute - a member of its Safety Advisory Board - complained they "crossed a line".

Although that ban has now been overturned, Facebook, which allows children as young as 13 to join, has maintained its ban on some sexual content, including bare female breasts.

Rule seven of its safety guidelines states: "You will not post content that: is hate speech, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence."

Essentially, the new rules mean that the context of any Facebook post is now key. The US firm has indicated it will examine the entire context of any post before deciding whether or not to allow it.

Jon Lawrence, executive officer of Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc, a non-profit organisation that fights for internet freedom, access and privacy, has welcomed Facebook's move to allow decapitation videos.

"In terms of censorship, social media may be one of the only ways for people in countries with limited freedom of expression to publicise human rights violations," he told AAP.

"As such, Facebook should not be censoring such material."

But he said it highlights the "fine line" Facebook now treads between censorship and providing a safe environment, particularly for younger users.

He called for "global age-based restrictions" on the site - similar to those on YouTube - allowing graphic or explicit material to be flagged as mature and potentially removed from young persons' view.

Other social networking sites do allow graphic material to be viewed and shared - though most, including Facebook, operate complaint mechanisms whereby potentially offensive material can be reviewed and removed.

The relaxation of Facebook's rules may be a move to bring it into line with the more liberal approach of its rivals.

AAP mdg/sd/pmu

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Oil Search produces more but earns less

OIL Search lifted production during the September quarter but sold less oil and gas.

Production in the three months to the end of September was up 10 per cent from the preceding quarter to 1.78 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe).

That takes total production for the first nine months of 2013 to 4.97 mmboe, up from 4.59 mmboe last year.

The Papua New Guinea-based group, among the top 25 companies on the local share market, still expects full year production towards the upper end of a range between 6.2 to 6.7 mmboe.

Oil Search's operating revenue for the September quarter was down 14 per cent to $US175.3 million, on sales that were 19 per cent weaker at 1.53 mmboe.

Its average realised oil price of $US112.36 per barrel was up seven per cent.

The lower sales than production were blamed by chief executive Peter Botten on the timing of shipments.

The $US19 billion Exxon Mobil-operated PNG LNG project that Oil Search is a 30 per cent partner in was on track for first deliveries in 2014, it said.

Gas from Oil Search's Kutubu fields was delivered into the LNG plant during the quarter.

Oil Search flagged a need to top up its liquidity before PNG LNG comes online so it can afford to develop new discoveries for oil projects at Mananda in PNG and Taza in Kurdistan.

Oil Search shares gained one cent to $8.65.

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'Australia's groundwater worth almost $7b'

AUSTRALIA'S groundwater reserves are worth almost $7 billion each year, a new study has revealed.

A Deloitte Access Economics report, released on Monday, shows for the first time the role groundwater plays in the country's economy.

Groundwater is worth $6.8 billion each year and supports industries worth $34 billion including mining, food production and manufacturing, the report says.

However, the value of groundwater is constantly growing as surface water dries up in a changing climate and the population grows.

"That is likely to continue into the future as competition for water resources grows further," the report said.

National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT), which commissioned the report, said that groundwater was worth more each year than individual sectors like forestry, fishing, poultry and gambling.

"To many people, groundwater is all but invisible, or there as a last resort when surface water runs short," NCGRT director, Professor Craig Simmons, said in a statement.

"In reality it drives many of our most productive industries, and if carefully managed can be maintained as a sustainable resource.

Prof Simmons said that many countries like China and India had overestimated their groundwater reserves and were using them unsustainably, which would hit long-term growth.

He said the report gave a much more accurate estimate of Australian groundwater reserves and would help develop a national plan to manage it sustainably.

"The availability of fresh water defines all sorts of national aspirations - how large our population can be, what industries we have in this country and where and how large they can be, and how well we look after our unique landscapes, rivers and ecosystems," Prof Simmons said.

"Groundwater (information) is often the missing element in all these questions.

