Australians on board missing plane

A search and rescue mission is underway for a Malaysia Airlines flight, which has lost contact with air traffic control.

Flight with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board missing ... Malaysia Airlines service bound for Beijing lost. Source: Supplied

• Beijing-bound flight loses contact at 5.40am AEDT
• 239 passengers missing
• Six Australians on board
• DFAT hotline: 1300 555 135 or 02 6261 3305

SIX Australians including two couples from Queensland one couple from New South Wales are missing and feared dead in a Malaysia Airlines crash in the waters off Vietnam.

Brisbane couples Rodney and Mary Burrows and Catherine and Robert Lawton of Springfield Lakes are believed to be friends travelling together.

Neighbours of the Lawtons described them as a lovely couple.

Caroline Daintith, who had lived across the road from the Lawtons for years, said travel was a big part of the couples' lives.

The couple from Sydney have been identified as Li Yuan and Gu Naijun.

On board the flight ... Catherine and Robert Lawton of Springfield Lakes. Picture: Facebook Source: Facebook

They are among the 239 people on board a Malaysia Airlines flight that lost contact with air traffic control and may have gone down in the Gulf of Thailand.

The Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200 aircraft, lost contact with Subang Air Traffic Control at 5.40am (AEST).

"The flight was carrying 227 passengers (including two infants), 12 crew members," the airline said in a statement.

Malaysia Airlines said the passengers were from 14 different countries. Initial reports stated seven passengers were Australians but a subsequent statement from the airline put the number at six. Two were from New Zealand.

Raw ... in Beijing, a woman in tears is helped by airport workers to a bus waiting for relatives of the missing passengers. Picture: Han Guan Ng Source: AP

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the government "fears the worst" for those aboard the flight, and that they had so far confirmed the names of six Australians on the flight's passenger manifest.

"Australian consular officials are in contact with family members living in Australia of those believed to be on the flight and will continue to provide the families with all possible consular assistance," the spokesperson said.

"Australian consular officials are in urgent and ongoing contact with Malaysia Airlines. Malaysia Airlines has advised that it is contacting relatives of the passengers on the flight."

The airline has established a call centre – phone +60 37884 1234 – for those seeking more information.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's 24 hour Consular Emergency Centre is contactable on 1 300 555 135, or +61 2 6261 3305 (if calling from overseas).

A total of 153 passengers were Chinese nationals.

There were also 38 from Malaysia, 12 from Indonesia, three from France, two from New Zealand, four from the USA, two from Ukraine, two Canadians, two Russians, one Italian, one from Taiwan, one from The Netherlands and one from Austria.

Grim news ... Malaysian Airlines Group CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya addresses the media near Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Picture: Manan Vatsyayana Source: AFP

Reports on Twitter appeared to show a full list of names of passengers on board the flight, but its veracity had not been confirmed.

Pham Hien, a Vietnamese search and rescue official, said the last signal detected from the plane was 120 nautical miles (225 kilometers) southwest of Vietnam's southernmost Ca Mau province, which is close to where the South China Sea meets the Gulf of Thailand.

Lai Xuan Thanh, director of Vietnam's civil aviation authority, said air traffic officials in the country never made contact with the plane.

The plane "lost all contact and radar signal one minute before it entered Vietnam's air traffic control,'' Lt. Gen. Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of the Vietnamese army, said in a statement issued by the government.

Malaysia and Vietnam have launched searches for a missing Malaysia Airlines jet.

The South China Sea is a tense region with competing territorial claims that have led to several low-level conflicts, particularly between China and the Philippines. That antipathy briefly faded as nations of the region rushed to aid in the search, with China dispatching two maritime rescue ships and the Philippines deploying three air force planes and three navy patrol ships to help.

"In times of emergencies like this, we have to show unity of efforts that transcends boundaries and issues,'' said Lt. Gen. Roy Deveraturda, commander of the Philippine military's Western Command.

The ministry launched a rescue effort to find the plane, working in coordination with Malaysian and Chinese officials, the statement added.

Malaysian authorities dispatched a plane, two helicopters and four vessels to search seas off its east coast in the South China Sea, said Faridah Shuib, a spokeswoman for the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency.

The Philippines said it was sending three navy patrol boats and a surveillance plane to help efforts.

Yahoo News quoted local newspaper reports that the Vietnamese Navy said the plane went down into the sea about 153 miles south of Phu Quoc Island, just off the coast of the Vietnamese / Cambodian border.

Other media outlets reported that the Chinese Navy had deployed two vessels to the South China Sea to search for the missing plane.

"Malaysia Airlines is currently working with the authorities who have activated their search and rescue team to locate the aircraft," Malaysia Airlines said.

Whatever happened to the flight, Indonesia-based independent aviation analyst Gerry Soejatman said the clock was ticking on a "24-hour golden window'' for search and rescue efforts.

