Armed bandits rob Blue Mountains club

TWO bandits armed with a tomahawk and a gun have detained several people at a Blue Mountains sports club during a robbery ordeal which lasted more than four hours.

Police said the two balaclava-clad men entered the sports club at Hazelbrook about 7am on Saturday (AEST) armed with the weapons.

On arrival, the thieves threatened a 63-year-old male employee of the club and demanded that he open a safe.

He was unable to open the safe so the thieves waited until a female staff member arrived at about 10am, and then forced her to open it.

The robbers then fled the premises with cash from the safe and money from other parts of the club.

They took off in the 63-year-old's car about 11.30am.

Five other patrons who arrived the club during the robbery were also detained by the men, police said.

No one was injured during the incident.

Police said the bandits were described as being of Caucasian appearance and were aged about 30 to 40.

They were last seen driving a white 2004 Toyota Prado with NSW registration LB 005.

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Designer Martin reveals Gatsby inspiration

THE Great Gatsby production designer Catherine Martin spent time in iconic Long Island and sought out collaborator Miuccia Prada to create the perfect look for the 1920s film.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Martin, who's been married to Gatsby director Baz Luhrmann since 1997, says her visits to the island, where the F Scott Fitzgerald novel is set, helped her visualise the story's fictional East and West Egg villages.

She also researched the style of 1920s Long Island houses to design a realistic backdrop to Gatsby.

But Martin, 48, and her 50-year-old husband also like to douse their sets and costumes in kitsch, fantasy or the unexpectedly modern - think Romeo in a Hawaiian shirt in their 1996 film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

"We wanted to make sure we kept the visceral modernity and the raciness of the book," she said.

To that end, she sought out Prada, who contributed 40 looks from the archives of her Prada and Miu Miu labels, including the crystal-beaded dress that leading lady Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan) wears in the final party scene.

"What's interesting about Miuccia Prada is that she's constantly in dialogue about what is beauty, what is ugly, what is nostalgia," said Martin.

"I thought her clothes would add texture and a kind of newness in the world of Gatsby."

The 20s were an interesting time in design history, she says, because some prominent designers were emerging to guide women.

"If you look at the 1920s, you have all these strong female designers like Jeanne Lanvin and Coco Chanel, women who for the first time in history were actively speaking to their peers about how we dress and who we are."

The Great Gatsby opens in Australia on May 30 and is the opening night film at the Cannes Film Festival on May 15.

The world premiere was held in New York on May 1.

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WA's Hop Hog tops best beer list

WESTERN Australia's Feral Brewing Company has been voted the best in the country, with its Hop Hog India pale ale named the top beer of 2012 in a soon-to-be-released guide.

It's the second time Hop Hog has taken the top spot in The Critics' Choice: Australia's Best Beers book, now in its third year.

Head brewer Brendan Varis described the beer as a hop extravaganza, with just enough malt to make it approachable.

Editor Pete Mitcham applauded Hop Hog for its balance, freshness, firm bitterness and dry finish.

Feral Brewing Company, in Perth's Swan Valley winery district, is a family business that started 10 years ago with a focus on supplying its own restaurant.

But it got serious about retail sales about five years ago after Mr Varis and wife Gabrielle bought out some original shareholders.

Last year, they built a new brewery in Perth's northern suburbs, increasing their annual production capacity from 500,000 litres to five million litres.

"We're lucky timing-wise because it seems the thirst for good craft beer is almost insatiable at the moment," Mr Varis told AAP.

This year, Feral Brewing Company features twice in the top 10, with its unusual Watermelon Warhead light wheat beer ranking number four.

With an alcohol content of only 2.9 per cent, it was created with the intent of being an interesting addition to the small low-strength class, Mr Varis said.

Mitcham describes it as "possibly the most insanely marvellous beer to hit the scene since the discovery of yeast".

"Full of flavour, complexity and thirst-quenching satisfaction, but with little more alcohol than a Seventh Day Adventist Church picnic".

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New white paper takes softer China stance

AUSTRALIA'S neighbourly approach to China in its 2013 Defence White Paper is a welcome change to the hostile language seen in the same document four years ago, says a sector expert.

The latest paper, released on Friday, adopts a suitably diplomatic line, says leading strategic analyst Paul Dibb, emeritus professor of strategic studies at the Australian National University.

"The strategic side of the White Paper is very good, very balanced. It doesn't insult China and it recognises the importance of Indonesia and India in our wider region," Professor Dibb told AAP.

"This White Paper says very clearly: Australia does not see China as an adversary.

"There's nothing wrong with hedging our bets and securing ourselves with a range of armaments, but there's no reason or cause to think that we are under imminent threat in our region."

The paper goes to lengths to reinforce the significance of relations between and Australia and superpowers China and the United States.

"The government does not approach China as an adversary. Rather, its policy is aimed at encouraging China's peaceful rise and ensuring that strategic competition in the region does not lead to conflict," the paper says.

