Baillieu a man of integrity: Abbott

Former Victorian premier Ted Baillieu is a man of integrity, opposition leader Tony Abbott says. Source: AAP

FEDERAL Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has congratulated Denis Napthine for being elected Victorian premier and praised outgoing leader Ted Baillieu as a man of integrity and honour.

Mr Baillieu resigned as Victorian premier on Wednesday night.

Mr Abbott thanked Mr Baillieu for his service to the people of Victoria.

"Ted is a man of integrity and honour and I wish him well for the future," he said in a brief statement.

As premier, Mr Baillieu had put Victoria's finances on a sustainable footing and made significant investments in infrastructure, Mr Abbott said.

Mr Abbott also congratulated Mr Napthine on his election as leader.

"I look forward to working closely with him," he said.

Other politicians took to twitter to share their reactions to the news.

Australian Greens MP Adam Bandt suggested the spill raised issues for Mr Abbott.

"Vic Libs ditch elected leader & then run a minority gov't. Presume Tony Abbott will call them illegitimate and demand election immediately," Mr Bandt tweeted.

Labor backbencher Laura Smyth referenced Harry Potter.

"Congrats Denis Napthine, new head boy for Slytherin House," she tweeted.

"Let's hope Ted's education 'plan' walks out the door with him."

Foreign Minister Bob Carr was watching a Sydney University production of Julius Caesar and drew parallels in the play's storyline to that of the Victorian Liberal leadership drama.

"The faction gathers in home of Brutus. "We all stand against the spirit of Caesar" - of Baillieu, of Abbott?" he tweeted.

Liberal backbencher Dan Tehan congratulated Mr Napthine on becoming premier.

"Happy Birthday Denis, you will be an outstanding Premier," he tweeted.

Labor backbencher Darren Cheeseman described Dr Napthine as the "Steven Bradbury of Victorian politics".

His Labor colleague Mike Kelly asked on Twitter: "Don't you rub Napthine on wasp stings or is it for keeping moths out of your cupboard?"

Comment was being sought from the prime minister's office.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard wished Mr Baillieu all the best for the future.

"This decision must have been a very difficult one for Mr Baillieu and for his family," she said in a statement.

"I will seek to work in the interests of all Victorians with Mr Baillieu's successor, Denis Napthine."

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Syrian refugee figure hits one million: UN

THE number of Syrians who have fled their war-ravaged country and are seeking assistance has topped the one million mark, the UN refugee agency says.

The announcement on Wednesday came as troops and rebels fought street battles in Syria's strategic northern city of Raqqa, and regime forces sent reinforcements in an attempt to push out opposition gunmen who now control most of the city, activists said.

Syria's two-year crisis has killed tens of thousands, left many more wounded and also internally displaced more than 2 million people.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, said in a statement released in Geneva that the one million figure is based on reports from his agency's field offices in neighbouring countries that have provided refuge for Syrians escaping the civil war.

"With a million people in flight, millions more displaced internally, and thousands of people continuing to cross the border every day, Syria is spiralling towards full-scale disaster," Guterres said.

Syria's uprising began in March 2011 with protests against President Bashar Assad's authoritarian rule. When the government cracked down on demonstrators, the opposition took up arms and the conflict turned into a full-blown civil war. The United Nations estimates that more than 70,000 people have been killed.

The relentless violence also has devastated many cities and forced hundreds of thousands of Syrians to seek refuge abroad.

Guterres said the number of refugees has swelled dramatically this year, with most Syrians pouring into Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. More than 400,000 people have become refugees since Jan. 1, and often arrive in neighbouring countries "traumatised, without possessions and having lost members of their families," he said.

Around half are children; the majority under age 11.

"We are doing everything we can to help, but the international humanitarian response capacity is dangerously stretched," he said. "This tragedy has to be stopped."

The UN in December estimated that 1.1 million Syrian refugees would arrive in neighbouring countries by the end of June this year. At the time, the agency's regional response plan was only 25 per cent funded, and it is now in the process of adjusting that in light of the new figures, Guterres said.

