CCTV plan for Sydney gets go-ahead

The City of Sydney Council has endorsed the placing of extra CCTV cameras in Sydney's nightspots. Source: AAP

A PROPOSAL for extra CCTV cameras in Sydney's busiest nightspots is set to become a reality after the City of Sydney Council endorsed the plan.

At a council meeting on Monday night, council unanimously carried the proposal to install the 10 new cameras in Surry Hills, the CBD and Kings Cross.

The push for extra security follows the one-punch death of teenager Thomas Kelly.

Mr Kelly died after he was king hit in Kings Cross in July 2012.

After the CCTV plan gained the rubber stamp, Lord Mayor Clover Moore said in a statement the new cameras would bring the total number in council's city network to 97.

"Our entire CCTV network is monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week and we work closely with the NSW Police Force, regularly providing video footage and intelligence," she said.

Recently Ms Moore took a swipe at the state government, which she claimed was responsible for law and order.

She said council had stepped in to fund CCTV because no one else had.

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell said on Sunday co-operation between the state and city council had seen a reduction in violence in Kings Cross following Mr Kelly's death.

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Religion 'everything': hacking accused

ONE of the men accused of murdering British soldier Lee Rigby has told a jury "my religion is everything".

Michael Adebolajo, 28, began giving evidence in London on Monday, surrounded by five security guards.

He and Michael Adebowale, 22, are accused of murdering Rigby by running him down with a car and then hacking him to death with a meat cleaver and knives near Woolwich Barracks in south east London on May 22.

The soldier's relatives sat feet away as Adebolajo spoke to the court.

He said: "My religion is everything.

"When I came to Islam I realised that... real success is not just what you can acquire, but really is if you make it to paradise, because then you can relax."

Adebolajo said he converted to Islam in his first year at Greenwich University.

When asked about his attitude to people in authority, he said: "Generally speaking, I don't get along with them, generally. In most instances I don't get along with authority, except for my mother and my father."

As ground rules were set out for his giving evidence, including not speaking over the judge, he said: "I don't believe in the law."

The court heard that Adebolajo is married and has six children, including a seven-year-old boy.

He said that, growing up in Romford, the "vast majority" of his friends were white British, and one, Kirk Redpath, joined the Army and was later killed in Iraq.

Adebolajo said: "I hold Tony Blair responsible for his death."

He said his favourite teacher at school was the first person to teach him about Adolf Hitler.

He told the court it showed him that "there are some very wicked people in the world".

The 28-year-old was raised as a Christian.

He told the jury of eight women and four men: "My parents used to take us to church every Sunday. The memory that sticks in my mind... is probably every New Year's Eve in the evening around 11 o'clock we would gather around in candlelight and read passages from the Bible."

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Church's 'sorry' too late, inquiry hears

An inquiry into how the Catholic Church managed victims of child sex abuse is under the microscope. Source: AAP

TWELVE years after being silenced by the Catholic Church, Joan Isaacs can now tell the world about the sexual and emotional abuse inflicted upon her as a schoolgirl.

Ms Isaacs was applauded as she left the witness stand at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Monday after finally talking publicly about the abuse dealt her by Father Francis Derriman more than 40 years ago.

The church last week lifted the legally binding agreement she made in 2001 in return for a $30,000 payment, in a gesture she said was "too little, too late."

Ms Isaacs, 60, received a letter from Brisbane Archbishop, the Most Reverend Mark Coleridge, saying she was no longer required to observe the conditions of the settlement agreed to under the church's Towards Healing process.

A confidentiality clause required her not to speak to anyone, except for medical reasons, about her abuse and demanded that she not make "disparaging comments" about the process and the archdiocese.

She said one of the reasons she came to the Royal Commission was because she "needed to be free of these chains before I died".

In an emotional first day of the commission's hearings into Towards Healing - the Church's internal procedures for dealing with sex abuse allegations - several observers walked out as church lawyer Peter Gray SC quoted St Mark, others protested outside and commission chairman rebuked Mr Gray.

Like many other victims, Ms Isaacs said the Towards Healing process re-traumatised her and she had been silenced.

In last week's letter, Rev Coleridge said: "I can only hope that this belated gesture will assist you to move further on the path to peace and healing."

She said she was "waiting and waiting (for an apology) and I heard the opening address from the Church this morning and how sorry they were for everything that happened and I went back to my letter and I couldn't find sorry anywhere".

Ms Isaacs had been sexually and emotionally abused by Father Derriman when she was 14 and 15 years of age.

Derriman, who served eight months in jail, has left the church and is now married and living in Victoria.

