Vic ALP confident of winning Lyndhurst

LABOR candidate Martin Pakula is confident he can win Saturday's by-election in the Victorian state seat of Lyndhurst.

Victory for Mr Pakula would leave the state parliament on a knife edge, with Labor having 43 seats to the coalition's 44, including the Speaker.

It would mean the government would still require the support of independent MP Geoff Shaw to pass legislation opposed by Labor.

The coalition is not fielding a candidate in the by-election for Lyndhurst, which was triggered when Labor's Tim Holding resigned in February.

The Australian Greens, the Democratic Labor Party, Family First, the Sex Party and three independents are contesting the seat, which Labor holds by a margin of 13.9 per cent.

Mr Pakula, a former upper house MP and public transport minister, greeted voters arriving at Keysborough Primary School on Saturday morning.

Few voters were keen to stop for a chat.

Electoral signs fluttered in the strong winds, candidate signs blew over and how-to-vote cards flew away.

Several voters commented aloud at the taxpayer money being wasted on by-elections.

Mr Pakula, who was dressed casually in jeans and a suit jacket, said he had received a good reception from voters.

Voters were concerned about cuts to TAFE colleges, manufacturing jobs in Dandenong South, roads, schools and health care, he said.

"If those concerns translate into support for the Labor Party then we should have a reasonable result tonight", he told reporters.

"I'm confident, but haven't been complacent for one moment. I've treated this by-election as if it is being held in the most marginal seat in the state."

Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews said Mr Pakula would regain portfolios he stepped aside from for the by-election, including shadow attorney-general, if he won.

He said Victorians would be very concerned that Mr Shaw was now likely to hold the balance of power.

Mr Andrews said everything Premier Denis Napthine did would have to meet the approval of Mr Shaw.

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Bombing suspect's friends 'shocked'

TWO university friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev who were jailed by immigration authorities the day after his capture had nothing to do with the deadly attack, a lawyer for one of them says.

They had also seen no hints that he harboured any violent thoughts or terrorist sympathies.

Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, who are from Kazakhstan, were classmates with Tsarnaev at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. They appeared alongside him in a recent photograph of a group of young men visiting New York City's Times Square.

They were detained on April 20 after being questioned in connection with the bombing, which had killed three people and injured more than 260 others a few days earlier.

"These kids are just as shocked and horrified about what happened as everyone else," Kadyrbayev's lawyer, Robert Stahl, said in a phone interview on Friday.

"They can't even fathom something like this from a kid who seemed to be a typical young college student."

Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev had been interviewed at length, twice, by FBI agents and had co-operated fully, Stahl said.

They were not suspects but were being held for violating their student visas by not regularly attending classes, Stahl said.

They are being detained at a county jail in Boston.

The Kazakh Foreign Ministry said earlier this week that US authorities came across the two while searching for "possible links and contacts" to Tsarnaev, a student at the university.

US immigration officials have declined to discuss the reasons why the men were detained.

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Honour the Anzacs every day, urges WA

AUSTRALIANS have been urged to show the Anzac spirit of mateship and national pride every day, and not just once a year during the veterans march in Perth.

Residents of the Perth capital gathered in record numbers to honour veterans and present day diggers, with 50,000 gathering for the dawn service at Kings Park and even more then lining the streets of the city as hundreds of veterans marched.

Modern-day digger Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Willis, whose grandfather Robert Lowson was one of the original Anzacs to land at Gallipoli in 1915, led WA's main Anzac day march on a new route and with a new focus.

Vietnam veteran, former state and federal politician and now RSL WA president Graham Edwards said in his address the best way to honour the sacrifice of servicemen and women down the years was to live by their code every day.

"Perhaps we ought to better honour our Anzacs in our daily lives with those same qualities of humour, honour, sacrifice, mateship and a fair go for all," Mr Edwards said.

"Indeed if those same qualities were practised by all of us, including our nation's political, corporate and civic leaders, then we could give surely give truth and meaning to the saying - we will remember them."

Lt Col Willis said his pride at being able to lead the march was tempered with a realisation the Anzac tradition needed work to survive.

"The world and Australia have changed," Lt Col Willis said.

"But I'm sure those challenges can be met and the RSL can deliver like it did for my grandfather's generation."

WA governor Malcolm McCusker echoed the sentiment, saying Anzac day was about more than just the landing at Gallipoli in 1915 - it was about all wars that Australia had fought in and the people who gave their lives for the cause of freedom.

