ZEG

In his latest offering, conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG comments on Kevvy's "positive" campaigning




Global sea level rise dampened by Australian floods?

"Australia is in a major drought".  Then what's that stuff that's been falling from the sky outside my window in Brisbane this August  -- a normally "dry" month?

Someone else will have to do the numbers on this but the whole thing smells to high heaven.  Only a small percentage of the rain fell in the Australian outback.  As it always does, most of the rain fell onto the narrow East coastal plain, where it was promptly returned to the sea via the many big coastal rivers  -- JR

New research led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) shows that when three atmospheric patterns came together over the Indian and Pacific oceans, they drove so much precipitation over Australia in 2010 and 2011 that the world’s ocean levels dropped measurably. Unlike other continents, the soils and topography of Australia prevent almost all of its precipitation from running off into the ocean.

The 2010-11 event temporarily halted a long-term trend of rising sea levels caused by higher temperatures and melting ice sheets.

Now that the atmospheric patterns have snapped back and more rain is falling over tropical oceans, the seas are rising again. In fact, with Australia in a major drought, they are rising faster than before.

“It’s a beautiful illustration of how complicated our climate system is,” says NCAR scientist John Fasullo, the lead author of the study. “The smallest continent in the world can affect sea level worldwide. Its influence is so strong that it can temporarily overcome the background trend of rising sea levels that we see with climate change.”

The study, with co-authors from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Colorado at Boulder, will be published next month in Geophysical Research Letters. It was funded by the National Science Foundation, which is NCAR’s sponsor, and by NASA.

Consistent rising, interrupted

As the climate warms, the world’s oceans have been rising in recent decades by just more than 3 millimeters (0.1 inches) annually. This is partly because the heat causes water to expand, and partly because runoff from retreating glaciers and ice sheets is making its way into the oceans.

But for an 18-month period beginning in 2010, the oceans mysteriously dropped by about 7 millimeters (about 0.3 inches), more than offsetting the annual rise.

Fasullo and his co-authors published research last year demonstrating that the reason had to do with the increased rainfall over tropical continents. They also showed that the drop coincided with the atmospheric oscillation known as La Niña, which cooled tropical surface waters in the eastern Pacific and suppressed rainfall there while enhancing it over other portions of the tropical Pacific, Africa, South America, and Australia.

But an analysis of the historical record showed that past La Niña events only rarely accompanied such a pronounced drop in sea level.

Using a combination of satellite instruments and other tools, the new study finds that the picture in 2010–11 was uniquely complex. A rare combination of two other semi-cyclic climate modes came together to drive such large amounts of rain over Australia that the continent, on average, received almost one foot (300 millimeters) of rain more than average.

The initial effects of La Niña were to cool surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean and push moisture to the west. A climate pattern known as the Southern Annular Mode then coaxed the moisture into Australia’s interior, causing widespread flooding across the continent. Later in the event, high levels of moisture from the Indian Ocean driven by the Indian Ocean Dipole collided with La Niña-borne moisture in the Pacific and pushed even more moisture into the continent’s interior. Together, these influences spurred one of the wettest periods in Australia’s recorded history.

Australia’s vast interior, called the Outback, is ringed by coastal mountains and often quite dry. Because of the low-lying nature of the continent’s eastern interior and the lack of river runoff in its western dry environment, most of the heavy rainfall of 2010–11 remained inland rather than flowing into the oceans. While some of it evaporated in the desert sun, much of it sank into the dry, granular soil of the Western Plateau or filled the Lake Eyre basin in the east.

“No other continent has this combination of atmospheric set-up and topography,” Fasullo says. “Only in Australia could the atmosphere carry such heavy tropical rains to such a large area, only to have those rains fail to make their way to the ocean.”

Measuring the difference

To conduct the research, the scientists turned to three cutting-edge observing instrument systems:

 *   NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, which make detailed measurements of Earth’s gravity field. The satellites enable scientists to monitor changes in the mass of continents.

*    The Argo global array of 3,000 free-drifting floats that measure the temperature and salinity of the upper 6,000 feet of the world’s oceans.

 *   Satellite-based altimeters that are continuously calibrated against a network of tide gauges. Scientists subtract seasonal and other variations to closely estimate global sea level changes.

Using these instruments, the researchers found that the mass in Australia and, to a lesser extent, South America began to increase in 2010 as the continents experienced heavy and persistent rain. At the same time, sea levels began to measurably drop.

Since 2011, when the atmospheric patterns shifted out of their unusual combination, sea levels have been rising at a faster pace of about 10 millimeters (0.4 inches) per year.

Scientists are uncertain how often the three atmospheric events come together to cause such heavy rains over Australia. Fasullo believes there may have been a similar event in 1973-74, which was another time of record flooding in that continent. But modern observing instruments did not exist then, making it impossible to determine what took place in the atmosphere and whether it affected sea level rise.

“Luckily, we’ve got great observations now,” Fasullo says. “We need to maintain these observing platforms to understand what is a complicated climate system.”

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Queensland the exception as Labor to preference Greens before all in Senate

Katter is a conservative traitor

Perpetually inquisitive and the owner of a rolling, infectious laugh, Christine Milne entered politics in 1989.
Greens Leader Christine Milne. Labor will preference the Greens in the Senate nationally except in Queensland. Photo: Andrew Meares
Labor's national executive has ordered the party to preference the Greens ahead of all others in every state except Queensland.

Labor has a deal with Bob Katter's Australian Party in Queensland, but in other states and in the ACT, Greens senate candidates have been given a boost to their electoral chances.

The move has angered ALP members in Victoria, who fear the deal might also affect how people vote in the lower house seat of Melbourne, which Labor is trying to win back from the Greens.

ALP national secretary George Wright did not respond to calls from Fairfax Media.

A senior Greens operative said the balance-of-power party would be preferencing Labor in the Senate in a similar fashion.

"You can forget all the rhetoric. At the end of the day, Labor and the Greens need to preference each other that way to keep the others out," the contact said. "It's just a pity it didn't occur in Queensland too."

A Katter's Australian Party source confirmed the fledgling party — whose chances were best in Queensland — would preference the Coalition above Labor in most state Senate races.

But in Queensland, KAP and Labor have reached a deal to preference each other above the Liberal National Party in the Senate.

Labor and KAP are also expected to swap preferences in regional Queensland marginal seats including Herbert (held by LNP with a 2.2 per cent margin), Hinkler (LNP by 10.4 per cent), Flynn (LNP by 3.6 per cent) and Capricornia (Labor by 3.7 per cent).

In many regions the KAP vote was higher than that of the Greens in the Queensland state election last year.

KAP remains in talks with the parties about preferences in other lower house seats including in western Sydney.

The KAP source said in some lower house seats the Greens would recommend preferences for the KAP above the ALP.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd refused to confirm any preference deal with Mr Katter on Friday, saying only that such arrangements were a matter for the organisational wing of the parties.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott announced earlier in the week he would order his party to preference Labor above the Greens and called on Mr Rudd to take a similar hardline stance against the Greens.

Palmer United Party and KAP announced on Friday they would place each other above the major parties on how-to-vote cards for all House of Representatives seats.

Parties and senate candidates have to lodge their upper-house preference tickets with the Australian Electoral Commission on Saturday.

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Principals given out-of-school expulsion powers

School principals will be able to suspend or exclude students for offences they commit outside of school hours under new legislation introduced in Parliament on Tuesday.

Provisions under the Strengthening Discipline in State Schools Education Amendment Bill will also empower principals to suspend or expel students who are facing or have been convicted of criminal charges.

It means students who have been charged with a serious offence – as prescribed in the Children's Commissioner's Act – including rape, drug trafficking, armed robbery, torture, kidnapping and attempted murder, can be suspended until the charge is dealt with.

The bill, which expands a principal's power for acts committed beyond the school gates, also means a principal can suspend or expel a student from school for conduct outside of school "provided the conduct adversely affects, or is likely to adversely affect, other students or the good order and management of the school or where the student's attendance at the school poses an unacceptable risk to the safety or wellbeing of other students or staff".

Students will be provided with an educational program during their suspension.

Bullying and other anti-social behaviour, outside school hours and its property, could also be grounds for punishment.

In introducing the bill to Parliament, Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said principals understood their school community and knew what was best for it and should be given the powers to act accordingly.

"This provides a balance between enhancing principals' powers to operate in accordance with local circumstances while guiding consistent decision making that affords appropriate levels of natural justice and ensures the safety and wellbeing of students and staff is paramount," he said.

Under the Education Act as it currently stands, disciplinary options are limited to part of lunch breaks or short periods after school. The amended bill removes time limit restrictions for detention and includes options for Saturday detention and community service.

Short term suspensions can now be up to 10 schools days, up from five, meaning a long term suspension will now be between 11 and 20 days.

School principals will no longer require written submissions when expelling a student, however parents will still have the option to appeal a decision with the director-general.

"These reforms support the reforms under [the] Great Teachers = Great Results [policy] by strengthening principals' powers and addressing limitations contained in the present legislative framework around school discipline," Mr Langbroek said.

The education amendment bill has been sent to parliamentary committee for review, however Mr Langbroek expects it to be passed before the end of the year in time for the first school semester next year.

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People smugglers will try to swamp us, says Tony Burke

PEOPLE-SMUGGLERS are attempting to overwhelm the Papua New Guinea Solution and test Labor's resolve, Immigration Minister Tony Burke has conceded, as boats continue to make the dangerous voyage to Australia.

As survivors of the latest maritime tragedy reached Christmas Island yesterday, Kevin Rudd again warned that his border-protection policy would "take time" to work.

Labor has stepped up the defence of its July 16 shift on asylum-seekers, with Mr Burke cautioning that smugglers would try to swamp the policy, but he said that the government's ability to boost capacity at Manus Island in PNG was "very significant" and there was room to accommodate more than 10,000 asylum-seekers.