"You can't assume that there are no survivors, and if there are any, it is absolutely crucial that they are picked up within a day, or the chances of survival drops significantly,'' he said.

Search and rescue under way ... a map of the Malaysia Airlines flight's approximate flight path to Beijing. Source: Supplied

China's state news agency reported that the Malaysia Airlines aircraft lost contact over Vietnam while an unconfirmed report on a flight tracking website said the aircraft had plunged 200m and changed course shortly before all contact was lost.

The route would have taken the plane across the Malaysian mainland in a north easterly direction and then across the Gulf of Thailand.

Grief ... A possible relative cries at the Beijing Airport. Picture: Mark Ralston Source: AFP

Chinese news agency Xinhua quoted Chinese aviation authorities saying the plane did not enter China's air traffic control sphere.

China's foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement: "We are very concerned learning this news."

"We are contacting relevant authorities and are trying to confirm relevant information.''

The vice president of Malaysia Airlines told CNN that the missing plane had enough fuel for seven hours.

In shock ... A woman, center, surrounded by media covers her mouth on her arrival at a hotel which is prepared for relatives or friends of passengers aboard the missing plane, in Beijing. Picture: Andy Wong Source: AP

Malaysia Airlines' Chief Executive Officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said in a statement: "We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts with flight MH370 which departed Kuala Lumpur at 12.41am earlier this morning bound for Beijing."

MORE: PLANE CRASHES THAT CHANGED AVIATION HISTORY

MORE: MAJOR AIR DISASTERS SINCE 2009

Seven Australians have been confirmed to be on board a Malaysian Airlines flight which has gone missing.

"The aircraft was scheduled to land at Beijing International Airport at 6.30am local Beijing time (9.30am AEST).

"Subang Air Traffic Control reported that it lost contact at 2.40am (local Malaysia time) today.

"Flight MH370 was operated on a Boeing B777-200 aircraft," he said.

"The flight was carrying a total number of 239 passengers and crew — comprising 227 passengers (including 2 infants), 12 crew members. The passengers were of 13 different nationalities."

Recording the grief ... media hover over a possible relative of a passenger on the Malaysia Airlines flight. Picture: Mark Ralston Source: AFP

The pilot was 53 year old captain Zahari Ahmad Shah, who joined the airline in 1981 and had over 18,000 flying hours.

"Malaysia Airlines is currently working with the authorities who have activated their Search and Rescue team to locate the aircraft," Mr Yahya said..

"We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts with flight MH370 which departed Kuala Lumpur at 12.41am earlier this morning bound for Beijing.

"Our team is currently calling the next-of-kin of passengers and crew.

"Focus of the airline is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilise its full support.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with all affected passengers and crew and their family members."

Fearing the worst ... Chinese police stand beside the arrival board showing the flight MH370 (top red) at Beijing Airport. Picture: Mark Ralston Source: AFP

Follow Malaysia Airlines on the incident on Facebook

Fuad Sharuji, Malaysian Airlines' vice president of operations control, told CNN that the plane was flying at an altitude of 35,000 feet (10,670 meters) and that the pilots had reported no problem with the aircraft.

Finding planes that disappear over the ocean can be very difficult. Aeroplane "black boxes'' - the flight data and cockpit voice recorders - are equipped with "pingers'' that emit ultrasonic signals that can be detected underwater.

Under good conditions, the signals can be detected from several hundred miles away, said John Goglia, a former member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. If the boxes are trapped inside the wreckage, the sound may not travel as far, he said. If the boxes are at the bottom of an underwater trench, that also hinders how far the sound can travel. The signals also weaken over time.

Air France Flight 447, with 228 people on board, disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean en route from Rio de Janiero to Paris on June 1, 2009. Some wreckage and bodies were recovered over the next two weeks, but it took nearly two years for the main wreckage of the Airbus 330 and its black boxes to be located and recovered.

The Malaysia Airlines plane, registration 9M MRO, is thought to have been a regular on routes to Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Auckland.

A flight tracking website shows images of the plane descending at Kingsford-Smith airport in Sydney in 2010.

Showing the strain ... a Malaysian policeman stands guard outside a reception centre for family and friends at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Picture: Manan Vatsyayana Source: AFP

Malaysia Airlines is the national carrier of Malaysia and one of Asia's largest, flying nearly 37,000 passengers daily to some 80 destinations worldwide.

Malaysia Airlines has 15 777 planes in the fleet and is an experienced operator of this type of aircraft.

Aviation Week reported that the missing plane was a 777-2H6ER with tail number 9M-MRO and serial number 28420. It had been built in 2002 and had been used by Malaysian Airlines since that time.

The last major crash of Malaysia Airlines flight was in 1995, when a Fokker 50 (9M-MGH) crashed during approach in Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia, killing 34 people.