"To them we owe an enormous debt. A debt that we must never forget and which we must try to pay in our daily lives," he said.

Mr McCusker also paid tribute to the Aboriginal servicemen who were only in recent times acknowledged, as well as nurses and others who helped the wounded.

Young onlooker Maggie Wormold, 17, who had travelled from Busselton to attend the march, said she felt her generation was determined to retain the memories of the sacrifices of older Australians.

"It is important we never forget what they did in the last century, and what our forces are doing today," she said.

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Don't glorify Anzacs, warns Tas governor

IMAGES of terrified soldiers who had "pissed in their own pants" have been used by Tasmania's governor to implore Australians not to glorify war on Anzac day.

Governor Peter Underwood says the country needs to remember the realities of conflict as the centenary of Anzac day approaches.

He has used a graphic description of an evacuation by a Vietnam War helicopter crewman to make his point.

The crewman describes soldiers being pushed out of an overcrowded chopper so it can take off and escape enemy fire.

He writes those being abandoned were so afraid "some had even pissed in their own pants".

Mr Underwood says Australia is in danger of overlooking the brutal reality of war as the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing approaches in 2015.

"That is what war is really like and, with respect to those who have a different view, I say that is how we should tell it to our children," he said.

The governor said the "real heroes" of war were those who fought in fear because their country needed them.

"They deserve honouring and remembering as they struggled to overcome the terror and do their duty: not the mythical tall, lean, bronzed and laconic Anzac, enthusiastically and unflinchingly carrying the torch of freedom in the face of murderous enemy fire," he said.

"Australia needs to drop the sentimental myths that Anzac day has attracted.

"The soldiers of Gallipoli must be respectfully, but realistically honoured and each of us must remain resolute about peace."

Tasmanian RSL president and Vietnam veteran Chris Munday hailed the speech, but acknowledged some would find it controversial.

"That was the best speech I ever heard in my life," Mr Munday told AAP.

"That gentleman told the truth.

"It's bloody horrible."

Thousands of marchers and onlookers crowded the Hobart Cenotaph for the city's official wreath-laying service.

Earlier, more than 5000 attended the city's dawn service.

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Canada train plot suspects reject charges

Two men accused of plotting with al-Qaeda to derail a passenger train in Canada appeared in court. Source: AAP

TWO foreign nationals arrested on suspicion of what police say was an al-Qaeda-backed plot to derail a Canadian passenger train have rejected the charges as they made their first court appearances.

Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, and Raed Jaser, 35, were arrested on Monday for allegedly planning to carry out an attack on a Via Rail train in the Toronto area.

The pair have been charged with conspiring to carry out an attack and conspiring with a terrorist group to murder persons, though very few details about the alleged plot have been revealed.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said the suspects were "receiving support from al-Qaeda elements located in Iran" - a claim quickly rejected by Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi as "truly ridiculous".

Esseghaier, in a Montreal courtroom, and Jaser, through his lawyer after a hearing in Toronto, both said on Tuesday they were distressed over what they described as unfounded allegations made against them. Neither man entered a formal plea.

Jaser "is in shock and disbelief", his lawyer John Norris told reporters outside the courthouse, adding: "He intends to defend himself vigorously against these charges."

Norris also accused authorities of "demonising" the two suspects and questioned the timing of their arrests on the heels of last week's deadly bomb attacks in Boston and as Canadian MPs consider new anti-terror measures.

"It's surprising," he said.

In Toronto, Jaser's defence team was granted a ban on publishing any evidence from the proceedings, and a bail hearing was set for May 23.

In Montreal, meanwhile, Esseghaier told Judge Pierre Labelle that the accusations were unfounded, but he was quickly cut off by the judge, who ordered the matter transferred to the Toronto court.

The RCMP told a press conference on Monday that the suspects had been under surveillance since last August, and were observed monitoring railways.

Police, however, emphasised there had been "no imminent threat".

The suspects' plans were "not based on their ethnic origins but on an ideology", RCMP Assistant Commissioner James Malizia said.

According to local media, authorities had first been alerted to the suspects by a Toronto imam who noticed one of the men trying to spread extremist propaganda.

Malizia said the suspects had received "direction and guidance" from al-Qaeda operatives in Iran, but emphasised the plot was not "state-sponsored".

Iran is a Shi'ite Muslim majority nation, while al-Qaeda is made up of Sunni Muslims who consider Shi'ites to be heretics.

