NZ govt arranged illegal raid: Peters

NEW Zealand's Security Intelligence Service (SIS) illegally raided the home of former Fijian cabinet minister Rajesh Singh in Auckland last year, NZ First leader Winston Peters has claimed in parliament.

He said the raid was "an arrangement" between the government and Fiji's ruling military regime, and the Search and Surveillance Act was breached because SIS agents didn't identify themselves and refused to produce a search warrant.

Mr Peters also claimed Mr Singh and other members of the Fijian Democracy and Freedom Movement "are some of the 88 people illegally spied on by the (NZ spy agency) GCSB".

He questioned Acting Prime Minister Bill English on Wednesday, and was told that if he believed anything unlawful had happened he should go to the police.

Mr Peters than asked whether the government had "made an arrangement" with Fiji's military regime to spy on Mr Singh and other members of the movement.

Mr English said he would be very surprised if the government had made any arrangements with the Fijian government.

"Then why did the commander of the Fijian land forces, Colonel Mosese Tikoitoga, text Mr Singh saying he was about to be raided by the SIS at the exact time the raid was happening?" Mr Peters asked.

"I have no idea," Mr English replied.

Mr Peters said he had 16 text messages and read out some of them, including one which said: "Hear this, bro terrorist, we did raid you, it was the New Zealand SIS, so ask them."

He said Prime Minister John Key, who is in the Marshall Islands at the Pacific Island Forum, should come home and explain what happened.

"It's time for him to start acting like a prime minister, get back to this country, and tell us why he has got the Fijians involved in conspiracies to break the law in this country with the SIS and the GCSB."

The raid on Mr Singh's home, and raids on several other properties, were reported by media in July last year.

The reports said the raids were in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate Fiji's leader Commodore Frank Bainimarama.

Mr Singh complained at the time that a laptop and mobile phone had been seized.

Mr Key refused to comment, saying it was an operational matter.

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Never underestimate us, Rudd tells Abbott

KEVIN Rudd came out swinging with less than a week to go in the election campaign, using Labor's official campaign launch to rev up the party faithful.

Opinion polls may be pointing to a Tony Abbott-led coalition win on September 7, but the prime minister isn't giving up, saying Labor can prevail.

"To those who say that Mr Abbott has already won this election, I say this - never, ever, ever underestimate the fighting spirit of the Australian Labor Party," Mr Rudd told a packed audience in Brisbane on Sunday.

"Never, ever, ever underestimate my fighting spirit as your prime minister."

He assured them he's been in tougher spots before and come back from behind.

He says he'll be fighting for the jobs of Australians until the last vote is cast on Saturday night.

"I believe we can prevail and I believe in the end we will prevail," he said to roars of approval from the audience.

Mr Rudd contrasted Labor's "positive vision" for the future, to the coalition's focus, which he said looked to the past.

He said he'd never seen a decent reform that the conservatives haven't set out to destroy, whereas for all Labor's faults, it had a go at building a better Australia.

"Yes, that means we don't always get it right. Yes, that means we have made mistakes."

He said Mr Abbott's cuts risked throwing the entire economy into recession in fragile global economic times and reminded the party faithful that Labor kept the economy strong through the Global Financial Crisis.

To help manage the next great economic transition, Labor would give small business a cash flow boost from next weekend, through an upfront tax deduction when they buy new equipment worth up to $10,000, bringing this and other recently announced measures to more than $5.4 billion.

At the same time, Labor would legislate to ensure multinational business projects worth $300 million or more use a greater number of Australian suppliers and skills, which is expected to generate up to $624 million in extra work for Australian industry and jobs every year.

Labor will also increase the Tools for Your Trade payment to 70,000 apprentices to $6000 to help buy their first set of tools, in contrast to Mr Abbott who is offering a $20,000 loan to "hang over your head" before even getting started.

The prime minister is also demanding states maintain and grow their funding to TAFE, or else his government would move to fund the colleges directly.

