Barking dog saves SA woman from fire

MAN'S best friend has been credited with saving a South Australian woman from being seriously injured in a house fire.

The dog started barking when a blaze erupted in the Hillbank home, north of Adelaide, on Saturday and alerted the woman to the growing danger, a Metropolitan Fire Service spokesman said.

"(It) may well have been instrumental in sparing this resident from more serous injury," he said.

The woman managed to escape the blaze with minor burns to her arms and needed to be taken to hospital for smoke inhalation.

The fire is believed to have started in the garage when a lit cigarette accidentally came into contact with a rolled up synthetic lawn.

The roof and ceiling collapsed before fire crews could put out the blaze, causing about $250,000 in damages.

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Fight to save homes in Blue Mountains

NSW firefighters are struggling against a large bushfire in the Blue Mountains as they try to save homes in an area where almost 200 properties have already been destroyed.

Authorities have assessed 95 per cent of the affected area at Springwood and Winmalee, confirming 192 properties have been destroyed and another 109 damaged.

The Rural Fire Service (RFS) warns the number of damaged or destroyed properties may rise.

A hospital at Springwood was on Saturday evacuated ahead of an expected worsening in conditions on Sunday, with temperatures in the low 30s expected for parts of NSW.

Patients were taken to the Nepean Hospital in Penrith and are expected to stay there until at least Wednesday.

Firefighters had hoped calmer and cooler temperatures on Saturday would help control fires across the state, but blazes in and around the Blue Mountains have flared up.

Two emergency warnings, the highest level of alert, were issued by the RFS on Saturday.

One was for a fire at Lithgow covering more than 32,600 hectares and the other for about 2150 hectares at Springwood.

Roads have been closed in both areas.

A watch and act alert remains in place for a fire burning across more than 1000 hectares at Mt Victoria and a blaze at Balmoral in the Southern Highlands spanning more than 9300 hectares.

A fire that's burnt through almost 2730 hectares of scrub at Ruttleys Road, near Wyong on the Central Coast, was on Saturday afternoon downgraded to an advice warning.

Fire caused about $4 million damage to the Blue Mountains' historic Zig Zag Railway, which was close to reopening after being closed in June last year for safety upgrades.

Ten carriages, accommodation carriages, historic sleeping carriages, a meeting room, workshop, office and sleepers are among the items damaged.

Elsewhere, crews have been redirected from back-burning operations to protect more than 100 homes near Lithgow in Bell, Dargan, Berambing and Bilpin that were now under threat, RFS Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers said.

"This fire is by no means contained," Mr Rogers said.

The RFS advises people in the area to seek shelter.

Mr Rogers described conditions as "okay", but said it would likely warm up on Sunday and winds could strengthen on Monday.

No reprieve is expected until at least Tuesday, when showers may fall across the central and southern coasts.

Meanwhile, the defence department is investigating whether there's a link between the Lithgow fire and an explosives training exercise at the Marrangaroo training area on Wednesday.

An RFS spokesman told AAP there were no fire bans in place during the training exercise and that it occurred a day before extreme conditions were expected.

Premier Barry O'Farrell said "there was no suggestion" that the explosives testing had sparked the blaze.

The premier also had to deal with other explosions.

While visiting the RFS command centre in Wyong, he was confronted by an angry resident who said she almost died in a bushfire due to insufficient back-burning.

"Excuse me Mr O'Farrell, I almost died on Thursday night, the reason being National Parks and Wildlife does not do perimeter burning on their property," Crangan Bay resident Sandra Kay said.

Mr O'Farrell said he would take her concerns to the local council and to parliament.

On the Central Coast, firies were drinking for free after managing to save the much-loved "Catho pub" at Catherine Hill Bay.

No one was injured, but an historic home was lost when a bushfire hit the town on Friday.

"It's beers all round. I've told the RFS that the beers are on me today," publican Dean Beevor said.

The Salvation Army is asking for people to donate cash, rather than goods, to its bushfire appeal. More than $300,000 dollars has already been raised.

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Bikies charged under new Qld laws get bail

TWO bikie gang members arrested for gathering at their clubhouse in Queensland have been granted bail.

