Former HSU boss pleads guilty to fraud

Disgraced former HSU boss Michael Williamson admitted he defrauded the union out of almost $1m. Source: AAP

DISGRACED former Health Services Union boss Michael Williamson faces 30 years in jail and civil action by his former union for fraudulently pocketing almost $1 million.

Williamson pleaded guilty on Tuesday to four fraud-related charges arising from his conduct while he was president of the HSU.

The former ALP national president initially faced 50 charges but, in light of his guilty plea, the remainder were withdrawn.

Some will still be taken into account in sentencing and Williamson faces as long as 30 years behind bars.

He also faces paying back some, if not all, of his ill-gotten gains.

The HSU will launch civil proceedings against him in an attempt to claw back some of the $1 million he got away with.

"Now that he has pleaded guilty, what it does is open the possibility of recovering some of the funds on behalf of the union," HSU president Chris Brown told AAP.

Williamson pleaded guilty in the Downing Centre Court to creating false invoices for work performed by CANME, a company registered in his wife's name.

The work was never done but court documents showed the HSU still made 22 payments each worth $15,385 to a CANME bank account.

According to the statement of agreed facts, Williamson used the funds deposited in the CANME account to maintain his family's lifestyle, including paying private school fees, mortgage payments and clothing.

He pleaded guilty to defrauding HSU out of $338,470 - the total amount paid to CANME between July 2006 and June 2009.

He also pleaded guilty to defrauding printing firm Access Focus out of $600,000 in cash between December 2006 and February 2010.

The charge relates to Williamson proposing Access Focus inflate its invoices to the HSU and provide him with secret payments in the process.

A guilty plea was also entered with regard to recruiting Carron Gilleland to hinder the police investigation by destroying American Express statements.

Court documents revealed Mrs Gilleland, the director of a business with her husband that printed a HSU magazine, provided credit cards to Williamson at his request, and later to former MP Craig Thomson and HSU staffer Cheryl McMillan.

Williamson told the Gillelands in 2012 how to destroy Amex statements.

Chief Magistrate Graeme Henson committed Williamson's case to the Sydney District Court on October 25, where a sentence date is expected to be set.

Whistleblower and former HSU national secretary Kathy Jackson said a judicial inquiry was still needed.

"(I felt) relief to say the least but more important I think there is a case for a judicial inquiry to be heard," she told AAP.

Ms Jackson said there were many things outside the scope of a police investigation that an official inquiry could deal with, including the influence of factions.

HSU NSW secretary Gerard Hayes said the most difficult period in the HSU's history was now over.

"Our members deserve a union they can be proud of," he said.

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Qld compo changes to be rushed through

The Queensland government says changes to the workers compensation scheme will protect employers. Source: AAP

SOME Queenslanders injured at work will no longer be able to sue their employers under reforms to be rushed through state parliament.

Bosses will also be able to access job applicants' workers compensation history.

Unions, the opposition and lawyers say parts of the shake-up are unjustified and unfair, especially when the state's workers compensation scheme, WorkCover, made half a billion dollars profit last financial year.

Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie unveiled the changes on Tuesday and declared the legislation "urgent" so it bypasses scrutiny by a parliamentary committee and is passed this week.

The most controversial changes would give employers access to the claims history of job applicants.

Critics say the move could lead to discrimination, but the government says it will red flag those who've rorted the system.

Penalties for those who make fraudulent compensation claims will increase.

And a worker would no longer be able to sue their employer if their injury causes just five per cent or less impairment.

A bipartisan parliamentary committee recommended against a threshold, but the former WorkCover chairman wanted a 10-15 per cent cap.

In defending the changes, Mr Bleijie said Queensland would have the lowest threshold to access common law damages in Australia, with the exception of the ACT.

"The changes aim to strike a better balance between providing appropriate benefits for injured workers and ensuring the costs incurred by employers are reasonable," he said.

"Having a competitive premium will encourage more investment into our great state."

Lower-end common law claims accounted for around half the payouts in the scheme.

Queensland Council of Unions president John Battams says half of all injured workers will now be denied the right to sue an negligent employer.

"Even a small degree of permanent impairment can have a devastating effect on a worker's future employment prospects," he said.

"Without an appropriate, independently adjudicated payout many of these workers and their families face a life of poverty."

The Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA) said WorkCover's annual report, released late on Monday, proved the changes were unjustified.

"WorkCover profits are up, common law claims are down and Queensland has the second lowest premiums in Australia," the ALA's Queensland president Michelle James said in a statement.

"The total cost of common law claims was also down more than $50 million compared with the previous year.

"That's not a scheme rife with unworthy claims."

Shadow treasurer Curtis Pitt said the changes were yet another rush job by a government intent on avoiding the usual scrutiny.

"No wonder they are getting to be known as the know-it-all Newman government," Mr Pitt said.

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McCann appeal sparks huge response

UK police are focussing on a man with dark hair who was seen the night Madeleine McCann disappeared. Source: AAP

A NEW British police television appeal about the 2007 disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann in Portugal has triggered an unprecedented public response, the BBC says.

