Sydney transport passes fleet review test

The warships in Sydney for the International Fleet Review will leave Sydney Harbour on Friday. Source: AAP

AS Sydney farewells visiting naval ships, the harbour city's transport workers are being hailed for their performance in one of the biggest events the city has seen.

There were 2.3 million journeys on Sydney public transport during the October long weekend, NSW Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian said.

More than 5000 extra services were provided, as road closures and clearways required people to leave cars at home.

The Fleet Review coincided with a number of major events including the NRL Grand Final and a One Direction concert.

"Behind the scenes there was tremendous work by a number of hardworking teams making sure Sydneysiders and visitors could move around seamlessly," Ms Berejiklian said.

The Fleet Review also made for a busy period for the Australian National Maritime Museum, with more than 85,000 visitors over the nine-day celebration.

Sydney Harbour hosted 16 tall ships, about 40 Australian and international warships, aircraft displays, and of course, Prince Harry, during the commemorations to mark 100 years since the Royal Australian Navy fleet entered the harbour.

The warships - from afar as Nigeria, India and the United Kingdom - left the harbour on Friday morning.

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Challenge will protect national laws - PM

The ACT government says it will defend its gay marriage laws against any High Court challenge. Source: AAP

STATE and territory governments have no right to legislate in favour of same-sex marriage in defiance of commonwealth law and the constitution, the federal government says.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott made the stand on Friday, a day after Attorney-General George Brandis warned the validity of a proposed ACT law allowing same-sex marriages would be challenged in the High Court.

Senator Brandis also personally asked ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher not to allow same-sex marriages to proceed if the bill was passed during the late October sitting of the ACT Legislative Assembly.

But the ACT says it won't be bullied by the federal government and will push ahead with the bill, which could see the territory hosting same-sex marriage ceremonies by December.

Asked what message the High Court challenge would send to gay and lesbian couples wanting to get married, Mr Abbott said: "We want to uphold the constitution."

"We think it is important that there be a uniform approach to marriage around the commonwealth, and that's what we are going to do our best to ensure," he told reporters in Darwin.

"It's important to ensure that the constitution is adhered to."

Federal parliament last year rejected a Labor private member's bill aimed at altering the definition of marriage, as being between a man and a woman, to allow same-sex marriage.

Mr Abbott said while future federal parliaments may revisit the issue, the bill was defeated by a "fairly decisive margin".

"The point is that it's the commonwealth parliament which is responsible for making laws with respect to marriage, not the state parliaments, and not the territory legislatures," he said.

Labor federal leadership candidate Bill Shorten said he supported the principle of states and territories having the right to make their own laws.

"It's a matter of record that I voted for same-sex marriage when the matter came before the federal parliament, but I don't think this issue is just about that," he told ABC Television.

"You've also got some pretty important constitutional issues."

Australian Greens leader Christine Milne said the looming High Court challenge was a front for the coalition government's opposition to marriage equality and reform.

"If they were genuinely interested in taking away any question of whether the commonwealth should only have the power to legislate with regard to marriage, then we would simply be passing the legislation in the federal parliament," Senator Milne said.

Lobby group Australian Marriage Equality (AME) said the federal government's reasoning wasn't clear.

"To say it is about the constitution is not a clear enough answer," AME chair Alex Greenwich said.

"Constitutional experts, the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute and the NSW parliamentary inquiry all found that it is constitutionally possible for a state to legislate for same sex marriage."

The ACT argues that because the commonwealth marriage act applies to unions between men and women, it's within its right to legislate beyond that to same-sex couples.

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Asylum seekers get message: Morrison

A FEDERAL government decision to deny asylum seeker boat arrivals any right to settle in Australia is working to deter people from making the journey, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says.

Mr Morrison this week visited a government detention centre on the Pacific Island of Nauru, where he held talks with officials and inspected building work and delivered a direct message to detainees.

He told them people smugglers had ripped them off and that under the new coalition regime they would not be coming to Australia.

"I was pleased to learn while I was there that there are around 30 people who are already now in the process of looking to go back to where they come from," Mr Morrison told reporters in Sydney.

"Offshore processing, you know, is working when people decide to go home."

In the week since October 4, only one asylum seeker boat had arrived in Australian waters.

Operation Sovereign Borders Acting Commander, Air Marshal Mark Binskin, said the boat was intercepted on Thursday off the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

The number of people on board the boat, which likely came from Sri Lanka, was not released because they were still being processed at Christmas Island.

"But I do want to emphasise that the people who came to Australia on board this boat by now already understand that they will not be settled in Australia," Air Marshal Binskin said on Friday.

For the October 4-11 reporting period, a total of 111 people were transferred to the offshore processing centres on Nauru.

Since the new government's Operation Sovereign Borders began three weeks ago, a total of 215 arrivals have been transferred to the centres, including Papua New Guinea's Manus Island.