Also Wednesday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees said Syrian warplanes bombarded rebel-held areas in Raqqa as the fighting intensified around the Military Intelligence headquarters in the city.

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Illegal ivory trade triples, UN says

THE illegal trade in ivory has tripled over the past 15 years, trafficked primarily by "Asian-run, African-based" criminal networks, a UN agency says.

The UN Environmental Program used the amount of ivory seized to determine that the illicit trade had doubled since 2007 and tripled since 1998 in its latest report on African elephant poaching.

The statistics were released on Wednesday as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) was being held in Bangkok. The convention estimated about 25,000 African elephants were slain in 2011, with a similar death toll last year, fuelled primarily by growing demand for trinkets and tusks in increasingly affluent Asia.

The size of the seizures at Asian ports, some of which involved hundreds of tusks, points to the involvement of highly organised, well-financed criminal networks, the UN agency said.

"These largely Asian-run, African-based criminal networks operate with relative impunity as there is almost no evidence of successful arrests, prosecutions or convictions," it said.

Outside experts agreed. "Organised criminal networks are cashing in on the elephant-poaching crisis, trafficking ivory in unprecedented volumes and operating with relative impunity and with little fear of prosecution," said Tom Milliken, an ivory expert with the wildlife-trade-monitoring group TRAFFIC.

Steve Galster, executive director of FREELAND, an Asia-based anti-trafficking organisation, blamed the growth in the ivory trade and other illicit trafficking in wildlife in part on the convention, which provides many exemptions and loopholes for the trade in threatened species.

"This thing has never had any teeth," said

"As long as a rhino horn can get across borders with a certificate, organised crime is going to find a way to commercialise it and the poaching is going to keep going," Galster said.

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Govt raises the bar for teaching in NSW

TEACHERS won't get pay rises if they don't meet standards and it will be easier for those who underperform to get the boot under sweeping reforms to boost the quality of teaching in NSW.

Teaching students will also sit mandatory literacy and numeracy tests before being allowed into classrooms, while only school leavers who score above 80 in three subjects will make it into university courses.

Other measures include mentoring entry level teachers and ongoing professional development - moves critics say can't be implemented without funding.

"Quite clearly they can't do it and it can't run on an austerity budget," NSW Teachers Federation president Maurie Mulheron said.

"You can't do this on the cheap, nor should you. Either you're committed to raising the standards of the profession or you're not."

Announcing the blueprint for reform on Wednesday, NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said the public, independent and Catholic sectors were working on their responses.

"In three months time when we get those implementation plans there may well be costs associated with it ... and it will then be a question for myself and cabinet," he said.

Mr Piccoli conceded some of the recommendations involving supporting first year teachers would have a significant financial impact.

"But the vast majority of the actions in here are not aspirational," he said.

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell said the reforms were "broad and deep" and could no longer be put off.

From 2015, all teachers in NSW will be required to meet national standards and undergo training every five years to meet accreditation processes.

To get a practical placement, teaching students will be required to pass a literacy and numeracy test that proves they are in the top 30 per cent of students across NSW.

School leavers wanting to study education at university will need HSC band 5 results in a minimum of three subjects, one of which must be English, in what Mr Piccoli said was "a significant raising of the bar".

About 70 per cent of students this year would not have met the new standard.

Mr Piccoli said he wasn't concerned about a drop in graduates because there weren't enough full-times places to meet the current demand.

New pay arrangements mean salaries will also be based on meeting standards, linked to career pathways.

"If you can't meet those standards, to a point, your pay won't increase. Currently it increases automatically," Mr Piccoli said.

Opposition education spokeswoman Carmel Tebbutt backed lifting university entrance marks but said good teaching also relied on training and support.

The government's plan includes reducing the load for beginner teachers, improving professional development and strengthening mentoring.

"Those are things that need funding and this government instead of increasing funding is in fact reducing funding for education," Ms Tebbutt told reporters.