Mr Rudd was introduced by his wife Therese Rein, who painted a personal picture of her husband and said he was a man who governs for all Australians.

"He believes that dignity belongs to all, not just to some," she said.

Deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese opened the proceedings, saying Mr Abbott was no John Howard.

Mr Abbott sits in parliament saying "no, no, no", Mr Albanese said.

"If you want a bloke who can jump through tyres, vote for Tony Abbott, but if you want a bloke who can get you through the next global financial crisis, vote for Kevin Rudd," he said.

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Abbott backs US action against Syria

Tony Abbott has backed US military strikes against Syria but says they must be carefully targeted. Source: AAP

OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott has backed any US military action against Syria but says it has to be carefully targeted and proportionate so it doesn't make a bad situation worse.

Mr Abbott said a political solution to avoid the need for military action would be terrific but wasn't likely.

As well, there was a precedent for military strikes in circumstances where Russia vetoed any United Nations Security Council resolution.

He said the Syrian regime's use of poison gas against its own people was an utter abomination.

"That said, any punitive strike has got to be targeted, it's got to be proportionate and it's got to be carefully considered to try to ensure that as far as is humanly possible we aren't making a bad situation worse," he told ABC television.

In the latest development, US President Barack Obama will now ask Congress to authorise military action against Syria, lifting the threat of immediate strikes on President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Mr Abbott said all Australian governments instinctively wanted to support our closest ally, the US, and also to uphold the universal human decencies.

He said just three nations possessed the ability to take military action against Syria: the US; Britain, which had ruled itself out; and France, which had very limited capacity.

President Obama has branded the UN Security Council as completely paralysed. Mr Abbott said that was a difficulty between the US, Britain and France on one side and Russia and China on the other.

"Where the security council is for whatever reason ineffective, there is precedent for right-thinking powers to take action and that was in the former Yugoslavia when Britain, the US and other countries took action in Kosovo," he said.

Mr Abbott said the Syrian conflict was a civil war between two pretty unsavoury sides.

"It's not goodies versus baddies, it's baddies versus baddies and that's why it's very important that we don't make a very difficult situation worse," he said.

Labor says this shows why Mr Abbott is not fit to represent Australia in any international forum.

Campaign spokeswoman Penny Wong said Mr Abbott sounded like he was talking about a game of cops and robbers games when discussing foreign policy.

"When asked about the difficult situation in Syria and what his view about this was, his view on foreign policy appears to be not always goodies versus baddies but it can be baddies versus baddies," she told Sky News.

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Third corruption strike for Macdonald

The NSW ICAC has found Ian Macdonald acted corruptly over his granting of a lucrative coal licence. Source: AAP

DISGRACED former Labor MP Ian Macdonald is again facing possible criminal charges after the NSW corruption watchdog found him corrupt for the third time in two months.

Former union boss John Maitland was also found to have acted corruptly in the damning report handed to parliament by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) on Friday.

It found Mr Macdonald granted a lucrative coal exploration licence over Doyles Creek, in the NSW Hunter Valley, to his "mate" Mr Maitland as a favour.

Mr Maitland, the former head of the Construction, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), has been referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for criminal investigation along with fellow Doyles Creek Mining directors Andrew Poole and Craig Ransley.

The three men could also face charges for giving false or misleading statements made to the Department of Primary Industries (DPI).

Mr Macdonald has been referred to the DPP for misconduct in public office.

The Commonwealth DPP has also been given evidence that could be admissible in the prosecution of Mr Maitland, Mr Poole and Mr Ransley for offences under the Corporations Act.

The trio has also been referred to the NSW Crime Commission for possible assets seizure.

ICAC Commissioner David Ipp found Mr Maitland turned his initial $165,000 investment in Doyles Creek Mining into a nearly $15 million windfall while the company's original shareholders profited to the tune of $85 million.