Under Labor's plan, asylum-seekers are sent to PNG for processing and resettlement, with the Prime Minister vowing that none of them would be settled in Australia.

Forty-four boats carrying 3573 asylum-seekers made it into Australian waters in the 33 days before Mr Rudd announced the policy, compared with the arrival of 2883 asylum-seekers on 40 boats in the 33 days since.

Campaigning in Brisbane yesterday, the Prime Minister warned that the PNG Solution would "take a while to work through".

"I challenge anybody to come up with an alternative effective policy which doesn't say in simple and clear terms that if you are a people-smuggler, and you are telling someone that if you get on to that boat to take them to Australia, you need to know that that person will not be allowed to settle in Australia.

And Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said Labor did not know whether the policy was going to work but it was a new arrangement that struck out in a new direction "and it offers the prospect of removing the product that asylum-seekers are sold".

Mr Dreyfus said it was too soon to say whether this policy will in fact stop or "reduce massively the flow of people coming by boat without a visa". However he said there were early signs that the policy was working.

The first family groups were yesterday transferred to Nauru.

Mr Burke has redoubled Labor's efforts to defend the PNG Solution despite the continued arrival of boats. "In the last few days, some of the smuggling operations have tried to put together a bit of a surge and to see if they can overwhelm the current system," he told the ABC's Lateline program on Tuesday.

He said yesterday voluntary returns of boat arrivals were beginning, with one sent from Christmas Island to Iran and two asylum-seekers returned from Manus Island. He also said Labor's ability to boost capacity on Manus Island was "very significant".

"I have no doubt at all about our ability to find whatever capacity we need in PNG," he said.

The Immigration Minister confirmed the government had found a 165-hectare site on the western end of Manus Island "which would be able to take in the order of 10,000 people".

The opposition's immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison, however, continued to attack Labor's efforts. He said only 1000 asylum-seekers would be on Manus Island by election day, with the other two-thirds of arrivals since the hardline policy was announced still in Australia.

"We're nowhere near 3000 capacity on Manus Island at the moment and we won't be near that for some months," he said.

"And so this suggestion of Tony Burke's that we can create the beds as quickly as people arrive is just complete nonsense.

"He should just be honest with the Australian people. I mean, they are spending $30 million of taxpayers' money telling people in mainstream newspapers, rather than (through) targeted communications into diaspora communities, about their failing boat policy."

Labor's plans to stem the flow of asylum-seekers has faced fresh scrutiny this week after five people drowned and 106 were plucked from the water after their boat listed, then sank on Tuesday as Customs and Border Protection sought to rescue the stricken passengers.

Pressure has also mounted on the government after a regional people-smuggling summit, called after a meeting between the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Mr Rudd six weeks ago, was boycotted by Iran and failed to produce concrete measures.

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Can anybody tell me what this means?

"ScribbleLive is the leading provider of real-time engagement management solutions. From live blogging to second screen experiences, media and brands can engage and monetize their audiences"

They seem to be trying to sell something but what?

Second mining boom possible: Abbott

OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott says the coalition will help make a second mining boom possible if it's elected.

He says the Labor government has helped "kill" the mining boom by implementing the mining and carbon taxes.

Unnecessary red tape for businesses and the Labor government's move to abolish the Workplace Relations Construction Commission have also helped prematurely end the boom, Mr Abbott told 2SM Radio on Monday.

The coalition has promised to scrap the carbon and mining taxes if it wins the September 7 election.

It's also committed to reducing the regulatory burden on businesses by $1 billion a year.

"I think the mining boom could only come again under a government which gets it ... which abolishes all these other unnecessary taxes," Mr Abbott said.

"These unnecessary taxes are doing us an enormous amount of damage and that's what will go there's a change of government".

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Tougher parole laws go to Vic parliament

VICTORIA'S parliament will this week debate tougher parole laws while the latest review of the state system may be released as early as Tuesday.

Previously announced changes, including making breaching parole a crime, will be debated in parliament this week, while a review of the state's parole system by retired High Court judge Ian Callinan may also be released as early as Tuesday.

Premier Denis Napthine said the state would have the toughest parole regime in the country.

"We'll be debating further toughening of parole laws in Victoria to make it very clear that we will have the toughest parole conditions in Australia," Dr Napthine told reporters on Monday.

"There is no doubt that there needs to be improvements to our parole processes.  "We make no apology for making it very clear that parole is a privilege not a right."

Among the measures being debated in parliament are making breaching parole an offence and giving police greater powers to deal with those those who breach parole.

The government has already made it mandatory to put violent offenders back in jail if they are convicted of a serious crime while on parole.

The crackdown follows about 13 murders by parolees in recent years, including the Jill Meagher case, with the families of victims among those calling for greater transparency and accountability by the parole board.

Dr Napthine met with Ms Meagher's widower Tom last week to discuss his concerns about the Adult Parole Board of Victoria.

Helen Wicking, whose daughter Joanne was killed by a parolee in 2010, says victims of crime need to have a stronger voice in parole decisions, and called for stronger surveillance once prisoners are released.

Steve Medcraft, president of People Against Lenient Sentencing, says he hopes to see a degree of transparency introduced to the parole board.

"I would hope that we get a clearer insight into the workings of the body and more involvement from people affected by the decisions," he said.

The board's decisions are made in an administrative rather than a legal setting, meaning prisoners are not entitled to legal representation and hearings are not open to the public or media.

Two of the four reviews of the state's parole system - suppressed during an inquest - examine 11 cases of offenders alleged to have murdered people while on parole.

The issue goes back before State Coroner Judge Ian Gray on Tuesday. He last week lifted the suppression order but the Department of Justice sought a stay while it considered an appeal.

Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews said the Callinan and other reviews should be made public.  "There needs to be an open process. It needs to be transparent."

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Rudd closes immunisation loophole

KEVIN Rudd will today unveil new measures to lift childhood immunisation rates by directly linking a key family payment to vaccinations.

The Prime Minister will announce that if re-elected all children will have to be fully immunised in order to receive the Family Tax Benefit Part A end-of-year supplement.

Parents who register as "conscientious objectors" will no longer be eligible to receive the payment. Exemptions will apply on medical and religious grounds only.

"The science cannot be disputed," Mr Rudd said. "Immunisation is the safest and most effective way for parents to protect their children from disease, and one of the most important public health measures at our disposal."

A recent report by the National Health Performance Authority confirmed that Australia's national rates of childhood immunisation were at or around 90 per cent.

But the report also found there was a need to increase rates, particularly in regions where coverage was below the national average.

In one Medicare Local catchment area, 3600 children were not fully immunised across the key age groups of one, two and five years of age.

The existence of unimmunised children has given rise to concerns that children in some communities are at risk of contracting diseases such as measles and whooping cough, and putting others at risk, too.

The government announced its first crackdown on immunisation last year, mandating that children needed to have received the necessary vaccinations in order to receive the Family Tax Benefit Part A supplement.

The supplement is worth $726 per child each year. Under the crackdown it is only paid once a child is fully immunised at one, two and five years of age.

The government argues this provides families with an incentive of more than $2100 to ensure their children are fully immunised.

However until now, exemptions for parents who register as "conscientious objectors" to immunisation have always applied.

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Liberal party candidate Kevin Baker stands down over offensive website

Politicians must not joke!

The Liberal candidate at the centre of a controversy over offensive comments on a web forum has quit.  Kevin Baker’s name will still appear on the ballot paper because nominations have closed but he is considered unlikely to win Charlton, a safe Labor seat in NSW.

Labor had demanded Mr Abbott dump Kevin Baker as his candidate for former minister Greg Combet's seat of Charlton in NSW over the "Mini-Mods" web forum.

The forum, which has been pulled down since the criticism broke, featured a general discussion section with the banner: "Talk about anything you want - no censorship, no stress!"

According to reports in the Daily Telegraph, the forum included jokes labelling the Pope as a paedophile, referring to women making love on pool tables and "Tit banter".

In a statement, Mr Baker said he had decided not to run as the Liberal candidate for Charlton.  ‘‘I understand that while my name will still appear on the ballot paper, my campaign is over,’’ he said.  ‘‘I deeply regret the posts made on my website and decided that it was not appropriate to continue as the party’s candidate.’’

NSW Liberal Party state director Mark Neeham said the party had accepted Mr Baker’s resignation as the candidate for Charlton.

‘‘Consequently the party will not be represented in Charlton at the election,’’ Mr Neeham said.

Mr Abbott had earlier said he would be briefed on the issue, but noted Mr Baker had apologised for the comments.

"He's done the wrong thing. To his credit he's pulled down the site. He has abjectly and quite properly apologised but, yep, he's done the wrong thing," he said.

But Mr Abbott had left the door open to potentially dumping Mr Baker as a candidate, saying he would review further information about the issue later on Tuesday.  "I'm going to receive a further briefing on this later today," Mr Abbott said.  "I'll be further briefed on this. He has closed the site down and he has abjectly apologised."

In a statement, the Labor campaign said Mr Baker's website "included offensive references about incest, domestic violence, racism and child abuse" and "jokes about having sex with stripper

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Three years later, Kevin Rudd finds himself behind Julia Gillard in the polls

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hasn't been forced to battle the damaging leaks that all but destroyed Julia Gillard's campaign three years ago, but he and his Labor government suddenly find themselves in a much worse position than that which engulfed Ms Gillard at the same time in the last federal election.

Just short of three weeks out from the 2010 election, Gillard Labor had slumped to a primary vote of 36 per cent against the Abbott opposition's 45 per cent in the Fairfax/Nielsen poll, and 37 per cent to 44 per cent in Newspoll, or 50-50 on the two-party preferred scale.