In 1977, a Malaysia Airlines flight was hijacked and crashed in Tanjung Kupang, Johor, Malaysia, killing all 100 people aboard.

Anyone wanting more information on the flight should call the airline on +60-378841234.

If you have any information that is relevant to this story, please email paul.tatnell@news.com.au.

Commercial flight missing ... The image from @flightaware shows the last known track of flight MH370 over southern Asia. Picture: Flightaware.com Source: Supplied

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Elderly couple bashed in home invasion

An elderly couple have been bashed during a home invasion at Bathurst in NSW's central tablelands. Source: AAP

AN elderly couple have been bashed during a home invasion at Bathurst in NSW's central tablelands.

Police say the 85-year-old man and 83-year-old woman were woken by a noise at their home at about 1.30am (AEDT) on Saturday.

They were then confronted by two men who demanded money and car keys.

The men assaulted the elderly man, causing him to fall to the ground, before assaulting the woman.

They then fled the scene, taking a car which police later located a short distance away.

The couple were taken to Bathurst Base Hospital in a stable condition and treated for numerous injuries, including cuts to the head, back and bruising to the arms and face.

Anyone with information on the incident is urged to contact Chifley detectives via Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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Qld cop hit by ute during radar operation

A police officer has been hit by a ute while conducting traffic operations on the Gold Coast. Source: AAP

A POLICE officer has been hit by a ute while conducting traffic operations on the Gold Coast.

Police say the male sergeant, 57, suffered minor leg injuries after being struck by the vehicle during radar operations on the M1 motorway at Pimpama about 7.30am (AEST) Saturday.

He was taken to hospital for treatment.

The driver, a 21-year-old man, wasn't injured and is assisting police with their investigations.

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NSW teacher arrested after child porn find

A PRIMARY school teacher has been charged after police uncovered child abuse material at a home west of Sydney.

After receiving a tip-off, detectives raided the man's home in the Lithgow suburb of Oaky Park on Friday.

Police say a number of electronic devices were seized and child abuse material had been allegedly stored on some devices.

The teacher, 41, was arrested at a nearby shopping centre.

He has been charged with child abuse material possession and using a carriage service for child pornography.

He was granted bail to appear in Lithgow Local Court on March 27.

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Man struck by lightning in Sydney's west

A MAN has been struck by lightning as severe thunderstorms sweep across Sydney.

A NSW Fire and Rescue spokesman said the 65-year-old man was struck outside his home in Baulkham Hills, in northwest Sydney, at 5pm on Friday.

Fire fighters administered first aid to the man, who was conscious but disoriented, the spokesman said.

He has been taken to hospital.

There is a severe thunderstorm warning in place for parts of Sydney, particularly the western suburbs.

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MPs slam Rinehart's views on entitlement

AS she predicted, Gina Rinehart's criticism of Australia's "entitlement" mentality has drawn return fire, with left wing MPs inviting her to leave the country, and leave the nation's battlers alone.

Ms Rinehart, who's worth almost $20 billion, took aim at welfare recipients and the political left for spending the "bottomless pit" of revenue created by mining.

The mining tycoon predicted "forests and splinters" of articles from "people boiling with rage that I dare challenge their bottomless pit and belief money doesn't have to be earned before it is spent mentality".

And she was right.

Former Labor leader Mark Latham accused Ms Rinehart of double standards.

"She wants to be a bigger welfare recipient herself," Mr Latham told the Seven Network.

"She's against social welfare but she's very much in favour of business welfare for herself.

"I think that's an appalling double standard. There is no bottomless pit of money and that should apply to Gina as much as the people she's bagging today."

WA Labor MP Alannah MacTiernan said Ms Rinehart "just doesn't get what has made Australia such a safe place for her to make her billions".

"Enterprise and achievement is built on education, inspiration and opportunity, not by bringing in truckloads of overseas workers so that Ms Rinehart can live in even greater grandiosity and have even bigger pearls, if that is at all possible," Ms MacTiernan said.

And Greens Deputy Leader Adam Bandt said Ms Rinehart was "a threat to Australian egalitarianism".

"Gina Rinehart is full of suggestions about how to balance the budget, but none of them involve her paying a fairer share of tax and all of them involve getting the rest of us to pay more," Mr Bandt said.

"If Gina Rinehart thinks Australians are paid too much and have health care that's too good, she's welcome to leave."

Writing in a resources magazine, the billionaire espoused her admiration of former British PM Margaret Thatcher, while saying Australia was "living beyond our means".

"Australians have to work hard or actually harder and smarter to create the revenue to be able to pay that bill ... something has to give - we can't do it all," Ms Rinehart said.

In her column titled 'The Age of Entitlement - has Consequences', Ms Rinehart urged action from politicians, saying "now is the time to change some thinking and urge leadership".