Peter Johnson and Mark Filtness, both 47, were arrested in Cairns on Friday morning and charged with offences under the state's new anti-bikie gang laws.

The pair were granted bail in the Cairns Magistrates Court about 4.30pm (AEST) on Friday.

The men must surrender their passports and are due to reappear on November 1.

They were arrested on Friday morning and each face one charge of being a participant in a criminal organisation entering a prescribed place.

The court heard that the pair told police they had been members of the Odin's Warriors for 20 years.

Their lawyer, Philip Bovey, said the pair had been at the gang's clubhouse as both of their flats were located on the same property.

He said the men were arrested shortly after Johnson visited Cairns Police Station to ask whether it was against the law for him to be living on the same property as the clubhouse.

Mr Bovey argued the men didn't pose a flight risk or a threat to the community.

He said Johnson had no criminal history, while Filtness had only been convicted on minor charges in 2000 and in the 1980s.

Johnson works as a diesel fitter in Weipa on Cape York and Filtness is a truck driver.

Police prosecutors opposed bail, saying the men were a flight risk as the club could provide financial assistance.

They argued that the pair could flee as they face a mandatory six month jail term if convicted.

But Magistrate Trevor Black granted both men bail, saying they would not be a flight risk.

He also indicated he needed time to read over and understand the new laws before the proceedings continued.

"I just downloaded something off the internet to try to catch up with this legislation," Mr Black said.

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RBA says US default would have hurt growth

A US debt default would have hurt the world's largest economy but it is unclear what the wider impacts would have been, the head of the Reserve Bank of Australia says.

Failing to raise the US government's borrowing limit would have hurt economic growth because drastic spending cuts would have been needed, RBA governor Glenn Stevens said.

"Most of us would have worked out a few contingencies but the truth is we really don't have much idea how that would have gone," he told an Australian British Chamber of Commerce Business lunch in Sydney.

"It isn't difficult to contemplate ways in which it would have gone very very badly, but we really shouldn't be in a position of ever finding out, and I hope we won't be."

The US congress has passed a budget that allows the government to operate until early 2014, raising its borrowing limit and ending a partial US government shutdown.

Mr Stevens said the two week shutdown would have only a short term impact on the US economy.

"The shutdown itself probably had some dampening impact, but my guess would be that probably won't linger once everybody is back to work and in many instances people will be back-paid," he said.

"I don't think there should be a big impact on demand in the US resulting from that."

Mr Stevens also told the business function that post-global financial crisis reforms should not be taken lightly.

Since 2008, the Group of 20 nations has agreed on a series of banking and financial reforms in an effort to prevent another financial crisis.

"Let me be clear this is not a call for current reform efforts to stop, or to be watered down," he said.

"It is about ensuring we focus our finite energies and resources on the most important problems, and getting industry to do the same."

Mr Stevens said the most important reforms are the Basel III international banking rules.

Among other things, they require banks to have sufficient high-quality assets, such as government bonds, which they can sell when funds are needed.

Other significant measures, Mr Stevens said, are the oversight of institutions outside normal banking regulations, known as shadow banking, and addressing the problem of institutions that are "too big to fail".

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New laws hit Qld govt workers' conditions

QUEENSLAND public servants will soon be forced onto individual contracts with reduced work conditions, unions warn.

Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie introduced in parliament on Thursday sweeping changes to industrial laws for state and local government workers in the state.

They come as the government brings in laws to stop workers injured on the job from seeking compensation if their impairment is less than five per cent.

Mr Bleijie says there are more than 100 industrial awards and agreements covering government employees which have created an administrative nightmare.

He says the proposed reforms would make awards easier to understand and set minimum safety net standards for conditions such as annual leave, sick leave, family leave and long service leave.

Highly paid senior staff will also be able to negotiate individual employment contracts, he says.

"This will only apply to staff whose remuneration exceeds $129,300 per year, the same high income threshold set federally by the Fair Work Act," he said.

He promised that no one would be forced to accept an individual contract.

But Queensland Council of Unions president John Battams disagrees.

