A 38-YEAR-OLD man has died at the scene after his car rolled and he was thrown onto the road in NSW's Hunter region.
Emergency services were called to Oakey Creek Road, Pokolbin, just after 1am on Tuesday following reports of an accident, police say.
The driver, the only occupant of the car, was apparently not wearing a seatbelt.
A report is being prepared for the Coroner.
IT'S unlikely there will be moves to oust maverick West Australian Liberal backbencher Rob Johnson from the party, Premier Colin Barnett says.
Mr Johnson has been an outspoken critic of the state government since he was deposed as police minister during a cabinet reshuffle in June 2012.
Recent media reports have suggested MLC Phil Edman, the government whip, has been trying to secure support for a motion to expel Mr Johnson from the party.
The reports speculated Mr Edman would make the move at a party room meeting on Tuesday.
But Mr Barnett told reporters before the meeting that was unlikely.
"Don't sweat the small stuff," he said.
Mr Johnson recently stormed out of a caucus meeting after disgraced former state treasurer Troy Buswell was applauded on his return to parliament after a mental breakdown and car crash controversy.
Mr Johnson revealed in August that he hadn't spoken privately with Mr Barnett since being pushed to the backbench, with their conversations limited to within the party room.
"I'm a Liberal and I will remain a Liberal," Mr Johnson said at the time.
He was being sought for comment.
A NEW Zealand woman charged with smuggling five kilograms of crystal meth into Australia has been refused bail.
Customs officers at Sydney Airport stopped Tuvaine Puri, 53, as she stepped off a flight from India on Saturday afternoon.
They examined her luggage and found eight boxes containing lathe chucks - a clamping tool that holds rotating devices such as drill bits.
Hidden inside the chucks was five kilograms of methamphetamine, or crystal meth - the party drug made famous on the television series Breaking Bad.
Puri was charged with importing a commercial quantity of the drug and faced Parramatta Local Court on Monday.
She was formally refused bail and her case was adjourned to Central Local Court on Tuesday.
The maximum penalty for the offence is life imprisonment or a fine of up to $1,275,000.
The meth haul is the latest of many recovered by Australian authorities, who say smugglers and dealers have been attracted by the high value of the Aussie dollar.
In February, federal police and customs at Sydney Airport recovered 183kg of crystal meth stuffed into watertight areas of 27 kayaks.
In the past 17 months, authorities have found more than 1000kg of meth in liquid and crystal form and the biggest haul in recent times was a 565kg seizure in Melbourne.
A LONG weekend holiday has ended badly for two young men who have suffered horrific injuries in a quad bike crash in southern Queensland.
One had his thigh impaled on a handlebar and the other sustained neck wounds from barb wire fencing in the crash at Rules Beach, about 100km north of Bundaberg, on Monday morning.
The men, in their early 20s, were airlifted to hospital in a stable condition.
Mathias Cormann warns against about assumptions which government budget measures will be blocked. Source: AAP
THE government is still confident it can get its toughest budget measures through the upper house, despite rumblings they'll be blocked.
A $7 GP co-payment, changes to the dole and a raised pension age have proved difficult to sell, and Labor, the Australian Greens and the Palmer United Party have vowed to oppose the measures.
But Finance Minister Mathias Cormann warned against making assumptions about blocks to budget measures, saying his experience in the Senate had shown him not to take any initial opposition as gospel.
Labor had opposed the tax on higher income earners, or deficit levy, but had since decided to support it, he said.
"Immediately in the days and weeks following the budget, all sorts of people say all sorts of things," he told Sky News on Sunday.
"And then on reflection ... people progressively change their mind."
Senator Cormann said the government would not consider watering down measures before presenting them to the parliament.
The main hurdle for the government will be Clive Palmer, whose party will be key to getting the budget through the Senate after July.
Senator Cormann said he would be happy to sit down and have a meal with Mr Palmer in the "appropriate circumstances".
"Clearly we will engage with him in the battle of ideas," he said.
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull caused controversy in recent weeks for having a "social" dinner with Mr Palmer.
Senator-elect David Leyonhjelm doubts Palmer United Party members will vote together in the long term.
The three incoming PUP senators, plus Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party member Ricky Muir, don't have a "common ideology" or "anything that binds them together", Mr Leyonhjelm told Channel Ten.
