Third NSW man charged over $1m drug haul

A man has been charged after police found $1.3 million worth of cannabis plants in northern NSW. Source: AAP

A THIRD man has been charged after more than $1 million worth of cannabis was seized in raids on the NSW mid-north coast last week.

Police say they found 692 cannabis plants with an estimated street value of $1.3 million during searches at properties in Comara, Carrai and Port Macquarie on Tuesday.

A rifle, 500 rounds of ammunition and equipment used in the cultivation of illegal drugs were also found, police say.

A 57-year-old man was arrested after he went to Port Macquarie Police Station on Saturday afternoon.

He was charged with commercial cultivation of cannabis plants and was refused bail to appear at Port Macquarie Local Court on Sunday.

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Thoughts with those on Malaysia flight: PM

PM Tony Abbott says Australians' thoughts are with the families of those on a missing Malaysia jet. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott says Australians' thoughts are with the passengers and families of those on a missing China-bound Malaysia Airlines jet.

Queensland couples Catherine and Robert Lawton and Mary and Rodney Burrows, and Sydneysiders Li Yuan and Gu Naijun, are among 239 people on board flight MH370, which disappeared between Malaysia's east coast and southern Vietnam.

Mr Abbott on Sunday described the tragedy as a "horrible, horrible business".

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the passengers and their families on that ill-fated aircraft, particularly to the six Australian passengers and their families, that have now been confirmed to be on board," he told reporters in Adelaide.

"We're looking at ways in which we can help with the search and recovery operation."

Opposition leader Bill Shorten echoed Mr Abbott's comments.

"I believe the Australian nation's thoughts go out to the families of those Australians and New Zealanders that are on this plane, and indeed the families of everyone," he told reporters in Melbourne.

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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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Cold case eyes outback Qld slaughterhouse

THE search for a hitchhiker who went missing more than three decades ago has led homicide detectives to an outback Queensland slaughterhouse.

Tony Jones, who was 20 when he disappeared, last made contact with his Perth-based family on November 3, 1982, to say he planned to hitchhike to Mount Isa from Townsville.

He was reported missing about a week later and has not been seen since.

In what may be a major breakthrough in the case, police on Thursday said they have identified two "significant places of interest" - the slaughterhouse and a hotel in Hughenden, inland from Townsville.

Several people of interest have also been identified but no arrests have been made.

Lead investigator, Townsville Detective Acting Superintendent Cheryl Scanlon, said no forensic excavation work had taken place at the slaughterhouse just outside of the small town, in Queensland's north.

She wouldn't say why the abattoir was a place of interest or if police believed Mr Jones had been killed there.

Over the past few weeks three people have also come forward to say they had seen Mr Jones at the Grand Hotel in Hughenden in November 1982.

The hotel closed about a decade ago.

"It's the biggest piece of collective information certainly in the last decade in this investigation," Det Sup Scanlon said.

"I'm confident as we've ever been that we believe that Tony Jones has been the victim of a homicide.

"Our hope is that somewhere down the track we will have some answers for the family."

Police last month said they now believe Mr Jones was killed in Hughenden.

Previous investigations had focused on Townsville and a campsite at the Cloncurry River.

The high-profile case sparked national missing persons week, which last year marked its 25th year.

A coronial inquest in 2002 could only conclude Mr Jones's death was "at the hand of a person or persons unknown" and police investigations should continue.

At the request of the Jones family in 2010, then state Attorney-General Cameron Dick agreed to reopen the inquest but no date has been set for the hearing.

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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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China premier's 'war' on pollution

CHINESE Premier Li Keqiang says he is "declaring war" on pollution, describing it as a "red-light warning" against inefficiency as he sought to address public concerns on issues from acrid smog to food safety.

China's three decades of rapid industrialisation and urbanisation have transformed its economy, and seen incomes soar.

But they have also brought severe environmental consequences, with the public enraged by cities regularly blanketed in smog, and incidents such as thousands of dead pigs in Shanghai's main river.

In his speech on Wednesday to the National People's Congress, China's legislature, Li described the deterioration of the environment as "nature's red-light warning against the model of inefficient and blind development".

"We will declare war against pollution and fight it with the same determination we battled poverty," said the premier, who took office in March last year.

The government will shut down 50,000 small coal-fired furnaces this year, clean up major coal-burning power plants, and remove six million high-emission vehicles from the roads, he said.

A cap will be put on the country's total energy consumption and measures will be taken to curb water pollution, conserve soil, recover wetlands and restore forests and grassland, he added.

Chinese authorities have repeatedly pledged action to improve the environment in recent months, but experts warn that implementation will be key.

"The fundamental goal of a government's work is to ensure that everyone lives a good life," Li said. "We will definitely enjoy more peace, happiness and prosperity as well as greater development."

The government aims to lift more than 10 million people out of poverty this year, he said, adding that efforts will be made to narrow the income gap and improve social safety nets.

In an apparent response to worries over the country's scandal-prone food industry, Li promised to crack down on the production and sale of counterfeit and shoddy goods, improve safety monitoring systems and introduce tracing mechanisms.

"We will... apply the strictest possible oversight, punishment and accountability to prevent and control food contamination and ensure that every bite of food we eat is safe," he said.

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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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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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Qld reforms 'could increase youth crime'

TOUGH new measures aimed at young offenders in Queensland could actually increase crime, lawyers and Amnesty International have warned.

Queensland could soon have the harshest laws in Australia if Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie does away with the principle of detention as a last resort for young criminals.

Under the government's plans, young offenders would also be named and shamed and transferred to adult jails when they turn 17.

The Queensland Law Society opposed the majority of the recommendations at a public hearing at parliament house on Monday.

It said the naming and shaming plan would stigmatise young offenders, hurt their rehabilitation prospects, and could increase recidivism by strengthening bonds with criminal sub-cultures.

The law society also rubbished reports that youth crime is on the rise.

It quoted from the children's court's annual report, which pointed to a 6.9 per cent drop in youth crime in 2011/12, and an even larger fall the year before.

It also pointed to evidence of fewer young people going through the courts, but a rise in the total number of charges, indicating an increasing problem with repeat offenders.

The law society says the government should be focused on intervention programs for those repeat offenders rather than sweeping reforms.

"What we do know is that sentencing young people to detention actually increases the likelihood of them returning to detention, entering the adult criminal justice system, and that provides less protection to the community," Children's Law Committee Chair Damian Bartholomew told parliament's legal affairs committee.

Amnesty International, which has 40,000 members in Queensland, also expressed grave concerns about the government's plans.

It said the changes were in direct conflict with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which says the arrest, detention and imprisonment of young people should be a last resort.

Amnesty's government relations manager Louise Allen urged the committee to consider overwhelming evidence pointing to the ineffectiveness of the proposals.

"This bill risks having serious and long-term detrimental consequences on the lives of at-risk young kids," Ms Allen said.

Mr Bleijie says the number of offences and the seriousness of offences climbed under the former Labor government's slap-on-the-wrist approach.

"It's resulted in hardened, repeat offenders, criminals who are in their early teens and that's precisely what these reforms target," he told AAP.

Mr Bleijie says the reforms were overwhelmingly supported by more than 4000 respondents, who were mostly victims of crime.

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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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