He says the reforms will force many workers onto individual contracts, strip away their conditions and limit the terms of industrial agreements.

He likened them to former prime minister John Howard's controversial WorkChoices laws and says they'll impact on more than 300,000 workers.

"This attorney-general has the legal skills of an unsupervised articled clerk but is indiscriminately slashing the rights of Queensland workers," Mr Battams told workers who rallied outside parliament on Thursday.

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Bodies found after Laos plane crash

Six Australians were among those killed when a Lao Airlines plane crashed into the Mekong River. Source: AAP

DIVERS are searching for bodies after a Lao Airlines plane believed to be carrying 49 people, around half of them foreigners including Australians, plunged into the Mekong River during stormy weather.

Six Australians, seven French citizens and five Thais were among those thought to have been killed when the turboprop ATR-72 came down on Wednesday near Pakse airport in Champasak province.

Debris was seen floating in the river at the scene of the disaster, while suitcases were wedged in mud on the riverbank, according to an AFP reporter.

Backpacks, an aeroplane propeller and passports were among the debris scattered on the riverbank where the Lao Airlines turboprop plane apparently hit hard before skidding into the water and sinking on Wednesday, AP reported.

Around a dozen rescuers were using a crane perched on a floating platform in the middle of the Mekong on Thursday to try to winch the submerged aircraft from the river, which was swollen by a recent tropical storm.

Divers from a Thai rescue team were on the scene to assist in the operation.

State-owned Lao Airlines said more than half of the 44 passengers and five crew on board were foreign nationals.

Citizens from up to 11 countries were reported to have been on the flight from the capital Vientiane.

"So far eight bodies have been found. We don't yet know their nationalities, said Yakao Lopangkao director-general of Lao's Department of Civil Aviation, who was at the crash site in Pakse, in southern Laos.

"We haven't found the plane yet. It is underwater. We're trying to use divers to locate it," he told AP.

He ruled out any chance of finding survivors. "There is no hope. The plane appears to have crashed very hard before entering the water."

Some bodies were found as far as 20 kilometres from the crash site, he said.

"We have asked villagers and people who live along the river to look for bodies and alert authorities when they see anything," he told AP.

Fleets of small fishing boats and inflatable rafts plied the muddy, vast waterway as part of the search with men in life vests peering into the water. After storms on Wednesday, the search took place under sunny blue skies.

Some of the bodies were taken to a mortuary at a Chinese temple in Pakse.

Three bodies draped in blue plastic sheets were seen in the building, which was guarded by about 10 policemen, some armed, who turned away onlookers.

"They are foreigners from the crash," staff at the centre told AFP, adding that their nationalities were unknown.

Lao Airlines said the aircraft hit "extreme" bad weather, while witnesses described seeing the aircraft buffeted by strong winds.

"The plane was about to land but appeared to be hit by a strong wind, causing its head to ascend and pushing it away from the airport area and out of reach of the air traffic control radar," state-run Laos news agency KPL quoted a witness as saying.

According to a passenger list published by Thai media, people from the US, China, Taiwan Vietnam, Canada, South Korea and Malaysia were also on the flight.

The six Australians killed comprised two families - Gavin Rhodes, 39, his wife Phoumalaysy (Lea) Rhodes, 35, and their children 17-month-old Manfred Rhodes and three-year-old Jadesuda Rhodes; and a father and son, Gordon Creighton, 71, and Michael Creighton, 42.

France said it was rushing embassy officials to the site of the crash.

French President Francois Hollande learned of the disaster "with profound emotion and great sadness" and offered "sincere condolences" and full support to the victims' families, his office said in a statement.

Thailand said five of its nationals had died.

Three South Koreans were also among the victims, according to the Transport Ministry in Seoul.

Taiwan said one of its citizens was killed while Beijing's official Xinhua news agency said one Chinese was on board. It said an earlier figure of two had included the Taiwanese victim.

Flight QV301 set off from Vientiane on time at 2.45pm (1845 AEDT) on Wednesday and was supposed to arrive in Pakse just over an hour later.

French-Italian aircraft manufacturer ATR said the twin-engine turboprop aircraft was new and had been delivered in March.