Rudd Labor, also a few days short of three weeks before the election, is now on a 34 per cent primary vote, while the Abbott Coalition is on 47 per cent, according to the latest Newspoll.

That equates to a two-party preferred vote of 54 per cent to the opposition and a losing 46 per cent for Labor.

Mr Rudd, in short, has a vastly steeper cliff to climb than Ms Gillard faced if he is to have any chance of retaining the prime ministership.

The only advantage he enjoys is that he is not being undermined by the sort of leaks that brought Ms Gillard low.

Shortly before her slump, news reports quoted unnamed sources saying that she had tried to limit the increase in the age pension in the previous year's budget and wanted to kill the idea of paid parental leave altogether.  The source or sources of the leaks were never identified.

Mr Rudd at the time was in hospital having his gall bladder removed.

Shortly after, Ms Gillard arranged to meet him to persuade him to throw his weight behind her campaign.

Ms Gillard also publicly re-fashioned herself as "the new Julia", and her party turned its attention to attacking Mr Abbott.

Mr Rudd and his campaign team are now stepping up their public attacks on Mr Abbott, buying advertising time to warn that "if he [Abbott] wins, you lose".

Mr Rudd, having started the campaign saying he wanted an end to negativity, has defended his new negative stance by saying it is based on policy.

Whether he can turn around his campaign remains to be seen, but he has a task that has no recent comparison.

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'Green bank' faces the axe after vote

The corporation - effectively a green investment bank - was set up as part of the deal between Labor, the Greens and independents over carbon pricing, revenue from which funds the institution.

Since its creation the $10 billion bank has invested close to $800 million in renewables and energy-efficiency projects across the country. Projects include $60 million for a solar farm in Moree and $75 million for plants capturing waste coal mine and landfill gas and turning it into power. But its existence is seriously contested.

Tony Wood, energy program director at think tank the Grattan Institute, said the corporation to date had done little but provide cheap financing to projects, meaning it was just competing with existing market players.

"If the government is going to intervene in the market you need to have a clear rationale and I'm not sure they have made a clear case," he said. Mr Wood said the corporation's energy-efficiency work was worthy but did not require $10 billion.

The Coalition has vowed to axe the corporation if it wins the federal election, saying it is backing speculative ventures with borrowed money, which the private sector would not support.

"Why would you pay more than you had to for renewable energy - it's a wacky idea," said opposition climate spokesman Greg Hunt.

On the first day of the election campaign Tony Abbott wrote to the corporation's chairman, Jillian Broadbent, to reiterate his government would close it down. It followed similar letters from other Coalition frontbenchers in recent months threatening not to honour contracts signed by the corporation.

On Monday, Fairfax Media reported that banks and other major investors were expecting about $4 billion to be sucked from the renewable energy sector as a result of regulatory uncertainty and the likelihood of lower returns under a Coalition government.

Mr Hunt rejected that report, saying he spoke regularly with major investors and banks and those concerns had not been raised with him.

The chief executive of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Oliver Yates, declined to comment on policies of the major parties, but said he thought the $4 billion funding estimate was likely to be "conservative".

Analysts estimate $20 billion in private and public investment cash would be required to meet the mandatory renewable energy target of 20 per cent clean energy by 2020 that has bipartisan political support.

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Kevin Rudd accused of demonising migrants, as union campaigns on 457 visas

TONY Abbott has called on Kevin Rudd to distance himself from a $1 million union advertising crackdown on foreign workers, accusing the Prime Minister of demonising migrants who came to Australia through proper legal avenues.

The Opposition Leader said he was appalled at the stance taken by Mr Rudd on the issue, saying that 457 visa holders contributed to Australian society by working and paying taxes.

“Mr Rudd really should disassociate himself from this particular union campaign, particularly given one of the first things that he said on coming back into the Prime Ministership was `I'm sick of all the politics of division',” Mr Abbott said.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) will spend $1 million over the next two weeks in its advertising campaign to claim Mr Abbott wants to “massively expand” the temporary 457 visa program and put foreign workers first.

The campaign includes radio and billboard advertisements as well as television advertisements that began screening last night on free-to-air television networks in Tasmania and Queensland.

One of the ads features a worker who was among 106 redundant employees made to train 457 visa holders kept on by the employer.

Mr Abbott today said employers already had to meet requirement conditions to use foreign workers and that it was already more cost effective to source domestic workers to plug skills shortages.

“It's far more expensive to employ a 457 visa holder than it is to employ a local,” Mr Abbott said.”They aren't stealing our jobs, they are building our country.

“It appalls me, it really appalls me that the unions and Mr Rudd are running this campaign effectively to demonise the skilled migrants upon whose backs our country has been built.

“Just about every Australian is a migrant or a descendent of migrants and frankly we should be honouring and cherishing the contributions that migrants who've come to this country legally, the right way to join our team, have made.”

Mr Abbott made the comments in the western Sydney seat of Lindsay, where he released the Coalition's policy to crack down on gun imports.

Earlier, he was in the Sydney electorate of Bennelong to announce his small business policy.

Mr Rudd's first act after being returned to the prime ministership was to pass through the lower house Labor's contentious 457 visa legislation, placing more onerous requirements on employers.

The new restrictions include labour market testing provisions for employers, tougher monitoring of compliance by the Fair Work Ombudsman and strengthening the ability of the immigration department to prosecute wrongdoers.

It also includes a new dob-in hotline, allowing employees to report employers for unfairly treating foreign workers. It will also require businesses to allocate one to two per cent of payroll for training purposes for every year of the visa sponsorship.

The legislation was opposed by business and industry groups who pressed for evidence of rorts under the current regime.

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Greens in deal with devil: Wilkie

TASMANIAN independent MP Andrew Wilkie will issue an open how-to-vote card for his seat of Denison.

Mr Wilkie will have an open how-to-vote ticket which instructs voters to put a one next to his name and fill in the rest of the preferences as they wish.

His election chances were bolstered this week when the Liberals announced they would preference him over the Labor candidate in the Tasmanian seat of Denison, Jane Austin.

"The Liberals have made their own decision that I'm the best of a bad bunch, or the least bad," he told ABC radio.

But Mr Wilkie said the Greens' decision to preference Labor ahead of him made a complete mockery of the party's criticism of the federal government.

"It's a great betrayal of your core philosophies ... that when it comes to your political self interest you're prepared to do a deal with the devil," he said.

Mr Wilkie was one of the key independents who helped Labor form a minority government, but later tore up his agreement with then prime minister Julia Gillard when she reneged on a promise to deliver poker machine reform.

He has ruled out entering into an agreement with a minority government if there is another hung parliament.

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Labor continue stimulus payments despite global financial meltdown ending long ago

A STAGGERING 6000 people - including overseas backpackers - have received Labor's $900 "stimulus" payment since January 1- even though the global financial meltdown ended four years ago.

In a major dent to Labor's economic credibility, the costly government bungle means taxpayers will fork out more than $5 million in "tax bonus" payments in 2013.

A News Corp Australia investigation can reveal hordes of backpackers on "working holiday" visas received the one-off cash bonus - even though 5 million Australian workers missed out.

Despite the Rudd Government driving the budget $30 billion into deficit, nearly $40 million worth of "stimulus" cheques remain uncashed, the Australian Taxation Office says.

The revelations come at the worst time for Kevin Rudd as he challenges Tony Abbott's election costings in a desperate bid to revive his faltering campaign.

Queensland farmer Craig Van Rooyen was staggered to learn the Government was still mailing stimulus payments to foreign backpackers who worked on his fruit farm four years ago.  "I just couldn't believe that Kevin Rudd could still be sending money to non-Australian residents," Mr Van Rooyen said.  "This guy is just a reckless spender of Australian taxpayer's money."

One English backpacker was mailed her $900 cheque on May 21- even though she left Australia in late 2009 and has been living at home for several years.  Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan told the woman she was receiving the payment "as part of the economic stimulus package" announced by the PM in 2009.  "We've enclosed a cheque for $900.00 as you're entitled to this payment based on your taxable income for the 2007/08 financial year," Mr Jordan said.

Coalition frontbencher and waste-watch spokesman Jamie Briggs said: "Labor's economic management has now gone from tragedy to farce for the Australian taxpayer.''

"Labor continues to treat taxpayer's money with complete disregard, leaving a massive debt for our children's future.''

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Solar funding 'to be lost' under conservatives

CONFIDENTIAL data reveals up to $4bn in private funding for renewable energy, including solar power, would be lost under a coaltion government.

Analysis commissioned by The Climate Institute reveals about $4 billion in private funding would be lost to the industry, including for solar power.

It also says the coalition's climate change plan is $4bn short of the amount needed to meet its proposed five per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, Fairfax reported on Monday.

Instead, the private think tank's analysis suggests there would be a nine per cent increase in emissions by 2020.

Fairfax reports big business is planning for the impact should Opposition Leader Tony Abbott cut the carbon price and axe the clean energy finance system, despite the coalition rejecting the institute's analysis.

Carbon finance sector sources believe the loss of about $4.1bn of private funds away from large-scale renewable power projects will lead to the construction of cheap wind farms to meet mandatory renewable energy targets of 20 per cent clean power by 2020.

It also meant gas would be another "winner", a source told Fairfax.

"Australia's significant clean energy potential is being held back by seemingly endless rounds of review and, like the rest of the energy industry, our main need is for policy stability to drive investment in major projects," chief executive of industry group the Clean Energy Council, David Green, said.

Mr Abbott on the weekend said spending under the coalition's "direct action" climate change plan would remain capped at $3.2bn.

A survey by consultants AECOM of 180 leading companies found 65 per cent of businesses supported an emissions trading scheme, 29 per cent supported a carbon tax and just seven per cent of businesses supported the coalition's direct action policy.

