Hugh Jackman to get Hollywood star

Australian actor Hugh Jackman is set to be honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Source: AAP

HUGH Jackman has been a bona fide Hollywood star for years and in a fortnight he will have one to prove it.

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced on Friday the Australian actor will be honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

"Fans from around the world have been consistently asking when this star will be dedicated," Walk of Fame producer Ana Martinez said.

"We are happy to say that now is the time. Hugh is one of the world's most popular actors and we are excited that he is joining our Walk of Fame family."

The 44-year-old is a Tony Award winner and a big tip to score an Oscar nomination for his performance opposite Russell Crowe in the new adaptation of the stage musical Les Miserables. However, Jackman already has some Hollywood Boulevard real estate.

In 2009, about 20 metres away from where his star will be laid, Jackman got stuck into wet concrete outside the famed Grauman's Chinese Theatre, leaving hand and footprints alongside the likes of Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Clark Gable and Bing Crosby.

Jackman has built up a huge following for his role as Wolverine in the X-Men franchise, including the spin-off X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Jackman has just wrapped the shooting for another chapter, The Wolverine, in Sydney.

The star ceremony will take place on December 13.

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Campaign to end NSW boating deaths

A RISE in boating fatalities in NSW since July has sparked a new campaign to get people to wear life jackets.

Minister for Roads and Ports Duncan Gay says there has been a spike in boating fatalities on the state's coastline and waterways, with 10 people killed on the water in the past four months alone.

This compares with 2011-12 when there were 19 boating fatalities in the 12-month period.

"I'm confident many of these people would still be alive today if they were wearing life jackets," Mr Gay said in a statement on Saturday.

"No one expects to fall in the water and get separated from their vessel.

"No one expects that years of swimming experience will be rendered useless if they slip and hit their head or fall in the water fully clothed."

To help prevent further deaths and reward those doing the right thing, Mr Gay launched a new campaign on Saturday that will see free tickets to the cricket handed out to responsible boaters.

Officers doing random safety checks of recreational vessels will be giving away tickets to the New Year's Test match, one-day matches at the SCG and NSW SpeedBlitz Blues matches to everyone on board who is wearing a life jacket.

"It's no good just having them stored away on your boat, where they are useless in an emergency," Mr Gay said.

"Make sure they are in good condition and the right type for your activity."

According to the report into boating incidents in the state, released on Saturday, 167 people have died in NSW waters in the 10 years to June 2012.

Of those, 103 fatalities were attributed to drowning, with 93 per cent of those who died reportedly not wearing a life jacket at the time.

Over the past decade, the most common type of recreational boating fatalities involved a vessel capsizing (33.6 per cent).

Meanwhile, the second largest cause was people falling overboard - equating to 25.2 per cent of deaths.

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Heat hits the rails ahead of run home

HALF hour delays are being experienced on the Caboolture train line after heat caused the tracks to buckle.

Buses have been brought in to transport passengers between Caboolture and Petrie train stations after three heat-buckled portions of track were found between Narangba and Dakabin.

The tracks have been closed through the area as workers try to fix the problem before peak hour hits.

Passengers at this stage can expect delays of up to half-an-hour.

Translink have advised this disruption will not affect the Nambour line.

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Treasurers must reform tax: Oakeshott

INDEPENDENT MP Rob Oakeshott has thrown down the challenge to commonwealth and state treasurers to sort out the issue of mining tax and royalties, and put politics "in the back pocket".

An independent inquiry has called for an overhaul of the mining and petroleum taxes to remove incentive for states to increase their royalties.

The inquiry's report, by former premiers Nick Greiner and John Brumby and tax expert Bruce Carter, was released on Friday.

It found the federal government's decision to fully credit state royalties under the minerals resource rent tax (MRRT) and petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT) had created an incentive for states to boost royalties, which was neither "desirable nor sustainable".

Mr Oakeshott said it was crucial the treasurers came together and talked about the issue in a sensible way.

"Put the politics in the back pocket and think of the nation's interest as far as our standing of living for the future," Mr Oakeshott told reporters in Canberra.

