Sydney woman arrested after terror hoax

A WOMAN has been accused of falsely reporting a terrorism plot targeting a plane at Sydney's international airport.

The 30-year-old, from Blacktown, allegedly contacted police on March 21, claiming to have overheard a conversation at Kingsford-Smith, where three people had discussed committing an act of terrorism.

An assessment of the threat was made by several agencies and deemed to be a hoax.

Following an investigation by officers from the Joint Counter Terrorism Team, the woman was located on Sunday at Wentworthville, charged with suppling false information and refused bail.

Police said she appeared at Central Local Court on Monday and would remain in custody until reappearing on Thursday.

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Qld mayor referred to corruption watchdog

Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale has been referred to Queensland's corruption watchdog. Source: AAP

IPSWICH Mayor Paul Pisasale has been referred to Queensland's corruption watchdog over revelations he received up to $150,000 in undeclared donations.

The state government has been investigating Mr Pisasale, but on Monday a local government department spokesperson said the matter had been referred to the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC).

Councillors don't need to declare donations to the Queensland Electoral Commission, but are legally required to update their register of interests.

Mr Pisasale's election campaign fund, Forward Ipswich, has reportedly received more than 30 separate donations worth $150,000 since the 2012 council poll.

None of those donations had been entered in his register.

Local Government Minister David Crisafulli last week said Mr Pisasale's register and the fund were being investigated.

Under state laws a councillor who fails to complete or update a register of interest can be fined up to $9350.

Those who intentionally fail to complete or update a register of interests can be fined up to $11,000 and be disqualified for holding office for four years.

Comment has been sought from Mr Pisasale.

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Fairfax scales back job cuts

Fairfax Media will push ahead with cuts to its staff but has scaled back the number. Source: AAP

FAIRFAX Media will push ahead with cuts to its staff but has saved some positions from the firing line.

Staff at Fairfax papers, including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review, walked off the job last month after learning 70 jobs would be axed.

Twenty-five positions were set to go in editorial production, 30 in photography and 15 in the Life Media division.

Fairfax Media confirmed to staff on Monday job losses would occur but the number of cuts had been scaled down.

However, 52 positions are still tipped to go.

Australian Publishing Media managing director Allen Williams said the company had reviewed and carefully considered alternatives put forward by staff and the media union.

In an email to staff, he said there would be 17 full-time equivalent positions made redundant in editorial production.

Thirteen positions would be cut from Life Media, down from 15 cuts foreshadowed last month.

In photographic, eight jobs have been saved with redundancies reduced from 30 to 22.

Photography will retain 28 staff.

"This follows the extensive consultation process undertaken over the past three and a half weeks with staff and MEAA (Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance)," Mr Williams stated.

Two "quality manager roles" in Sydney and Melbourne will be created and desk editor positions will be increased by six.

The voluntary redundancy program starts from Monday.

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Alleged freeze on asylum seeker's claim

REFUGEE supporters claim the immigration department had put a "freeze" on the application of a now-deceased Sri Lankan asylum seeker because he had reached the Australian mainland.

Leorsin Seemanpillai, 29, set himself alight on Saturday.

He was living in Geelong waiting for his application for a protection visa to be finalised.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has cautioned against drawing conclusions about what drove Mr Seemanpillai to self harm.

There had been no visa decision nor had he been told he was being deported.

"This is a terrible and tragic incident and none of us can know the mind of someone in this situation," he told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

But Asylum Seeker Resource Centre spokeswoman Pamela Curr blames processing delays on the application of Mr Seemanpillai, whose boat reached Darwin in January 2013.

Ms Curr understands all asylum seekers who made it to Australia after August 2012 but before the federal parliament passed laws to excise the mainland in May 2013 have had their applications frozen.

"We don't know but maybe Leo would still be alive if his claims were being processed in a timely way," Ms Curr told AAP.

"These direct-entry people were all frozen."

The no-advantage test introduced by the Gillard government in August 2012 did not apply to asylum seekers who reached the mainland.

It was aimed at ensuring those who arrived by boat were not advantaged over people waiting in refugee camps.

Ms Curr said it was six months before Mr Seemanpillai had been allowed to make his refugee status claim and after 18 months he still hadn't had an official interview.

A spokeswoman for Mr Morrison denied direct-entry cases had been frozen.

Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the cruelty of the Abbott Government's refugee policy was pushing people to breaking point

"It's clear that Leo was a casualty of the system," Senator Hanson-Young said.