She also said it would also be hard to attract "the best and brightest" when teachers had just copped the lowest pay increase in a decade.

Ms Mulheron called on the government to reverse its $1.7 billion in budget cuts.

"We lose too many young people in the first three to four years," she said.

"We need financial incentives and professional support to make sure they stay in teaching."

Greens MP John Kaye said the changes were a recipe for teacher shortages.

"There is no fat left in public schools. Any additional burden will cut into classroom teaching," he told AAP.

Sydney Catholic Schools executive director Dan White said he welcomed more mentoring and internship opportunities for young teachers but that a requirement for would-be teachers to achieve a band five in three HSC subjects was "too blunt an instrument".

"In fact, it could prove counterproductive by distorting the subject selection process and encouraging students to choose less demanding subjects," Dr White said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The idea of testing students in literacy and numeracy as they approach their final year of teacher formation has more merit.

"It is the standard of the graduates at the end of their course that is more important than the entry levels at the beginning of it."

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Indonesia president visits Germany

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is winding up an official visit to Germany. Source: AAP

INDONESIAN President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is visiting Germany for talks aimed at strengthening business ties between the two countries.

He meets Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday, after which he will join her on a tour of the international travel fair.

Indonesia is the partner country for the world's largest tourism trade fair, which officially opens on Wednesday.

Yudhoyono's visit to Berlin follows Merkel's trip to Indonesia in July, when the two leaders signed the Jakarta Declaration.

The declaration is aimed at furthering co-operation in trade and investment, defence, research and technology, health and education.

The Indonesian leader is also set to meet Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit before walking through the German capital's historic Brandenburg Gate.

Yudhoyono is scheduled to continue his European trip later on Tuesday when he flies to Budapest for a three-day visit to Hungary aimed at what officials in Jakarta say will help reinvigorate Indonesia's relations with one of Central Europe's key states.

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Home builders need another rate cut: HIA

Improved economic data suggests the Reserve Bank of Australia may not need to cut the cash rate. Source: AAP

THE housing industry believes the central bank has missed an opportunity to provide a boost to the struggling residential building sector.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) kept the cash rate at three per cent at its monthly board meeting on Tuesday.

RBA governor Glenn Stevens said with inflation likely to be within its two to three per cent target band, and with growth likely to be a little below trend over the coming year, an accommodative stance of monetary policy was appropriate.

"The inflation outlook, as assessed at present, would afford scope to ease policy further, should that be necessary to support demand," Mr Stevens said in a statement.

But Housing Industry Association senior economist Shane Garrett said the RBA should have cut rates now, with Monday's unexpectedly weak building approvals data for January indicating a sustained residential construction recovery is some way off.

"What's good for the residential construction market is good for the wider economy. International factors have squeezed many sectors of the Australian economy and this calls for further action from the RBA," Mr Garrett said in a statement.

Retailers were equally unimpressed, despite new data showing spending jumped by 0.9 per cent in January, more than double the growth expected by economists.

Australian National Retailers Association chief executive Margy Osmond, while welcoming the apparent lift in consumer spending, said this came after another poor Christmas period.

"Without continued cuts to the cash rate, we may lose the momentum of the return to spending at the start of the year," Ms Osmond said.

However, one mortgage broker believes retail banks could go it alone and cut their lending rates independently of the RBA.

"The banks have no issues at the moment with cost of funds and we can see them cutting their rates as they aggressively compete for home finance business," 1300HomeLoan managing director John Kolenda said in a statement.

"As the competition intensifies among lenders we could see rates reduced slightly by five to 10 basis points over the coming months."

One bookie agrees, saying homeowners could be in for a treat.

Sportsbet.com.au has odds of $2.50 that the National Australia Bank will independently cut first, despite the RBA's inaction, followed by Commonwealth Bank at $3.

