At least 15,000 at Vic budget protest

Thousands of people have marched through Melbourne in protest against tough federal budget cuts. Source: AAP

AT least 15,000 people brought central Melbourne to a standstill, demanding an end to the federal government's budget cuts.

Construction workers and unionists rallied outside Trades Hall in Carlton before leading a "Bust the Budget" march through the city to parliament house on Thursday.

Trades Hall Council estimates put the crowd at almost 40,000 but police, who turned out in large numbers, say the crowd was closer to 15,000. There were no arrests.

ACTU secretary Dave Oliver said the budget was cruel and an attack on ordinary people and the Australian way of life.

"Generations of Australians have fought hard to establish working conditions and dignity at work. They have struggled hard to build a better life and a decent society, to educate our children and to care for our sick and to look after our elderly," he said.

"But now we have a prime minister that is keen to keep the billionaires happy, and he is willing to pull all that down regardless of the cost to workers and their families.

"Why should the people who can least afford it be forced to take the hit?"

Rally organisers said the column of marchers who arrived outside parliament house stretched back to Bourke Street, almost one kilometre away.

Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union national secretary Michael O'Connor said the federal government was attacking jobs.

"We have never before seen a government try to destroy the jobs of Australians like this government has," he told the crowd.

"They are trying to change our commitment to a fair go, our commitment to justice, our democratic right to organise. They think they are going to get away with it. We say they ain't."

United Voice Victorian secretary Jess Walsh said workers were angry.

"We're angry at a government that wants to make us work harder and work longer for less money and we are here today because we deserve better, and we are here on the streets with you today because we are ready to fight," she said.

Rally organisers pledged to hold further protests.

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Govt providing stability for jobs: Hockey

TREASURER Joe Hockey is taking credit for the creation of more than 100,000 full-time jobs since the start of the year.

New data shows the number of people in full-time employment grew 22,200 in May, which helped keep the jobless rate steady at 5.8 per cent for the third month in a row.

However, overall employment eased 4800 because of a 27,000 drop in part-time workers.

Mr Hockey dismissed suggestions the result was because of the previous Labor government, noting it had left office with a forecast of a 6.25 per cent unemployment rate.

"It quite clearly appears that we have turned around the trajectory," he told reporters in Darwin on Thursday.

Mr Hockey took aim at Bill Shorten, saying the opposition leader had been proven "dead wrong" by claiming big job cuts at Ford, Holden, Toyota, SPC Ardmona and Qantas would be the "end of all time".

"Our decisions to provide stability, certainty and predictability have been proven right," he said.

The fact that more than 100,000 full-time jobs had been created since the beginning of this year illustrated the fact that the government was on track with the economy.

Labor's employment spokesman Brendan O'Connor said while the unemployment rate was steady in May, the participation rate declined.

This indicated a growing problem of unemployed people giving up on finding a job, Mr O'Connor told reporters in Melbourne.

"At the moment we have a participation rate of 64.6 per cent and that is the lowest the participation rate, namely eligible job seekers looking for work, has been since the global financial crisis," Mr O'Connor said.

"So even at the time of the GFC we had more people looking for work.

"It indicates whether, in fact, people have given up looking for work because of the state of the economy and the lack of confidence in the economy, and in this government, to provide opportunities for work."

Mr O'Connor also said youth unemployment remained a problem particularly in some regional areas where it exceeded 20 per cent.

It was also a concern the federal budget would result in many young unemployed people going without welfare support for six months, he said.

"We would say to the government that they need to do more - they need to articulate a jobs plan and particularly a jobs plan for young Australian job seekers," Mr O'Connor said.

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Protecting reef should be priority: poll

A poll shows Australians want those in power to make protecting the Great Barrier Reef a priority. Source: AAP

MOST Australians want those in power to make protecting the Great Barrier Reef a priority, a new poll carried out on behalf of green groups shows.

Almost two thirds of the 1500 people polled nationally also said the reef had lost out to industrial development over the past few decades.

Two thirds of respondents also said the reef's World Heritage status made it more important to protect ecosystems, while a quarter said it made no difference.

But 15 per cent said Queensland's coal industry was vital to boosting the state's economy, even if it was at the expense of the reef's health.

The poll was conducted in April and May on behalf of WWF and the Australian Marine Conservation Society.

It comes less than a week before the World Heritage Committee discusses the reef's status as part of its annual meeting, which will be held in Qatar from June 15-25.

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Green groups facing off against Rinehart

Green groups are challenging Gina Rinehart in a Queensland court in a bid to stop a mega coal mine. Source: AAP

GREEN groups are challenging billionaire Gina Rinehart in Queensland's highest court in a bid to stop a mega coal mine.

Ms Rinehart's Hancock Coal and Indian mining giant GVK was given conditional approval in April to develop the multi-billion dollar Alpha coal mine in the Galilee Basin.

The Land Court recommended the state government either refuse the project or allow it to proceed with strict groundwater conditions.

But green group Coast and Country Association of Queensland has taken the matter to the Supreme Court.

The Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) of Queensland, which is handling the case, is seeking a judicial review of that Land Court decision, arguing the proposal should be rejected outright on climate change and groundwater grounds.

"It affects how all these future mines should be assessed in relation to the climate change impacts," EDO senior solicitor Sean Ryan told AAP.

The EDO is facing off against the GVK-Hancock consortium at a directions hearing in Brisbane on Wednesday.

The Alpha project, 360km south-west of Mackay in central Queensland, is 79 per cent owned by GVK and 21 per cent owned by Ms Rinehart's Hancock Coal.

Justice Philip McMurdo adjourned the case until October 13 for a trial.

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Man dies after car rolls in Hunter region

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.

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Don't sweat Johnson speculation: Barnett

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.

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Kiwi woman charged over crystal meth haul

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.

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Man impaled in Qld quad bike crash

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.

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Budget could still get through: Govt

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.

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Man dies in cliff fall south of Sydney

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.

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