Mega ports to be allowed near Barrier Reef

FIVE mega ports will be allowed along the Queensland coast, mainly in areas near the Great Barrier Reef.

Abbot Point, one of the world's biggest coal terminals, has been declared a port development priority area.

The declaration comes only six months after green groups lost a court battle to stop three million cubic metres of dredge spoil from being dumped, in the reef marine park boundaries.

As well as at Abbot Point, expansions will be allowed at other ports adjacent to the reef, including Gladstone, Hay Point, Mackay, and Townsville.

Brisbane has also been earmarked for major growth.

Queensland's Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney said dredging outside these priority port areas would be banned under the new strategy.

"Within and adjoining the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, the Queensland government will prohibit dredging for the development of new, or the expansion of existing port facilities outside these port precincts, for the next decade," he said, adding the approach was consistent with UNESCO World Heritage Committee recommendations.

But Queensland Greens senator Larissa Waters said the new "faux restriction" on dredging was useless.

"It won't apply to any of the damaging dredging already applied for which is the very dredging that UNESCO was concerned about," she said, adding dredging would continue at 20 ports.

"This is atrocious news for the Great Barrier Reef."

The Australian Marine Conservation Society said coastline along the reef would be industrialised.

"The new policy won't stop a single port development or dredging proposal planned along the Queensland coast," campaigner Felicity Wishart said.

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iSentia makes strong ASX debut

MEDIA monitor iSentia has made an impressive stock market debut, with its shares rising nearly 20 per cent above their issue price.

Shares in the company, which was previously known as Media Monitors, opened trading at $2.45, 41 cents above the issue price of $2.04.

The stock surged 39 cents, or 19.12 per cent, to close at $2.43.

iSentia was among the most traded stocks, with its market cap hitting $486 million.

iSentia dominates Australia's media monitoring market, providing information from various media sources to alert business and government clients to what is being said about their organisations, competitors and industry.

The company uses software and other systems to capture and interpret data from more than 5,500 mainstream media outlets, 55,000 online news sources and 3.4 million user-generated content sources on Facebook, Twitter and Weibol.

Clients include Microsoft, Nike, Coca-Cola and Samsung and most of the top 100 companies listed on the ASX.

It also operates in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam and has an emerging presence China.

In its prospectus, iSentia said demand for media intelligence services in the Asia-Pacific region was expected to grow strongly over 2013-2016, especially in the online and social media segment.

It has forecast a net profit of $11.9 million in 2014, up from $7 million last year, and expects to start paying dividends next year.

Isentia issued 139 million shares to raise $283.5 million under an initial public offer.

The company has 200 million shares in total. It was floated by private equity outfit Quadrant Funds, which retains a 25 per cent stake.

Chief executive John Croll also holds a four per cent stake, which lifted in paper value by more than $3 million to $19.4 million based on iSentia's first day of trading.

iSentia shares are trading on a deferred settlement basis until Wednesday.

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Talking walls, robo-docs way of the future

GET ready for talking wallpaper, robo-doctors, cars that drive themselves and human body shops where organs are made to order.

These are set to become part of our lives soon, says renowned American theoretical physicist Dr Michio Kaku, who is visiting Australia to discuss how technology will revolutionise the planet.

At the centre of our lives will be the computer, although you probably won't be able to see it.

Dr Kaku, who has interviewed 300 of the world's top scientists, predicts computers will physically disappear in 15 years but says we'll be able to use them telepathically.

"You will simply think through the cloud and turn on the lights, call for your car, program your car, write a book, make articles," Dr Kaku told reporters at the Queensland University of Technology.

"Computers will be everywhere and nowhere, and this is going to revolutionise every aspect of our life."

As for the internet, Dr Kaku says we'll access it through contact lenses at the blink of an eye.

And talking to a wall won't be so pointless, with artificial intelligence embedded inside.

"You will go to the wall and say, 'Mirror, mirror on the wall, I want to talk to a doctor right now' (and), boom, robo-doc appears.

"And if you are in a car accident, you will talk to robo-lawyer."