As of Friday, there were 1059 detainees on Manus, 800 on Nauru and 2176 on Christmas Island.

The government also emphasised further moves to tackle people smuggling.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Tony Negus said there had been 17 "disruption" operations in Indonesia in the past three weeks, result in the arrest of five crewmen and three facilitators.

It's estimated this has stopped more than 550 people from getting on rickety boats to Australia.

Meanwhile, the High Court handed the government a victory by upholding the validity of mandatory prison terms for convicted people smugglers.

The case, brought by an Indonesian crew member from a boat which transported 52 asylum seekers to Australia in 2010, was seen as a test case for mandatory sentencing.

Aged 19 and described as a simple fisherman recruited just to steer the vessel, crewman Bonan Darius Magaming was jailed for five years with a non-parole period of three years under mandatory sentencing laws.

"If people seek to break those laws than they can expect to suffer the consequences of those penalties," Mr Morrison said.

Human Rights Law Centre spokesman Daniel Webb said international human rights law required that the punishment fit the crime.

"Mandatory minimum sentences for young cooks and deckhands from impoverished fishing villages won't stop people smuggling. These kids are not the ringleaders," he said.

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NZ sharemarket firms in quiet trading

THE New Zealand sharemarket has firmed with investors attracted to Auckland International Airport's earnings outlook, while Mighty River Power and Infratil rose on plans to return capital via buybacks.

The NZX 50 Index gained 6.747 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 4717.380 on Thursday. Within the index, 24 stocks gained, 19 fell and seven were unchanged. Turnover was a lower-than-average $81.5 million.

Auckland Airport shares rose 2.5 per cent to $3.32, bringing their advance this year to about 24 per cent while the NZX 50 has gained 16 per cent.

In August, the airport said 2014 underlying earnings would be $160m to $170m, up from $153.8 million last year, helped by an expected pickup in Asian visitors.

"One of the premium stocks in New Zealand continues to be sought," said Nigel Scott, a director at Craigs Investment Partners.

Trading activity was relatively subdued "as the market gathers its cash" for the Meridian Energy sale this month, and investors "have been looking over their shoulders at the unknown in the US" of a budget shutdown and looming debt ceiling deadline, he said.

Mighty River Power rose 1.4 per cent to $2.23 after the state-controlled power company announced plans to buy back about 1.8 per cent of its stock, or up to $50m worth, over the next 12 months.

Its shares have traded below the $2.50 IPO price since the sale in May.

Infratil rose 0.2 per cent to $2.515. The investment company plans an on-market buyback of up to 24.8 million shares through a tender offer at a maximum share price of $2.60 per share on October 22, following the partial sale of its stake in Z Energy.

"Companies with additional cash are looking to buy back their shares that they see as currently undervalued," Mr Scott said.

New Zealand Oil & Gas rose 3.8 per cent to 82.5 cents and was the biggest gainer on the NZX on Thursday.

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WA trio face $6m property fraud charge

Three men will face a WA court over an alleged property fraud worth $6.3m. Source: Supplied

THREE men are facing court over a property fraud in Western Australia which is alleged to have netted them more than $6 million.

The Major Fraud Squad said today it had charged the men - a 70 year-old from York, a 43 year-old from South Perth and a 45 year-old from York - with fraud.

They are all due to appear in the Perth Magistrates Court later this month.

Police will allege the men profited unlawfully from the sale of six rural properties worth more than $17 million from 2008 to 2011, located in the state's Mid West Region.

The men are accused of buying the properties on behalf of international vendors but misrepresenting the price offered and siphoning off the excess into various shelf accounts, police say.

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Tassie judo club wants Putin as patron

A JUDO club in Tasmania has written to the Kremlin to ask Vladimir Putin to be its patron.

The Ulverstone Judo Club, in the state's north, says President Putin's prowess in the sport and no-nonsense approach make him the perfect candidate.

"I often say (at the club), look, Vladimir Putin doesn't put up with crap like this," head coach Chris Palmer told AAP.

"He's got plenty of backbone, he makes a decision and away he goes."

Mr Palmer said members of the club came up with the idea when they spotted the Russian president at the world championships in Rio last month.

They wrote to him this week and are hopeful of receiving a reply.

"We've gone to the Kremlin now," Mr Palmer said.

"If we don't do any good with getting a reply ... I'll shoot it back through the European judo.

"We might be able to get something that way."

President Putin began judo as a teenager and holds a sixth 'dan' red and white belt.

He has been the president of his boyhood club in St Petersburg and co-authored a book on the sport.

Mr Palmer, who earned his fifth 'dan' black belt last weekend, said the president's appearances practising judo on TV showed he had a sound knowledge of the sport.

"You can tell straight away that he has done a bit," he said.

"We have kids one night a week, some might do two.