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I'll be tough on 457 visa cheats: Morrison

PEOPLE who abuse the 457 skilled migrant scheme will be treated in the same "tough" way that the government treats people smugglers.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison is warning those guilty of cheating the visa system to expect a firm response.

"If you abuse it, then you can expect me ... to be as tough on that as those people smugglers will find that I will be tough on our borders," he said at a migration conference in Canberra on Monday.

"If the 457 program is abused, it will be undermined, and its critical values to Australia will be diminished.

"I'm asking you - and I'm asking industry and employers - to help the government protect this vital asset for the Australian economy by making sure it is used properly, in the right circumstances and is not abused."

Mr Morrison accused the former Labor government of demonising skilled migrants when it launched a crackdown on alleged cheating of the 457 visa scheme.

"You will not hear from this government that migrants take Australians' jobs," he said.

In its final days, the Labor government introduced laws requiring employers prove they searched for Australian workers before hiring temporary workers on 457 visas.

The crackdown followed unproven claims from former immigration minister Brendan O'Connor that there might be more than 10,000 breaches of the scheme.

In a wide-ranging speech on skilled migration, Mr Morrison also indicated that the significant investor visa would be "rebooted".

Introduced last November for those willing to invest $5 million in government bonds, managed funds or private companies, the visa scheme has been beset by long delays in approving applicants.

Despite hundreds of applications, only one visa had been granted by April, with Mr Morrison bemoaning the nine-month approval process.

Mr Morrison said it was understandable applicants were starting to get "cold feet".

"The scheme could and should and I still think can attract millions if not billions of overseas capital investment in projects that will stimulate our economy and create new jobs," he said.

Mr Morrison also spoke out against student visas being used as a "backdoor to permanent migration".

"We're interested in selling education, not visas," he said.

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SA Gov unveils $36 billion transport plan

SA premier Jay Weatherill has unveiled a 36-billion-dollar, 30-year integrated transport plan. Source: AAP

THE South Australian government has unveiled a $36 billion, 30-year integrated transport plan for Adelaide and regional SA.

The plan includes an extensive network of trams across the suburbs, underground train and bus services for the city centre and more outer suburban rail and bus services.

It also proposes to complete the north-south road corridor through the city and a big increase in the number of bike paths.

Premier Jay Weatherill says the plan is the most sophisticated and detailed transport plan ever undertaken in South Australia.

"Over the past decade we have made an enormous investment in our state's transport infrastructure," he said.

"This plan builds upon this momentum and provides a vision for the future."

The plan also includes duplicating the Dukes Highway to Victoria, sealing a road link in the state's north-east to the Queensland border and other regional road projects.

About 65 per cent of the expenditure will be allocated to Adelaide with 35 per cent to regional areas.

The South Australian opposition said the transport plan was littered with projects Labor had previously announced and scrapped.

Opposition transport spokeswoman Vickie Chapman said that included major road, rail and bus projects across the city.

"Not only has the Weatherill Labor government demonstrated time and time again that it can't be trusted to deliver what it promises, it's also demonstrated time and time again that it can't be trusted to manage our transport system," Ms Chapman said.

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Hole discovered in fence at WA prison

WESTERN Australia's prisons minister says there was never any risk of a jailbreak despite last week's discovery of a hole cut into a fence at one of the state's prisons.

The state's Department of Corrective Services has confirmed the alarming discovery at Acacia prison, which can house more than 1000 medium-security prisoners.

But prisons minister Joe Francis says there had been no real danger of an escape.

"What happened here is the system worked," Mr Francis told ABC radio.

"I'm not going to go into the operational issues of it, but you can rest assured there was never any threat to the public of these people getting out.

"Intelligence was gathered that obviously discovered people plotted to escape, and it was stopped very quickly."

An investigation has been launched into the potential security breach.

"Appropriate actions have been taken and there is no risk to the community," a spokeswoman for Corrective Services said.