But if you're seriously injured, you needn't worry.

"In 10 to 20 years, we will have a human body shop at which we will simply order organs on demand," Dr Kaku said.

Scientists are already growing skin, cartilage and bladders, and Dr Kaku predicts the first liver will be grown in a matter of years.

But perhaps the biggest change we'll see first is in the way we get around.

Dr Kaku says commercially available cars that drive themselves are only three years away and will be commonplace by 2020.

The jobs our cars drive us to are likely to be different, but Dr Kaku says you'll always be able to get a job as a gardener, cleaner or police officer.

Repetitive jobs, such as factory work, are on the way out and middlemen, including tellers, agents and brokers, are also in the firing line.

However, blue-collar jobs were likely to survive in the near future because robot technology was still primitive, Dr Kaku said.

But will advancements in technology make us happier?

"The answer is no because we are genetically hard-wired to ... bellyache at every single inconvenience," Dr Kaku said.

"But it will make life easier, more productive, we will be able to unleash the potential in all of us because technology will make it possible to take the human mind's creations and create industries out of these."

The TV personality and best-selling author believes science is the engine of prosperity and is touring Australia to drive his message home.

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Uproar over O'Neill plan

PAPUA New Guinea's opposition has lashed out at a plan by Prime Minister Peter O'Neill to restrict nominees for the top job to members of his own party in the event of a motion of no-confidence.

The government is planning to introduce legislation on June 24 restricting candidates to the office of prime minister to members of the largest parliamentary party, according to the Port Moresby-based Post Courier Newspaper.

Deputy opposition leader Sam Basil on Thursday attacked the plan, saying the move shows Mr O'Neill wants to ensure his party, the People's National Congress (PNC), can continue to protect him and his interests.

"What the Prime Minister Peter O'Neill is doing is just simply using the numerical strength that he amassed through political intimidation and (district fund) controlled support to pass yet another controversial law to protect his interests," Mr Basil said on Facebook on Thursday.

"After every general elections the Governor General calls for a political party that has the highest number of MP-elect to form the new government. That doesn't mean that this political party has the golden ticket to the Prime Minister's post."

Mr O'Neill, whose PNC is the largest party in the coalition government, is currently on his way back to Port Moresby from a bilateral visit to Japan.

Thursday's newspaper article, which appeared under the headline O'Neill-ocracy, cites a May 28 circular to MPs from the office of the clerk of PNG's national parliament.

It also quotes Mr O'Neill as saying that under the legislation if a party fails to secure the numbers to rule, Parliament can elect any MP from the floor to be PM.

He has recently come to loggerheads with the country's Ombudsman Commission over a controversial $A1.3 billion loan from Swiss investment bank UBS to buy back shares in Oil Search Limited.

After the watchdog announced it was investigating and ordered a freeze on the deal, Mr O'Neill publicly urged the ombudsman to back down on the grounds it would trigger a loan default - a move criticised on Thursday by former treasurer Don Polye.

Mr O'Neill has also been accused of authorising illegal payments to a controversial PNG law firm, Paul Paraka lawyers - a claim Mr O'Neill has strenuously, and repeatedly, denied.

The executive director of PNG's National Research Institute, Paul Barker, told AAP parliament should retain the right to remove an incompetent government with another that is more suitable.

"Although political stability is valuable, and frivolous votes of no-confidence should not be entertained, it remains a constitutional responsibility of the legislature to act as check and balance on the government of the day," he said.

He said there were two ways to look at Mr O'Neill's latest move.

On the one hand, Mr O'Neill may be trying to protect his party programs and legacy.

"More negative observers might suggest that there is much more at stake in terms of vested interests over retaining power," Mr Barker said.

"He's clearly afraid of something."

A spokesman for Mr O'Neill on Thursday night said the constitutional amendments were proposed by PNG's constitutional law reform commission and the registrar of political parties, and not by Prime Minister O'Neill or the PNC.

"The (news) story is not PO's (Peter O'Neill) or the PNC's initiative," he said.

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