The two sides, according to a former Canadian envoy to Tehran, John Mundy, are "natural antagonists".

"If it turns out al-Qaeda is now able to operate from an Iranian base (to strike western targets), that would be very new. That's something new and it has implications for us and the United States," he told the Ottawa Citizen.

The National Post reported that Esseghaier was born in Tunisia and identified Jaser as a Palestinian with United Arab Emirates citizenship.

Norris said Jaser is a Canadian permanent resident who has lived in this country for 20 years, and in that time has developed "very deep roots here".

On Esseghaier's LinkedIn profile, the 30-year-old presented himself as a Tunisian engineer who was a PhD student at Quebec's INRS University since November 2010.

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Suspect device found at Gold Coast caryard

POLICE have cordoned off several Gold Coast streets after a suspicious device was discovered at a car dealership, which was targeted two weeks ago.

Officers are at the Nissan dealership in Robina, where a pipe bomb was found on April 8.

An 100 metre exclusion zone has been established and police have declared an emergency situation.

They're telling motorists to avoid the area.

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Costello report not pretty: Qld premier

QUEENSLAND'S premier is strongly against selling state assets that are monopolies, despite recommendations in the Costello report.

The much-awaited 1000-page report into the state's finances, headed by former federal treasurer Tim Costello, will be tabled in parliament next week along with the government's response.

"It's not a pretty picture," Premier Campbell Newman told ABC radio.

The executive summary recommends selling the state's electricity and port assets to raise more than $25 billion and pay down debt.

Mr Newman said state-owned power firms Energex, Ergon, Powerlink and the Gladstone Port shouldn't be privatised.

"I am, like most Queenslanders in the main, quite strongly against it," he said.

"I think they should be owned by the people."

The alternative, to raise taxes and decrease spending, will be something that Queenslanders will have to choose between at the next election.

"What I'm appealing to Queenslanders to think about is that we have a problem and we want to fix it, together we must fix it," Mr Newman said.

"Do we want to see some asset sales that are acceptable and others won't be.

"Do we want a combination of things."

Mr Newman wants Queensland to be known in six years as the best performing state in the nation, especially when it comes to efficiency and trustworthiness.

Western Australia holds the title now and the other states are well behind.

"We want to really catch up and do a better job," Mr Newman said.

Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk says the premier has been in power for 14 months and it is time the economic blame game ends.

"Being premier of this state means taking responsibility," she said.

"Obviously the pressure is starting to get to him."

Although the government promised not to sell assets without a mandate, Ms Palaszczuk said that pledge was broken last week when government-owned high rises in the CBD were sold for half a billion dollars.

"If this is not an asset sale, then I don't know what is.

"There are people in his own treasury department who are laughing at the fact that the premier thinks it is not an asset sale."

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Spending is Labor's budget problem: Abbott

OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott says the federal government has a problem with spending rather than revenues, predicting budget deficits stretching out "as far as the eye can see".

Treasurer Wayne Swan revealed on Sunday government revenues would be about $7.5 billion less than forecast at the time of the mid-year budget review released in October.

But Mr Abbott said revenues were $70 billion higher than in the last year of the Howard coalition government, while expenditure was $100 billion higher.

"We certainly have a big budgetary problem," Mr Abbott told reporters in Perth.

"This is a government that can't keep its spending under control."

The Grattan Institute has warned Australia must prepare for more difficult economic times ahead by reducing its overall budget deficit.

The think tank, in a new report, says that Australia faced a "significant risk" of posting deficits of around four per cent of gross domestic product over the next 10 years, requiring governments to find savings measures and tax increases of $60 billion a year.

"What we need is a government which gets expenditure under control ... under this government there are deficits stretching out as far as the eye can see," Mr Abbott said.

"We can't wave a magic wand and solve all the problems that this bad government has created overnight, but surpluses are in our DNA."

He reeled off a number of initiatives proposed by the coalition, including stopping asylum seeker boats, which currently cost taxpayers $6.5 billion of "unnecessary spending".

Mr Abbott reaffirmed the coalition would scrap the school kids bonus and "slim" the public service, and said its version of the national broadbank network was $60 billion cheaper.

He also said there would be a modest reduction in company tax, although the precise amount and timing would be revealed closer to the election.

The coalition would stick with its version of the paid parental leave scheme, funded by a modest levy on larger businesses.

