Sydney school kids escape from burning bus

SCHOOL children have fled a burning bus which caught fire on the M2 motorway in northwest Sydney.

Fire & Rescue NSW said on its Twitter page about 40 people had got off the school bus and heavy traffic was banking up at Carlingford about 3.30pm (AEDT) on Friday.

Inspector Phil Brooks from the NSW Police Traffic and Highway Patrol Command said a group of school children were walking away from the burning bus.

"Looks like we've got a load of school children off the bus. They're walking back up the M2 now to get out of the way," he told Macquarie Radio.

"But this bus is well and truly on fire as we speak."

A Fire & Rescue spokeswoman told AAP the engine compartment of the bus had caught fire and the first emergency call came in at 3.13pm.

She said school children and teachers had safely disembarked from the bus, but it was not yet known what school they attended or whether they were primary or high school-aged students.

Three fire crews are battling the blaze, she said.

Insp Brooks later said a senior constable who happened to be nearby on his motorcycle had raced to intervene with a small fire extinguisher and would be recognised for his quick action.

He said the children had come to Sydney on a school trip.

"The bus and the children were all from the Orange area, returning back to Orange after doing a school excursion," he told the Nine Network.

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Labor stands by emissions trading scheme

Anthony Albanese says Labor believes a market-based mechanism is the best way to reduce emissions. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott's plan to abolish the carbon tax may have to wait at least nine months after the Labor shadow cabinet agreed to block the bills unless the government moves to an emissions trading scheme in 2014.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says Labor will seek to amend the government's repeal laws after they are introduced in the first week of parliament starting on November 12.

"The opposition will move amendments consistent with our pre-election commitments to terminate the carbon tax on the basis of moving to an effective emissions trading scheme," Mr Shorten said.

"However, if our amendments are not successful we will oppose the government's repeal legislation, in line with our long-held principle position to act on climate change."

Mr Abbott argues his election win gives him a clear mandate to abolish Labor's carbon tax and associated climate change agencies and replace them with his Direct Action plan.

But Mr Shorten said Labor is not a "rubber stamp" for Mr Abbott.

"We won't be bullied, and I won't be bullied by Tony Abbott merely because he doesn't accept the science of climate change," Mr Shorten said on Friday.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt says the trading scheme is "exactly the same" as a carbon tax and the government would not support it.

Mr Hunt said repealing the carbon tax would save households $550 a year.

Business Council of Australia chief Jennifer Westacott wants the opposition to support the coalition's legislation.

"The last thing business and the economy needs is for actions by the parliament to lead to one of the world's highest carbon prices remaining in place for an extended and uncertain period," Ms Westacott said.

Under Labor's carbon pricing regime, big polluters paid a fixed price per tonne of emissions ahead of a planned shift to a market-based pricing mechanism in 2014.

The new government has the numbers in the House of Representatives to pass its legislation but Labor and the Greens will amend the bills in the Senate.

The detail of Labor's amendments, which are yet to receive full caucus endorsement, will be released before parliament starts and the party will support a Senate inquiry into the bills.

Labor's decision lays the groundwork for a possible double-dissolution election, which Mr Abbott has said is an option if he can't pass his bills.

This could occur if the lower house fails to accept the Senate-amended bills, or the Senate rejects the bills outright, and the same thing occurs when they are reintroduced after a period of three months.

"We will not stop until the carbon tax is repealed," Mr Hunt said.

"We will take each step methodically and with complete intention until the carbon tax is repealed."

The government is likely to get its way in the Senate after July 1 when conservative crossbench senators who oppose the carbon tax take up their seats.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox says if governments and would-be governments want to reduce emissions, they need to adopt policies that operate at the least cost to preserve the competitiveness of trade exposed industry and provide a basis for long-term investment.

"Delaying the inevitable achieves nothing. The parties should work together to remove the tax and to agree on how to meet their targets at least cost to the nation," Mr Willox said in a statement.

Australian Greens leader Christine Milne said now was not the time to delay with climate change and Labor should stand firm with her party and reject the repeal of the carbon tax.