He said if it can't be resolved, the MRRT legislation should be brought to close up the loophole that allows a "feeding frenzy" for Western Australia and Queensland on their royalties, which in turn reduces the commonwealth's revenue base.

However, he was suspicious of anything being delivered given the report was "dumped" on a Friday afternoon just weeks before Christmas.

But he said the substance of the report was good and vindicated everything that many people had been saying all year about tax reform.

"It's the latest example of where the two major parties must now take tax reform seriously," Mr Oakeshott said.

He said earlier this week the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development had told Australia it must tackle taxation reform or see the start of material damage to the economy, and Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson had made similar remarks about superannuation reform.

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Wheat deregulation clears Senate

LEGISLATION to deregulate the wheat market has passed the Senate.

The Wheat Export Marketing Amendment Bill 2012 cleared the Senate on Thursday with amendments from the Australian Greens.

The bill was passed on the voices and did not come to a vote.

Two West Australian Liberal senators were likely to cross the floor if it did come to a vote.

Liberal senators Alan Eggleston and Dean Smith broke ranks with their colleagues in declaring support for a Labor bill to finalise the deregulation of wheat exports during the debate.

The bill now returns to the lower house for a final nod of approval.

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Bashed officer suffers second beating

Senior Constable Gabe Jose after today's bashing. Picture: CHANNEL 10 Source: Supplied

Senior Constable Gabe Jose after today's bashing. Picture: CHANNEL 10 Source: Supplied

A GOLD Coast police officer who was savagely bashed in a roadside attack six years ago has been badly assaulted again.

Senior Constable Gabe Jose was taken to hospital covered in blood after an incident on Chevron Island on Thursday afternoon.

He is believed to have been bashed by a drug-crazed man in Darrambal St after responding to a call for help on his way to work.

Sen Const Jose was brutally bashed with his own baton, kicked, punched and bitten after stopping a car on the M1 in June 2006.

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Auditor slams Vic school funding cuts

THE Victorian government has denied funding cuts in vocational training at schools will prompt more students from poor and disadvantaged backgrounds to drop out.

A report into school retention rates has found less than two-thirds of students in the state's lower socio-economic areas finish Year 12, compared with 80 per cent in wealthier areas.

Auditor-General Des Pearson has warned against a cut of $12.3 million in annual funding for the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) program, which has a disproportionately high enrolment of students from low socio-economic backgrounds.

"There is a risk that VCAL course offerings will become restricted in the future," he said in a report tabled to parliament on Wednesday.

He said the decision to pull VCAL's co-ordination funding was ill-informed and not based on evidence.

"Important commissioned research was ignored, and stakeholders, including schools, were not consulted about the likely impact of the changes," he said.

"DEECD (the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development) did not have sufficient evidence to assess the impact of funding changes on schools' ability to meet the growing demand for VCAL, and, in turn, on the impact that this would have on future completion rates."

Education Minister Martin Dixon said more students were undertaking VCAL than ever before, which should boost retention rates.

"We are not aware of any schools that have actually discontinued VCAL," he told reporters.

"The fact that we've got more students in more schools undertaking VCAL, I think that will help with retention rates in the coming years."

He said rather than rely solely on advice from his department, he preferred to consult schools directly.

"The advice that ... we based our decision on was advice that we received from schools from numerous visits and also talking to stakeholders."

Almost 14,000 students were studying subjects for VCAL - the vocational form of the school leaver's certificate - last year, with enrolments having increased by about 60 per cent since 2006.

In 2010, almost nine out of 10 of intermediate or senior VCAL students got a job or went into further training or education.

Opposition education spokesman James Merlino said parents of children moving into Year 11 next year were going to information nights and being told nothing about VCAL.

"Education in Victoria is going backwards," he told reporters.

"The very students that are most at risk of dropping out of school are the very students that this government is targeting with their savage budget cuts."

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Newman govt dumps dissenting Douglas

QUEENSLAND Premier Campbell Newman's government has punished an MP who suggested there was something sinister about his ouster from the parliament's ethics committee.