The director-general of the country's Department of Civil Aviation, Yakua Lopangkao, told the Vientiane Times newspaper that the accident may have occurred because of bad weather triggered by tropical storm Nari.

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Bail bid for Aussie in Russia piracy case

Aussie Colin Russell, who was aboard Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise, is preparing to bid for bail. Source: AAP

AUSTRALIAN environmentalist Colin Russell is preparing to bid for bail ahead of his piracy trial in a Russian court.

The Tasmanian marine radio operator was aboard the Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise in September when it was seized by Russian authorities following a protest against a state-owned corporation's Arctic oil drilling.

Russian authorities have charged all 30 crew with piracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years.

Mr Russell's bail appeal is due to be heard at 10am local time (5pm AEDT) on Thursday.

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman said consular officials visited Mr Russell on September 30 and October 10.

"Mr Russell is well and his conditions of detention are adequate," a statement said.

Two Australian residents are also caught in the drama - Briton Alexandra Harris, who lives in Sydney, and New Zealander Jonathan Beauchamp, who lives in Adelaide.

Friday marks 30 days since the so-called "Arctic 30" have been in detention ahead of their November 24 trial.

Mr Russell's wife Chrissy and daughter Madeliene are said to be overwhelmed by the events and missing the 59-year-old terribly.

Mr Beauchamp was due to have his appeal heard on Wednesday at 10am local time in Murmansk (Wednesday 5pm AEDT).

No date has been set for Ms Harris' hearing.

The court has already rejected bail applications from 10 activists.

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Questions remain over govt carbon repeal

Greg Hunt (L) says legislation to repeal the carbon tax will ensure it takes effect by July 1 2014. Source: AAP

DOUBTS have emerged over federal government plans to repeal the carbon tax, after Environment Minister Greg Hunt avoided saying whether the legislation would be retrospective if it wasn't passed on time.

Labor and the Australian Greens won't support the repeal bills, although Labor does agree the fixed carbon price should go - but only if it's replaced with an emissions trading scheme (ETS).

This means the government's goal to see the bills passed through the upper house and the carbon tax scrapped by the end of this financial year will be more difficult to achieve.

While Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he is confident the Labor opposition will buckle under pressure to axe the tax, it's not clear what will happen if it isn't repealed as planned by June 30.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt says the repeal legislation made it very clear the final compliance year for companies to pay the fixed price carbon tax of around $24 per tonne will be 2013/2014.

Asked if businesses may be liable to pay if the bill didn't pass the Senate until after July 1, Mr Hunt said "the tax ends on June 30, 2014, the moment that legislation is passed".

"We're getting way ahead of ourselves. It is designed to take effect under every circumstance from the evening of 30 June 2014," the minister told ABC Radio on Wednesday.

"We cannot take away the tax without legislation being passed, but this legislation is designed for every circumstance.

"The ALP has attempted to prevent any change. We will not stop until the legislation passes."

The minister's decision not to provide details of what would happen after July 1 came as the business community voiced its own concern.

Australian Industry Group chief Innes Willox said uncertainty about what would happen from July would "cause greater uncertainty for business around investment".

"If it meanders beyond the 1st of July, that's going to create uncertainty for business about liabilities, what happens with ongoing grants," he said.

Acting Labor climate change minister Mark Butler created confusion about the opposition's stance on the repeal bill, after telling Sky News it agreed "with Tony Abbott on the repeal of the carbon tax".

He was referencing plans by the former Rudd government to move earlier from a fixed carbon price to a floating price ETS in July next year.

Some Labor MPs are using this to argue the party doesn't disagree with getting rid of the fixed carbon price.

"The question is, what is put in its place," Mr Butler said.

Greens leader Christine Milne accused Mr Butler of "continuing to play games" with words.

The government may have a better chance of getting the bills passed in the Senate after July 1, when the change-over of upper house MPs takes effect.

It will need to win over Clive Palmer's voting bloc of four, plus two of three conservative crossbenchers from either the Liberal Democrats, Democratic Labor Party or Family First.

All have supported the principle of abolishing the carbon tax.