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Jealousy of LEGAL immigrants in West Australia

THE Irish are threatening to boycott WA over a Budget policy to impose $4000 public school fees for children of parents working here on 457 visas.

While some families look at moving interstate or overseas because they can't afford to pay up to $20,000 a year for five children, doctors warn the health system will suffer and principals fear some children simply won't go to school.

The decision to charge $4000 a child, announced in the State Budget this month, is being criticised internationally, making headlines in Dublin's The Irish Times this week.

Australian Medical Association WA president Richard Choong said he had received worrying feedback from Britain and Ireland and the fees would be a "game changer" for many overseas-trained GPs looking to move to WA on a 457 visa.

"This is one of the most negative policy decisions that I have seen for some years and one that will have a seriously negative impact on health in WA," he said. "We know from comments already made to us that this will encourage some GPs on 457 visas to leave WA for other states, or to move to another country.

"For others looking to come to WA from overseas it will mean a complete rethink of their plans. Not many will be able to carry a $4000 fee for the education of their children, especially if they have three or four children."

WA Primary Principals Association president Steve Breen said there was an incorrect assumption that 457 visa holders were highly skilled and therefore highly paid.

"For example, in Katanning there are a number of 457 workers in the abattoir  they will struggle to pay the $4000 per student to send their kids to school," he said. "There is a potential for these children to not come to school."

The latest report from the Immigration Department shows there are 6180 people from the UK working in WA on 457 visas, followed by 4070 from Ireland, 3130 from the Philippines and 1330 from the US.

Education Minister Peter Collier said he had received mixed feedback and the Government was working towards making more information available soon.

Irish Families in Perth president Eimear Beattie said families of up to five children were considering moving elsewhere.

"There is a lot of panic out there because a lot of people have got huge families," she said. "This will deter a lot of people from coming out here. A lot of people who want to come out here are now asking if it's even worth coming here on the 457 visa.

"A lot of the families already here are actually thinking of leaving the country altogether, or moving to another state, or going to private schools."

Mother-of-five Claire Calvey said her family, who moved to Paraburdoo last year after arriving on a 457 visa from Ireland, was considering a move to Canada. She is circulating a petition, which has almost 1000 signatures.

Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive James Pearson said the school fee threatened to "undermine the effectiveness of the 457 visa scheme for current visa holders and their employers".

Opposition education spokeswoman Sue Ellery said a parliamentary inquiry had recommended any school fees be means-tested. "I am concerned that this is going to create a hidden class of children who are not educated," she said.

Mr Collier said the details would be finalised "as soon as possible" but he was confident "that WA will continue to be an attractive working destination for people from overseas".
The number of children of 457 visa holders attending public schools has jumped from 290 in 2005 to 8600 this year.

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Kevin Rudd challenger opposes Islam and wants mosques banned

A CANDIDATE for the Prime Minister's seat of Griffith has put outlawing the Islamic faith front and centre of her election campaign, branding it a "religion from hell" and claiming that building mosques in Australia is "high treason".

Sherrilyn Church of the Rise Up Australia Party says her top policy priority in the election is to ban the building of mosques in the electorate, south of Brisbane.

Ms Church - a small-time citrus farmer from Crows Nest on the Darling Downs - said her primary concern for the electorate was "the Islamisation of the city by councils giving permission for mosques to be erected".

"Basically, I see Islam not primarily a religion but a system of law because to the Islamic mind the existence of a mosque in an area means they believe that Sharia law applies and the Islamic flag must fly - now that is high treason in a sovereign nation," she said.

"Islam is a legal system before it is a religion. We have freedom of religion but their religion is illegal.

"We are multiethnic, but we are not multicultural, because that's where the law comes into it.

"The people in the mosque can be as charming and pleasant as your best Australian but there is also those elements, as you know across the world, where young men are recruited to jihadist training camps from these mosques.

"A lot of people consider it to be fine. A lot of people also consider that having gay marriage is fine."

Ms Church, 61, said she believed the Muslim faith and democratic citizenship were fundamentally incompatible.

"This question is asked of all Australian citizens when they stand before the governor or to become citizens. They have to declare that they will come under our system of law, and our flag.

"If you're going to say; 'no, I'm going to hold to the laws of the Koran', I would say `pack your bags, get on the next plane and go home'.

"Our laws are totally and utterly contrary to the law of the Koran. There are some religions that didn't come from heaven, they come from hell."

Ms Church's platform has proven unpopular within the local Islamic community, which has two mosques in the Griffith electorate at Holland Park and West End.

The views only damage hard-fought steps to integration with the southside community according to Islamic College of Brisbane chairman Mohammed Yusuf.

"It's a very sad thing that because of ignorance and people trying to gain cheap publicity with these things they do so much damage," Mr Yusuf said.

"It really annoys us when people who through their own ignorance or for their own political gains, say things which are damaging. It's not in the best interest for anyone.

Mr Yusuf said that Christianity and Islam were fundamentally the same and the Sharia is compatible with Australia life and "does not affect anybody else".

"There's punishments and penalties for certain things -- adultery or stealing and all that -- under Sharia law that apply in Islamic states, not Australia so there's no way the Muslims are going to say I'm going to introduce that here.

"The majority of the things we talk about for Sharia law are already in existence here -- we follow what applies to us, what does not apply we refrain from and don't practice."

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Abbott cements his lead as ALP slumps to 36 per cent of primary vote

SUPPORT for Kevin Rudd's Labor government has slipped for a second week in a row, with the ALP primary vote plunging to just 36 per cent, according to an exclusive Galaxy poll.

The result is below Julia Gillard's vote at the last election and comes as the Coalition's primary vote remains unchanged from last week on 45 per cent.

On a two-party preferred basis, an election held today would deliver a Coalition government with 52 per cent.

But parents don't like Mr Abbott's plan to axe Labor's $820 Schoolkids Bonus. According to the poll, Mr Abbott's plan to cut the payment is opposed by 47 per cent of voters.

Opposition is highest among parents, with 50 per cent of mothers and fathers disagreeing. Only 38 per cent backed Mr Abbott's vow to cut the welfare payments.

"Voters prefer the paid parental leave scheme proposed by the Coalition over Labor's policy, but there is significant opposition to the Coalition's plan to axe the Schoolkids Bonus,'' Galaxy pollster David Briggs said.

Yesterday Mr Rudd promised he would "fight" to get back in the election race but conceded his back was against the wall.

"I've been in a few tight spots before and I've managed to fight a way forward," he said. "I intend to fight my way forward."

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Coalition gets New England and Lyne: poll

Proof that the turncoats betrayed their electorates

A NEWSPOLL shows the Coalition will easily win the NSW seats of New England and Lyne formerly held by Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott.

The poll, taken between August 12-15 and published on Saturday in The Australian, found that former Nationals' Senate leader Barnaby Joyce, who resigned from the upper house to contest New England, has a huge lead over Labor.

The poll shows a collapse of the independent vote in the electorate and a doubling of support for the Coalition.

It found the Coalition's primary vote was 53 per cent, up from 25.2 per cent in 2010, while independents attracted 18 per cent of the vote, down from 63.1 per cent in 2010.

Labor's primary vote was 24 per cent, up from 8.1 per cent in 2010.

In Lyne, the poll showed the Coalition's primary vote was 51 per cent, up from 34.4 per cent in 2010, while votes for independents crashed from 47.8 per cent in 2010 to 16 per cent.

Labor's vote went up from 13.5 per cent to 26 per cent.

On a two-party preferred basis the poll shows the Coalition is on 66 per cent in New England and 59 per cent in Lyne, while Labor is on 34 per cent and 41 per cent respectively.

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PNG is 100% behind asylum deal: O'Neill

PNG'S Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has confirmed his country's commitment to the asylum seeker deal agreed with the Rudd government.

Fairfax media reported on Saturday that Mr O'Neill had said his country had not agreed to settle all asylum seekers found to be genuine refugees after they were processed on Manus Island.

Mr O'Neill reportedly said Australia would need to take back a share of them.

"There is no agreement that all genuine refugees will be settled in PNG," he said.

The coalition and the Australian Greens seized on the report, saying it showed the deal was unravelling.

But Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the PNG government had confirmed its "100 per cent support" again on Saturday and he could guarantee that no person sent by a a people smuggler on a boat to Australia without a visa would be settled in Australia.

In a short statement released on Saturday night, Mr O'Neill said PNG reaffirmed its 100 per cent commitment to the agreement signed with Australia.

"People who are found to be refugees, identified through the process in collaboration with United Nation High Commission for Refugees will be settled in Papua New Guinea and other participating countries in the region," he said.

"They will not be returned to Australia under the agreement. PNG remains 100 per cent committed to the Regional Resettlement Agreement with Australia."

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Tony Abbott unveils controversial maternity leave scheme

Tony Abbott will today unveil his big pitch to Australian families - a generous paid parental leave scheme that will also deliver fathers two weeks paternity leave at their actual salary and mothers up to 26 weeks leave on full pay.

For the first time, he will reveal the 2015 start date of his new scheme. Mr Abbott will also confirm that the Coalition's decision to also pay working women's superannuation entitlements while on baby leave will ensure women on average weekly earnings who have two children will be better off by $50,000 when they retire.

Women earning $65,000 a year would secure an extra $20,000 in cash payments under Mr Abbott's scheme compared to Labor's plan.

An exclusive Galaxy poll published today in The Sunday Telegraph suggests the policy is a winner, with 44 per cent of voters backing Mr Abbott's paid parental leave scheme compared to 36 per cent who preferred Labor's existing scheme.

The scheme, which has been fully costed by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office, will involve a net additional cost to taxpayers of $6.1 billion over the forward estimates. That's after Mr Abbott hits 3000 of Australia's largest companies with a 1.5 per cent tax levy to pay for the scheme.

