MP says give 'measly' $25m to SPC

Federal cabinet will discuss a proposal to co-invest in SPC Ardmona's fruit processing operations. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has used the rejection of taxpayer support for fruit processor SPC Ardmona to set an important "marker" for how his government will deal with requests for industry assistance.

The 93-year-old Victorian company wanted a $25 million federal grant, topped up by $25 million from the Victorian government and its own $150 million investment, for new product development and technology to prop up its operation.

But after three hours of debate in federal cabinet on Thursday, Mr Abbott said the plan was rejected because it was not the government's job to restructure a particular business.

The decision, which workers and growers fear will lead to the operation's closure, comes weeks after Holden's bid for support was rejected and its parent company General Motors announced the end of car production in Australia in 2017.

"The decision that came from the cabinet today does set an important marker," Mr Abbott said.

"This is a government which will make sure that the restructuring that some Australian businesses need, that some Australian sectors need, is led by business, as it should be."

The government's role was to create the right climate for business, he said.

Mr Abbott said SPC Ardmona - owned by food giant Coca-Cola Amatil - was a strong business with the resources to allow it to restructure.

The company advised the government it was prepared to invest an extra $161 million into the business and renegotiate its enterprise bargaining agreement.

Mr Abbott said the company's present EBA had conditions "well in excess of the award", including a wet allowance and generous redundancy provisions.

However SPC Ardmona managing director Peter Kelly said the company would review its business plans.

"This is an unexpected and extremely disappointing decision by the coalition, particularly after the enormous support we have received for our business plans from the local community and beyond," Mr Kelly said.

Acting Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek said the government had failed in its fundamental role - to protect jobs and bring on new investment.

"First they forced General Motors Holden out - now they are sending SPC Ardmona to the wall," Ms Plibersek said.

Labor pledged at the 2013 federal election to provide the $25 million grant.

If the plant closes, it is estimated 1500 direct and 2700 indirect jobs could be lost in the Shepparton region.

Shepparton mayor Jenny Houlihan said workers faced an unknown future.

"The $25 million that the government refused to let go today will be eaten up in unemployment benefits," she said.

Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union national secretary Paul Bastian said workers had been improving productivity, but other factors were affecting the business, such as the dumping of cheap imports and the high dollar.

"The government directly and indirectly subsidises mining, agriculture, finance, fisheries and other important Australian industries and yet it is continually cutting investment in manufacturing," Mr Bastian said.

"Soon, when we go to the supermarket ... there will be nothing left made in Australia."

Victorian Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews said if state premier Denis Napthine could not convince Mr Abbott to stump up $25 million for SPC Ardmona, he struggled to see how Dr Napthine could secure $300 million for Toyota as it considers its future.

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cruise ship returns with sick toll at 700

A cruise ship on which nearly 700 passengers and crew fell ill has arrived home in the US. Source: AAP

A CRUISE ship on which nearly 700 passengers and crew fell ill has arrived at its home port in the US after a Caribbean voyage was cut short by the outbreak.

One woman aboard the Explorers of the Sea yelled, "We made it!" as the ship docked Wednesday at New Jersey. Other passengers, with blankets wrapped around them, stood on deck to watch the ship pull in.

The cause of the outbreak is yet to be determined.

Bill Rakowicz of Canada said he suffered from vomiting, pain and diarrhoea and that his experience was simply "awful".

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said its latest count puts the number of those sickened at 630 passengers and 54 crew members. The ship was carrying 3050 passengers.

Health investigators suspect norovirus, but lab results are not expected until later this week.

If norovirus is to blame, it would be one of the largest outbreaks in last 20 years, the CDC said. A 2006 norovirus outbreak on a Carnival Cruise Lines ship also sickened close to 700.

Norovirus - once known as Norwalk virus - is highly contagious. It can be picked up from an infected person, contaminated food or water or by touching contaminated surfaces. It causes bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea for a few days.

The CDC said it recommended to cruise operator Royal Caribbean that people who still have symptoms be housed in nearby hotels or seen at medical facilities before travelling home.

CDC investigators boarded the ship during its US Virgin Islands Port call on Sunday. They said no single food or water source or other origin has been identified.

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

Treasury Wines tank on share market

Treasury Wine Estates has issued a profit warning in the wake of weaker than expected sales. Source: AAP

TREASURY Wine Estates has been hammered on the stock market, with its shares falling by 20 per cent after it issued a profit downgrade due to weaker sales in Australia and China.