The stance is a change from the 2009 defence white paper which warned "the pace, scope and structure of China's military modernisation have the potential to give its neighbours cause for concern".

Asked about the change in tone, Prime Minister Julia Gillard agreed there had been an update.

"This is an evolutionary document from the last white paper. There has been a fundamental continuity in our policy towards China," she said, adding that Australia would continue to call for transparency on China's military expansion.

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Malaysia gears up for gruelling election

JUDGMENT day has come for both Prime Minister Najib Razak and Malaysia's top opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

On May 5, 13.3 million voters in the predominantly Muslim South-East Asian country will decide whether re-elect Najib's National Front, which has ruled for the past 56 years, or vote for candidates in Anwar's coalition.

"Enough of corruption, enough of racism, enough of abuse of power," said Anwar, the 65-year-old former deputy premier.

"I believe Malaysians are prepared for change."

Najib, 59, characterised the opposition's program as empty promises and warned that it could lead to economic ruin.

"What is important for us is not only change, but real change and progress," he said. "And the real change and progress can come from within."

The ruling coalition is favoured to retain power.

"The deck is stacked against the opposition for many reasons, not the least because of an electoral system based on questionable voting rolls and carefully gerrymandered, single-representative constituencies where victory requires only a plurality," the Brussels-based think-tank International Crisis Group said.

But election officials, analysts and partisans agree that the elections could be close.

"We are ready for the fiercest battle ever," said Adnan Mansor, secretary general of the National Front.

Ahmad Omar, deputy elections commissioner, said: "This election is going to be very tough for everybody and it is a challenge for the election body."

Ahmad said the commission would ensure the winners are immediately posted on its website to ease tensions that could result from any delays in announcing the official results.

Ong Kian Ming, chief electoral strategist of the predominantly Chinese Democratic Action Party, claimed a 50 per cent chance that the opposition could form the next government.

"We've seen a very warm, very encouraging response from the three frontline states where we need the most seats which are Johor, Sabah and Sarawak," he said.

With 56 parliamentary seats in Sabah and Sarawak, the vote in the two eastern states could swing the result either way in a tight contest, said Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University.

The youth vote, comprising 30 per cent of the electorate, could also be a deciding factor.

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Northern beaches to get new hospital

A PRIVATELY run hospital will be built on Sydney's northern beaches in what the state government has described as a "totally new model" for healthcare in NSW.

The O'Farrell government on Thursday called for expressions of interest for the 423-bed Northern Beaches Hospital, which will be designed, constructed, operated and maintained by a private sector operator.

The hospital, to be built at Frenchs Forest, will provide a mix of public and private services and will be run by an operator "with a proven record", Health Minister Jillian Skinner said.

Construction will begin on the hospital in 2015 and it will take patients from 2018, with ownership reverting to the state after 20 years.

"It is a totally new model for NSW. It is based on successful operations such as Joondalup in Western Australia," Ms Skinner told reporters.

"This is a private operator proposal that will bring investment from the private and not-for-profit sector so that it means we get greater value for money for the state and for the residents of the northern beaches."

She said acute services would be relocated from Mona Vale Hospital, which would be redeveloped to provide complimentary health services.

Ms Skinner said the new hospital would provide the same number of public beds currently available at Mona Vale and Manly, while doubling the number of private beds.

Manly Hospital would close when the new hospital opened, she said.

Treasurer Mike Baird, who appeared alongside Ms Skinner, said the land freed up by the closure of Manly Hospital would not be sold for apartments.

Opposition health spokesman Andrew McDonald said he had major concerns about whether a private operator could run the new hospital.

"This is not a first for NSW. This happened 20 years ago at Port Macquarie and that's a game that ended in tears," Dr McDonald told reporters.

"I've got major concerns about the ability of the private sector to deliver health care to everyone who needs it."

He predicts patient care will suffer as a result of the decision.

"Private operators exist to provide a profit for their shareholders," he said.

"Patient care is not their primary consideration."

Greens NSW MP John Kaye said northern beaches residents had been "comprehensively dudded" by the announcement.

"They are losing a public hospital. They are losing services at Mona Vale ... to a new hospital site that is inappropriately served by transport and that's a long way away from the northern half of the northern beaches," he told AAP.

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Taming the dollar is dangerous: Swan

TREASURER Wayne Swan believes it would be a "folly" and extremely dangerous for Australia to intervene to curb the strength of the Australian dollar, despite its impact on company profits and government revenues.

The domestic dollar has trading above parity against the US dollar for some time.

Its continuing strength is a major factor in forcing the federal government to scale back its revenue expectations by $12 billion for this financial year.

Mr Swan said the currency's strength was a reflection of the strength of the local economy as well as relative weakness in other countries such as the US.

"We have a developed economy in very good nick," he told a business function in Melbourne on Tuesday.

A favourable change the US growth outlook might ease some of the upward pressure on the Australian dollar, but Mr Swan ruled out any Reserve Bank of Australia or government market intervention.