In an exclusive interview, Mr Abbott said he made no apology for offering such a generous scheme to working women. The father of three confirmed he hoped it would deliver women more choice to have more kids.  "Every working mum is going to be better off under our policy,'' Mr Abbott said.

"It proves that the Coalition 'gets it' when it comes to the reality of the contemporary woman and contemporary families.

"The fact is very few families these days can survive on a single income. Just about every family needs more than one income to survive. So if we are serious about allowing women to have kids and a career we've got to have a fair dinkum paid parental leave scheme."

The Coalition's offer of six months on full pay compares with Labor's scheme which offers all working women 18 weeks pay at the minimum wage - a maximum of $11,200.

That compares with Mr Abbott's scheme which will offer women earning up to $150,000 six months off work on full pay to care for their baby. Women who earn over $150,000 will also get the maximum $75,000.

During the Howard Government, Mr Abbott famously said paid parental leave would happen "over this government's dead body, frankly".

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A "Gaffe" circus

It was ridiculous to hold that you must not call a woman attractive and Latham is equally entitled to say that the same woman is not.  For the record, I think Latham was the most realistic



Former Labor leader Mark Latham has made his umpteenth controversial gaffe but his first of the election campaign, by denigrating the appearance of a Liberal candidate described by Tony Abbott as having "sex appeal".

"It showed very bad judgment and it shows he has low standards," Mr Latham said on 3AW in reference to Tony Abbott's remarks about the Liberal candidate for the seat of Lindsay, Fiona Scott on Tuesday.

"I had a good look at Fiona Scott on page eight of The Australian today and she doesn't have sex appeal at all.  "She's not that good of a sort."

Mr Latham's comments provoked astonishment from the radio hosts, but he doubled down.

"She's a rather plain ordinary-looking woman and Abbott has exaggerated massively to try and win her vote among the blokes ..." he said.

"Tony had the beer goggles on and in politics they say it's showbiz for ugly people and I don't think she'll be out of place."

Mr Abbott had drawn criticism for commenting on Ms Scott's looks and "feistiness".

But Mr Latham's comments sent social media into overdrive.  Fiona Scott, Mark Latham and 'sex appeal' became nationally trending topics on Twitter.

Nathan Luke said: "Latham will have a shabby [corner ...] in a very unexciting page of Australia political history."

Former Howard minister Amanda Vanstone waded into the issue on Wednesday night, saying that Mr Abbott was just "trying to be nice" and argued that women pay similar compliments to men.

"I think he was just commenting on trying to be nice and I think he's sometimes a bit awkward in some of these sort of social occasions and decided to pay what he thought was a compliment," Ms Vanstone told the ABC's Lateline.

"I do not want us to get to the stage where people can't pass a compliment. Women say about blokes, 'Gee, he's nicely packed, isn't he?'".  Ms Vanstone explained that by "nicely packed" she meant a "good looker". 

Former Labor minister Craig Emerson said he was not going to wade into the sex appeal "quagmire", adding he did not think the election would be decided on the matter.

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Coalition will deny boat people settlement

THE Coalition's asylum seeker policy will take away the people smuggling model of permanant residency, deputy opposition leader Julie Bishop says.

"We will provide temporary residency, so should the situation in their home country improve, then they will be sent back to their home country to help rebuild that nation," Ms Bishop said on the Nine Network on Friday.

"It takes away the people smuggling model that they are selling and that is permanent residency."

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and his immigration spokesman Scott Morrison will announce on Friday that almost 32,000 asylum seekers already in Australia after arriving by boat will never get permanent settlement, creating a crucial point of difference between the coalition and Labor, Fairfax reported.

Ms Bishop said asylum seekers would also have work rights under the policy.

"There is a mutual obligation, if you are here on a temporary protection visa you will be expected to work," she said.

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Feds should stop running schools: expert

THE next prime minister should not appoint a schools minister and should end federal government control of schools, an education expert says.

Under the present system, hundreds of millions of dollars are being wasted in bureaucracy, while Australian students are going backwards when compared to the rest of the world, Professor Brian Caldwell says.

Prof Caldwell, a professorial fellow and former dean of education at the University of Melbourne, said the constitution says that schools are the responsibility of states and territories.

He said the federal government's only role should be funding them.

"The incoming prime minister should not appoint a minister for school education and should get out of the business of running schools or trying to dictate to states and territories and schools how they should go about their work," Prof Caldwell told AAP.

"Essentially the present situation of having two large bureaucracies, one in Canberra and the different states and territories, is not working.

"If you take out one whole layer of federal bureaucracy you will have, by my calculations, several hundreds of millions of dollars a year just in those savings."

Prof Caldwell said the education system needed to be simplified and the arguments between governments must end.

However, he acknowledged that the change he was suggesting would likely take two terms of government.

He said the model of states solely controlling education was working well in many countries including Canada and New Zealand.

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Election will lift economy: Wesfarmers

And Mr Goyder is always right -- not quite perhaps but he's a very good bet

WESFARMERS boss Richard Goyder is hoping the federal election will usher in a new era of pro-business policy that recognises it is companies that create wealth and jobs.

Speaking after the parent company of Coles supermarkets reported a net profit of $2.26 billion for the 12 months to the end of June, Mr Goyder said he was hopeful that an end to political uncertainty would help buoy consumer spending after the election next month.

"Interest rate reductions have helped, and getting the election out of the way will help," he said.

"I just hope that towards the end of the year we start to see some improvement in consumer confidence, but who knows? A lot will depend on the external environment, I think, beyond Australia."

But he said the key to improved economic performance was a stable, pro-business government.

"For the country, the best thing that can happen in government -- either federal, state and in some ways local -- is leadership which is long-term, which is fiscally responsible, where there's an acknowledgement that the wealth creators in the economy are the businesses," he said.

This would foster "an environment that allows business to thrive and in doing so, invest in infrastructure, the community and people", he said.

Coles, the company's biggest earnings generator, reported a 13.1 per cent gain in earnings before interest and tax to $1.53bn, on revenue of $35.78bn, up 4.8 per cent.

"Despite difficult trading conditions, we have continued to drive cost savings to invest in service and value," Coles divisional boss Ian McLeod said.

Shelf prices fell by 1.7 per cent over the course of the year, highlighting the continued price war with larger rival Woolworths.

However, Credit Suisse analyst Grant Saligari said Coles "seems to be having to invest more in price and promotion to generate its sales, and this has slowed profit growth".

Growth in EBIT margins -- the amount of operating income Coles makes from every $100 in sales -- was just 15c in the second half of the financial year, compared to 40c in the first half.

"That slowdown appears to reflect a stronger competitive environment involving higher levels of food and fuel discounting," Mr Saligari said.

Hardware division Bunnings was a highlight, growing EBIT by 7.5 per cent to $904m, with a 7.2 per cent increase in sales to $7.66bn driven by new-store openings and a 9.6 per cent gain in commercial sales.

Divisional boss John Gillam said the company was maintaining an accelerated growth path, planning 20 new Bunnings Warehouse stores this financial year and next, increasing total selling space by 10 per cent in each year.

Among the retail businesses, Mr Goyder said the only disappointment was Target, which was continuing to struggle with excess inventory that led to a 44 per cent collapse in EBIT to $136m.

Target division boss Stuart Machin said the inventory issue would continue to affect the company in the new financial year, with excess winter stock still remaining and lower levels of summer stock than last year, while sales would suffer in comparison with the discount-driven purge undertaken in the second half of the past financial year.

"This year, 2013-14, will be a very bumpy road," Mr Machin said.

Wesfarmers declared a final dividend of $1.03 per share, fully franked, taking the full-year dividend to $1.80, up 9 per cent.

Shareholder returns were further boosted by a 50c per share capital return, which although unfranked will not give rise to an immediate tax liability for most shareholders, with a draft ruling from the tax office stating that it will instead lower the cost price of investors' stock when assessing them for capital gains tax when they eventually sell out.

Angus Gluskie, managing director at Wesfarmers shareholder White Funds Management, said the 50c capital return was "welcome, and not commonly expected". He said: "In general people are somewhat comforted about the fact that they are showing good gains in the pursuit of the Coles business and the solidity there is underpinning the business in future periods, so they're prepared to overlook the weakness in the coal business; there's confidence in management."

Citi analyst Craig Woolford said a highlight was the recovery in Wesfarmers' insurance business, which generated $205m in earnings before interest and tax compared to $5m the previous financial year.

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Mobile phone blues

Mobile phones (cellphones) have definitely exceeded my understanding of them.  Ten years ago I could send text messages on them but I got a new one about three years ago that did so many things that I have never quite dug text messaging out of all the available functions.  I was pleased that my new phone included a camera and took some photos with it but I have never figured out how to get the pix out of my phone and into my computer.  I imagined that some sort of USB cable to connect phone and computer would be needed but none was supplied.

Recently, however, my phone began to play up so I needed a new one.  Obviously, the thought came to me, I needed to upgrade from my old button phone to a new-style touchphone.  Experience of not understanding my phone, however, had made me wary.  Before I bought a touchphone, I needed someone to show me how to work it.  So I went to three different retailers, including Dick Smith, and sought to have the product demonstrated to me before I bought it.  Nobody had the time to do that.   They all told me that I would "pick it up".

"Phooey to that!" I thought, and walked out of the store with my money still in my pocket.  So I went down to the post-office and bought myself another old-style button phone for $49.  Maybe I will work IT out one day. At least I can make and receive calls and I can at least read text messages.  It's got a horrible ringtone that I would like to change but I don't know how to do that either  -- JR





Ground control to Major Kev: sorry, you're a goner

Like the firing of a Saturn V rocket escaping its earthly bonds, Labor banked on the election providing the final impetus needed to slip its heavy past and propel it skyward in 2013.