The Supreme Court can grant a Crime Commission request for an assets forfeiture order if it finds a person has engaged in serious crime-related activity, even if the person is never charged or convicted of any criminal offence.

Meanwhile, NuCoal Resources, the company that purchased Doyles Creek in 2010, has been placed in a trading halt in the wake of the findings.

It's the last set of findings following four separate ICAC inquiries into Mr Macdonald and others.

Last month, Mr Ipp found Mr Macdonald had acted corruptly in granting an exploration licence over land owned by the family of fellow former NSW Labor MP Eddie Obeid.

He also accepted the services of a prostitute, Tiffanie, in return for arranging meetings between the businessman Ron Medich and executives from a state-run power company.

Politicians and others lined up on Friday to welcome the ICAC's findings - and to distance themselves from the men now branded corrupt.

NSW Greens mining spokesman Jeremy Buckingham said Premier Barry O'Farrell must "tear up" the exploration licence now held by NuCoal.

The publicly-listed company bought Doyles Creek Mining via what the ICAC describes as a "a backdoor listing" in late 2009 and early 2010, after Mr Macdonald ignored his department's advice to issue the exploration licence in late 2008.

"From day one people were raising concerns," Mr Buckingham told reporters on Friday.

"This licence is the proceed of crime."

But NuCoal chairman Gordon Galt said his company was "an innocent party in this affair" and acquired Doyles Creek Mining in good faith.

"Arguably, no other party has suffered as much as NuCoal despite our demonstrable and acknowledged innocence."

Mr O'Farrell has already ruled out taking action on the licence until he receives final recommendations from the ICAC later this year.

He told reporters he hoped Friday's report would "draw a line on what was a pretty poor and sad part of this state's history".

"Whilst I expect there will be some, including the Greens today, who urge action from the state government off the back of this report, I say again, the ICAC commissioner has made clear that he will be reporting separately about a number of matters including his views on these leases," Mr O'Farrell said.

NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson said he wanted to see Mr Macdonald, and others fingered by the ICAC report, land in jail.

"The justice they receive should be swift and decisive, and charges should be laid against all of them as quickly as is possible," he told reporters.

The inquiry heard evidence that Mr Maitland, as a former union boss, wielded considerable political clout and was able to help secure Mr Macdonald's parliamentary pre-selection in 2006.

Mr Maitland's successor as head of the CFMEU, Tony Maher, told reporters the saga showed political reform was urgently needed.

"You fix this by reforming the interaction between business lobbyists and governments," he told reporters.

"You make sure it's transparent and it's watertight."

Mr Macdonald slammed the corruption finding.

"It is based on guesswork and conjecture," he said in a statement.

"ICAC again demonstrates bias and prejudice towards me.

"There was no wrongdoing or misconduct on my part. I did not receive a benefit of any kind."

He said he did not realise Mr Maitland - whom he described as a "key resource stakeholder", not a "mate" - had a financial stake in his push for an exploration licence that could support his proposed training mine.

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Paladin to boost production and sell mine

URANIUM miner Paladin Energy plans to boost production and push ahead with the partial sale of its Namibia mine after more than doubling its full year loss to $US420.9 million.

The company managed to achieve its 2012/13 production targets but it continues to slash costs due to weak global uranium prices.

Shares in the company gained five cents, or nine per cent, to 58 cents at 1340 AEST on an upbeat production outlook and cost cutting.

Paladin Energy is now targeting combined production of between 8.3 million pounds to 8.7 million pounds in the 2013/14 financial year, up from 8.2 million pounds produced in full year 2013.

The company recently announced it had terminated the sale of a minority interest in its Langer Heinrich mine in Namibia.

Paladin had been negotiating with two nuclear power companies to sell a 15 to 20 per cent stake, but the buyer wanted to renegotiate the terms due to the uranium price slumping to its lowest level in eight years.