The company behind Penfolds and Wolf Blass has cut its full year earnings forecast from between $230 million and $250 million to between $190 million and $210 million.

It expects first half earnings, which will be announced in February, to be between $41 million and $46 million, down from $73 million last year.

Treasury Wine shares fell to $3.64, their weakest price in almost two years, wiping $589 million from the value of the company.

Weaker than expected sales in Australia, following the company's decision to lift prices on some products and focus less on Christmas promotions, had contributed to the profit downgrade, it said.

A decline in Chinese demand for premium wine had also hit sales volumes.

Treasury Wine also said it had continued to reduce shipments to the US while increasing investment across the group, especially in Asia.

The profit downgrade is the latest in a string of bad news for Treasury Wine, which last year poured more than $35 million worth of excess or aged commercial stock down the drain in the US.

The controversial move, which was part of a broader $160 million writedown, ultimately led to the departure of chief executive David Dearie.

Law Firm Maurice Blackburn and litigation funder IMF last October announced funding of a class action against Treasury Wine, alleging the company misled the market and breached its continuous disclosure obligations in its communication of the financial impact of over-stocked US distributors to investors.

On Thursday, Maurice Blackburn managing principal Ben Slade said the latest profit downgrade raised "questions of transparency" about the company's operations.

"TWE's announcement this morning suggests that continuous disclosure requirements may not have been complied with," he said in a statement.

"We are confident that the company's shock $190 million downgrade announcement in July last year was indicative of such a breach. It may have happened again."

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

Police given bus CCTV after woman pinned

A woman has died in hospital after being pinned under a bus for two hours in Sydney's CBD. Source: AAP

AFTER the death of two pedestrians on the same day in Sydney, police are urging the public to be more careful crossing roads.

A 51-year-old Granville woman died on Wednesday night after being hit by a bus in Sydney's CBD. She was trapped in its axles for two hours before emergency services freed her and she died only hours after undergoing emergency surgery.

Earlier that day, an 83-year-old man died instantly when he was hit by a truck in Monterey in southern Sydney while crossing the road.

NSW Police Traffic and Highway Patrol operations commander Stuart Smith said the deaths were tragic.

"It was a dreadful day on NSW roads," he told reporters on Thursday.

Superintendent Smith said crash investigators are looking into both accidents, including CCTV footage from the State Transit bus as well as an examination of traffic and pedestrian control records.

"It's a complex calculation that can only be provided once a re-enactment is provided," he said.

Police say the bus was turning right when it struck the woman, and the 70-year-old driver was provided with counselling.

"We believe he is a very experienced driver with the State Transit Authority," Supt Smith said.

He could not comment on whether jaywalking was a factor in the accident but reminded pedestrians and drivers to look out for each other.

"It is a place where we all need to be aware and to keep a proper lookout," he said.

He warned people about the dangers of jaywalking and using electronic devices such as mobile phones and MP3 players.

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

Folk singer, activist Pete Seeger dies

PETE Seeger, the banjo-picking troubadour who sang for migrant workers, college students and star-struck presidents in a career that introduced generations of Americans to their folk music heritage, has died at the age of 94.

Seeger's grandson, Katama Cahill-Jackson said his grandfather died on Monday at New York Presbyterian Hospital, where he'd been for six days.

"He was chopping wood 10 days ago," he said.

Seeger - with his lanky frame, banjo and full white beard - was an iconic figure in folk music. He performed with the great minstrel Woody Guthrie in his younger days and marched with Occupy Wall Street protesters in his 90s.

He wrote or co-wrote the songs If I Had a Hammer, Turn, Turn, Turn, Where Have All The Flowers Gone? and Kisses Sweeter Than Wine.

He lent his voice against Hitler and nuclear power. A cheerful warrior, he typically delivered his broadsides with an affable air and his banjo strapped on.

"Be wary of great leaders," he told The Associated Press two days after a 2011 Manhattan Occupy march. "Hope that there are many, many small leaders."

With The Weavers, a quartet organised in 1948, Seeger helped set the stage for a national folk revival. The group - Seeger, Lee Hays, Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman - churned out hit recordings of Goodnight Irene, Tzena, Tzena and On Top Of Old Smokey.

Seeger was credited with popularising We Shall Overcome, which he printed in his publication People's Song, in 1948. He later said his only contribution to the anthem of the civil rights movement was changing the second word from "will" to "shall," which he said "opens up the mouth better".