"The latest science is telling us we need to cut emissions much faster and much more deeply," she told AAP.

"We are calling on Labor to stop playing games with this."

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Qld reef assessment paints grim picture

The federal and Queensland governments have released a new plan to protect the Great Barrier Reef. Source: AAP

FEDERAL Environment Minister Greg Hunt says a new long-term plan will improve the health of the Great Barrier Reef and increase protection, but green groups say it doesn't go far enough.

The long-awaited strategic assessment draws on scientific evidence to give an overview of the state of the reef and outlines a plan to better protect the World Heritage site.

Mr Hunt acknowledged there were some serious concerns, but is hopeful the strategy will ensure the reef's survival.

"What has happened in the past is what we have to live with, but we can control and improve the future of the reef through our actions," he told reporters on Friday.

The assessment concluded the best way to halt and reverse damage to the reef was to put in place a new management framework and examine the "cumulative effect of human activities and natural forces", rather than threats in isolation.

Mr Hunt said the framework would set tougher environmental standards for future developments.

"We make no apology for applying tougher standards going forward," he said.

The report also called for a "net benefit policy", so that any activities along the coast and in the marine park produced an overall benefit to the reef.

It also said a new reef recovery program was needed, involving local communities, industry and indigenous groups, as well as a reef-wide monitoring and reporting program.

Australian Marine Conservation Society spokeswoman Felicity Wishart welcomed the assessment but said developments along the state's coast must be stopped if Australia was serious about protecting the reef.

"If the target is to improve the health of the reef then stop doing anything that's going to damage it," she told AAP.

Ms Wishart called for Mr Hunt to reject a proposal to expand the Abbot Point coal port near Bowen if he was serious about improving water quality.

That project involves dredging three million tonnes of soil and dumping it on the reef.

WWF Australia spokesman Nick Heath said the report confirmed large sections of the reef were in "dire straits".

He said given the assessment showed inshore areas were in either poor or very poor condition, those in power couldn't justify approving inshore dredging projects.

The report found that while corals were in good condition at the northern end of the reef, both inshore and offshore corals in southern areas were in decline.

The biggest threats came from the crown-of-thorns starfish, severe weather, nutrient and pesticide run-off from farms, illegal fishing, bycatch and dredging.

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority chairman Russell Reichelt said while many of the impacts of those threats were already widely known, the assessment had looked at their "accumulative impact".

"There needs to be a multi-pronged approach," he said.

"(With this in mind) we can make a difference and restore the damage to the reef."

Queensland Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney said it was important for decisions about the reef to be based on scientific facts, not "alarmist claims" by environmental groups that can't be verified.

The strategic assessment will be open for public comment until January 31.

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Aussie may face death penalty in Vietnam

AN Australian man could face the death penalty in Vietnam after being charged with drug trafficking.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Thursday confirmed the arrest of the 31-year-old from NSW, who has not been named, on drug trafficking charges in Ho Chi Minh City on October 22.

A 24-year-old woman from NSW was also arrested but has since been released, the spokesperson said.

An Agence France-Prese report on Wednesday cited a Vietnamese drug squad officer as saying the man was allegedly caught with 3.5 kilograms of heroin in hidden luggage compartments at Ho Chi Minh City airport.

The drugs were hidden in 11 packages which had been treated to avoid detection by sniffer dogs, the state-run Thanh Nien newspaper reported.

Officials from the Australian Consulate-General in Ho Chi Minh City have been granted access to the man and will meet with him this week, the DFAT spokesperson said.

DFAT said Australians should be reminded of the very stiff penalties facing anyone caught carrying drugs overseas.

Vietnam takes a hardline, with anyone who attempts to smuggle more than 600 grams of heroin or cocaine risking the death penalty.

Convictions and sentences are revealed only by local media which is strictly under state control.

Vietnamese authorities have seized more than 24 kilos of drugs at Ho Chi Minh City airport this year, the Thanh Nien daily said.

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Domestic behind fatal Sydney shooting

A manhunt in underway for the killer of a 27-year-old man who was shot in the back in Sydney's west. Source: AAP

A DOMESTIC dispute is being investigated as the cause of the latest deadly shooting in Sydney.