Used for the Apollo missions, the Saturn V rocket achieved its critical velocity by dumping depleted sections of itself as it climbed.

The analogy with Kevin Rudd's ascent is obvious. The recycled leader welcomed the early boost offered by the NSW Right faction, but has since cast it off in the most public way. Toxic policies have also been jettisoned, like the carbon tax and a dysfunctional asylum seeker response, along with several unlucky candidates.

But while Earth's gravitational pull can be overcome with the controlled explosion of enough rocket fuel, Labor's six-year record of division and over-promising is not so readily denied.

Notwithstanding that an election had to be called this year anyway, there was always a danger for Rudd Mark II in going to the people before gaining a durable lead in the polls. Election campaigns, like rocket launches, have no reverse gear. Things end in one of two ways.

Buoyed by the rate of his ascent in the weeks after June 26, Rudd and his boosters always believed he would climb yet further in the polls during the campaign proper.

In the narrowly focused context of the formal contest, they reasoned, Rudd would rise against a Liberal leader weighed down by his low popularity, half-baked policies on climate change and broadband, and his reputation for old-world attitudes to women and same-sex marriage.

But with the halfway point of this pantomime not far away, it is clear to the cooler heads in both camps this race is already decided.

Abbott's 52/48 per cent lead in last weekend's Fairfax/Nielsen poll is not unbridgeable for Labor, but, it is in all likelihood, structural.

Consider the equation before voters. On one side is a two-term government racked by spectacular hatreds, dragged low by broken promises on carbon and the surplus, various program failures, and a worsening economy. It campaigns for "a new way" but offers a recycled leader once dumped and then viciously traduced by his own side. This gaffer-taped operation is asking voters for three more years.

On the other side is an opposition famed for its negativity and woefully small-horizon thinking, yet uncannily united and consistent. Its leader, while prone to the odd verbal gaffe - his female candidates have "sex appeal" - enjoys unqualified support internally.

Having not trailed in the polls at any time since the last election, it has again edged ahead.

Little wonder, then, that in a choice between Labor's incendiary internal chaos, which might or might not be behind it, and the Coalition's ground-dwelling but unified ordinariness, the latter is appealing to more voters.

The harsh reality dawning for the ALP is the apparent popularity of Rudd through July, which led some commentators to enthuse it was more than a mere "sugar hit", were simply jumping the gun.

The Fairfax/Nielsen poll confirmed the trend, showing Labor's primary vote is once again dropping below its poor 2010 result after hitting 39 per cent last month.

Equally concerning for Labor is that Rudd now trails the less popular Abbott on the question of who voters trust (47/40), and that Abbott is closing in as preferred prime minister.

Some of that might be attributable to Rudd being forced to play contact politics, which is not something voters always enjoy - witness the "worm" in election debates which turns south every time someone goes on the attack.

But Rudd's problem is probably deeper than that.

Beneath the headline numbers in the poll was one that should have rocked the Labor camp. Voters were asked who they expected to win - as distinct from who do they intend to vote for. Abbott won easily, with 57 per cent picking him. Just 31 per cent opted for Rudd.

So what, you might say. Voters are not expert pundits, are they? Not as individuals perhaps, but as a group, it turns out, they're better. On this very question going back over 15 years, the people have correctly picked the winner every time.

Even in 1998, when Kim Beazley registered a higher popular vote, the punters correctly chose John Howard to win, albeit by a narrow 11 per cent margin. They were right again in 2001, by 13 per cent; 2004, by 47 per cent; 2007, by 42 per cent; and even in 2010, when neither side secured a majority but Labor scraped through with a smidgen over 50 per cent.

Apollo 13 is as famous for its amazing mission rescue as for its near disastrous failure.

Mission control ordered the crippled vehicle to attempt a difficult sling-shot pass around the dark side of the moon to acquire the momentum needed to get home.

Perhaps Rudd has a similar feat in mind. He will need that at least.

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Royals to visit Australia with baby George

AUSTRALIANS should get a chance to see the future king of Britain next year with Prince William and his wife Kate planning to visit Down Under with baby George.

Speaking at the Anglesey Show on Wednesday, the Duke of Cambridge announced he wouldn't be taking on another tour of duty in Wales when his stint as an RAF search and rescue helicopter pilot ends in September.

Instead the new family is expected to move permanently to Kensington Palace in London, with William taking on more royal duties.  Those duties will include, it now seems, an official visit to Australia in 2014.

Speaking to Max and Maxine Davies from Victor Harbor near Adelaide on Wednesday the Duke of Cambridge said: "George is doing really well, thank you."

"We are all very hopeful of coming to Australia next year," William added, according to media reports in the UK.

Mr and Mrs Davies, aged 77 and 75 respectively, later said they were thrilled at the prospect of a royal visit.

"We are on holiday here and can't believe we got to talk to him," Mrs Davies said at the show, according to British tabloid The Daily Mail.  "How wonderful that the family will come to Australia to visit."

Prince William was just nine months old when he himself was first taken on a trip Down Under by Prince Charles and Princess Diana.

The new prince was born just over three weeks ago and the miniature monarch-to-be was named George Alexander Louis two days later.

Prince William joked about his young son at the Anglesey Show on Wednesday.  "He's pretty loud but of course very good looking," he said.

"I have to say that I thought search and rescue duties over Snowdonia were physically and mentally demanding but looking after a three-week-old baby is up there."

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Outrage at 'monster' baby killer Muslim's $3000 compensation after prison serves him vegetables

A QUEENSLAND baby killer who chopped up his newborn daughter before burying her body has won a $3000 compensation payout because he was forced to eat vegetables in jail.

Former butcher Raymond Akhtar Ali was fed a vegetarian diet for four months, instead of specially prepared halal meat in accordance with his religious requirements.

The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal found Ali, 60, was discriminated against on the basis of his religion and ordered the State Government pay $3000 compensation into a trust fund.

Ali is serving a life sentence after he savagely bashed his newborn daughter to death in 1998 before dismembering her, cutting her in half and burying her body at his Logan Village home.

A furious Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie, yesterday described Ali as a "monster" and said he'd ordered urgent advice to appeal the decision.

Ali was fed a vegetarian diet for four months while in Maryborough Correctional Centre, instead of halal food, which needs to be blessed, slaughtered, cooked and stored to strict rules.

QCAT member Ann Fitzpatrick found in his favour because he had to eat vegetables and not halal meat.  She ordered the State Government to pay Ali's $3000 compensation into a victim trust fund.

In 2000 Ali was found guilty of the gruesome 1998 murder of his newborn daughter while the baby's mother, Amanda Leanne Blackwell, 22, was found guilty of manslaughter.

Blackwell, who worked in Ali's halal butcher shop, became his virtual "sex slave" and fell pregnant to the married man, the Supreme Court heard.

Minutes after she secretly gave birth at a Logan Village property, Ali killed the baby.

Mr Bleijie yesterday said the State Government would assess its options on the QCAT ruling.

"The community would understandably be angry about this decision and I've requested urgent advice with respect to the State lodging an appeal," he said.

Ms Fitzpatrick said Ali was forced to eat vegetarian food at the prison from September 24, 2008 to January 22, 2009, after being incorrectly told halal food was not available.  "It forced a person who otherwise ate meat as part of his diet to eat a vegetarian diet," Ms Fitzpatrick said.

Ali, who can apply for parole from August next year, can access the money if there are no claims from victims, child support agencies or for any fines he may owe, but not while he is in jail.

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Another low-information Leftist

KEVIN Rudd is facing more campaign drama after a Labor MP attacked a star Liberal candidate - who served on the frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan - as a defence "bureaucrat" who worked "the last 25 years" in Canberra.

Labor MP Geoff Lyons, who won the marginal seat of Bass in 2010, was forced to make an apology following his attack on Liberal candidate Andrew Nikolic.

In the latest case of election dirty tricks, the Government MP told an audience of Year 11 and 12 students - some of whom will vote for the first time - that his election rival had "misled" journalists about his role in the military.

A transcript reveals the MP derided Mr Nikolic's 31-year military record - despite the Liberal candidate being deputy commander of Australia's military contingent in Afghanistan following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Mr Nikolic, who rose to the rank of Brigadier, was also was commander of Australian forces in southern Iraq in 2005.

But the Labor MP told the students from Newstead College in Launceston that Mr Nikolic was a "candidate who has been a bureaucrat in Canberra for the last 25 years working in the media".

Mr Lyons also claimed Mr Nikolic - who served for several years as Defence's director of public affairs - lied about signing a contract between Defence and AusAID.

Government records however, confirm that Mr Nikolic did sign a Head Record of Understanding with the foreign aid agency in September 2010.

Labor has already been forced to dump two candidates and the Prime Minister can ill afford any further outbreaks of campaign drama.

Mr Lyons holds the must-win Tasmanian seat with a margin of 6.7 per cent but a surge in support for the Coalition has Mr Nikolic well placed to win the seat next month.

Mr Nikolic said: "It's disappointing and desperate for my political opponent to belittle my military record in this way."

The Liberal candidate - who quit the military two years ago to campaign in Bass - also received a strong endorsement from one of Australia's most decorated soldiers, former Vice Chief of the Defence Force and ex-Chief of Army, Ken Gillespie.

"There is nothing on his CV that is inaccurate. Andrew had a very successful command, " Mr Gillespie said, of his former deputy.

"You don't get to be a Brigadier without having some pretty good qualities. (Mr Nikolic) had a wonderful career and to suggest that his CV is inaccurate is mischievous at best."

Last night, Mr Lyons said he was "sincerely sorry" for his remarks about his opponent.  "I have the upmost respect for all of our brave men and women who serve Australia so proudly both overseas and in their various capacities at home," the MP said.  "This includes my political opponent, Mr Nikolic."