Ms Isaacs said at the time Father Derriman had lied about being terminally ill and said he would kill himself if she did not have sex with him.

A visibly upset Ms Isaacs told how he would put his finger in her mouth during Holy Communion.

As she left the stand, people in the crowded hearing room spontaneously clapped.

Earlier, some had walked out when Mr Gray, representing the Catholic Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council quoted the Gospel of Mark.

Mr Gray said the church was deeply sorry and referred to the hearing as a "day of reckoning for the Catholic Church".

"It apologises to all those who have been harmed and betrayed. It humbly asks for forgiveness," he said.

When he quoted chapter 10 verse 14 from the gospel according to Mark with the phrase "Let the little children come to me ....", people walked out with cries of "goodness me" and "what an insult". Some cried outside the hearing.

Mr Gray was twice interrupted by commission chair Justice Peter McClellan.

Justice McClellan said Mr Gray was expressing conclusions in some of what he said, and advised him this was the commission's job.

Senior counsel advising the commission, Gail Furness, in her opening statement said data supplied by the church was incomplete and not up to date.

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Ring 'thief' bailed after colonoscopy

A JUDGE has granted an accused jewel thief bail after he laid out crucial evidence for police.

David Watts had a colonoscopy on Monday morning to retrieve a diamond ring he allegedly swallowed after stealing it from a jewellery store in southwest Brisbane two weeks ago.

Watts allegedly stole and ate another ring, but police lost it after throwing out a waste bag they forgot to search while he was in custody.

Legal Aid Solicitor Nicholas Hanly applied for bail on behalf of Watts in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday afternoon.

Magistrate Paul Kluck asked why the application had been made so late in the day.

Mr Hanly told him that the rings had only been "extracted" on Monday morning, which drew smirks and giggles from prosecutors, court officers, the public gallery and a prisoner who was waiting in the dock for his matter to be heard.

"I don't want to hear anything about rings being extracted," the magistrate shouted.

Prosecutors did not oppose the application and Magistrate Kluck granted bail without conditions.

Watts is due to reappear in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on December 13.

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Police rescue Afghan woman from stoning

A WOMAN sentenced by the Taliban to death by public stoning was rescued by police in northern Afghanistan, a police official said.

"Taliban [judicial] commission charged a woman named Halima ... to be stoned to death for having an affair with a man in Dasht-e-Archi district three days ago," said Saeed Tabar Hussaini, a police official in northern Kunduz province.

The woman was due to be executed on Sunday evening, but police received a tip-off and arrived at the scene before the execution took place.

Taliban fled the area, the official said.

Hussaini said the man who was sentenced along with the woman had evaded arrest by the Taliban.

There have been isolated reports of stonings in Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001.

On Sunday, a UN report said that prosecutions and convictions of perpetrators of violence against women in Afghanistan remained low, with most cases settled by mediation.

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Govt not bank for car industry, Lib MP

MP Josh Frydenberg says there are limits to the support the federal government can give car makers. Source: AAP

FEDERAL coalition coffers cannot be used as an ATM for struggling car companies like Holden, one coalition MP says.

Liberal Mr Frydenberg, who is a parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, says the role of government is to create an environment where businesses can prosper.

"But it's not to be there as the banker for free enterprise," he told Sky News on Sunday.

"We cannot use the taxpayer as an ATM for the car industry."

Mr Frydenberg repeated government calls for Holden to declare the fate of its Australian manufacturing operations, with speculation that it has already decided to close by 2016.

Holden officials will provide some details about where the company is heading at a Productivity Commission inquiry hearing in Melbourne on Tuesday.

Mr Frydenberg says the government hopes the car maker will stay in Australia, but there are "certainly limits" to the amount of support it can provide.

"We have $1 billion committed to 2015 in the automotive transformation scheme," he said.

"That money is available to the sector."

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen says Holden is too important for the government to let it "walk away" from Australia.

He said the car industry around the world involved huge amounts of government intervention: "You have to accept that reality".

"If we do want a car industry, then we need to recognise that we're dealing with a global situation in which governments intervene to support their car industry," Mr Bowen told Sky News.

"If Australia's going to have one, we have to play on the same field."

He said it would be "very difficult" for Toyota to maintain its local operations if Holden left.

Earlier this year Ford announced it would end manufacturing in Australia in 2016.

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Free transport urged for fire recovery

The NSW Opposition wants free weekend transport to and from the Blue Mountains to boost business. Source: AAP

THE NSW government should provide free bus and train rides to and from the Blue Mountains these holidays to help businesses recover from the October bushfires, the state opposition says.

The government needs to encourage visitors back with the message that the Blue Mountains is open for business, Opposition Leader John Robertson says.