Central Coast man Raymond Pasnin, 27, was shot in the back as he walked to his car at a unit block in Pendle Hill in Sydney's west on Wednesday.

He died in hospital.

Homicide squad commander Detective Superintendent Michael Willing says police have ruled out any link to the fatal shooting in Sydney's southwest on Tuesday night of an associate of the criminal Brothers 4 Life gang.

"There is nothing to suggest any links at this point to any organised crime elements or bikie groups," Det Supt Willing said on Thursday.

"We believe that the shooting of Mr Pasnin relates to relationships that he has of a domestic nature.

"We believe there was an argument and then shots were fired".

Family members of Mr Pasnin and his girlfriend are being questioned.

Mr Pasnin, who was known to police and had been visiting his mother's house, was shot numerous times in front of his girlfriend, Det Supt Willing said.

"No one deserves to die under those circumstances", he said.

Neighbours reported hearing "bang, bang, bang" and seeing a woman screaming hysterically after the incident and asking "is he alive".

One of them, Alice, told Fairfax radio it was a terrifying experience.

"You don't know if they've got knives or weapons and it's very stressful when you see something like that and you can't stop it," she said.

Another neighbour described Mr Pasnin's mother as a "nice" and quiet woman who kept to herself.

Police are searching for a man accused of shooting Mr Pasnin numerous times in the back before fleeing.

Det Supt Willing said the homicide squad would continue to investigate.

"While we are still working to identify a motive for the attack, we do believe it was targeted," he said.

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$20m to run the Senate

It cost taxpayers more than $20 million for the Senate to sit for just 56 days in 2012-13. Source: AAP

IT cost taxpayers $20.4 million for the Senate to sit just 56 days in 2012-13.

But its committees produced 200 reports and had as many as 60 inquiries running at once.

Staffing expenses made up 70 per cent of its operating costs, the Department of Senate's annual report reveals.

The department managed to balance its budget, following four years of deficits, by implementing a government efficiency dividend policy.

The Senate made amendments to one in 10 of the 596 bills that cleared the parliament.

The House of Representatives also made amendments to bills as a result of Senate committee recommendations.

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Royal couple return home after Sydney tour

DANISH royals Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Mary will fly home on Tuesday after wrapping up a jam-packed Sydney tour.

What began as a trip for the Sydney Opera House's 40th anniversary turned into a visit to a state reeling from a bushfire crisis.

The fire-ravaged Blue Mountains became the impromptu public highlight of the royal couple's busy schedule, which started when they landed in NSW last Tuesday.

Enthusiastic fans greeted Mary and Frederik at each public appearance, including the opening of a Danish jewellery store in Sydney's city centre and a visit to the Australian Twins Registry.

But none were more appreciative than the hundreds of people who gathered in the bushfire-hit town of Winmalee to greet the couple on Sunday.

Swapping their leather boots and cargo pants for elegant attire, the couple attended the Opera House's 40th-anniversary celebrations on Sunday night as the event's official patrons.

Those who did not come face-to-face with the Tasmanian-born princess were still warmed by her visit.

Mary sent 12 bouquets she received from fans on her Sydney tour to cancer patients at the Westmead Hospital Crown Princess Mary Cancer Centre.

The couple will attend the Crown Prince Couple Awards at Sydney Opera House on Monday night as the last official function of their trip.

It will be the first time the awards, gifted to the royal couple as a wedding present, have been held outside Denmark.

Mary and Frederik will fly out of Sydney International Airport on Tuesday.

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Obeid under renewed ICAC scrutiny

The NSW ICAC has starting hearing fresh allegations of corruption involving ex-Labor MP Eddie Obeid. Source: AAP

EDDIE Obeid was known in the halls of NSW parliament as a fixer but when "stuff hit the fan" in a family business, his brother-in-law says it never crossed his mind to ask the then-MP for help.

Obeid is accused of lobbying state ministers Carl Scully, Michael Costa, Eric Roozendaal and Joe Tripodi to have leases on prime government-owned real estate - home to two Obeid family-owned restaurants - renewed without going to tender.