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Snitching bikies can avoid long jail terms

A Queensland government plan to lock up criminal bikies in a super jail could lead to more crime. Source: AAP

BIKIE gang members can avoid the extraordinary jail terms threatened by new laws in Queensland if they turn informer.

The laws being rushed through state parliament will hand bikies engaging in serious criminal activity such as murder or dangerous drug possession an extra 15 years of mandatory jail time.

The penalties for bikie gang office bearers are even harsher: an extra 25 years on top of their initial sentence.

And those sentences could be served in a special maximum security jail which the government has proposed to specifically house the state's worst bikie criminals.

But in what Premier Campbell Newman says will be an effective way to gather intelligence, jail time will be waived if an offender gives authorities information about bikie gangs and their criminal activities.

"The only way they can get off those additional mandatory penalties is essentially to provide information that's of use to the police to help bring down the gang," Mr Newman said.

The government was also seeking royal assent to list all bikie gangs as criminal organisations, including the Finks, the Rebels, the Bandidos and the Hells Angels.

If a new gang is created, the government can add them to the list based on police evidence.

Mandatory prison sentences, laws banning bikies from owning, operating and working in tattoo parlours and hefty jail terms for assaulting police are the first anti-bikie laws the Newman government are expected to pass in parliament on Tuesday night.

Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie said it would be up to jurors to determine whether an offender was a member of a criminal gang, or a "vicious lawless associate."

"Where you may currently under law face a five-year sentence (for grievous bodily harm), it can potentially be a 25 to 30-year sentence (for gang members)," he told reporters.

"This is where the deterrent kicks in."

Mr Newman said severe penalties would also apply to three or more gang members caught gathering together.

"We are going to make every effort to completely destroy these gangs. We are not joking," Mr Newman said.

The premier admitted gangs were well-resourced and he expected legal challenges in the High Court, but said the government had been very careful and the Solicitor General heavily involved in drafting the laws.

Criminologists and critics fear the government's taking it too far.

Former Gold Coast detective Terry Goldsworthy says the proposed laws are unfair, and set a dangerous new precedent for double standards in Queensland.

He says there's now one set of rules to deal with bikies who commit crimes, and another set for others who commit exactly the same offences.

Australian Council for Civil Liberties president Terry O'Gorman says the bikie jail wouldn't work as there's no evidence to back the government's claim bikies are using their jail time to recruit members, peddle drugs and intimidate prison staff.

"If there is a problem, concentrating them in one area is bound to magnify the problem if there is indeed a problem," Mr O'Gorman told AAP.

The state opposition said the laws should have been reviewed by a parliamentary committee before being put to parliament.

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Former HSU boss pleads guilty to fraud

Disgraced former HSU boss Michael Williamson admitted he defrauded the union out of almost $1m. Source: AAP

DISGRACED former Health Services Union boss Michael Williamson faces 30 years in jail and civil action by his former union for fraudulently pocketing almost $1 million.

Williamson pleaded guilty on Tuesday to four fraud-related charges arising from his conduct while he was president of the HSU.

The former ALP national president initially faced 50 charges but, in light of his guilty plea, the remainder were withdrawn.

Some will still be taken into account in sentencing and Williamson faces as long as 30 years behind bars.

He also faces paying back some, if not all, of his ill-gotten gains.

The HSU will launch civil proceedings against him in an attempt to claw back some of the $1 million he got away with.

"Now that he has pleaded guilty, what it does is open the possibility of recovering some of the funds on behalf of the union," HSU president Chris Brown told AAP.

Williamson pleaded guilty in the Downing Centre Court to creating false invoices for work performed by CANME, a company registered in his wife's name.

The work was never done but court documents showed the HSU still made 22 payments each worth $15,385 to a CANME bank account.

According to the statement of agreed facts, Williamson used the funds deposited in the CANME account to maintain his family's lifestyle, including paying private school fees, mortgage payments and clothing.

He pleaded guilty to defrauding HSU out of $338,470 - the total amount paid to CANME between July 2006 and June 2009.

He also pleaded guilty to defrauding printing firm Access Focus out of $600,000 in cash between December 2006 and February 2010.