Analysis by Blue Mountains Lithgow & Oberon Tourism and Blue Mountains Economic Enterprise estimates 200 jobs and more than $47 million in tourism revenue have been lost in the six weeks following the bushfires.

Domestic day trips alone are estimated to be down by more than 144,000.

Mr Robertson says there are dozens of bus and train services to the Blue Mountains every weekend.

"These public transport services should be free and promoted across the Sydney Trains network to encourage families and tourists to plan a trip to the mountains."

Opposition transport spokeswoman Penny Sharpe says she's written to Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian asking that Labor's proposal be implemented immediately, effective until the Australia Day long weekend.

"For a family of two adults and two children it would cost $34.80 on a Saturday to travel from Central to Springwood by train ... that's $34 better spent in a Blue Mountains small business."

Blue Mountains Mayor Mark Greenhill says many visitors had been scared away by the bushfires.

"We have hundreds of thousands of hectares of world heritage listed National Park with breathtaking scenery, pristine waterways and amazing walking tracks," he said.

"We welcome any proposal that encourages visitors and their wallets to our region."

Ms Berejiklian said in a statement that the NSW government had announced funding for a campaign to encourage tourists to visit the Blue Mountains and continued to work with the community to help those impacted.

"An auction of Sydney Trains lost property items held on Saturday raised thousands of dollars that will be donated to victims of the Blue Mountains bushfire," she said.

The minister also said the government had announced residents would not be charged for water used to defend their homes during the bushfires.

Fees to replace documents such as birth certificates and driver licences had also been waived along with fees for taking bushfire waste to the tip, Ms Berejiklian said.

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Vic minister slams hospital delay claim

OPPOSITION claims that sick Victorian kids are being forced to wait due to delays in building a children's hospital are wrong and hypocrisy in the extreme, the health minister says.

Baulderstone Pty Ltd will build the 230-bed Monash Children's Hospital, with construction to begin mid-next year, it was announced on Sunday.

But opposition health spokesman Gavin Jennings says the hospital should be being finished now, not being started, with the government promising to deliver it in its first term.

"Families who have been waiting for better care for their children, continue to wait," he told reporters.

"Families are waiting longer than they should have."

Health Minister David Davis said the government had promised to start building the hospital in its first term.

He said Labor's delay claims were wrong and "hypocrisy in the extreme" because they failed to build the hospital in 11 years in government.

"(Now Opposition Leader) Daniel Andrews was parliamentary secretary for health first and health minister later and he allocated not one cent to build the Monash Children's Hospital," Mr Davis told AAP.

He said the need for a dedicated children's hospital in Melbourne's southeast was first identified a decade ago.

"This is an important hospital for Melbourne's southeast, a hospital that we look forward to seeing in operation," Mr Davis said.

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Qld 30-year vision sets the bar high

Expanding children's literacy and numeracy levels is a primary target in a bold plan for Queensland. Source: AAP

AN ambitious 30-year plan for Queensland aims to have half of the state's population living outside the southeast and to narrow the gap between the wealthy and poor.

Ensuring all Queensland children have basic literacy and numeracy when they finish primary school is another key target in The Queensland Plan, released for review on Sunday.

Minister for Environment and Heritage Protection Andrew Powell says the bar has been set high.

"The working draft is based on a compilation of what Queenslanders have told us they want in 30 years' time," he said in a statement.

"We don't expect everyone will agree with these preliminary targets, but we now have a great opportunity as a community to realise the future we want."

Mr Powell is urging all Queenslanders to have a look at the draft to ensure the 30-year vision reflects the aspirations of the Sunshine State.

"Test us. These targets are bold, they are different and some have never been measured in Australia before," he said.

Ensuring Queenslanders have the lowest incidence of preventable diseases in Australia and increasing the life expectancy of the state's indigenous peoples are also among the 16 primary targets outlined in the draft plan.

The final Queensland Plan is expected to be released by mid-2014.

The working draft is online and will be available for review until March 7 2014.

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Drug arrests, seizures at Vic music fest

MORE than 100 people have been arrested for drug offences at a Melbourne music festival.

Police seized drugs including ecstasy, amphetamine, cocaine, GHB and MDMA during a sniffer dog operation at the Stereosonic festival at Melbourne Showgrounds over the weekend.

They arrested 139 people, with the majority receiving drug diversions or cautions.

Ten people were charged.

Police Senior Sergeant Mark Pilkington said it was disappointing that so many people were risking their lives by taking illicit substances.

"Believe it or not, you are taking a serious risk with your health and life every time you take an illicit substance," he said.

"We will continue to work closely with event organisers to try and limit these substances at events."

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