"The left don't want to address the issue. Instead they get hysterical and personal about who speaks out," she wrote.

Rinehart this week tumbled 10 places on the latest Forbes Magazine global rich list, despite getting richer in the past year.

She was easily Australia's richest person on the list, ahead of 208th-ranked James Packer with $US6.5 billion.

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Firms fed-up being unpaid govt pay-clerks

The Australian Industry Group group's Innes Willox (R) is seeking less haste to balance the budget. Source: AAP

BUSINESS groups have hit out at the opposition for blocking the removal of $44 million in red-tape associated with the current paid parental leave scheme.

The government wants to relieve all businesses of the burden of having to administer the scheme. But Labor has rejected the plan, instead wanting to limit it to firms that employ less than 20 people.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief operating officer John Osborn said on Thursday the scheme should be directly funded and administered by government.

"Small business people should not be forced to be the unpaid pay-clerks for government schemes," Mr Osborn said in a statement.

NSW Business Chamber chief executive Stephen Cartwright agreed, saying the federal government has plenty of public servants to manage the operation.

"Small business does not," he said.

He said when the scheme was introduced by the previous Labor government it was administered by the Family Assistance Office before being added to the existing administrative burden of business.

Australian Retailers Association executive director Russell Zimmerman said Labor should stop playing politics and provide the support retailers need to get on with the job of doing business.

Debt recovery firm Prushka chief executive Roger Mendelson said cash flow is one of the main causes of financial difficulty and stress for small and medium size enterprises.

However, business groups are equally unhappy with Prime Minister Tony Abbott's more generous $5.5 billion paid parental leave scheme that will be partly funded by a 1.5 per cent levy on the country's 3000 biggest companies.

Meanwhile, the Australian Industry Group has presented the government with a 10-point plan to rebalance the economy to replace the waning mining investment boom with new drivers of growth.

The group's chief executive Innes Willox is also concerned that in the haste to get the budget back in order, the government will cut measures and programs that support innovation and skills development at a time when extra effort is needed.

"We shouldn't rush back to surplus. To go too hard, too fast will only do damage," he told Sky News, but added that there does need to be some structural reform.

He warns that manufacturing in particular has been "squeezed and sapped" by high costs, the high Australian dollar and low productivity.

The 10-point plan seeks to overcome barriers to growth across all industries.

It includes both the federal and state governments getting their budgets back on a secure footing but not until the end of the decade.

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Manus Is on Iran-Indon human rights agenda

IRAN and Indonesia are preparing to discuss Australia's treatment of asylum seekers, following the death of an Iranian man on Manus Island.

Reza Berati, 23, died on February 17 when riots erupted at Australia's offshore detention centre.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, visiting Jakarta on Thursday, said Australian policy would be the topic of future talks.

"The lives of our nationals are important to us and we did in fact issue a statement against the way Iranian nationals were treated by Australia," he told reporters.

"This is an issue we will be discussing." he said.

"We agreed to have a working group, on consular affairs.

"We will be discussing together this issue in addition to other issues of a humanitarian character arising out of these talks."

Dr Zarif was speaking at a media conference alongside Indonesia's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, who did not respond to questions about the talks.

The leaders' talks on Thursday touched on investment, combating terrorism and regional stability.

Diplomatic ties between Australia and Indonesia, meanwhile, have still not normalised after last year's revelations of spying.

It has been nearly 100 days since the two nations agreed to work on a new code of ethics but little progress has been made since.

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Labor goes on attack over Qantas safety

QANTAS has been ordered to consider giving workers and unions more detail about the reasons behind cutting 5000 jobs as it starts shedding almost one third of check-in staff at Sydney international airport.

Qantas began offering its check-in staff voluntary redundancy on Thursday, looking to cut about 90 full time jobs from the 300 currently employed at its international terminal in Sydney.

Staff have been set a March 21 deadline to accept the packages, which also include the option of full-time employees converting to part-time.

A decision on which staff could take voluntary redundancy was set to be taken in early April, with the Australian Services Union arguing that the process was being rushed.

Following a two-hour hearing at Sydney's Fair Work Commission on Thursday, Commissioner Ian Cambridge ordered Qantas to consider extending the March 21 deadline by about two weeks.

Mr Cambridge also ordered Qantas to consider giving workers and the ASU far more detail about the rationale behind the job losses.

The airline was also asked to consider other options to mitigate job losses and that no-one be sacked while the current discussions with the ASU continue.

"We are happy with that proposal and we think it's a fair one that will give workers at least some amount of dignity in a very difficult situation," ASU NSW secretary Sally McManus told reporters.

Qantas has been given until Sunday night to consider and respond to the proposals or the dispute will end up back at the Fair Work Commission for further arbitration.