The WA Prison's Officers Union said continuing staff shortages were contributing to growing issues in WA prisons, but Mr Francis rejected that as a "cheap shot".

"There are five thousand people behind bars in Western Australia, and many of them spend an awful lot of time trying to escape," Mr Francis said.

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Khloe Kardashian to return to Australia

KHLOE Kardashian must be having mixed feelings about returning to Australia in November.

Last time she visited, in 2011, she and her older sister Kim flew into a media storm. They arrived in Australia in the wake of Kim's announcement that she was divorcing her husband Kris Humphries, a mere 72 days after their much-hyped wedding.

Now News Corp Australia is reporting Khloe will return to Australia in November to promote the Kardashian family's fashion empire.

Khloe, 29, has been the subject of recent headlines about the state of her own marriage, to basketballer Lamar Odom.

The trip follows the launch of the Kardashian Kollection's ready-to-wear Spring/Summer line at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Festival in Sydney in August.

Khloe and Kim, who rose to fame with the TV show Keeping Up With the Kardashians, visited Australia in 2011 to promote their handbag line.

Hundreds of fans, journalists and photographers followed the stars on their two-day visit. The sisters cut short the trip and cancelled their scheduled appearance at the Melbourne Cup Carnival.

Khloe's November visit is likely to be more subdued.

It's unlikely Odom will join his wife in Australia.

The couple are reportedly estranged amid rumours the basketball player is battling addiction to cocaine.

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Labor policy key to reduced boats: Burke

Former immigration minister says the reduction in asylum boat arrivals is due to Labor's policies. Source: AAP

FORMER immigration minister Tony Burke says any reduction in the number of boat arrivals is because of Labor's hardline regional resettlement policy introduced before the election.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Saturday said the arrival of asylum seekers by boat had dropped dramatically since the election of the coalition government.

But while he said they hadn't stopped completely, he expressed confidence reduced numbers were arriving.

"I can say to you with great confidence, they are stopping," Mr Abbott said.

But Mr Burke, the minister responsible for introducing the Rudd government's policy of sending boat arrivals to PNG or Nauru for resettlement, said that plan is responsible for the reduction, not coalition policy.

"They haven't changed our policy. They've changed the media strategy around it, they've changed the secrecy around it, but there is not one part of the policy that we put in place with the regional resettlement arrangements that they've shifted," Mr Burke told Sky News on Sunday.

"They've haven't gone around boats and turned them back. They haven't to my knowledge gone through Indonesian fishing villages buying boats. What they've been doing is implementing the regional resettlement arrangements and they work."

However, the Labor MP said it would be "churlish" of him not to credit the coalition with implementing the resettlement plan.

"They are implementing it. There are ways you can wreck it," he said.

The newly appointed manager of opposition business said he was confident Labor would stick with the hardline policy despite divisions within the party on refugees.

"The big shift in people's thinking happened when we saw the extraordinary number of drownings," Mr Burke said.

"At that moment I think people started to recognise that having ... what you might describe as a hardline policy wasn't a situation of showing lets show how tough we are, it's actually a compassionate thing to do."

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Brisbane policeman bitten during struggle

A Brisbane policeman has been left with a fractured hand while trying to arrest a man, police say. Source: AAP

A BRISBANE policeman has been left with a fractured hand after being bitten while trying to arrest a man, police say.

Police were arresting a man following a disturbance at a Kelvin Grove house on Friday night when another man became violent and tried to intervene, Queensland Police said in a statement.

The second man was tasered, but continued to struggle with police and allegeldy bit an officer's hand.

A woman also shoved and threatened the officers.

Two men, aged 29 and 36, and a woman, 30, will face Brisbane Magistrates Court later this month.

The 29-year-old man has been charged with serious assault of police, as well as two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm and three of obstructing police.

The 36-year-old man has been charged with two counts of assaulting police and one of public nuisance; while the 30-year-old woman has been charged with two counts of obstructing police.

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