It's alleged the one-time Labor powerbroker never disclosed his personal connection to the Sorrentino restaurant and Quay Eatery at Sydney's Circular Quay.

The allegations were aired on Monday, the first day of yet another NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) inquiry into Obeid, who has already been declared corrupt by the watchdog in relation to separate matters.

Under questioning from counsel assisting the commission, Ian Temby QC, the ex-MP's brother-in-law John Abood agreed that while he owned Circular Quay Restaurants Pty Ltd (CQPL) on paper, the major owner was really an Obeid family trust.

CQPL, in turn, owned the two restaurants.

The inquiry has heard Mr Abood was given the job to manage the eateries after he struggled to find work.

He said he spoke to "the boys" - Eddie Obeid's sons - and they got together $2.4 million to buy Sorrentino, Quay Eatery and a nearby cafe.

"I was fronting the businesses, not a front for the Obeids - there's a difference, sir," Mr Abood said.

He also denied Obeid was called in to help when NSW Maritime, the landowner, moved to seek expressions of interest from potential new lessees without giving existing retailers preference.

"Going to market in this way has the obvious advantage of ensuring that public assets provide a good return to the public purse," Mr Temby said in his opening address.

Ultimately NSW Maritime altered its draft commercial lease policy to allow for direct negotiations with existing tenants and new leases were indeed granted to CQPL in 2009.

"When, if you want to say - excuse me commissioner - that stuff hit the fan, we had to react to that," Mr Abood testified.

"I never even contemplated talking to Eddie about it and I never did, sir."

The three-week inquiry is part of three fresh investigations by the corruption watchdog, codenamed Cyrus, Cabot and Meeka.

It will also examine claims Eddie Obeid influenced public officials to allow generous water licences for a coal-rich Hunter Valley property owned by his family.

It's also been alleged Obeid hand-delivered to then-Treasurer Michael Costa a letter requesting a meeting with a director of Direct Health Solutions, without revealing that his family and long-time associate Rocco Triulcio had a combined $450,000 investment in the company.

Mr Temby has foreshadowed that along with Obeid, prominent bureaucrats Steve Dunn - who recently headed up the O'Farrell government's controversial Game Council review - and Mark Duffy could face corruption findings.

Obeid has denied any wrongdoing but promised to cooperate.

"No one is ever happy with having to answer continuous allegations but as long as they have hearings, I'll keep turning up," he told the Seven Network.

"I'm not corrupt - and time will tell."

He is expected to give evidence next week.

The inquiry continues before Assistant Commissioner Anthony Whealy QC.

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Giles holds historic Vietnamese meeting

The NT's chief minister (pic) and the Vietnamese prime minister have met to discuss trade ties. Source: AAP

THE Northern Territory's chief minister and the Vietnamese prime minister have met to discuss expanding trade ties, in the first such meeting between the two jurisdictions.

The NT's Chief Minister Adam Giles met the Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Nguyen Tan Dung, and the Vietnamese ministers for trade, and industry and agriculture, in Hanoi on Monday.

The relationship between the Territory and Vietnam has improved since the live cattle trade resumed in 2010, with Vietnam an emerging market for Territory live cattle exporters.

The NT has exported 16 shipments of live cattle to Vietnam so far this year, worth $24 million.

"Live cattle exports from the Territory to Vietnam have increased 10-fold in nine months and there is huge opportunity to grow the Vietnamese market even further," Mr Giles said in a statement.

He said the government was helping Territory exporters and Vietnamese importers to meet the requirements of the live export supply chain quality control system that came into force in Vietnam earlier this year.

The chief minister is on a 12-day visit to Vietnam, China and Japan to encourage foreign investment, particularly in the NT's energy and agricultural sectors.

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Smugglers may turn to shipping containers

Indonesian people smugglers are reportedly offering to put asylum seekers in shipping containers. Source: AAP

GREENS leader Christine Milne is horrified by the prospect of piles of dead asylum seekers being found in shipping containers coming to Australia.

People smugglers in Indonesia are offering to transport asylum seekers in sealed shipping containers to get them to Australia or New Zealand, Fairfax Media reports.