Qantas lawyer Helen McKenzie told the hearing the airline had consulted workers and fully complied with industrial laws.

"Full time employees at Sydney International Airport were today given the option to consider to covert to part-time roles, which will better align staffing levels with peak periods at the airport as well as ... express interest for a voluntary redundancy package," the company said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the federal government attacked Labor for questioning whether allowing Qantas to send its maintenance operations offshore will lead to safety problems.

The new line of attack came as laws to remove the 49 per cent cap on foreign ownership of the airline passed the House of Representatives 83 votes to 53, within four hours of being introduced on Thursday morning.

The legislation, however, is expected to fail in the Senate.

The opposition asked the government whether it had conducted a risk analysis of allowing Qantas - considered one of the world's safest airlines - to move its maintenance operations offshore.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Qantas' safety record did not depend on whether or not it was foreign-owned.

"It's reckless of the leader of the opposition to suggest it does," Mr Abbott said.

Independent MP Bob Katter weighed into the debate, asking how a "cut-rate, cheap-jack, overseas-based workforce" could be trusted to keep Qantas aircraft safe.

Transport minister Warren Truss said the government was talking to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority about the airline's plan to cut 5000 staff over three years to save $2 billion in costs.

The minister told parliament the government would not be changing the Air Navigation Act, which would ensure Qantas' international operations would need to remain majority Australian-owned and based onshore.

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Overfishing threatens sea slugs: study

SLUG-LIKE sea cucumbers found on the Great Barrier Reef are under threat from overfishing, researchers say.

A Southern Cross University study shows nine of the 16 species considered vulnerable or endangered worldwide are found on north Queensland's World Heritage-listed reef.

"Most of those are currently, or have recently been, exploited," lead author Dr Steven Purcell said.

Sea cucumbers, also known as sea slugs, are under threat from commercial fishing but mainly in developing countries, his research found.

"The species are certainly at grave risk on a broader geographic scale, particularly in low-income developing countries where fishing pressure is high and management insufficient," he said, adding poorer countries needed help to impose trade restrictions on the threatened species which are lucrative in some markets.

In Australia, sea cucumbers are fished within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Coral Sea, Torres Strait, Northern Territory and parts of Western Australia.

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Pressure for 'unstable' Corby to be jailed

PRESSURE is growing for Indonesian authorities to revoke Schapelle Corby's parole, after a rash of bad publicity and apparent attempts to take her own life.

The convicted drug smuggler's family denies she twice tried to take a knife to her wrist when officials confronted her about the family's controversial participation in a Seven Network program.

Bali parole boss Sunar Agus says an "unstable" Corby reacted badly when he raised the prospect of the show resulting in a breach of her parole.

She was stopped from harming herself by her sister Mercedes and his fellow officers, he says.

The scene he witnessed on Monday night "affects ... greatly," Corby's risk of returning to jail, Agus said.

"What's obvious is that we have to concentrate on Corby's behaviour," he said.

"She's being tested on being free, (parole) is to test her preparation.

"What's needed right now for Corby is mental improvement."

Counsellors have been provided for the 36-year-old, who puts her distress down to the huge level of media attention.

Since leaving a luxury villa provided for Sunday's Seven Network program, Corby has been staying with the family of Mercedes' husband Wayan Widyartha.

The couple on Wednesday pleaded with media waiting outside their Kuta home for privacy.

"I can't say much," Wayan told Indonesia's Metro TV.

"She's been in jail a long, a very long time.

"She's back in society, and it turns out it's harsher."

Corby has complained to parole officers that photographers watch her sleep.

Agus says she also asked for foreign journalists to be deported, but he "will not go there and will not do it".

Corby's shock response to his visit came despite repeated warnings from authorities as high up as Indonesia's Justice Minister Amir Syamsuddin that publicity could breach her parole by upsetting the community.

Mercedes lobbied for permission to be interviewed by Seven instead of her sister, who she described as "broken" after nine years in jail.

She also told Seven the marijuana found in her sister's surfing gear in 2004 could have come from Indonesia.

Her comments have triggered debate in the Indonesian media, including from University of Indonesia law expert Hikmahanto Juwana, who argues the message, not the interview subject, is the problem.

"My impression after watching that show was that Corby wanted to say, 'I'm innocent, I was framed,' while her status is still a convict," he told Kompas newspaper.

Agus says his assessment of the interview, and recommendation on Corby's parole, is not yet complete.

From his office it will be sent up the bureaucratic chain to the minister, who will decide whether Corby should go back to jail.

* Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467 or follow @LifelineAust @OntheLineAus @kidshelp @beyondblue @headspace_aus @ReachOut_AUS on Twitter.

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Little penguin hand-raised in WA

A PENGUIN chick has been successfully hand-raised in Perth with fish smoothies after his parents struggled to cope with his feeding demands.

