Man abducts, attacks Qld woman in her car

A MAN has attacked a woman after jumping in her car at a north Queensland car wash and telling her to drive to an industrial area.

Police say the woman was cleaning her car in the early hours of Saturday morning when a man jumped in and told her to drive to a nearby industrial area.

When they stopped he snatched the keys from the ignition and the pair began to struggle.

But the sight of a patrolling police car caused the man to run away.

The woman was taken to hospital with cuts and abrasions to her face, back, legs and an injury to her arm.

Police are searching for the man.

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Call for release of Liberal donation audit

AN audit of Liberal Party donations in the wake of damaging slush fund allegations needs to be released publicly, the NSW opposition says.

The call comes after another political head rolled this week as the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) probed party donations.

Police Minister Mike Gallacher resigned from his plum role on Friday after he was implicated in a Liberal Party slush fund scheme.

It was two weeks after Barry O'Farrell resigned from the state's top job over an undeclared, gifted bottle of wine.

NSW Liberal party director Tony Nutt is leading an audit into the party's political donations.

But Opposition Leader John Robertson says the results need not be only for Liberal eyes.

"Tony Nutt is a political operative from way back," he told reporters on Saturday.

"Tony Nutt is someone who has been involved in the activities of the Liberal Party for years and years and years.

"The only way someone can have confidence in that audit is if it is publicly released so everyone can see the process that was put in place to look at these donations."

Mr Robertson, whose own party was dragged through the mud after adverse ICAC findings over coal mine approvals, said he understood why people would question the motives of every politician in NSW.

He said he wanted to work with Mr Baird to put an end to what was playing out at the ICAC.

"I want to see Mike Baird not simply talk tough but the steps to end the scandal and put in place measures that are going to give the public confidence," he said.

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Myer looks forward to better 2015

Myer has blamed refurbishment work at three of its stores for a slide in its third quarter sales. Source: AAP

SPEAKING after the release of Myer's lacklustre third quarter sales results, Mr Brookes said the department store's sales would increase next year once refurbishment work at major stores and new store opening are complete.

Myer expects to lift sales by $100 million in 2014/15 and Mr Brookes expects costs, which have risen considerably in the last few years, to flatten out, providing a boost to the bottom line.

"All of the costs we've had in the prior couple of years are not repeated in 2015 and that's what helps us significantly," he told reporters.

Mr Brookes expects staff wages to rise around two per cent in 2015, below the five per cent growth seen in recent years, while operating costs are expected to fall following the end of refurbishment work.

Myer is currently refurbishing four stores: Adelaide City, Brisbane's Indooroopilly and Miranda and Macquarie in Sydney, and plans to open new stores at Mt Gravatt in Brisbane and Joondalup in Perth by Christmas.

It is also expanding its flagship Melbourne store, adding an extra 7,000 square metres of floor space as part of the adjacent Emporium development.

The department store on Friday blamed the refurbishment work for a one per cent slide in its third quarter sales to $646 million.

"That was almost solely due to the impact of refurbishments," Mr Brookes said.

Excluding the impact of the refurbishments, sales were up 0.24 per cent for the quarter, he said.

Myer shares fell 4.5 cents, or two per cent, to $2.12 on Friday in the wake of the figures.

Mr Brookes said the slide in sales would not impact Myer's expectations of a flat second half profit result.

"We said GP (gross profit) would be flat in the second half, that reflected the fact that we knew we'd be re-engineering some of the business, so therefore (there is) no further degradation at all from a profitability point of view, we'd already calculated that in."

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NAB repaying investment customers

NATIONAL Australia Bank's wealth management business is again repaying customers hit by errors in its allocation of investment income.

Errors in NAB Wealth's operations between 2006 and 2012 were originally identified in December 2012, resulting in compensation worth $1.9 million being paid to about 43,000 customers.

The bank has now identified errors in that compensation process, that left some customers still out of pocket, and will pay more compensation.

The corporate regulator said the amount to paid will be less than the original $1.9 million in compensation.

NAB said it was working to improve its operating platform to prevent future errors.

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Gonski steps up as ANZ chairman

RESPECTED businessman David Gonski takes control in ANZ's boardroom on Thursday, replacing the bank's chairman of four years John Morschel.

Mr Gonski was appointed to the ANZ board in December with the view to taking over from Mr Morschel when he retired on April 30.

"It has been an honour to have served as an ANZ director since 2004 and to have been chairman of ANZ over the past four years," Mr Morschel said.

Mr Gonski, a former chairman of the federal government's Future Fund, previously served as a director for ANZ between 2002 and 2007.

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Honey's worth the money for hive hustlers

A QUEENSLAND beekeeper's club has become the latest to be stung by hive hustlers keen to capitalise on increasing honey prices.

Not even the threat of 240,000 bees put off the sticky-handed bandits who reportedly stole 12 hives containing more than 480kg of honey.

That's probably because the rewards are sweet, with the haul potentially netting almost $2000 as wholesale honey prices reach $4 a kilogram, the highest in years, due to harsh weather conditions wreaking havoc on production.

The alleged theft has devastated the Ipswich & West Moreton Beekeepers' Association which uses its honey for charitable pursuits, although president Benita Ironside says the crime isn't uncommon.

"The honey's worth the money," she told AAP.

Ms Ironside said the hives, stolen from a private property near Ipswich, west of Brisbane, last week each contained between 40kg and 60kg of honey and some 20,000 to 30,000 bees.

Australian Honey Bee Industry Council executive director Trevor Weatherhead speculated part-time beekeepers with a ute were likely behind the crime.