Still, the company is eager to sell some of the asset after receiving requests from other interested parties.

"Paladin will, in September, resume efforts to sell a minority interest in Langer Heinrich," the company said in a statement.

Based on investment bank UBS's recent $US1.1 billion valuation of Langer Heinrich, a successful sale would have gained $US165 million to $US220 million.

More than two years on from Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster, the spot price of uranium is sitting at an eight-year low of about $US35 a pound.

Paladin posted a $US420.9 million full year loss in the 2013 financial year, more than double last year's loss of $US172.8 million.

It announced a $US335.9 million impairment for 2012/13.

The losses came as revenue rose to $US411.5 million in the year to June 30, up 12 per cent, from $US367.4 million in the previous year.

In full year 2013, Paladin's production rose 20 per cent to 8.2 million pounds.

Managing director John Borshoff said the company's forecast cost reductions in its 2013 financial year were exceeded at both its Langer Heinrich Mine and Kayelekera Mines in Africa, and further cost reductions were expected in 2014.

"Paladin remains focused on reducing costs across all facets of the business," Mr Borshoff said.

He added that a future global supply shortage of uranium was now unavoidable as more power plants were built in China while Japan looked to restart its reactors.

"It will be undeniably apparent sooner rather than later," he said.

The Perth-based company is undertaking a further review of costs across the organisation, focusing on exploration, corporate, discretionary capital expenditure and site costs.

Paladin did not offer a dividend.

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Don't believe Abbott on health: Labor

TONY Abbott's backflip on coalition plans to close Medicare Locals is not "credible", Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek says, accusing the opposition of having four different positions on Labor's health network.

Mr Abbott declared "we are not shutting any Medicare Locals" during a leaders debate on Wednesday, despite previously pledging a detailed review of the primary health care providers, and despite refusing to rule out closures earlier in the campaign.

"They first said they were going to get rid of them, then they said they were going to review them, then they said they couldn't rule out closing, and last night they said they could rule out closing," Ms Plibersek told ABC Television on Thursday.

"As soon as it get's hot for them, they do a backflip.

"How can anyone believe what they say, when they've had four positions on Medicare Locals so far, and they've had two positions in less than a week?"

Explaining his comments during the debate, Mr Abbott on Thursday said he would not guarantee all Medicare Locals would "stay exactly the same".

"But our focus is on trying to move money from the back office to frontline services," he told reporters in Sydney.

"And I am confident that Medicare Locals will flourish provided they focus on frontline services."

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Sex Party's Senate hopes stunted

THE Australian Sex Party says preference deals have shot down its chances of a Senate seat in all states but Victoria.

Party president and Victorian Senate candidate Fiona Patten is hoping to win a Senate seat over Family First in the September 7 election.

Ms Patten says her party has averaged about seven per cent of the vote in the last few elections run in Victoria and hopes to improve it.

But she says the minor party has been locked out from a chance in the Senate in all states but Victoria because of Labor preferences.

"Labor's going to the Greens which effectively cuts us out of the chances of a Senate seat in all states," she said during the party's campaign launch in Melbourne on Thursday.

"We do, just because of our own vote, still stand a chance in Victoria.

"We'd certainly like our vote to grow."

The Australian Sex Party is running candidates in each state and territory, with 29 candidates in Victoria alone.

In the seat of Melbourne, the Australian Sex Party will preference Labor over the Greens, who hold the seat by a six per cent margin and are battling Labor to keep it.

The Australia Sex Party will also preference Labor in Corangamite, Australia's most marginal seat held by Labor by 0.3 per cent.

The party is running on a platform of tax reform and decriminalisation of all drug use and possession.

Ms Patten says churches are the biggest landowners in the country yet they pay no tax, costing taxpayers about $20 billion a year.

The party also wants marijuana to be regulated and taxed, compulsory relationship and sex education in schools, and the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia.