"Every kid who ever sat around a campfire singing an old song is indebted in some way to Pete Seeger," Arlo Guthrie once said.

Seeger's musical career was always braided tightly with his political activism, in which he advocated for causes ranging from civil rights to the clean-up of his beloved Hudson River. Seeger said he left the Communist Party around 1950 and later renounced it. But the association dogged him for years.

He was kept off commercial television for more than a decade after tangling with the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1955. Repeatedly pressed by the committee to reveal whether he had sung for communists, Seeger responded: "I love my country very dearly, and I greatly resent this implication that some of the places that I have sung and some of the people that I have known, and some of my opinions, whether they are religious or philosophical, or I might be a vegetarian, make me any less of an American."

He was charged with contempt of Congress, but the sentence was overturned on appeal.

Seeger called the 1950s, years when he was denied broadcast exposure, the high point of his career. He was on the road touring college campuses, spreading the music he, Guthrie, Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter and others had created or preserved.

He told The Associated Press in 2006 in those years "I showed the kids there's a lot of great music in this country they never played on the radio".

Seeger's output included dozens of albums and single records for adults and children.

He appeared in the movies To Hear My Banjo Play (1946) and Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970). A reunion concert of the original Weavers in 1980 was filmed as a documentary titled Wasn't That A Time.

By the 1990s, Seeger was heaped with national honours. President Clinton hailed him as "an inconvenient artist who dared to sing things as he saw them".

Seeger was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 as an early influence. In 1997 he won a Grammy for best traditional folk album, for Pete.

Seeger was born in New York City on May 3, 1919, into an artistic family whose roots traced to religious dissenters of colonial America. His mother, Constance, played violin and taught; his father, Charles, a musicologist, was a consultant to the Resettlement Administration, which gave artists work during the Depression. His uncle Alan Seeger was a poet.

Pete Seeger said he fell in love with folk music when he was 16, at a music festival in North Carolina in 1935. His half brother, Mike Seeger, and half sister, Peggy Seeger, also became noted performers.

He learnt the five-string banjo, an instrument he rescued from obscurity and played the rest of his life in a long-necked version of his own design. On the skin of Seeger's banjo was the phrase, "This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender".

Dropping out of Harvard in 1938 after two years as a disillusioned sociology major, Seeger hit the road, picking up folk tunes as he hitchhiked or hopped freights.

"The sociology professor said, 'Don't think that you can change the world. The only thing you can do is study it'," Seeger said in October 2011.

In 1940, with Guthrie and others, he was part of the Almanac Singers and performed benefits for disaster relief and other causes.

He and Guthrie also toured migrant camps and union halls. During World War II he served in the Special Services, entertaining soldiers in the South Pacific.

He and his wife Toshi, whom he married in 1943, raised three children by the Hudson River. Toshi Seeger died in July, aged 91.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

Parliament congratulates Grammy winner

NZ Parliament's first item of business on its first day back was celebrating Lorde's Grammy success. Source: AAP

NEW Zealand's parliament has taken time out on its first day back from its summer recess to congratulate teenage singer Lorde for winning two Grammys.

Prime Minister John Key introduced the motion as the first item of business on Tuesday.

"She has just achieved something no New Zealander has, and it has happened so quickly and comprehensively that it's taken the world by surprise," Mr Key said.

All the party leaders joined in the praise for 17-year-old Ella Yelich-O'Connor and Mr Key's motion was approved by a unanimous vote.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hundreds rally against Tasmanian pulp mill

HUNDREDS have rallied outside the Tasmanian parliament in protest at the born-again pulp mill proposal for the state's north.

As parliament reconvened in a pre-election bid to ensure the mill's future, more than 600 turned out to voice their opposition to a project that has divided the state for almost a decade.

Carrying black flags and banners accusing the state government of a "betrayal", the crowd chanted "no pulp mill" as it heard from speakers including celebrity gardener Peter Cundall.

Mr Cundall, who was arrested at an anti-mill protest in 2009, was met with cheers as he described the Tamar Valley project as a "swindle".

"We've been betrayed by the very people we pay to represent us," Mr Cundall told the crowd.

Labor Premier Lara Giddings announced two weeks ago she would recall parliament to debate a bill extending the validity of the permits for the mill until 2017.