Liberal National Party MP Alex Douglas claims he was pushed out of his role as chairman of the ethics committee.

He's told parliament that at no stage did he ask to be removed from that role and says Premier Newman must reinstate him.

There is no prospect of that happening.

Parliament on Wednesday voted to dump Dr Douglas as chairman of the legal affairs and community safety committee - a job he acquired only yesterday.

Mr Newman told parliament Dr Douglas had been happy about his appointment to the legal affairs committee, which the government has said required him to give up his role on the ethics panel.

He said Dr Douglas had assured him - in a meeting with witnesses on Tuesday - that he was happy with the move.

Mr Newman attacked the integrity of his MP and said it was right that he be stripped of his new committee role.

"Perhaps that speaks volumes about why there does need to be a change, because if you don't have the integrity to tell the truth about a meeting with the leader of your party ... then perhaps you shouldn't be doing that job," the premier said.

He said that during Tuesday's meeting, he told Dr Douglas: "Alex, there will be no move if you are unhappy."

The premier said the MP replied: "I'm perfectly happy to do this and move."

The Labor opposition said it was a clear case of the "foot on throat" approach the Newman government used on dissenters in its ranks.

Earlier, Dr Douglas told reporters there should be an investigation into his removal from the ethics committee.

"We need to carefully go through and find out exactly who wanted me off," he said.

"I'm just not going to go into a corner. I will continue and this will be dealt with."

The ethics committee, under Dr Douglas, has been tasked with investigating Mr Newman's transport chief Michael Caltabiano over claims he misled parliament about his links to Ben Gommers, son of Arts Minister Ros Bates.

But its investigation was recently put on hold, pending a Crime and Misconduct Commission probe into Mr Gommers' appointment to a plum job in Mr Caltabiano's department.

The member for Ipswich Ian Berry will replace Dr Douglas as chair of legal affairs committee.

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Man winched from container ship

A MAN is recovering from surgery after paramedics rescued him from a container ship 95 nautical miles off the NSW coast.

A doctor and a paramedic from Special Casualty Access Team (SCAT) flew from Illawarra regional airport to the ship after receiving a call for assistance about 2.45pm (AEDT) on Monday.

A 51-year-old foreign national who had suffered a chest injury a month ago was bedridden and his condition was deteriorating, SCAT boss Cameron Edgar said.

After winching the paramedic crew onto the ship, the rescue helicopter was sent 175km back to shore as it had only enough fuel to wait for 19 minutes.

"They had a quick look at the patient and realised his condition was such they wouldn't be able to rapidly move him into position to be winched off," Mr Edgar said.

The SCAT team gave the man a general anaesthetic to control his breathing while waiting for the rescue helicopter to return.

The man was placed in a stretcher and winched onto the helicopter two hours later.

Back on land, he was taken to the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney and placed in intensive care.

"Overall, despite being a complicated operation with an extremely sick patient, it all went really well," Mr Edgar said.

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Winemakers preserve wine with late pruning

AUSTRALIAN winemakers can trick their grapes into maturing later in a bid to counteract the effects of climate change, research shows.

Over the past 25 years, the harvest date for Australian wines has come forward almost one day a year, agricultural scientist Professor Snow Barlow says.

Pruning grapevines a month later is one of the tactics being employed by a major Australian winemaker to delay the growth of grapes, so they mature when they did before the seasons started to change.

National viticulturist for the Treasury Wine Estates Paul Petrie will this week present his findings on the delayed pruning of grapevines at the Climate Change Research Strategy for Primary Industries (CCRSPI) conference in Melbourne.

Prof Barlow, the executive director of CCRSPI, said Mr Petrie had had some success in delaying the growth of the wine grapes by delaying the pruning of the vines - which is a key part of the grape growing cycle.

"We've got climate change pressuring the season one way, if we don't prune them until very late we'll push them the other way and maybe we'll end up in the same place as we were," Prof Barlow told AAP.

Prof Barlow, who operates vineyards in the Strathbogie Ranges in north eastern Victoria, said changing weather patterns can affect the quality of wine produced.

"Wine is different from wheat and milk. It's about quality rather than quantity," Prof Barlow said.