In a first for the Penguin Island Discovery Centre, the 10-week-old chick named Noorook, which is an Aboriginal word for egg, has been re-introduced into the centre, as part of a wildlife interaction program that raises awareness of the vulnerability of the Little Penguin population.

Supervisor Jane Dawson said hand-raising the captive-bred penguin initially involved fish smoothie feeds every two hours.

"Noorook had a rocky start to life since hatching in November, but he is now flourishing," she said.

"By the time a Little Penguin reaches 10 weeks of age it is fully grown, which is why we have waited a while to introduce Noorook to other penguins in the group.

"Noorook has been spending an hour each day mingling to help with the transition."

The Little Penguin is the world's smallest penguin species, reaching about 40cm tall and weighing about one kilogram.

It is also the only penguin to breed in Australia, with an average lifespan between seven and 10 years.

"However, of the eight Little Penguins we have at the centre, seven are between the ages of 11 and 21," Ms Dawson said.

Penguin Island is home to more than 400 breeding pairs of Little Penguins.

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Man busted with $1m of cannabis

A NSW man is to face court accused of trucking almost $1 million worth of cannabis across the state during a six-month period.

The 47-year-old was arrested in Wagga Wagga on Tuesday following a year-long investigation into the large-scale supply of cannabis around Wollongong, police say.

Between February and August last year, they allege, he loaded his truck at Wagga with heat-sealed sacks of the drug and drove them to a home at Pheasants Nest, to Sydney's south.

"The total quantity of drugs supplied during this six-month period was 118 kilograms, which has an estimated street value of $910,000," police allege.

The man has been refused bail after being charged with supplying a commercial quantity of a prohibited drug.

He's due before Wagga Wagga Local Court on Wednesday.

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New rules for Everest climbing season

People wanting to climb Mount Everest will now have to bring their garbage back down with them. Source: AAP

MT Everest's climbing season has begun with new rules that require climbers to bring down their personal garbage, and more security officials at the mountain's base camp to help climbers.

Tourism Ministry official Maddhu Sudan Burlakoti said individual climbers going beyond the base camp will be required to bring down at least eight kilograms of their personal garbage and hand it over to officials stationed there.

It is in the latest attempt from the Nepalese government to clean up the world's highest mountain, which draws hundreds of Western climbers and a steady income for the local and national economy, and produces lots of garbage. Until now, climbing teams were asked to bring down their rubbish or risk losing a $US4,000 ($A4,495) deposit - which wasn't very effective as this wasn't widely enforced.

More than 4000 climbers have scaled the 8,850-metre summit since it was conquered in 1953 by Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay. Over the years, climbers have left tonnes of garbage on the slopes on the mountain, and some have called it the "world's highest garbage dump."

Burlakoti said officials posted at the base camp would check climbers to make sure that each brings down food wrappings, tents, ropes, clothes, crampons, pegs and gas cans. It was not clear how climbers failing to comply would be punished.

The government is also opening up a contact office tent at the base camp with officials stationed there throughout the spring climbing season that begins in March and ends in May. They will offer help to climbers and resolve any problems between climbers and monitor the garbage situation.

Last year, a brawl between Western climbers and their Nepalese guides on the mountain sparked safety concerns.

Nepal officials say the rules will protect the environment, better manage climbers and increase their safety, especially as their numbers grow.

Nepal has eight of the 14 highest mountains in the world.

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Rocks, gravel thrown in wild car pursuit

A PASSING driver suffered a serious head injury from a rock thrown from another car speeding up to 150km/h during a police chase, a court has heard.

After that, the car continued, hitting a truck with another rock before doing a u-turn and driving towards a pursuing police vehicle head on.

Anthony James Glover, 23, and Jayde Amber Moscay, 20, were in the car with three others when they became involved in a number of high-speed pursuits as they sped from Queensland into NSW on the morning of November 1, 2012.

The pair, who have pleaded not guilty, are facing a number of charges, including throwing rocks out the car in a bid to hinder police arrest and of causing grievous bodily harm to Pat Garrett, whose car was hit by the rock.

At the opening of their trial on Tuesday, Sydney's District Court heard how bags of dirt, rocks and possibly even a beer bottle were seen being hurled out of the Commodore as the five travelled into NSW, often forcing other motorists off the road.

After being pursued by a police officer just outside Glen Innes, where the car was seen going more than 150km/h, crown prosecutor Michael McColm said a rock hit the car Mr Garrett was in, causing him grievous bodily harm.

"It bounced off the bonnet, through the windscreen, struck Pat Garrett in the forehead and caused him an immediate serious head injury," he told the jury.

When police eventually reached them, they were all arrested.

While Mr McColm said the crown cannot prove who threw the rocks, it alleges Glover and Moscay were part of a joint criminal enterprise.