In the same press conference, Ms Giddings announced an election date of March 15 and a split with the Greens after four years of power sharing.

The move was designed to head off a Supreme Court challenge from environmental group the Tasmanian Conservation Trust (TCT), which argues the permits expired when collapsed timber company Gunns could not start work on the $2.5 billion mill.

Gunns receivers KordaMentha say it has six buyers interested in the failed company's assets and it needs certainty to proceed.

TCT boss Peter McGlone vowed the legal fight would go on and was backed by law expert Michael Stokes.

"There should be no special deals, no changes in the law because particular special interest groups want it," Mr Stokes said.

Tasmanian Greens leader Nick McKim emerged from parliament furious that a no-confidence motion in the government from his party had been stonewalled.

He accused the Labor and Liberal parties of forming a "new minority government" to ram the legislation through.

Mr McKim had previously called for a referendum on the project.

The opposition says it will back the bill, but slammed the government for not bringing it on earlier.

Opponents say a pulp mill will decimate the wine and tourism industries of the Tamar Valley, north of Launceston.

They say health and economic impacts have not been assessed and 64,000 tonnes of effluent will be pumped into Bass Strait every day.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

Bangladeshi guilty of groping blind woman

A BANGLADESHI asylum seeker faces time in jail after being found guilty of stalking and indecently assaulting a blind woman on a Sydney train.

The 23-year-old woman told Sydney's Central Local Court on Tuesday that Rubel Sheikh, 25, helped her cross the road on her way to the Ashfield train station in July 2013 before telling her "adamantly" to take the lift to the platform.

Once the two were in the lift, the woman, who is legally blind and uses a walking cane, said she felt something small drop between her breasts, followed by Sheikh saying in an "awkward" tone: "It is OK. It is very sexy."

She said she ignored the object that fell between her breasts, thinking it might be a "bug".

The woman said Sheikh followed her to the platform.

While she was waiting for the train at Ashfield, she said she again felt something drop between her breasts.

She told the court that once she was on the train, she felt someone twice put their hand into her bra and touch her breast and touch her inner thigh.

The man told her it was "OK" and asked for a "goodbye kiss", the court heard.

The woman said she recognised the voice as the man who led her to the lift at Ashfield.

She alighted at Gymea station, where she met her mother.

She said that later that night two five cent coins dropped out of her bra when she was changing into her pyjamas.

Sheikh's bail was refused on Tuesday and he will be sentenced on February 19.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

NZ man fights off shark, stitches himself

A NEW Zealand man has survived being attacked by a shark: driving it off with his knife, stitching his own wound onshore and going to the pub for a beer before heading to hospital.

Junior doctor James Grant was spearfishing with friends near Colac Bay at the base of the South Island on Saturday when he was attacked by what he believed was a sevengill shark.

The 24-year-old was in about 2m of murky water when he felt a tug on his leg, which he initially thought was a mate playing a trick on him.

"I looked behind to see who it was and got a bit of a shock," he told Radio New Zealand.

He didn't see the shark and had no idea how big it was. He thought it might have been about 20cm across the jaw.

However, he wasn't scared.

"(I thought) bugger, now I have to try and get this thing off my leg."

He already had a knife in his hand and stabbed at the shark.

"I am not sure how effective it was. I guess it let go so something must have happened, put a few nicks in it."

He quickly made it onto rocks on shore.

It wasn't until he took off the wetsuit - borrowed from a friend - that he saw the bites, up to 5cm long. He was thankful for the 7mm of wetsuit neoprene.

He gave himself stitches using a first aid kit he kept in his vehicle for pig hunts.

He and his friends then went to the Colac Bay Tavern, where he was given a bandage because he was dripping blood on the floor.

The stitching was finished off when he went to Invercargill Hospital, where he was back at work on Monday.

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

North Qld sergeant charged with assault

A NORTH Queensland police sergeant accused of being involved in an assault in Cairns has resigned from the service.

The officer from the northern police region was charged with one count of assault occasioning bodily harm following an investigation by Queensland Police.

He resigned from the service on Monday, a statement issued by the Queensland Police Service said.

Police will allege the 43-year-old officer was off-duty when he was involved in an assault at a Cairns home on January 24.

He's due to appear in the Cairns Magistrates Court on February 25.

Queensland Police says while it has a duty to inform the public when an officer is facing criminal charges, this doesn't mean the allegations against the officer have been substantiated.

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More