"If you have (a grapevine) in the wrong place it might die.

"It might not express itself fully, in that it might not produce that robust wine that you want to produce."

He said this can damage a brand that relies upon producing a consistent flavour year after year.

Climate change is affecting not only the flavour of the grape, but also the capacity of wineries to effectively utilise their infrastructure.

The CCRSPI conference will hear from wine makers and scientists who have turned their minds to the challenge of sustaining a wine industry in the face of rising temperatures.

Prof Barlow said most commercial wineries would expect to use their fermentation tanks three times a year, but because of the shift in seasons growers are experiencing a compression of vintage.

"All the grapes start coming in together," he said.

"It causes some scheduling problems and if it continues they may have to buy more tanks. But that's expensive."

But it's not all bad news.

"People are producing new sorts of wines more in line with the climate conditions they're facing," Prof Barlow said.

"So we can look forward to some different wines, some of which we might like."

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Macklin releases NDIS draft laws

Minister Jenny Macklin has released draft legislation for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Source: AAP

THE federal government has reassured people with disabilities that a planned national insurance scheme will be flexible to adapt to their needs.

Disability Reform Minister Jenny Macklin on Monday released draft legislation for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) while visiting a centre for deaf and hearing-impaired children in Canberra.

She will introduce the bill to parliament this week.

Several state governments have expressed concerns the scheme will be too prescriptive and bureaucratic, resulting in a Centrelink-type approach that would rob people of choice and control over their care.

Ms Macklin said there had been an "enormous" amount of consultation so far and that would continue in the coming months through a parliamentary committee.

"We've had not only consultations with the states and territories but extensive consultations with so many people who have a disability (at) many, many public forums," she told reporters.

"Consultation on these detailed rules will occur with people with disability, their families, carers, service providers and advocates in the coming months."

The scheme will give people with disabilities the flexibility to choose the type of care and support they receive.

The NDIS is expected to cost about $15 billion a year when fully implemented in 2018/19.

The government has set aside $1 billion to fund five launch sites around the nation from mid-2013, but future funding commitments fall outside the four-year budget estimates period.

The draft legislation sets up the framework for the scheme, including eligibility criteria, age requirements and what constitutes reasonable and necessary support.

The legislation will establish a launch transition agency as an independent body.

Opposition spokesman on disabilities Mitch Fifield said legislation should have been released earlier for public comment as an exposure draft, given the degree of community interest.

He urged the federal government to provide cash certainty for the scheme.

"Legislation without funding certainty would be an empty gesture," he said.

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Less rest, more stress for casuals at Xmas

CHRISTMAS for many casual workers is a time which is fraught with stress about job prospects in the new year, parliament has been told.

Australian Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt has introduced a private member's bill calling for an amendment to the Fair Work Act that will protect casuals.

The amendment would provide a process for insecure workers to make an application to move to ongoing employment on a part-time or full-time basis with paid leave entitlements.

"A staggering number of casuals and people on rolling contracts now make up our workforce," Mr Bandt told parliament on Monday.

About 2.2 million employees across Australia are not entitled to sick pay or paid holidays and have no guarantee of ongoing secure employment.

Whereas in the 1980s casual workers made up about 15 per cent of the workforce, the proportion is closer to a quarter now as workers absorb more of the financial, social and economic risk than their employers.

"Only Spain has a higher rate of insecure work than Australia now," Mr Bandt said, adding that was largely due to the European country's seasonal workforce.

He highlighted the large proportion of teachers who were on fixed-term contracts.

"These are the people who are teaching our kids ... with no guarantee of what the future will bring," he said.

Offering people more secure jobs would mean less stress for parents needing to stay at home with a sick child as well as making it easier for them to apply for housing loans.

Small businesses would be excluded from the amendment because Mr Bandt said there was a place for casual labour in the workforce.

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Catalans vote in pro-independence fervour

Catalans will vote in a snap election that could lead to a redrawing of the map of Spain. Source: AAP

WHIPPED up in a pro-independence fervour, millions of Catalans vote on Sunday in a snap election that could lead to a redrawing of the map of Spain.