UK detectives who have spent two years raking over the case published new electronic images of men they want to trace, plus a reworked timeline of events leading up to Madeleine's disappearance.

Police said the appeal, broadcast on Monday on BBC TV's Crimewatch, triggered more than 300 calls and 170 emails from the public.

They are keen to find one man seen carrying a young child in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on the night of May 3, 2007, around the time Kate McCann discovered her eldest daughter was missing from their holiday apartment.

London's Metropolitan Police said the man was of "vital importance" in their quest to discover what happened to Madeleine, who vanished just a few days before her fourth birthday.

"It's been a truly unprecedented response," Crimewatch editor Joe Mather told BBC radio.

"There were lots of calls from British people who were in Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine's disappearance who'd never previously spoken to the Met.

"Several callers mentioned the same name" for the man seen carrying a child, he said.

"It is a long shot but it's remarkable how often results are possible even several years down the line.

"The ability to rule people out of an investigation or out of a timeline can be almost as significant as being able to name potential suspects.

"There were genuinely useful calls."

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, the senior investigating officer in the case, said his team had had a "revelation moment" that put the spotlight on other possibilities.

Their probe focused on the time between 8.30pm, when the McCanns left their three children in their apartment to dine with friends at a nearby tapas restaurant, to when Kate McCann discovered Madeleine was missing at 10pm.

They established that a man seen carrying a child near their apartment at 9.15pm by a friend of the McCanns, was almost certainly an innocent British holidaymaker collecting his own daughter from a nearby creche.

That put the spotlight on other events leading up to 10pm.

The new e-fits of the man whom police are especially keen to trace were drawn up based on descriptions from different witnesses. They said the blonde-haired child did not seem in distress.

The witnesses described the man as white, between 20 and 40 years old, with short brown hair, of medium build and height and clean-shaven. One image shows him with a fuller jaw than the other.

Police said they were working on the theory that the abduction could have been planned and were also interested in tracing "one or two" fair-haired men who had been seen "lurking" around the apartment complex before Madeleine's disappearance. Witnesses said the men were speaking German or Dutch.

They also speculated that the youngster may have disturbed a burglary, pointing to a sharp increase in local break-ins in the months leading up to the incident.

The appeal will also be broadcast in Ireland, Germany and The Netherlands - though there are no plans to show it in Portugal.

Redwood was to visit The Netherlands on Tuesday and Germany on Wednesday.

German public broadcaster ZDF's Aktenzeichen XY program will on Wednesday show the images of the key man police want to trace.

The force announced it was offering a new reward of up to STG20,000 ($A33,881) for information leading to the prosecution of McCann's abductor.

Portuguese authorities closed their investigation in 2008, but the Met Police spent two years reviewing the case at the British government's request and opened their own probe in July this year.

The operation has interviewed more than 440 people and identified 41 "persons of interest".

During Crimewatch, the McCanns, who launched a global media campaign to find their daughter, said they were still optimistic she could be traced.

"We're feeling hopeful," said father Gerry McCann.

"These cases can get solved", he said, citing instances where long-lost people have been found.

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Kirby moved by story from Korean woman

FORMER High Court Judge Michael Kirby admits he's a bit of a tough nut from more than three decades on the bench.

But he says he was especially moved by the story of an elderly Korean woman, one of many who testified to the United Nations Human Rights Council inquiry into human rights abuses in North Korea.

Justice Kirby, who heads a three-member team investigating systematic, widespread and grave violations in the reclusive Asian nation, will address the UN general assembly on findings later this month.

He says he had heard many upsetting stories.

"I am a pretty hard nut because I was a judge for 34 years in Australia," he told ABC television.

"A lot of the stories one hears... are very distressing and you have to just distance yourself from it so that you don't allow emotion to contaminate your assessments and judgment."

Justice Kirby said the elderly woman related how she last saw her husband in 1951 during the Korean War as troops moved back and forth.

Believing it was safe, he emerged from a hiding place, just as North Korean troops returned. She hasn't seen him since.

"She said losing a partner was like losing your arm. I feel a need, she said, to embrace him. I just want to know is he still alive," he said.

"This is 1951. This was this elderly woman just talking of such love for her husband in such simple human terms. I found it a very moving thing. One thinks of one's own life in those circumstances and the terrible burden of not knowing what has happened to your partner."

In the inquiry, Justice Kirby and his team have heard testimony in South Korea, Japan, Thailand and the US, but not North Korea, which has refused to allow them in.

He said his job was to conduct an inquiry that was independent, fair and faithful to the truth, backed by the testimony of a large number of witnesses.

"It's then a matter for the politicians in the general assembly and the other organs of the UN to decide what should be done," he said.

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Shorten lags on parliament experience

BILL Shorten isn't the least experienced opposition leader of the past 40 years, but he's not far off.

Since the Liberals' Billy Snedden failed to oust Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam, only three opposition leaders have had less time in parliament before taking their party's top job.

Mr Shorten was elected as the member for Maribyrnong in November 2007, giving him less than six years experience in parliament before winning Sunday's historic rank-and-file and caucus vote.