Westpac and the ANZ are also in the market at $4 and $5 respectively

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Cigarettes worth $200,000 seized in Vic

Police have seized illegally imported cigarettes from a truck in Victoria's northeast. Source: AAP

MORE than 1000 cartons of cigarettes worth $200,000 have been seized from a truck in Victoria's northeast.

The cigarettes, believed to be illegally imported, were discovered when police searched the truck at Benalla on Saturday morning.

Police said the haul would be worth around $200,000.

The truck's 22-year-old driver from Sydney, was charged with two counts of possessing and conveying imported tobacco, possessing a prohibited weapon and exceeding the speed limit.

He was bailed to appear at Benalla Magistrates Court on April 4.

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Premier set to add to PM's problems

UNBACKABLE: Premier Colin Barnett, a firm favourite to win the state election, will give the federal Labor leadership another headache. Source: The Sunday Times

AS if the polls, the carbon tax, the mining tax, the lack of a budget surplus and Kevin Rudd weren't enough for Julia Gillard, the prime minister looks set to be handed another problem this weekend.

It can be summed up in a name: Colin Barnett.

The incumbent Liberal West Australian premier has been one of the most vocal and strident political critics of the prime minister's style and substance since her ascension in 2010.

And with the member for Cottesloe an unbackable $1.02 favourite to lead the Liberals to a state election win this weekend, Ms Gillard can expect a newly-mandated Mr Barnett to renew his attacks with even more vigour if WA votes the way the polls and bookmakers have long predicted.

She may have been out of sight during the build-up but Ms Gillard has never been far from the mind of the Liberal party since it began officially campaigning in early February.

After it became clear Ms Gillard would keep her distance until polling day, Mr Barnett has consistently used her absence from the side of WA Labor leader Mark McGowan to link the party's federal woes to its local team.

Kelly O'Dwyer, Liberal federal MP for Higgins, said the lack of election support from a sitting prime minister for a state election candidate was "unprecedented".

"The reason they don't want the prime minister in WA is because they know it will lose them votes," Ms O'Dwyer said.

Mr McGowan has staunchly deflected such commentary, saying the March 9 poll was a state election fought on state issues and the prime minister was free to travel where and when she wanted.

He also vowed to be firm but fair if given the chance to work with his Canberra colleagues.

"It is possible to be tough with Canberra and get results and that's what I'll do," Mr McGowan said.

But the fact no federal minister has been seen with Mr McGowan over the entire campaign - and only three set foot briefly in the state in that time - gave some weight to the Liberal argument of a state and federal party that were not talking, let alone able to work together.

In contrast, federal opposition leader Tony Abbott was effusive in lauding Mr Barnett - and buttering up the locals - at the Liberals' official election launch.

"How much I respect the premier of this state, how much I have learnt from him, how much I wish to model myself on him, should I get the opportunity to lead our country," Mr Abbott said.

"The Barnett government has become a model for all the governments that we run or hope to run. That's the kind of government that I wish to run in Canberra.

"Every Australian owes a debt to Western Australia and in an important sense, West Australians are the best Australians."

Mr Barnett has continued to play on WA's ingrained and parochial mistrust of much that emanates from Australia's east coast with his mantra to "stand up to Canberra", pointing to the mining tax and the state's GST share as examples of how the state was being diddled by Labor.

And so, if Mr Barnett proves victorious on Saturday night, Ms Gillard can expect no favours from WA, which had an economy valued at $239 billion in 2011/12 and accounted for 46 per cent of Australia's exports last year.

First on Mr Barnett's hit list is likely to be Ms Gillard's Gonski education reforms, set to be discussed at the Council of Australian Governments' meeting on April 19.

"We have never indicated we would sign up to Gonski, and we are not going to sit back and suddenly let the commonwealth take over the running of our schools," Mr Barnett said.

"They come out and denigrate our hospitals, denigrate our schools, and then pretend to have a solution. That is not good government."

And not a good sign Ms Gillard is going to get any peace from Mr Barnett as she approaches her date with the nation on September 14.