But Glover's barrister Susan Kluss said her client had candidly told police - after the five were eventually apprehended - that he didn't want to be part of the pursuit.

"He thought he was going for a drive into NSW," she told the jury.

The trial continues.

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Egg warning over Vic salmonella outbreak

VICTORIANS have been warned of the higher risk of eating raw or undercooked eggs after more than 200 people fell ill from salmonella.

Health authorities have linked two restaurants to raw-egg foods using products from western Victorian supplier Green Eggs.

The Department of Environment and Primary Industries has restricted the sale of eggs from the Green Eggs farm near Ararat until extra cleaning and hygiene measures are taken.

More than 200 people became ill with gastroenteritis after eating at the Bottle of Milk restaurant in Torquay, and a handful of others suffered the same fate after dining at St Kilda's Newmarket hotel.

There have been other isolated cases, and those affected have ranged in age from nine months to over 65 years.

Chief health officer Rosemary Lester says Green Eggs, which supplies a range of Victorian eateries, markets and supermarkets, is still being investigated as the definite source and testing will take a few days.

Dr Lester warned that food and drinks containing raw and undercooked eggs, including mayonnaise, aioli, eggnog and tiramisu, had previously been linked to salmonella outbreaks in Victoria.

"These foods can be a risk, especially for the elderly and people with lowered immunity, children and pregnant women," she said.

Dr Lester said cooking eggs until they were hot all the way through made them safe from contaminants such as salmonella.

Anyone who has bought Green Eggs are advised to use them for cooked dishes only, and restaurants wanting to prepare raw-egg foods or dressings should get their eggs elsewhere while changes at the farm are being made.

Dr Lester said people needed to check that eggs were clean and without cracks before buying them.

Washing eggs at home is also not recommended because it makes it easier for bacteria to penetrate the shell.

Newmarket Hotel owner Tom Walker said he felt terrible for those affected by what has happened.

"We take health and hygiene extremely seriously and are relieved that local inspections have revealed all practices and processes to be compliant and more than satisfactory," he said in a statement.

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Reynolds readies for WA Senate re-run

WA Senate candidate Linda Reynolds (L) says she's not angry she has to hit the campaign trail again. Source: AAP

DESPITE winning fair and square in the West Australian Senate election, Liberal candidate Linda Reynolds says she's not angry about having to go back on the hustings.

The former adjutant general in the Australian Army says she's taken last month's High Court decision to void the result of the WA poll in her stride.

Ms Reynolds won the state's fourth seat in both the initial count and the recount, during which the Australian Electoral Commission lost 1370 ballots, prompting a fresh election on April 5.

Under the electoral act, an election cannot be held for just the contentious fifth and sixth seats.

"I'm actually very calm about it - I'm generally not angry about it at all," Ms Reynolds told AAP.

She remains number three on the party's ticket, behind David Johnston and Michaelia Cash, and ahead of Slade Brockman.

Two candidates - Steve Thomas and Chris Oughton - have dropped off.

The opposition has so far only re-endorsed its top two, Joe Bullock and Louise Pratt, in that order.

"We'll clear up the rest of the ticket in the next couple of days," Labor state secretary Simon Mead said.

Ms Reynolds said she heard much the same comments from the electorate while doorknocking last week as she did before the September federal election, but voters were increasingly nervous about jobs.

"For WA, that means we need the economy to grow and we need to get more of a fairer share. I think it's not just about GST, but also infrastructure spending, which we desperately need in the west."

She said the opposition's criticism of the federal government's refusal to fund urban rail showed Labor was out of touch and city-centric.

"People in Western Australia are savvy enough to know the difference between state and federal responsibilities."

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Park body draft rejected reef dredge plan

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) initially rejected a dredge dump proposal. Source: AAP

THERE will be a push in the Senate on Tuesday to revoke the approval of the Abbot Point coal port expansion.

The Greens will ask for a vote after it was revealed the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) initially wanted to reject a plan to dump three million cubic metres of dredge spoil in the marine park over several years.

In the draft report to the federal environment department - obtained by Greenpeace under the Freedom of Information - GBRMPA said the project had the potential to cause long-term, irreversible harm.

But in January, it approved the plan, which will turn Abbot Point in north Queensland into one of the world's largest coal terminals.

Greenpeace campaigner Louise Matthiesson says the organisation wasn't aware of any significant changes to the project which would justify a major change in GBRMPA's stance.

When approving the application, GBRMPA imposed 47 conditions, which chairman Russell Reichelt says are the strictest conditions that have ever been put on a port development.

He said the documents obtained under FOI were preliminary working drafts and were never submitted.

"As such they do not represent the views of the agency," he said.

"It's important to note that the draft permit assessment was conducted before stringent conditions ... were put in place by the environment minister."