Mr Weatherhead said the threat of hive theft was a concern for Australian beekeepers already stung by less than ideal production conditions.

Hot weather combined with drought and bushfires were likely to halve Australia's annual honey production to 14,000 tonnes this year, he said.

"You get these grubs who do this sort of thing," he said, adding many beekeepers were insured against theft.

"You definitely worry, you don't want to lose your income."

One Queensland beekeeper lost a lot more than his income over honey.

In 2007, Sunshine Coast man Tony Knight was fatally shot as he slept by fellow beekeeper Donald Robert Alcock, who wanted to steal his honey.

Alcock is serving a life sentence for the murder.

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Smith takes on professor role at UWA

FORMER foreign affairs and defence minister Stephen Smith has been appointed a professor of international law at The University of Western Australia (UWA).

Prof Smith was awarded a Bachelor of Laws degree at UWA in 1977 and became a barrister of the WA Supreme Court that same year.

He was also admitted as a barrister of the Bar of England and Wales in 1980, and awarded a Master of Laws from London University in international law in 1982.

UWA Vice-Chancellor Paul Johnson said Prof Smith would add "tremendous intellectual value" to the university's law school.

"His experience as foreign affairs minister, trade minister and minister for defence will be a great asset to the university's law school, and its scholarship in international law and international relations," he said.

Dean of UWA Law School Erika Techera said Prof Smith's work would focus on the masters of international law and international relations courses.

"He will bring with him a practical understanding to the study," she said.

Prof Smith is also a board member at the Perth USAsia Centre and a member of the advisory board of the Perth legal firm, Lavan Legal.

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Be less attractive, abuse survivor told

A 10-YEAR-OLD boy was told by a priest to make himself less attractive so as not to be a target for sexual abuse, a royal commission has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has also heard that Christian Brothers pimped boys out to a visiting photographer at St Joseph's Farm and Trade School, Bindoon, in the late 1950s.

A witness known as VV on Tuesday told the commission in Perth a Christian Brother who raped him suddenly announced he needed to confess his sins.

"Then Brother Parker came back and said I needed to see Father Gerard. Father Gerard sat me down and told me what we were doing was very wrong, and that I should make myself less attractive," VV said.

"I should stop leading Brother Parker on, because it was a sin. He told me it was my fault, all the while he sat there sucking a cigar, blaming a child for being assaulted."

He said boys were also sent out on picnics with a local photographer, who was known to abuse boys.

Boys were also promised parcels of land by brothers who used the inducement to groom them.

When VV - an orphan in care since the age of four in England - arrived at Bindoon aged nine, he was the youngest there and below the 10-year age requirement for the school.

Soon after arriving, he was raped by Brother Christopher Angus.

After the attack, VV was dumped in a 44-gallon drum of water.

"He said words to the effect of 'clean yourself up'," VV said.

He was also savagely beaten numerous times, and has lost hearing in his left ear.

Meanwhile, VV's mother tried repeatedly to find him in England.

"She was told I was put into a good home in Australia, that I was cared for and loved and that I would receive an education," he said.

"She never gave permission for me to go to Australia."

VV never saw his mother again.

Years after he left Bindoon he was offered $20,000 compensation by the Catholic Church's professional standards office, which later upped it to $40,000 when VV said he found it insulting.

"This meeting was very intimidating," VV said.

"The brothers were not approachable or welcoming and I felt intimidated.

"I felt like a child again, trying to defend myself."

The hearings continue.

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Another NSW govt MP steps aside

A FOURTH NSW government MP has stood down from the Liberal Party after new allegations surfaced in a fresh corruption probe.

On the opening day of the latest Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) inquiry, claims were made that Liberal upper house MP Marie Ficarra took a banned $5000 donation from property developer Tony Merhi.

Ms Ficarra has now voluntarily stepped down from the parliamentary Liberal Party after she was asked to do so by Premier Mike Baird.

Liberal MPs Darren Webber, Chris Spence and former minister Chris Hartcher have already been suspended from the party.

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Qld school's stolen guns still missing

POLICE are searching for several rifles and shotguns stolen from a Brisbane Catholic school's gun club.

A man and a woman are in custody after one of the weapons was found in the boot of a car, however the rest of the guns are still missing.

Police say about ten weapons and a large amount of ammunition were stolen from a student gun club during a break-in at St Joseph's Nudgee College on Sunday night.

Officers pulled over a car not long after and found one of the shotguns and most of the ammunition in the boot.

Driver Cristle Ten-Bohmer, 27, and passenger Jason Francis Williams, 43, have been charged with weapons and property offences.

Ten-Bohmer wouldn't consent to a police interview but tearfully protested her innocence during a bail application in the Brisbane Magistrates Court.

"I didn't even know that the stuff was in my car," she sobbed from the dock.

"He (Williams) just rang me up and asked me to drive him."

Ten-Bohmer had only met Williams a couple of times, according to duty lawyer Rosemary Gilbert.

Police prosecutor Senior Sergeant Mark Gorton said police were concerned about the outstanding weapons, which were taken from a bunker that was supposed to be secure.

"The worrying thing is, if ten guns went missing and we've only found one, there's nine guns on the street," he told the court.

Magistrate Christine Roney agreed it was concerning and denied Ten-Bohmer bail.

She noted the prisoner's "substantial" five-page criminal history - which contains mostly drug offences - and declared her an unacceptable risk of reoffending.

Williams is expected to appear in the same court on Tuesday.

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