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US, Saudi united on Syria, Iran

THE United States and Saudi Arabia have warned Syrian President Bashar Assad they will boost support to rebels fighting to oust him unless he steps down.

The two are also putting Iran's leadership on notice that time is running out for a diplomatic resolution to concerns about its nuclear program.

After a series of meetings in the Riyadh on Monday, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told reporters Assad must understand recent scud missile attacks on regime foes in the city of Aleppo would not be tolerated by the international community and that he had lost all claim to be Syria's legitimate leader.

Saud, whose country along with other Gulf states is widely believed to be supplying weapons to the Syrian rebels, said Saudi Arabia could not ignore the brutality Assad is inflicting on his people, even after two years of escalating violence that has claimed 70,000 lives.

He said history had never seen a government use strategic missiles against its own people.

"This cannot go on," he said.

"He has lost all authority."

In his discussions with Kerry, Saud said he had "stressed the importance of enabling the Syrian people to exercise its legitimate right to defend itself against the regime's killing machine."

Saud also decried the fact Assad continued to get weapons from "third parties," a veiled reference to Russia and Iran, which have backed the regime through the conflict.

"Saudi Arabia will do everything within its capacity, and we do believe that what is happening in Syria is a slaughter, a slaughter of innocents" he said.

"We can't bring ourselves to remain quiet. Morally we have a duty."

The Obama administration has resisted appeals from the Syrian opposition to provide it with weapons and ammunitions over fears they could fall into the hands of Islamist extremists who have gained support among Assad opponents.

But Kerry sidestepped a question about whether the arms reportedly being supplied to the rebels by Saudi Arabia and others were a concern.

Instead, he criticised Iran, Hezbollah and Russia by name for giving weaponry to the Assad regime.

Kerry did announce last week the US would for the first time provide rebel fighters in the Free Syrian Army with non-lethal assistance - rations and medical assistance.

European nations like Britain and France are expected to soon send the rebels defensive military equipment and Kerry has said the totality of the aid could be enough to change the situation on the ground.

"The United States will continue to work with our friends to empower the Syrian opposition to hopefully be able to bring about a peaceful resolution, but if not, to increase pressure on Assad," Kerry said.

He added that Assad "is destroying his country - and his people in the process - to hold onto power that is not his anymore."

Kerry is in Saudi Arabia on the seventh leg of a marathon nine-nation dash through Europe and the Middle East on his first overseas trip as secretary of state.

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Malik Obama campaigns for change in Kenya

MALIK Obama, who is running for office in western Kenya, on Monday said his half-brother, US President Barack Obama, had promised to visit if elections were free and fair.

The 54-year-old accountant said the theme for his campaign in the race for governor of Siaya county was "change". That echoes the slogan of "hope and change" with which his brother was swept into the US presidency in 2008.

For Malik Obama, change means "the eradication of poverty, the development of infrastructure and job creation."

He told dpa by telephone: "I bring honesty, sincerity, and putting the welfare of my people first.

"Also, there are connections I can use."

Malik Obama runs a community centre in the hamlet of Kogelo, surrounded by cornfields and forests. The area saw a minor tourist boom and was fitted with power lines and a paved road after his famous relative became president in 2008.

He said he and Barack Obama, 51, last spoke after the US elections, when the latter promised to visit Kenya if the elections were fair and transparent.

Many Kenyans were disappointed that Barack Obama did not visit during his first term. In 2009, Obama's first trip to sub-Saharan Africa was to Ghana.

Malik Obama told dpa he draws inspiration from his younger sibling's accomplishments.

He is running as an independent against a major party candidate, but he said he offers something different and his background as an accountant makes him suited for government work.

"We need somebody who understands economics because we have the resources here but we just don't have the managers," he said.

"It behooves me also to make a contribution as the first born and to do that here in Kenya, in Africa."

Malik and Barack Obama have the same father - once a goat-herder in Kenya, who became an academic.

Barack Obama last visited Kenya in 2006, when he was a US senator.

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