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Guard of honour for murder victim Lane

Hundreds of mourners have crowded into a Melbourne church for the funeral of baseballer Chris Lane. Source: AAP

MURDER victim Chris Lane's father says his son's death is senseless but his words about letting things go are helping.

The Melbourne baseballer has been given a final farewell with a guard of honour by his former baseball mates after his funeral on Wednesday.

Dozens of Essendon Baseball Club members in dark suits lined the road outside an Essendon church, applauding as a hearse carrying Mr Lane's coffin made its way to a private burial service.

Peter Lane told the service a young person's death is always tragic, but the way his son died so senselessly made it much harder to comprehend.

But he said a lesson he had learnt from his son about letting things go was helping him get through this sad time.

"What has happened to Chris is just not fair, but hanging onto it just won't help," Mr Lane said.

Mr Lane said his son had shown maturity beyond his years, was devoted to his family and when he saw opportunity "he took it with both hands and he ran with it".

Chris Lane had grown from a boy into a man, he said, and was planning a future with his girlfriend.

His aspirations on the sporting field had also moved to other areas of his life.

"I'm very proud of how you've turned out, you know you'll always be with us," Mr Lane said.

Hundreds of mourners packed St Therese's Church in Melbourne's north for the 22-year-old baseball player's funeral.

A big photo of Chris Lane smiling stood in front of his brown and gold coffin, which was adorned with a large bouquet of white flowers.

"A picture's worth a thousand words," Father Joe Giacobbe told the mass.

"It's a terrific photo."

Father Giacobbe said he had never seen the church so full.

"I've been a priest for 40 years and I don't think I've seen this church as full as it is today," he said.

Father Giacobbe invited Mr Lane's loved ones, including his mother Donna Lane and girlfriend Sarah Harper, to place significant objects around his coffin, including his baptismal shawl, primary and secondary school tops and an Australian-themed top.

Floral tributes also lined the church steps.

Mr Lane, from Melbourne's Oak Park, was jogging alone in Duncan, Oklahoma, when he was shot in the back in a random attack on August 16.

He was attending a college in Oklahoma where he had a baseball scholarship when he was killed.

The funeral will be followed by a private burial.

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Fire breaks out on NSW Central Coast

A LARGE fire has broken out near homes on the NSW Central Coast.

Firefighters were called to the five-hectare blaze, near Birdie Beach Drive at Lake Munmorah, around 1pm (AEST) on Wednesday.

NSW Rural Fire Service spokesman Ben Shephard said some nearby homes on Elizabeth Bay Drive had been put on heightened alert, but nobody has been evacuated.

"We are confident the homes won't be impacted," Mr Shephard told AAP.

Fire crews are working on containing the blaze, which is currently moving north, in a large cleared area behind the houses.

The cause is not known.

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Scam swindles cash on bill refund promise

SCAMMERS are hitting the phones in NSW, swindling cash from the elderly by offering bogus refunds on bills.

NSW Fair Trading Commissioner Rod Stowe has urged people to hang up on anyone who calls promising rebates on power and phone bills.

"No government agency will make calls like this," he said in a statement.

"It's a total scam and people should warn their family, friends and neighbours not to respond to these offers."

An elderly woman living at a Coffs Harbour retirement village was fleeced by the scammers.

She was called and told she was entitled to a $4288 refund on her phone and power bills.

The money would come, she was advised, after $290 was deposited into a Western Union bank account.

The scammers gave the woman a reference number, AT100, and contact details for the manager of the reclaim department, purported to be Steve Harmilson.

She's not the only one to be hoodwinked.

Mr Stowe said staff at the Coffs Harbour Fair Trading Centre had received numerous similar calls from local residents contacted in the same way with the same or similar information.

"Reports from the Sydney metropolitan area in the past week have also involved the same dollar figures and details, so the scammers are spreading their net widely."

Mr Stowe said anyone who thought they had been scammed should contact their bank and the NSW government Fair Trading Department.

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