Bob Hawke had the least experience.

Mr Hawke had just two years and four months in parliament before he became Labor leader and took the party to its historic 1983 election win.

The Liberals' John Hewson was an MP for only two years and eight months when he assumed the top job, holding on for four years before being dumped after losing the "unlosable" 1993 election.

Malcolm Turnbull made the jump from business to politics in just under four years before he became Liberal leader. He lasted just over a year before being replaced by Tony Abbott.

Even the opposition leader often portrayed as having the least experience in recent years, Labor's Mark Latham, had been in parliament for almost 10 years.

Mr Shorten's six years in parliament is well below the almost 20 years held by Malcolm Fraser, or the 16 years of former Labor leader Kim Beazley.

Mr Shorten will take heart from Mr Hawke's rapid assent to the prime ministership, as well as Kevin Rudd's relatively short eight years in parliament before he became opposition leader and ultimately PM.

But the fate of most opposition leaders is the scrap heap, particularly those who assume the job straight after an election win.

In the past 40 years, no first-up opposition leader has gone on to be prime minister.

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Redfoo without an artist on X Factor

LMFAO frontman Redfoo said he was "gutted" to be the first coach to lose all his artists on The X Factor.

Redfoo's tenancy as an active coach was exhausted after Jiordan Tolli, the last of his three under-24 female singers, was eliminated on Monday night.

Tolli missed out on making the final four after losing out to mixed group Third Degree in a sudden death sing-off.

"I am gutted. I am upset, but that's life," Redfoo said during the Seven Network's live telecast.

"We went 100 per cent and Jiordan gave it her all in every performance."

The decision to send Tolli home was eventually made by the viewers after the coaches, for the second week in a row, were evenly split on who to eliminate.

With the judges unable to decide, the result reverted back to the votes that were cast by the viewers.

But with Tolli out of the competition, Redfoo will be able to vote and comment objectively.

He did have praise for winners Third Degree, who were pieced together from the solo artists who were eliminated after bootcamp, saying they were good but are inconsistent.

Third Degree, consisting of two females and one male, are coached by former Rogue Traders' leading lady Natalie Bassingthwaighte and are the only band in the final four.

The other final four contestants are Queenslander Dami Im, who is under the guidance of Dannii Minogue, and under-24 males Taylor Henderson and 14-year-old Jai Waetford.

Henderson and Waetford are being mentored by Irish Crooner Ronan Keating.

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Parliament to sit over four weeks in 2013

PARLIAMENT is likely to be recalled in a month's time, with four sitting weeks before Christmas.

AAP understands the 44th Parliament will first sit on November 12, with the Tuesday sitting a largely ceremonial affair.

This includes swearing in members, electing a Speaker and a speech by the governor-general.

There will be four sitting weeks before Christmas, split into two fortnights with a break in between.

One of the weeks will include Senate estimates hearings.

Under the previous parliamentary timetable, which was dropped once the election was called, an estimates week was due to be held in late October.

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Facebook opens office in Israel

Facebook says it's opening its first office in Israel after acquiring an Israeli technology startup. Source: AAP

FACEBOOK says it is acquiring an Israeli mobile technology startup and opening its first office in Israel.

Facebook said in a statement on Monday that Israeli mobile utility application developer Onavo would help the social media giant create better mobile products and help connect more people around the world to the internet.

Onavo was founded three years ago and produces technology that compresses content so mobile users can use more data. The Tel Aviv-based company also has an office in California.

Israeli media reported that Facebook is buying the company for more than $US100 million ($A106.41 million) and that it was Facebook's largest acquisition of an Israeli company. Facebook declined comment.

Facebook has bought two Israeli companies in recent years, but employees were transferred to Facebook's US headquarters.

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Severe fire danger forecast in Kimberley

WEST Australian authorities are warning of severe fire danger in parts of the Kimberley on Sunday with hot, dry and windy conditions expected.

The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting a severe fire danger rating for inland parts of the Kimberley and coastal areas of the West Kimberley.

Affected shires include Broome, Derby-West Kimberley, East Pilbara next to Derby-West Kimberley Shire, the northern part of Halls Creek and the inland part of Wyndham-East Kimberley.

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) is urging people to be aware bushfires can threaten without warning and they should have a bushfire survival plan and kit ready.

Residents are warned to stay alert, keep updated with bushfire information and call triple-zero if they see flames.

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Truck loses asbestos on NSW highway

A TRUCK has lost several tonnes of asbestos before crashing into a guardrail in Sydney's west, police say.

A Mitsubishi tipper truck was driving along the M7 at Eastern Creek on Saturday morning before the crash unfolded.

As it travelled along an off-ramp, the truck allegedly lost a load of asbestos waste, believed to be between three to five tonnes, and crashed into a cement guard rail.

Emergency services closed the off-ramp while the asbestos sheeting was hosed down and contained.

A police spokesman said whether the load of asbestos was secured or not would be part of an investigation.

Police have warned motorists about the dangers of unsecured loads leading to accidents and serious injury.

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