The minister hit back at what he considered the politicising of the death.

"If they are then that is a disgraceful and grubby and despicable thing for the Greens to do," he told Sky News.

Mr Seemanpillai had been receiving community mental health support "for some time" and was in contact with a case worker as late as last Friday.

There was nothing to indicate during those meetings he had intended to take his own life.

Mr Morrison said he was satisfied Mr Seemanpillai had received adequate assistance while on the bridging visa, with work rights and ongoing mental health support.

The department will conduct a review of the arrangements.

* Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467.

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Shotgun fired at Hobart house

A SHOTGUN has been fired at a house in Hobart.

The occupants were home when the shot was fired on Saturday evening, police said.

Neighbours heard the blast but the occupants of the Bridgewater residence did not report the incident until the following morning.

Police said damage consistent with shotgun pellets was visible at the scene.

No one was injured.

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Qld still on track for surplus

Queensland premier Campbell Newman isn't phased by a massive increase to the fiscal deficit. Source: AAP

QUEENSLAND is still on track for a surplus despite the budget deficit quadrupling to a projected $2.27 billion next financial year.

The mid-year budget update in December estimated the fiscal deficit would be $664 million for 2014/15, but a $600 million write down in coal royalties has worsened the bottom lime.

So too has a lag in natural disaster relief repayments from the Commonwealth.

Premier Campbell Newman doesn't see the loss as a budget deterioration, rather he insists it's an accounting problem.

"It's a timing issue," he said.

Two years of job and service cuts have given enough of a buffer to sustain the hit, with the state still on track for a surplus in 2015/16, as promised.

"It will be the first time in over a decade that Queensland taxpayers won't have to borrow money," Mr Newman said.

On Tuesday, the Newman government will hand down its third and final budget before next year's election.

It has all but confirmed it will sell assets, instead of increasing taxes and reducing services, to help pay down $80 billion debt and build new infrastructure.

Two ports could be leased and two electricity generators and the commercial parts of Sunwater sold.

"The only way we can build the new infrastructure is through cutting front line services, putting up taxes and charges, or asset sales," Mr Newman said.

On Sunday, it was announced that $6.5 million had been set aside in the budget to hire 70 child safety officers.

Another $25 million will be spent on child safety initiatives, such as more referral services, support for families to care for children at home instead of out-of-home care, and improved support for indigenous families.

Child Safety Minister Tracy Davis says $406 million will be spent over five years, to allow an overhaul of the child protection system.

The funding boost is in response to the Queensland Child Protection Commission of Inquiry and the final report by Commissioner Tim Carmody QC.

He recommended keeping families together, with more prevention and early intervention services.

"Parents should be able to care for their own children at home safely, with early intervention services and support easily accessible for those families who need it," Ms Davis said.

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Aust pledges $100m for polio fight

Australia has pledged 100 million dollars to go towards eradicating polio in northern Africa. Source: AAP

AUSTRALIA has pledged $100 million to help eradicate polio for good.

The funds will be spread over five years and will go towards making countries in northern Africa and the Middle East - where outbreaks have been reported - polio-free.

It will also help Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria, where the disease is endemic.

About $20 million will be provided over the next year to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative for immunisations to fight the disease's re-emergence.

Announcing the pledge on Sunday, Foreign minister Julie Bishop said Australia is committed to helping finish the job of eradicating polio.

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Bali flights under cloud but Darwin clear

Flights in Darwin are expected to resume later today as plumes from an Indonesian volcano dissipate. Source: AAP

FLIGHTS to and from Darwin have resumed after they were grounded by an ash cloud from an Indonesian volcano, as Jetstar grounds flights to Bali.

Darwin was cut off to all air services on Saturday as ash plumes billowed from the Sangeang Api volcano off the Indonesian island of Sumbawa. It erupted continuously after an initial blast on Friday afternoon.

The major plume affecting Australian aviation swept southeast over the west side of the Northern Territory and as far south as Alice Springs.

Cyndee Seals of the Bureau of Meteorology's Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in Darwin said Australia was now clear but airlines were meeting to discuss an ash cloud near Bali.

"I can advise that the ash cloud across Australia is dissipating but there are still ash clouds southwest of the volcano and another to the east east-northeast from an earlier high eruption," she said.