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Rudd says Qld 'fearmongering' on boats

It sounds like there is reason for concern

IT'S time for the federal coalition and their Queensland counterparts to stop fearmongering on asylum seekers, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says.

Four asylum seekers have been intercepted crossing the Torres Strait in recent days, prompting warnings from Queensland and federal Liberals that the state could become the new destination for boat people.

"I think it's time that Mr Abbott and his team, particularly those up here in far north Queensland, stopped the fearmongering," Mr Rudd told reporters in Townsville on Tuesday.

Premier Campbell Newman has warned that asylum seekers would use the "porous" border between Papua New Guinea and Queensland to enter the country after being resettled under the Rudd government's PNG solution.

Mr Rudd said it didn't matter where asylum seekers came from, if they arrived on a boat without a visa they would not be settled in Australia.

"Whether it's through Christmas Island or whether it's across the Torres Strait or whether it's from Antarctica, they'll be handled the same under this policy," the prime minister said.

Mr Rudd's comments came as another 39 single adult men were transferred to PNG's Manus Island under Labor's hardline resettlement policy.

Since Mr Rudd announced his PNG arrangement on July 19, 33 boats with 2185 passengers have arrived in Australian waters.

Of those people, 236 have been sent to Manus Island.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said the movement of asylum seekers into the Torres Strait showed that the PNG deal on its own was not effective.

"All it does is open up a new front for the people smugglers," he told reporters at a campaign event on Sydney's outskirts.

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Tony Abbott to ease out the Greens from the lower house

OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott will today direct the Liberal Party to preference the Greens behind Labor in all seats across the country in a bid to ensure the party is wiped from the lower house of parliament.

It will mean the Greens' only current lower house MP, Adam Bandt, will almost certainly lose his seat of Melbourne on September 7 - in an election gift to the ALP.

It will also guarantee that Deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese keeps his inner-city Sydney seat of Grayndler, which Labor holds with just a 4 per cent margin against the minor party.

The Daily Telegraph has learned that Mr Abbott is expected to announce the decision today in Brisbane - in a reversal of its policy in 2010 to put Labor last - and will claim it as a matter of principle of putting deeds to his words.

"You don't normally go around giving Labor seats. But this was a matter of principle," one senior Liberal source told The Daily Telegraph.

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Australians are being far less green than they were

The closer you get to Green ideas, the more you see that they've got hairs on them

WE'RE being far less green.  Carbon offsetting among plane passengers is down by as much as half, as is use of renewable energy, although its popularity is predicted to surge if the carbon tax is axed.

Analysis of official figures shows the number of households using at least some green power is down by 150,000 from a high of 940,000 reached as the first Rudd government tried - but ultimately failed - to introduce a carbon pollution reduction scheme, or CPRS, in 2009.

Nationally, among those homes that still use some green power, sales are down by 51 percent, greenpower.gov.au data shows. Customer numbers are 16 per cent lower.

Victoria has recorded the biggest fall in use and customer numbers, down 61 percent and 39 percent respectively.

The fall in usage in South Australia has been greater than the national average, down 53 percent. Customer numbers are 11 percent lower.

This suggests South Australians have been more likely to downgrade the contracted proportion of green power than people in other states.

In NSW, falls have almost mirrored the Australia-wide trends, with use down 52 percent and customer numbers 19 percent lower.

Queenslanders have dramatically cut back the proportion of green power in their electricity supply, rather than ditching it altogether.

This is why usage is down 44 per cent, but customer numbers have bucked the national trend to rise 11 per cent.

The only area to record increases in customer numbers and usage has been Canberra.

Origin, which has eight times the number of green power customers as any other energy company, expects a turnaround in usage across the country should the Coalition win the election and be able to repeal the carbon tax.

"If carbon pricing goes away and people feel they'd like to do more again, I suspect those numbers would climb," said Origin's executive general manager of corporate affairs Phil Craig.

The Federal Government does not acknowledge the carbon tax had been a factor in the decline of green power's popularity, despite the biggest fall in customer numbers occurring in the quarter straight after then prime minister Julia Gillard announced details of a "price on pollution" in 2011.

A spokesman for new Climate Change Minister Mark Butler instead said the fall was due to the rapid increase in the number of houses with solar panels.

"Since 2007, over one million solar PV (photo voltaic systems) and 600,000 solar hot water heaters have been installed," Mr Butler's spokeswoman said. "And some of these households have decided not to continue purchasing green power because they are already generating their own renewable energy."

Mr Craig noted the base price of electricity had risen substantially, making it "a little bit more problematic" for people to pay a further premium for green power.

That premium has narrowed due to the imposition of the carbon tax because the levy does not apply to renewable energy.

The premium would likely expand if the tax is removed because the base price of electricity would fall.

Meanwhile, the number of plane passengers neutralising emissions has also plunged.

Qantas said the proportion of customers offsetting emissions had halved from 10 percent in 2009 to 5 percent now.

Virgin said offsetting among its passengers was down 30 percent from 2009 levels.

A Qantas spokesman said: "The proportion of passengers choosing to offset their emissions peaked in late 2009, when the world's attention was focused on the Copenhagen climate summit. So it's perhaps unsurprising that the percentage has dropped since then.

"While we'd love to see the number rise again, the program is voluntary and the choice is entirely up to the individual passenger."

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Underperforming NSW teachers to face dismissal

PRINCIPALS will find it easier to call out bad teacher behaviour and act on it under a NSW government overhaul that will see underperforming teachers get the boot.

From next semester, principals will be given new powers to deal with teachers who fail to attend playground duty, are late for class, don't to turn up to parent teacher interviews or refuse instructions.

"We simply can't accept that kind of recalcitrant behaviour," NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said.

The get-tough measure is part of a $150 million package of reforms to boost the quality of teaching in NSW, announced earlier this year.

The crackdown comes ahead of a fresh round of enterprise bargaining with teachers next month.

Department of Education director-general Michele Bruniges said it was about dealing with a small group of teachers who were repeat offenders. "We need to be able to call it and deal with it," she said.

Mr Piccoli described it as "more like a private sector approach to performance management".

"Parents and teachers have made it very clear to me that they want teachers who are underperforming out of the system," he told reporters.  "It's going to be a fair process but a tougher process than what exists already."

Mr Piccoli said teachers who failed to live up to the standards set out in a new code of conduct could be sacked, demoted, fined or cautioned.

"There are a range of teachers who are underperforming," he said.   "Those teachers need to know there is a process in place and they face dismissal."

Mr Piccoli also announced a raft of scholarships worth up to $30,000, with the first ten teaching cadetships to be offered to high-achieving school leavers by the end of 2013.

"This is about making sure that we have the best teachers, particularly in the schools were we need them most," he said.

Announced earlier this year, teaching students will have to sit mandatory literacy and numeracy tests before being allowed into classrooms.

School leavers wanting to study at university will also need HSC band 5 results in a minimum of three subjects, one of which must be English.

Meanwhile, new pay arrangements mean salaries will be based on meeting standards rather than employment length.

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Pauline updated


Pauline Hanson is an Australian conservative politician who has always spoken freely about race. She has as a result been disowned by the mainstream conservatives and has no political power. She does however have influence in that lots of Australians agree with much of what she says. Illegal immigration is a red-hot political issue in Australia and she has been an immigration critic for a long time

IT WAS once the most famous fish and chip shop in Queensland.   Behind the counter was one of Australia's most divisive political figures - a woman regularly accused of racism and xenophobia.

Today, it is a migrant success story, run by a Vietnamese couple who came to this country 20 years ago. Pauline Hanson says she hopes to pop in one day, say hello and pick up a few dollars' worth of chips. It's a scene few would have imagined in 1996.

Almost 17 years ago, the newly elected member for Oxley used her maiden speech to launch a fierce and polarising attack on Asian immigration and multiculturalism. She told the nation it was "in danger of being swamped by Asians" and that "they have their own culture and religion, form ghettos and do not assimilate".

Controversial and unapologetic, Ms Hanson found her short stint in federal politics often drew shouts of rage and cheers of support alike.

"I don't dwell on that, I know who I am as a person," she said.  "To call me a racist is just ridiculous. To be a patriotic Australian and care about the country, that's not racism. That's patriotism."

Today, Thanh Huong Huynh and her husband Huong Van Nguyen quietly smile as they take orders for crumbed cod and prawn cutlets from many of the same people who helped Ms Hanson storm to power in the '90s.

The couple say they bought the Ipswich business, which has changed hands several times, two years ago.  They also say they know little about the One Nation founder, other than that she was "very famous".

Locals are still prickly about their former local member - who is currently running for a NSW Senate seat - and are reluctant to put their name to any description of her, positive or negative.  Many businesses fear alienating the migrant community, as well as those still wary of multiculturalism.

One exception is David Banfield, who has owned the nearby dental clinic for five years.  "Things have changed mate - for the better," said Mr Banfield, who noted that his wife was Vietnamese.

While he disagreed with Ms Hanson's "anti-immigration stance" at the time, he said she "seemed to be the person that would get things done".

Ms Hanson said she wished the new owners of her old shop "all the best".  "I think it's wonderful - good luck to them," she said.  "That's what Australia's all about - is to come here and make a life for yourself and become Australian and start up your own business."

She adds that she hopes to meet them.  "If I'm up there in the area again I'll call in and get some fish and chips off them," she said.

But Ms Hanson is still reluctant to back down from one of her more recent controversial comments.  "Yes, I did say that I wouldn't sell my house to Muslims," she said.

"And I have grave concerns and I see what's happened in other countries around the world and I, like a lot of other Australians, do not want to see our culture changed, I do not want to see the introduction of Sharia law."