"In Russia you're four nights a week or bugger off."

Mr Palmer said while he admired President Putin's lack of political correctness, he didn't agree with some of his more controversial policies.

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Small firms listened to on regulation

SMALL business believes it is finally being listened to with a Productivity Commission report making recommendations to ease the regulatory burden on the sector.

The commission says regulators must make more effort to understand how regulation impacts small business because it feels the burden of regulation more than larger businesses.

A lack of staff, time and resources means small business don't always understand and fulfil their compliance obligations.

"A regulator's culture and attitude towards business can be as important as the content of the regulation itself," Commissioner Warren Mundy said in a statement on Wednesday.

"There is still significant scope for improvement in the way regulators engage with small business."

Council of Small Business Australia (COSBA) executive director Peter Strong described it as a landmark report that sets up a template for regulators to better work with small business.

He said small business people are tired of rhetoric about the importance of small business people, because it has rarely been matched by outcomes.

"This report is a positive and constructive response that shows we have been heard," Mr Strong said in a statement.

"The message from this report is loud and clear - stop and consider the impact of regulation on the small business person, their business and their capacity to continue in business."

The report proposes a suite of changes which need to be implemented by the federal, state and territory and local governments.

These include adopting communication practices with small business that focus on "brevity, clarity and accessibility of information".

Regulators should also be resourced to do their job effectively to avoid the shifting of direct and indirect costs onto business.

Small Business Minister Bruce Billson said the government looks forward to considering the commission's recommendations as part of its broader commitment to reducing the regulatory burden.

"The commission's report represents a significant body of work that can inform broader work on deregulation," Mr Billson said in a statement.

"If implemented properly, improved engagement strategies have the potential to result in a win-win situation for small businesses and regulators."

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Hunt after WA shark attack called off

A CATCH and kill order to destroy the shark that attacked an abalone diver off a remote part of Western Australia's southern coast has been called off.

Greg Pickering, 55, was collecting the delicacy off Poison Creek at Cape Arid National Park, about 180km east of Esperance, when he was attacked by a suspected great white shark on Tuesday morning.

He was taken to Royal Perth Hospital where he underwent almost 10 hours of surgery for bite wounds, mainly to his torso, and injuries to his face.

The Fisheries Department set up traps in the area after director general Stuart Smith gave orders for the animal to be killed.

But on Wednesday afternoon, the department decided there was no longer an imminent threat to holiday makers in the area.

"As the shark posed an imminent threat to swimmers and divers in the area, we had no choice but to issue this order, especially as it is school holidays at the moment," Mr Smith said.

"There have been no further sightings of a white shark in the area and it is likely that the shark responsible for the attack is no longer in this general locality."

Efforts have also been made to advise campers about the incident, which has reduced the likelihood of them entering the water, Mr Smith said.

Earlier, Mr Smith conceded it was possible that even if a shark was caught it might not be the culprit.

It is the second time a kill order has been issued in WA.

On the previous occasion, two tiger sharks were caught and released after they were tagged, but the great white shark the department was looking for was not found, Mr Smith said.

Mr Pickering has been an abalone diver for more than 40 years and was bitten in 2004 by a 1.5m bronze whaler while in waters near Cervantes, north of Perth, as he was trying to help a friend.

He put himself between his friend and the shark when it began attacking and was bitten on the leg.

The experienced spear fisherman had another close call in 2009, when the boat he was diving under in Ceduna in South Australia was capsized.

He and another deckhand were found by rescue crews in a life raft after about three hours.

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Pair charged over Sydney home invasion

A MAN and woman who allegedly broke into a Sydney man's house, tied him to chair, cut him with a knife and robbed him have been charged.

They allegedly demanded money before ransacking the house at Oatley in Sydney's south and making off with a laptop, mobile phone, bank cards and fishing rods.

The victim, 34, was able to alert a neighbour, who cut him free, police say.

He was treated at St George Hospital and received stitches to cuts on his face and neck.

A 23-year-old woman and a 49-year-old man were arrested at Arncliffe on Wednesday and charged with aggravated break and enter and attempting to obtain financial advantage by deception.

Police say a further arrest and charges are expected.

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Toro shares rises on resource upgrade

TORO Energy shares are higher after the uranium mine developer upgraded the quality of resources at its Wiluna project in Western Australia.

Toro said recent drilling results led to a 75 per cent increase in the project's measured and indicated resources.

All three deposits had contiguous zones of higher grade mineralisation, it said.

Managing director Vanessa Guthrie said improvements in the company's knowledge of the deposits would help in the completion of a definitive feasibility study, expected in 2014.

Toro still needs to secure project financing for Wiluna.

The company hopes to begin production at Wiluna in 2016, making it Western Australia's first uranium mine.

Toro shares gained 0.3 cents, or 3.6 per cent, to 8.6 cents.

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