"A Swiss style intervention would be folly ... extremely ineffective and dangerous," he said.

The Swiss central bank has previously intervened to try and tame the strength of the Swiss franc, spending billions buying up euros on foreign exchange markets.

Mr Swan said the fact that the Australian dollar had been high despite a downturn in global commodity prices suggested its strength would remain "for some time to come".

Global investors looking for growth opportunities now turn to the Asia-Pacific and the Australian dollar, whereas previously Australia was an investment option.

"That's the big change that has come as a consequence of the resilience that our economy demonstrated during the global financial crisis," he said.

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Customs audit finds security risks

AUSTRALIAN Customs staff will be more closely monitored in the workplace after an audit of the national service highlighted a risk of theft.

An Auditor-General's report probing operations of the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service across 2011/12 found that seized goods destined for destruction were in some cases not properly secured.

At two of the service's facilities visited by auditors, detained goods stores could be accessed by staff for up to one month "and the goods were not re-verified before destruction", said the report released on Wednesday.

"In this circumstance, there was a risk that the goods could be stolen and any discrepancy is unlikely to be identified as those goods were not re-verified as being complete prior to destruction," the report says.

The finding meant the service had failed to implement a three-year-old recommendation that lockable containers be used to store items seized for destruction.

Weapons, firearms, tobacco and drugs comprised 90 per cent of the goods seized by the service during the audit period.

The service welcomed the audit and agreed to recommendations which included monitoring staff, increasing the use of CCTV and improving the management of detained goods.

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Gillard says budget will share burden

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard says the burden of the government's fiscal woes will be shared across the Australian community when the budget is handed down.

Ms Gillard says while no one group will be singled out, cuts will be framed around Labor values and protecting the government's main schools funding and disability care programs.

The key challenge is huge, projected reductions in revenue growth over the next four years, with the amount of tax revenue collected for 2012/13 now expected to decline by $12 billion.

"Therefore, I have expressly determined we need to have every reasonable option on the table to meet the needs of the times, even options previously taken off the table," she told a function in Canberra on Monday.

"The nation and the government must have maximum flexibility to deal with these complex - and rapidly changing - events."

Ms Gillard did not discuss specific measures, but did confirm the government had no intention of making changes to the GST.

The budget will be handed down by Treasurer Wayne Swan on May 14. Mr Swan attended Ms Gillard's speech to the Per Capita forum, telling reporters on his way into the venue: "We'll do what's right for the country".

The budget could deliver a deficit of about $10 billion for 2012/13.

But Ms Gillard says Labor is committed to its medium-term strategy to deliver budget surpluses on average over the course of the economy cycle.

"However - and this is key - while Australia is stable, resilient and close to centres of growth, the wider world economy is quite a different story," she said.

While this has helped push up the Australia dollar, the strong currency is exacting a toll by squeezing the profits of firms.

Even though Australia is creating more jobs and exporting more goods and services, prices are growing at a slower rate and affecting gross domestic product (GDP) growth in nominal terms.

"We expect nominal GDP growth for future years to be revised down," Ms Gillard said.

"For the budget bottom line, it's a very meaningful fact - because, naturally enough, companies don't pay tax on volume, they pay tax on value, which is driven by price."

In the future, new spending must be matched with savings and Ms Gillard says the government has some serious decisions to make and announce in the coming two weeks.

"I find these decisions both urgent and grave," she said.

But Labor will not cut the budget to the bone and the burden of its decision will be shared across the community.

Asked if this will affect people already financially disadvantaged, Mr Gillard says the government will take a "Labor approach" to burden-sharing.

"People come with different capacities to the task," she said.

"If we look right across our society and ask everyone to make some contribution, then it lightens the load for everyone."

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Rule out NSW power sell-off: opposition

PEOPLE in NSW will suffer the same fate as their Victorian neighbours and pay more for less if the government sells off the state's electricity assets, the opposition says.

Opposition Leader John Robertson has seized upon the findings of a report by The Australia Institute which found electricity privatisation has dramatically increased energy prices in Victoria while failing to improve efficiency.

Since Victoria privatised power in the 1990s, electricity prices have increased by 170 per cent compared to a 60 per cent increase in the consumer price index, the report found.

"NSW families simply can't afford to have the same huge price hikes here," Mr Robertson warned reporters on Monday.

Electricity unions launched a campaign earlier this month against what they claim is a move by the O'Farrell government to sell off the assets after the next state election in 2015.

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell has denied this and said his government remains committed to its election promise not to sell off the poles and wires.

Mr Robertson says electricity prices have increased by as much as $750 for the average NSW household since Mr O'Farrell came to office.

"If the premier and treasurer have any understanding of the pressure rising electricity bills are having on NSW families, they will categorically rule out selling the poles and wires today," he said.

"Make no mistake - privatising the state's poles and wires will fix nothing and make things worse.

"It will create a private monopoly, leading to higher energy prices and reduced reliability."

Electricity prices have more than doubled over the past five years, according to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal.

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