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Education union militant and out of step, so I quit

This week, I took a step I couldn't have imagined a year ago: I resigned my trade union membership.

This was a monumental step for me. I have belonged to various unions over the past 40 years - starting with the shop assistants back in 1972. I grew up in a family proud of a great, great grand uncle, a journalist on the Lithgow Mercury, who, in the 1890s, served on the Eight Hour committee that won the right to a 40-hour working week.

I resigned from the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) because I realised that the old-fashioned kind of industrial militancy the NTEU is presently pursuing is entirely unhelpful to the interests of the hard-working people in the tertiary education sector.

Universities face particularly challenging times. They rely largely on student fees (either directly, or indirectly though HECS) to fund their work in advancing community knowledge. Students can only afford to pay so much for an education. Although all universities are regulated federally and are susceptible to federal funding decisions (like the misconceived decision to remove full tax deductibility for self-education expenses), governments in recent decades have set us up as competitors with each other.

Competition to recruit the best students is fierce. The Fair Work system supports that vision of a competitive market for tertiary education services by requiring that we bargain at enterprise level for pay and conditions. University vice chancellors are mindful of their capacity to attract and retain the best staff, so my employer - the University of Sydney - pays the highest salaries in the sector. We enjoy working conditions that are a legacy of our public service history. In my time consulting as an employment lawyer, I have never seen any other enterprise bargain allowing for 50 days a year for personal leave.

Yet the NTEU has been running a destructive industrial campaign at the University of Sydney - five days of strikes in first semester, and now a threat of demonstrations at our Open Day on August 31 - in pursuit of a pay claim primarily aimed at setting a standard for other universities in our sector.

I hear colleagues saying they are ready to sign an agreement. The union negotiations so far have secured the conditions that staff value, and many are ready to accept the modest but realistic pay offer of 2.9 per cent a year for four years.

Student representatives tried to put a motion at Academic Board, pleading for peace so they could pursue their studies without the distress of crossing picket lines. But the union is determined to press on in the interests of its national campaign.

The University of Sydney has a commendable history for welcoming unions at the bargaining table, even under the old Workplace Relations Act, when the federal government of the day was keen to exclude unions from campuses. It has often been the flagship for the NTEU's national campaign for pay increases across the sector.

This year the union seems to be prepared to scupper our ship, in a possibly futile attempt to gain pay increases at regional universities. The scuffles on picket lines, the police presence on campus, the half-truths on handbills, and now the Open Day protests, can only help our rivals in their student recruitment campaigns. How can staff at Sydney possibly benefit from such actions?

I fear the NTEU has formed an unholy alliance with the Greens. I was aggrieved to learn of NTEU plans to spend $1 million on a campaign to encourage people to vote Green. This news followed a story in The Sun-Herald, in June, in which Senator Lee Rhiannon pilloried the University of Sydney for poor results in a staff engagement survey, and tied those comments to the university's alleged disregard for staff interests in its current bargaining round. It isn't too hard to join the dots in this pattern of reporting.

What is the solution, for someone like me, who is deeply committed to the interests of working people, and believes firmly in the right to bargain in a collective voice for a fair share of the fruits of one's own labour? How to do this without killing off the tree that feeds us all?

Perhaps it is time for university staff to set up independent associations to bargain with management directly. The Fair Work Act permits employees to nominate their own bargaining representatives. Bargaining needs to be managed by staff who will be directly affected by the consequences of their actions rather than by a remote organisation with its own political agenda. This would be the natural evolution of a single enterprise bargaining based system of industrial relations.

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Fans may be the losers in scalper hunt

As ever

A NSW government crackdown on scalpers will stop people reselling tickets when they cannot attend an event, says consumer watchdog Choice.

Matt Levey, the Choice director of campaigns and communications, said the government intervention infringed on basic consumer rights, and proposed laws could lead to major event promoters cancelling resold tickets.

"Our concerns are not around needing to do something about scalping," Mr Levey said.

"Our concern is the plan is weighting the balance too much in favour of the owners of events who will be allowed to legally enforce the terms and conditions of selling tickets. This is a slippery slope which could infringe on consumer rights under the law."

The online industry believes sporting codes including the National Rugby League and Australian Rugby Union are pushing for the anti-scalping laws to control the secondary market for tickets. It is estimated sporting codes generate more than $1 billion a year in primary ticket sales, merchandise and television rights.

Online selling markets including eBay have obtained reports under freedom of information laws which show the government has little evidence to support the need for its intervention.

Official figures show that of 44,016 complaints NSW Fair Trading received last year, only one was related to the on-selling or resale of tickets or ticket scalping.

An email from Rod Stowe, Commissioner for Fair Trading on October 11, 2011, said there had been ongoing examinations of government responses to scalping dating back to before the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

"The view, to date, has been that there has not been a sufficient market failure to justify regulatory intervention," he said.

The opposition spokeswoman on fair trade, Tanya Mihaliuk, will question the government about its proposed law at a parliamentary hearing on Monday.

"This legislation does not appear to be driven by the Department of Fair Trading or consumer groups," she said. "The government should consult more widely to find a broader solution."

Fair Trading Minister Anthony Roberts said he wanted to give "fans a fair go at buying tickets, while also protecting fans from rip-offs and fraud. In no way does any proposal seek to prohibit or restrict the sale of tickets on a secondary market," he said.

A spokesman for Mr Roberts said there had been 128 complaints about scalped tickets made to Fair Trading this year. He said the Football Federation of Australia had complained that up to 300 tickets for the July Manchester United versus A-League All Stars match were scalped on eBay.

"In one of the worst cases, two tickets with a face value of $100 each were being touted online for $840," he said.

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Strewth! Aussie workers told to cut the slang

I am more concerned about it dying out.  A lot of colourful expressions are seldom heard now.  Do young people today know the difference between a galah and a drongo, for instance?

AUSSIE workers have been urged to soften their strine and avoid traditional slang, in a Federal Government push to make workplaces more migrant friendly.

Bosses should stop calling migrants "ethnic" because it might be discriminatory - and instead use the politically correct term "CALD", or Culturally and Linguistically Diverse.

Casual swearing should also be avoided, as it may appear provocative or aggressive.

Despite Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's penchant for obscure Aussie colloquialisms, the Immigration Department is frowning upon strine and slang in the workplace, in a new guide for employers.

Business groups have criticised the advice, one policy analyst dismissing it as political correctness "writ large" that would achieve nothing.

The official document warns the Australian accent can baffle even English-speaking migrants, and tells bosses and workmates to speak slowly, clearly and simply.

"Remember some people, including native English speakers ... may have trouble understanding the Australian accent," the guide says.

"Keep in mind common Australian expressions may be misunderstood, for example, 'bring a plate', 'this machine is cactus' and 'he really spat the dummy that time'.

"For some people, casual swearing may also be seen as aggressive or provocative and new employees may not be sure how to respond.

"If it appears your new employee is baffled by the sense of humour and the jokes of your other employees, have someone help them out."

The guide is accompanied by taxpayer-funded fact sheets on "Harmony in the Workplace", prepared by the Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia.

Despite using "ethnic" in its own title, FECCA says the word is "an illogical term with negative and potentially discriminatory connotations" when used to describe individuals.

It says migrants should not be referred to as "ethnic", but as Culturally and Linguistically Diverse or CALD.

"Referring to someone as an 'ethnic' is not acceptable, given its assumptions and stereotypes, and connotations between the term and other racial slurs such as 'wog', 'chink' and other discriminatory labels," its fact sheet states.

Centre for Independent Studies policy analyst Alexander Philipatos, who has a Greek background, said the guide appeared to be a well-intentioned waste of money.

"My initial reaction is it is political correctness writ large," he said.

"I think it's well intentioned, but personally I don't think it's going to do anything and is probably a bit of a waste of money."

FECCA president Pino Migliorino questioned the Prime Minister's use of obscure slang, such as "fair shake of the sauce bottle".

"I think the Prime Minister is very interesting in his use of slang," he said. "It doesn't make it right."

Mr Migliorino said the guide was "not trying to be politically correct, but to give a sense of what's meaningful".

The Harmony in the Workplace guide says Australian culture can seem "alien" to migrants - including "Edna Everidge, pavlova, fish and chips, Australian Rules football, the summer barbecue and drinks after work".

It tells bosses that migrants are "entitled to wear religious dress at work unless it creates a safety hazard".

"If items of clothing cover the face you can ask an employee to show their face for reasonable identification purposes," it states.

ACCI director of employment Jenny Lambert said bosses were entitled to set dress standards and make staff wear uniforms.

"There is no doubt employees can have uniform codes, although many workers may also wear a turban if the employer says it's OK," she said.

The Harmony in the Workplace guide also explains that some migrant workers will need time off work for prayer.

"Some cultures prioritise family commitments that may, at times, conflict with work commitments," it says.

Australian Industry Group spokesman Mark Goodsell said employers had to juggle giving special treatment to some workers while being fair to everyone.

"All cultures will say they prioritise family commitments, people with young families prioritise kids," he said.

"At what point does recognising an individual's needs create problems with the workers you're not recognising?"

Australian Retailers Association executive director Russell Zimmerman said employees who asked for time off for non-Christian religious festivals should not be paid penalty rates for working through Easter or Christmas.

"There's got to be give and take," he said.

Mr Zimmerman said retailers had the right to insist on a certain "look" or dress code from shop assistants, so long as the clothing was provided free.

Brisbane businessman David Goodwin, who chairs the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry productivity board, said workers would "struggle to get jobs" if they did not try to fit into a workplace.

"You can't run your business accommodating every single staff member's specific needs," he said.

Multicultural Affairs Minister Kate Lundy launched the "harmony" guide and fact sheets last week.

One in four Australian workers was born overseas, and 17 per cent hail from non-English speaking countries.

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