The southwesterly ash cloud was nearing Bali but its effects on flights to Denpasar were not yet clear, Ms Seals said.

"Right now, unless the winds change - and they are a little variable - it will take the ash south of Denpasar, away from Bali," she said.

"The airlines are meeting about it."

On Sunday night Jetstar cancelled 12 flights in and out of Bali as the Sangeang Api cloud drifted towards Denpasar International Airport.

Qantas announced it had resumed its flights, while Virgin, Air Asia and Jetstar also resumed operations in and out of Darwin, Darwin International Airport spokeswoman Virginia Sanders told AAP.

But she urged travellers to stay in touch with their airline for updates on flights as some changes might be made.

"Flights are coming back on line but there are some scheduled changes so people still need to check with the airline with regards to what's happening with their particular flight," she told AAP.

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One dead and six injured in NSW crash

A MAN is dead and six people, including two children, have been injured in a head-on collision at Coffs Harbour on NSW's north coast.

The 58-year-old was killed when a Nissan Pulsar and Ford Falcon collided on Hogbin Drive just before 1pm on Saturday, police say.

The man, a rear passenger in the Falcon, was taken to Coffs Harbour Health Campus but died a short time later.

The driver of the Pulsar - a 31-year-old woman - was taken to hospital with leg and wrist injuries.

Among her passengers, a nine-year-old girl and five-year-old boy were also hospitalised with serious injuries.

The 59-year-old female driver of the Falcon suffered multiple fractures to her arms and legs.

And a 19-year-old man, a passenger in the Falcon, was taken to hospital with internal injuries.

An investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash is underway with police urging witnesses to come forward.

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Relatives seek new Malaysia plane search

THEIR hopes raised and dashed, relatives of passengers on a missing Malaysia Airlines plane want a new plan to find it after the search was suspended following a new setback.

The 84-year-old mother of Australian passenger Rod Burrows no longer expects to live to see the mystery of Flight 370 solved.

"I doubt it will be in my lifetime," Irene Burrows said on Friday from her home in Biloela in Australia's northeast.

"All I just want is a bit of plane. It's all I want to know - where they are."

Tempers flared on Thursday after the joint centre set up to oversee the search for the jetliner that vanished March 8 said a robot submarine had found no trace of it in a section of the southern Indian Ocean where acoustic signals, or "pings," were detected.

Investigators have concluded that the area where the signals were detected is not the final resting place of the plane.

The search for the plane and the 239 people on board will be suspended for two months while more powerful sonar equipment is brought in, according to the Australia-based Joint Agency Coordination Center.

"Now they say the pings are not from the plane. It's March 8 all over again and I don't like March 8 at all," said an emotional Jacquita Gonzales, whose husband Patrick Gomes was the flight supervisor.

"We are on a roller coaster ride and we have just hit bottom again," she said.

Gonzales said sometimes she is an "emotional wreck" thinking about the fate of her beloved husband but wills herself to be strong. Their 29th wedding anniversary is on Sunday.

"Please find the plane, find my husband and all our loved ones," she said.

Authorities believe the plane, bound from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, turned sharply and flew to the southern Indian Ocean.

Yet not a single piece of the missing Boeing 777 has been found.

The Malaysian official in charge of the search, Defence Minister Hishamuddin Hussein, visited Beijing this week, and relatives asked to meet him but got no reply, said Steve Wang, whose mother was on the plane.

"Something very disappointing has been announced and we want to know what his plan is," Wang said.

This week, the Malaysian government gave in to pressure from families of passengers and released 45 pages of satellite data it used to determine that the flight ended in the southern Indian Ocean.

"It feels like we have been fooled by the authorities. We are now back to square one. I expect them to keep searching. There can't be any closure until we find something," said Lee Khim Fatt, whose wife Christine Foong was a stewardess on the plane.

Lee said he cannot believe that such a big plane can't be detected by satellites and modern technology.

"If satellites can capture the image of a small car with its number plate, why is there no satellite image of this big bird, the 777? Are they hiding something from us?" Lee said.

China renewed diplomatic pressure on the Malaysian government on Thursday in a meeting between Premier Li Keqiang and visiting Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Beijing has tried to placate Chinese relatives of missing passengers by pressing their case with Malaysia while trying to avoid damage to relations with an important trading partner.

"We expect Malaysia to take the leading and coordinating role, come up with a new search plan for the jet at an early date, and take the investigation seriously," Li told Najib, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

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