The charge relates to Williamson proposing Access Focus inflate its invoices to the HSU and provide him with secret payments in the process.

A guilty plea was also entered with regard to recruiting Carron Gilleland to hinder the police investigation by destroying American Express statements.

Court documents revealed Mrs Gilleland, the director of a business with her husband that printed a HSU magazine, provided credit cards to Williamson at his request, and later to former MP Craig Thomson and HSU staffer Cheryl McMillan.

Williamson told the Gillelands in 2012 how to destroy Amex statements.

Chief Magistrate Graeme Henson committed Williamson's case to the Sydney District Court on October 25, where a sentence date is expected to be set.

Whistleblower and former HSU national secretary Kathy Jackson said a judicial inquiry was still needed.

"(I felt) relief to say the least but more important I think there is a case for a judicial inquiry to be heard," she told AAP.

Ms Jackson said there were many things outside the scope of a police investigation that an official inquiry could deal with, including the influence of factions.

HSU NSW secretary Gerard Hayes said the most difficult period in the HSU's history was now over.

"Our members deserve a union they can be proud of," he said.

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Sparking power lines caused NSW bushfire

A southerly change has helped firefighters get the upper hand on blazes on the NSW mid-north coast. Source: AAP

A BUSHFIRE that destroyed a number of properties in the NSW area of Port Stephens was started by sparking power lines, firefighters say.

Six homes were destroyed when fire tore through the area between Salt Ash and Tanilba Bay in Port Stephens on Sunday.

Initial investigations suggest the fire, which burned out more than 50 hectares, was caused by power lines sparking in the high winds, the NSW Rural Fire Service says.

Investigators are still trying to find out what started fires at Fingal Bay and the Heatherbrae area, also in Port Stephens.

More than 177 hectares were burned out near Fingal Bay.

"Anyone that might have seen something, no matter how small that piece of information may be, please share it with Crime Stoppers," RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told ABC radio.

"It could be the piece of the jigsaw puzzle that they're looking for to piece together how the fire started."

A southerly change overnight ended 24 hours of extreme conditions and brought rain to some areas of the Hunter region.

That allowed firefighters to downgrade fires in Port Stephens on Monday from "watch and act" to "advice".

But it came too late for the mayor of Port Stephens, who claims fire-affected residents weren't allowed to carry out hazard reduction burns.

"I believe several houses have been lost, which is a disaster as far as I'm concerned," Bruce MacKenzie told ABC radio.

"The Rural Fire Service, the politicians and the greenies have a lot to bloody answer for."

But Premier Barry O'Farrell, who visited the area on Monday, said last financial year about 280,000 hectares were subject to hazard reduction.

That compared to 117,000 hectares in 2010/11, the year leading up to his government's election.

"We committed ourselves to increasing hazard reduction across the state by 45 per cent in our first term," he told reporters.

"We're on track to do that."

A grassfire near Kempsey, on the mid-north coast, was one of those downgraded on Monday.

Michelle Armson, who owns the Bellbrook General Store, says the usually quiet village was transformed by the sound of sirens.

The fire was less than a kilometre from her shop.

"It's the talk of the town," she told AAP.

"We were a little concerned but we had people telling us not to worry about it, that they had it under control."

She said Bellbrook public school was evacuated because of smoke.

The Bureau of Meteorology says temperatures in the Hunter region could reach as high as 37C again on Thursday.

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O Minerals shares fall on revised targets

OZ Minerals shares slumped more than nine per cent after it cut its copper production targets due to a continued slowdown in operations.

Copper production for 2013 is now expected to be around 70,000 tonnes to 75,000 tonnes, down from 82,000 to 88,000 tonnes.

Shares in Australia's third largest copper producer fell 41 cents, or 9.3 per cent, to $3.99.

OZ Minerals said it did not achieve its expected September quarter production levels of gold and copper at its Prominent Hill operation in South Australia following a landslip earlier in the year.

Managing director Terry Burgess said the company had now decided to adjust the current 2013 production targets in favour of a long-term approach.