Senator Milne says the report demonstrates that cruel deterrence strategies are not working because increasingly desperate people may resort to even more desperate measures.

"What sends absolute shivers down my spine is ... we're going to find shipping containers on wharves in Australia and New Zealand and when they're opened we're going to find tragic scenes of a whole lot of people who have died," she told ABC TV on Sunday.

"This is what cruelty does."

She worries some asylum seekers could take the risk.

"I wouldn't say people won't do it, they'll know it's dangerous," she said.

"They'll want to believe that they'll only be in them until they're loaded on the ship and then allowed out."

Shipping containers have been used in people trafficking operations in the UK and Europe.

Former foreign minister Bob Carr said the asylum seeker problem became the "biggest" issue against the Labor government.

"It was bigger than carbon pricing," he told Sky News on Sunday.

"My advice to my former colleagues is absolutely crystal clear - you stick to the (PNG) Solution."

Senator Carr warned new Labor leader Bill Shorten not to allow backbenchers to freelance and attack Abbott's asylum seeker policy as inhumane.

"The electorate will read that ... as Labor going weak on the subject," he said.

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Hodgman calls for Tasmanian election

Tasmanian Opposition Leader Will Hodgman is demanding the state government name an election date. Source: AAP

TASMANIAN Opposition Leader Will Hodgman is demanding an increasingly beleaguered state government name an election date.

A poll is due in the state on March 15 but Premier Lara Giddings is yet to confirm the date.

A new bout of turmoil has hit the Labor-Green alliance with rogue ALP backbencher Brenton Best calling for Ms Giddings to quit as leader.

Mr Best has been a ticking time bomb for the party for months, criticising it over its partnership with the Greens, who have two ministers in the government.

He says Ms Giddings should now step aside for police and economic development minister David O'Byrne.

Labor is languishing in the polls after 15 years in power with Ms Giddings' most recent approval rating at just 18 per cent, its lowest level yet.

Mr Hodgman, the son of late former federal minister Michael Hodgman, has used his address to the Liberals' state council to call for an election.

"It should be called today," he told members.

"(It) will be the most important election in our lifetime, probably in our state's history."

Mr Hodgman said Labor had reached the point where it was unfit to govern the economically ailing state.

"Infighting has now escalated to open warfare," he said.

"It is appalling for Tasmanians who want to see a government that's focused on them, not on itself."

The Liberals have long drawn a comparison between the state's Labor-Green power-sharing arrangement and the former federal minority government headed by Julia Gillard.

Mr Hodgman's address came under banners reading "Jobs. Growth. Majority Government".

He repeated a warning to Labor voters that only by voting Liberal will another hung parliament be avoided, since Tasmania has the unusual Hare-Clark system which delivers five members per seat.

He said a vote for minor players like the Palmer United Party, which won a Tasmanian Senate spot in September's federal election, could also mean no clear majority.

"Don't risk it and don't waste your vote," he said.

Mr Hodgman has ruled out deals with any other party.

The state Liberals' buoyancy was boosted when prime Minister Tony Abbott addressed the conference on Saturday, 50 days after supplanting three Tasmanian Labor members at the federal election.

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Get tough on youths fighting in Syria:Carr

Former foreign minister Bob Carr wants to ban Australians fighting in Syria from returning home. Source: AAP

FORMER foreign minister Bob Carr is urging the federal government to consider ways to ban Australians who go off to fight in the Syrian conflict from returning home.

The outgoing senator admitted that while in government he had lobbied to introduce the punishment to Australians who travel to Syria to participate in the civil war.

"I did receive advice that if they are Australian citizens legally you can't stop them returning," he told Sky News on Sunday.

He urged the government to explore options to get around the legal issue.

"It should be a bipartisan initiative," he said.

Senator Carr said the threat of expulsion from Australia would deter a lot of "misguided excitable youth from responding to the jihadist cause".

He said about 200 Australians had gone to Syria but that number also included people involved in aid work.

"Probably a lot lower number are actually involved in fighting," Senator Carr said.

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