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Time to discuss disabled access to law

THE criminal justice system is failing people with a disability, the head of the Australian Human Rights Commission says.

The commission this month launched a discussion paper on the issue and is holding a series of discussions across the country.

At a Sydney roundtable meeting on Monday, disability discrimination commissioner Graeme Innes said it was important to address the problems people with a disability faced in the justice system.

"We have heard numerous examples in recent years of how people with a disability have been affected when they have come into contact with the criminal justice system," Mr Innes told AAP.

Margie Charlesworth told the roundtable she felt her voice wasn't considered "valid" when giving evidence in her sexual assault case because her cerebral palsy made her difficult to understand.

"I have found that I have often been dismissed because people aren't prepared to take a little time and effort to understand what I'm saying," said Ms Charlesworth, who is also vice president of Women With Disabilities.

Monday's discussion is the first of many planned for the next few months across capital cities and regional areas.

"There isn't one ultimate goal that we hope to achieve with this process," Mr Innes said.

"Things we would like to see include changes to the evidence legislation, and improved levels of respect and communication between the police and members of the disabled community."

A report from the Human Rights Commission is due to be issued to all state and territory governments in November.

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CBS Twitter feeds compromised, closed

THE Twitter accounts for two US TV news programs have been compromised and suspended.

A CBS News spokeswoman has confirmed tweets sent earlier on Saturday afternoon from the 60 Minutes and 48 Hours Twitter handles, saying their accounts were compromised.

The tweets said the network is working with Twitter to investigate.

On Saturday night both accounts were suspended and inaccessible.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The CBS spokeswoman wouldn't comment any further.

Earlier in the day tweets coming from the 60 Minutes account seemed farfetched, including one that claimed the US government was "hiding the real culprit of the Boston bombing".

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Swan warns of 'sledgehammer' revenue hit

FEDERAL Treasurer Wayne Swan says the budget revenue has taken a $7.5 billion "sledgehammer" hit because of twin factors - a high dollar and lower terms of trade.

Mr Swan said over the past six months the federal government has been contending with a "unique economic event" - lower terms of trade but a dollar that won't budge.

"That's caused a hit, like a sledgehammer to revenues in the budget, since the mid-year update of something like $7.5 billion," Mr Swan told ABC TV on Sunday, adding that the impact will extend across the forward estimates.

Mr Swan said his sixth budget would be delivered in "the most challenging circumstances we have seen in decades."

"The sustained high dollar, global headwinds and subdued price pressures across the board have contributed to weaker than expected nominal GDP growth and substantial revenue write-downs," he said later in his economic note.

Mr Swan reiterated his focus on protecting jobs and supporting growth in the upcoming budget.

He said it would be a "tragic mistake" to wield savage cuts to return to surplus earlier, which was the approach endorsed by the opposition.

Mr Swan is in Washington this week for the spring round of top level Group of G20 industrialised nations and International Monetary Fund meetings.

He said the global growth outlook was looking "fragile".

"Conditions in some of the major advanced economies are very challenging," Mr Swan said, slamming the application of "mindless austerity" in Europe.

"You can't cut your way to growth," he said.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott defended backing away from an earlier commitment to deliver a budget surplus in the first term of a coalition government.

"There's a sense in which all bets are off until we have seen what their fiscal outlook is," he told Sky News.

He said the budget needed to be brought back to surplus as soon as possible.

The government was trying to buy votes before the election by making lots of promises, and the coalition wouldn't engage in an auction, Mr Abbott said.

"There are lots of promises that the current government will make going into the election that the coalition simply won't match," he said.

Meanwhile, the coalition has warned the budget could be facing a multi-billion-dollar black hole after Europe's carbon price plummeted.

But Mr Swan says it's a "folly" to take a spot price for the European carbon price on one day to draw conclusions about the implications for the Australian carbon price in years to come.

Treasury is forecasting a carbon price of $29 a tonne in 2015 when a local emissions trading scheme is linked to the European ETS.

This week the EU price dived to less than $4 a tonne but Mr Swan insists it can bounce back and he defended Treasury forecasts.

The big difference between the Australian forecast and the latest European carbon price could cost the federal budget up to $7 billion, some experts predict.

He said the carbon price in Europe had been higher in the past and economic conditions could improve.

"In the future we could see higher prices," Mr Swan said.

Mr Swan guaranteed the household carbon tax assistance would stay, even with a potentially lower carbon price in coming years.

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