"Mining is to continue in the areas with lower grade while we progress to the most efficient mine plan rather than attempting to mine ore in advance of plan," Mr Burgess said.

He expects mining unit costs to decrease as the company focuses on efficiency.

OZ Minerals produced 28,177 ounces of gold and 17,390 tonnes of copper in the September quarter.

Lower than expected grades of ore were returned as the company worked to remediate the damaged wall.

"This saw production lower than expected," OZ Minerals said in a statement.

Meanwhile, cash costs were $US2.058 per pound for the September quarter.

Gold production targets were unchanged at 120,000 ounces to 130,000 ounces.

Mr Burgess said a pre-feasibility study at Carrapateena is due to be completed in the first half of 2014.

Shares in OZ Minerals have almost halved over the past year as the price of gold and copper waned.

The company suffered a $268 million loss in the first half of 2013, due to a writedown of Prominent Hill following a landslip which hurt production during the June quarter.

The company said guidance for 2014 will be reported after the 2013 reserve statement is completed in December.

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Ballot brings renewal for Labor: Shorten

Bill Shorten says he has "things to learn" after winning federal Labor's historic leadership ballot. Source: AAP

BILL Shorten says he has "things to learn" after winning federal Labor's historic leadership ballot despite being backed by just 40 per cent of the party's grassroots members.

While the new leader won the backing of his parliamentary colleagues, the party's rank and file overwhelmingly backed his rival Anthony Albanese.

The membership tally was 60-40 per cent in favour of Mr Albanese, but Mr Shorten took the top job after caucus backed him by 55 votes to 31.

"This ballot shows that there are still things for me to learn," Mr Shorten told reporters in Canberra.

"The party has spoken and what I undertake to do is to learn, is to listen but also to help the process of rebuilding Labor with good policies."

The ballot marked the start of "the renewal of Labor" as an alternative government.

Despite the ballot numbers, the Right faction powerbroker said he knew of moderate members who voted both for and against him.

Mr Shorten played down his perceived lack of parliamentary experience, citing his battle as trade union leader against the Howard government's WorkChoices industrial relations laws before he entered parliament in 2007.

"I do believe that Australians in the Labor movement contribute through a variety of ways, not just through parliament," he said.

When quizzed about his role in the downfall of two Labor prime ministers in three years, Mr Shorten said people would see him as someone who would always work in the best interests of the nation before he considered his party.

He vowed not to be as "relentlessly negative" as Prime Minister Tony Abbott was in opposition.

Labor will meet on Monday to decide its shadow ministry and name a deputy opposition leader, likely to be Mr Shorten's pick Tanya Plibersek.

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Property damage reported in NSW fire

PROPERTIES have reportedly been damaged and there are fears some may have been lost as an out of control bushfire continues to blaze in the NSW Hunter region.

The NSW Rural Fire Service says it has received unconfirmed reports that properties have been burned in Port Stephens.

A scrub fire is burning the Tilligerry State Conservation area between Salt Ash and Tanilba Bay and in the Fingal Bay area, also in Port Stephens.

Authorities have set up an evacuation centre at a community hall in Williamtown.

An emergency warning has also been issued for Singleton, where residents are being advised to shelter as the fire-front approaches.

It was 32C in Sydney at 5.45pm (AEDT) on Sunday and the temperature was rising toward the forecast of 36C.

A change sweeping through the state is expected to drop temperatures by as much as 10 degrees when it reaches Wollongong by 6pm and Sydney by 9pm.

The Bureau of Meteorology says the strong cold front will bring damaging winds of around 50 km/h with peak gusts of 90km/h.

The NSW Rural Fire Service has banned the lighting of fires for Sunday in large parts of NSW, including greater Sydney.

Meanwhile, a grass fire near Sydney Olympic Park has been extinguished.

The fire in Homebush in Sydney's west destroyed over 40 cars, Fire and Rescue NSW Superintendent Ian Krimmer told AAP.

Three people have been treated for smoke inhalation and 1500 were evacuated from a nearby aquatic centre.

Superintendent Krimmer says there are "hundreds and hundreds" of cars parked in the carpark.

Authorities will allow people to access their cars once the area has been declared safe.

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