"On that basis, there's no strong reason, other than a fear of outsiders I suppose, for them to work together," he said.
A MAN has died after falling over a cliff in the Royal National Park south of Sydney.
It's believed the man was with a group of walkers when he fell about 10 metres down the cliff, north of Little Marley Beach, about 10.30am on Sunday.
Police say the operation to retrieve the body will take several hours.
Car rental giant Hertz is to restate its 2011, 2012 and 2013 reports after an audit found errors. Source: AAP
HERTZ Global Holdings Inc says it has to review and correct its financial reports from the past three years after an audit by the car rental company found accounting errors.
The announcement, made in a government filing on Friday, sent Hertz shares down nearly 10 per cent in morning trading.
The New Jersey company said it will restate financial statements from 2011 and will correct and possibly restate statements from 2012 and 2013.
"Financial statements for 2011 should no longer be relied upon," the company said in the filing.
"It will take time to complete this process, and previously reported information is likely to change."
The errors were related to the depreciation of some of its non-fleet assets and an allowance for doubtful accounts in Brazil, among other items, it said.
Hertz is also delaying the release of its first-quarter earnings report again.
In May, it pushed the release date to June 9.
Now, the company expects to release it when it amends its past full-year results.
Its first-quarter results will be hurt by costs associated with the accounting review, the company said.
It said it is implementing new procedures to strengthen its accounting and finance departments.
Shares of Hertz fell $2.60, or 8.5 per cent, to $27.89 in morning trading Friday.
Its shares had risen 6.5 per cent so far this year through to Thursday's close.
Next week's NSW budget will extend eligibility criteria for a first home owner grant. Source: AAP
THE NSW government has freed land for 6600 new homes in Sydney's northwest and will extend a first home owner grant in next week's budget.
Land at Marsden Park North, Richmond and Blacktown has been released or rezoned for housing, Premier Mike Baird announced on Saturday.
The Marsden Park land has space for 4000 new homes and is close to where the North West Rail Link is being built, while the land at Blacktown is on an old golf course.
"In western Sydney, there is a massive housing boom occurring and the unlocking of up to 6600 new housing lots at three sites will boost housing supply and make homes more affordable," Mr Baird said in a statement.
The government claims 100,000 new homes have been built across NSW since the March 2011 election.
Treasurer Andrew Constance also announced that next week's state budget will extend eligibility criteria for a first home owner grant by $100,000.
It means first-time buyers who purchase new properties worth up to $750,000 will qualify for the $15,000 payment. The previous threshold was $650,000.
NEW Zealand's central North Island has been rattled by a 5.1 magnitude quake.
The 76km deep earthquake was centred 20km west of Ohakune, in the Tongariro National Park, just before 4pm on Friday.
Thousands reported feeling the moderate quake on the GeoNet site, with people as far afield as Central Otago town Palmerston reporting a shake.
The GeoNet website is run by the Earthquake Commission and GNS Science.
The Queensland government will absorb all federal concession cuts to pensioners and seniors. Source: AAP
THE Queensland government will absorb all concession cuts to pensioners and seniors dished out by the federal government.
Two days after the state budget ruled out the move, Premier Campbell Newman backflipped after the grey army took the state government to task on talk-back radio.
Mr Newman says he's listened.
"We're not only listening to Queenslanders, but we're acting within the space of two days to reinstate the full level of pensioner and senior concessions," he told parliament.
"Queensland seniors and pensioners will not be worse off because of the Commonwealth cuts."
The federal budget, handed down in May, cut $223.2 million over four years meant to fund pensioner and senior concessions for electricity, rates and transport.
Mr Newman told parliament the state budget had raised pensioner and senior concessions by almost $26 million in the next financial year to help compensate.
But he's since realised seniors and pensioners can't fill the gap and would stump up the remaining 15 per cent.
"We will be continuing to send a clear message to the Commonwealth that Queenslanders won't stand for these kinds of cuts," he said.
Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk supported the move but said the government needed to show where it was getting the extra funding from.
Ms Palaszczuk said the premier's attack on Queensland pensioners' household budgets would not be quickly forgotten.
"The ink isn't even dry on this budget and the premier has scrambled to save his own political skin following a crisis of his own making," she said.
"He made a choice in his budget where he could help Queensland pensioners or hurt them.
"He chose to hurt them."