Artur Mas, president of the northeastern region, is promising a referendum on self-determination if the vote goes his way.

Even as Catalan independence flags flutter from balconies in the region's capital Barcelona, however, analysts say a breakup of recession-torn Spain remains a distant prospect.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's right-leaning government is determined to thwart any referendum, saying it flies in the face of common sense, and vowing to wield the national constitution if necessary.

But the vote may drive a wedge into the eurozone's fourth largest economy as it fights the deepest economic crisis since the return of democracy after the death in 1975 of General Francisco Franco.

The secessionist movement could also be hard to stop.

At Mas' last campaign rally on Friday 18,000 people crammed into a Barcelona stadium, chanting "Independence!" in unison and brandishing a sea of Catalan and European Union flags.

"We are not vassals of the Spanish state," the 56-year-old, bespectacled Catalan leader declared to delighted supporters.

It is a cause that stirs strong emotions in Catalonia, which traces its history back more than a millennium.

The region was welded to Spain at the nation's symbolic birth when Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon, which included Catalonia, married in 1469.

Now the region of 7.5 million people accounts for more than one-fifth of Spain's economic output, a quarter of its exports, and one of the world's greatest football teams, Barcelona FC.

But Catalonia also has 44 billion euros ($A55.04 billion) worth of debt, equal to one-fifth of its output, and was forced to go cap in hand to Madrid this year for more than five billion euros to help make the payments.

A growing sentiment that Spain is the cause of Catalonia's financial troubles is at the heart of the national split.

Mas accuses Madrid of raising far more in Catalan taxes than it returns and estimates the gap at 16 billion euros a year, a figure Madrid disputes.

Emboldened by huge protests in Barcelona demanding independence on Catalonia's national day, September 11, Mas demanded greater taxing powers from Rajoy.

When he did not get the concessions he was seeking, he called the snap election.

The resentment over finances has fanned the flames of independence in Catalonia, a region proud of its language and culture that has been forced to slash spending on schools, universities and hospitals.

The Catalan leader is widely suspected of using the secessionist cause as leverage for votes in an election he called two years early, and to squeeze more cash out of Madrid.

Mas' nationalist coalition, Convergence and Union, has traditionally been a force of moderation and the regional boss has carefully skirted use of the word 'independence'.

Latest polls show Mas' alliance heading for a win but falling short of the absolute majority he is seeking.

Nevertheless, pro-referendum parties are widely expected to enjoy a majority in the new parliament.

If there was a referendum on "self-determination," Catalans would vote in favour by 46 per cent to 42 per cent, according to a survey in leading daily El Pais.

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Men arrested after mosque 'threat'

A person is in custody after a threat has been made against a mosque in Sydney's south. Source: AAP

TWO suspected Muslim extremists have been arrested at a mosque in Sydney's south after threats were allegedly made against worshippers.

Police say two men are in custody after an operation at the mosque in Arncliffe, in Sydney's south, on Sunday afternoon.

They said one man was removed from the mosque around 1.15pm by "members of the congregation" before being arrested by police stationed outside.

Another man was arrested outside the mosque, police told AAP.

They did not specify the nature of the arrests.

A witness at the mosque who does not want to be named, said he saw members of the congregation drag a man wearing Islamic clothing from the building around 1.00pm (AEDT).

The witness said worshippers hauled the man out of the mosque and took him "down the street", before police arrived and apprehended him.

He said the man appeared to be an Anglo-Saxon Australian and said he thought he may have been a Wahabi extremist.

Jamal Daoud of the Social Justice Network said he was contacted by a member of the Muslim community who said two Wahabi extremists had threatened Shia Muslims gathered to observe the day of Ashura at the Masjid Fatima Al Zahrah mosque.

"We have information that two men were arrested when they attempted attacking masses of Shia Muslims remembering the Ashura in Arncliffe," Mr Daoud said.

He said the action came after calls for violence against Shia were made on Facebook on Saturday.

Mr Daoud said worshippers at the mosque called police when they became suspicious of attempts by the two men to use their mobile phones.

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