Mr Reichelt has previously said GBRMPA's preference was for the spoil to be dumped on land but the authority failed to persuade the North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation to do so.

However, he said land dumping was difficult given the port was surrounded by valuable wetland and bird habitats and the authority was satisfied with the offshore dumping plan.

Environment minister Greg Hunt said he was advised the proposal put forward for offshore disposal was the best option available.

"I was advised that the previous Labor government had already ruled out all other options," he said.

Bulk Ports, which will undertake the dredging, has said it could possibly make the water cloudy during a short period and may damage seagrass but it's unlikely to affect other flora and fauna.

They say dumping the spoil in the water will be less damaging to the environment than depositing it on land.

But green groups argue they're opting to dump it at sea because it costs less.

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CleanUp Australia back at work

Around 550,000 volunteers will focus on cigarette butts and drink bottles for CleanUp Australia day. Source: AAP

CLEANUP Australia's Ian Kiernan and more than half a million of his mates will spend Sunday applying his newly developed formula, E=1.

Operating out of Tasmania in 2014, Mr Kiernan is leading the 24th annual CleanUp Australia day and more than half a million volunteers will scour the scrub, sand, parks, creeks and bush at 7000 sites across the country.

"I have 550,000 close, personal friends now," he said.

Many other clubs and groups across the country participate but don't register, so the true figure is probably much larger, he said.

Mr Kiernan said the environment is the "absolute, primary issue" and since being awarded an honorary doctorate in science from the UNSW, he's developed a formula to help everyone remember and act with nature in mind.

"E=1, not E=mc2, that's very good, but E=1 comes long before that," he said, clarifying that E was in fact an abbreviation of environment.

The group's focus this year is cigarette butts and drink bottles.

"They're a real problem," Mr Kiernan told AAP from the group's Tasmanian headquarters

"They've got toxic material in them, they've got plastic in them and they just accumulate."

As well as improving the environment, CleanUp Australia day encourages people to live more sustainably and is great for business, Mr Kiernan said.

"Tourists won't return to degraded destinations," he said.

Mr Kiernan also wants to see South Australia's incentive-based recycling scheme replicated nationally.

"The recovery rate on beveridge containers is in excess of 85 per cent. In other cities and towns, less than 30 per cent

"Instead of seeing a bit of rubbish on the beach or beside the road, you'll see money."

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Man under police guard after alleged arson

A QUEENSLAND man who allegedly set fire to a house in the state's southeast is now under police guard in hospital.

A 16-year-old girl suffered serious burns in the blaze and has been flown to Brisbane for treatment.

Police say seven people were inside the home at Oakhurst, near Maryborough, when it went up in flames on Sunday morning.

They all managed to flee before the home was gutted by fire.

Police allege a Dunmora man, 53, drove a prime-mover into the home, damaging two vehicles, before setting the house alight.

He is in Maryborough Hospital but is expected to be flown to Brisbane for burns treatment.

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Hundreds rally over Vic mine fire response

HUNDREDS of residents have rallied in Victoria's Morwell where a coal mine is on fire, demanding a royal commission into what they say is a lack of action by authorities.

Protest leader Nerissa Albon said 1200 people had turned out to the rally, united in frustration over living in the smoke-affected town where a blaze at the Hazelwood open cut coal mine has been burning since February 9.

"Everybody's sick of their eyes stinging, they're sick of sore throats, they're sick of their houses being covered," she told AAP.

Demonstrators want a royal commission into what they say is a delayed government response, real assistance to leave the area and lack of fire safety infrastructure in the disused part of the mine which is ablaze.

Greens Senator Richard Di Natale, who spoke at the rally, said locals were right to be angry over conflicting health messages.

He accused the state government of a lack of leadership on the issue, saying a state of emergency should have been declared within days of the fire starting.

"We knew that the impacts of the smoke from this fire would have serious acute health impacts and quite possibly very serious longer term impacts," he told reporters in Morwell.

"The question is, what sort of exposure are we going to allow the people of Morwell to be exposed to before we act?"

Dr Di Natale, a former GP who last year led a Senate inquiry into health impacts of air pollution, said Premier Denis Napthine needed to ask Prime Minister Tony Abbott for disaster relief assistance.

Mine operator, GDF Suez, had a social responsibility to the residents but was also missing in action, he said.

Health Minister David Davis said the situation was being handled professionally, based on best advice.

"The chief health officer has issued advisories on the basis of the evidence that's available, on the basis of the best possible advice," he told reporters.

Mr Davis said the government will provide whatever assistance is reasonable and health department officers will individually assess each family.

Chief Health Officer Rosemary Lester advised on Friday that people over 65, preschool-age children, pregnant women and those with a pre-existing heart or lung condition should move from Morwell South as the fire will most likely not be extinguished in the next 10 days as first thought.

The state government will hold an independent inquiry into the fires.

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