Speaker stands by fundraising event

Speaker Bronwyn Bishop must explain what took place in her suite on budget night, says Labor. Source: AAP

SPEAKER Bronwyn Bishop has refused to reveal details of how her parliamentary office was used for a Liberal Party fundraising event.

Labor says a $2500 a head budget night function in the speaker's Parliament House office - revealed in weekend newspaper reports and not denied by Ms Bishop - is unprecedented and breaches the independence of the role.

Ms Bishop told parliament on Monday that all members of parliament were entitled to use their suites "for their own purposes, but not for illegal purposes".

The opposition asked her to reflect on her ruling, but she stood by her statement.

When Labor asked for the matter to be referred to the privileges committee for investigation, the government voted down the motion.

"This is a motion about smear and innuendo directed at the speaker's office," Leader of the House Christopher Pyne said, noting political fundraising events were held in Parliament House all the time.

As long as the costs were covered privately or by a political party there was no breach of the rules, he said.

Opposition frontbencher Tony Burke said the speaker's suite was a special case and the fundraiser represented "improper interference" in the independence of the office.

"This is not an ordinary venue," he told parliament.

"Your job is not owned by the Liberal Party."

Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who is understood to have attended the fundraiser, told parliament Labor was looking for distractions from its lack of policy.

"They worry about what might be in what room at what time in this parliament," he said.

Taking aim at Labor leader Bill Shorten the prime minister said: "Really and truly, this man is no Bob Hawke - he is no leader."

Labor has been critical of Ms Bishop's appointment from an early stage, especially in her handling of question time and biased language.

She has suspended 101 opposition MPs from parliament, but none from the government.

That image was reinforced when Ms Bishop said, after Mr Burke finished his speech: "I find it a bit rough to be lectured on morality from you."

Earlier, the secretary of the Department of Parliamentary Services, Carol Mills, told a Senate estimates hearing she was unaware of any rule preventing such a use of the speaker's suite.

"It is up to the speaker, president or the other holders of special suites to decide how to use them," she said.

Greens senator Lee Rhiannon asked for a list of events held in Parliament House over the past three years to ascertain how many were party fundraisers.

Two previous speakers, Anna Burke and Harry Jenkins, have said they never used the suite for political fundraising events.

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Qld ministers livid with dissenting ex-MP

A FORMER Queensland government MP says "very senior" ministers wanted to hurl something at the TV when he gave interviews criticising new laws on political donations.

Chris Davis quit parliament on Friday, saying he could not support the Newman government's decision to dramatically increase the amount of money individuals can donate, in secret, to political parties.

The former member for Stafford says "very senior colleagues" told him they wanted to throw something at the TV when he criticised the government's contentious electoral reforms.

"When one has tried to debate these sensibly ... that to me is pretty intolerant," Dr Davis told Fairfax Radio on Monday.

"When you've got to play the person, you've really lost the debate and ... I couldn't work within that sort of culture."

The former geriatric medicine doctor said Premier Campbell Newman was fostering a culture of intolerance within the Liberal National Party.

"It's a broad culture and in my experience of leadership roles, it starts at the top," he told the ABC.

"And so I assume if we're going to have a change, it would have to start in the top leadership group. I think self-evidently with the leader."

But the LNP's Rob Cavallucci said MPs had every opportunity to raise issues of concern with the premier.

"Primarily there is the party room, where everyone can have free and open debate. We have enormously robust debate within the context of the party room," the Brisbane Central MP told the ABC.

"Any of us can call the premier at any time of the day or night, and he'll always be happy to receive the call, as will other ministers."

Dr Davis has ruled out running as an independent, and said he had received offers from other political parties including the Greens.

Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie said he never made any comments about wanting to throw something at the TV when Dr Davis was on air.

Although Mr Bleijie said it was unfortunate Dr Davis chose to air his concerns publicly.

"There are numerous avenues for MPs to have their say or raise concerns about policies including party room, backbench committees or simply contacting the relevant minister," he told AAP.

"Unfortunately, Chris never came to me with any of his concerns."

But deputy premier Jeff Seeney hasn't denied Dr Davis' allegation.

When asked whether he said he wanted to throw something at the TV while Dr Davis was giving an interview, Mr Seeney told AAP: "Debate is essential in the parliamentary party room and it is something that is encouraged."

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Australian snorkeller dies off Fiji resort

A 36-year-old Australian man has died while snorkelling off Fiji's coral coast. Source: AAP

A 36-YEAR-OLD Australian man has died while snorkelling off Fiji's coral coast.

The man was staying with a friend at a five-star resort on the west coast of the main island Viti Levu when he went snorkelling alone on Saturday.

He was reported missing by the resort, Outrigger on the Lagoon Fiji, about 7.45pm when he hadn't returned his snorkelling equipment and his belongings were found on the beach.

"The person in question was snorkelling late in the evening and did not return to his accommodation," general manager Peter Hopgood said.

Resort staff and local fishermen searched until after midnight and were back out again at first light on Sunday.

The man's body was found by locals from a neighbouring village at 9.50am on Sunday, washed onto the coral reef.

His body was taken to a morgue at nearby Sigatoka.

The resort's management extended "heartfelt condolences" to the man's family and friends.

In a letter to guests, it asked them to "refrain from entering the ocean after dark".

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was in contact with the man's family.

"The department is providing consular assistance to the family of a 36-year-old man who died in Fiji," a DFAT spokesperson said.

It's the second death of an Australian in Fiji this month.

Ten days ago, Sydney father-of-three Mark Hardaker, 40, was killed in a collision between two boats while holidaying with his family.

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Shorten denies role in PM family attacks

Margie Abbott (pic) does not do enough charity work says former first bloke Tim Mathieson. Source: AAP

LABOR has angrily denied suggestions that Opposition Leader Bill Shorten orchestrated a series of attacks against Prime Minister Tony Abbott's family in the media.

Mr Abbott's family was thrust into the spotlight this week, with criticisms made about his wife's charity work and allegations of favouritism involving two of his daughters.

The prime minister accused some media outlets for "dirt digging", but one of his senior government ministers has now blamed federal Labor leader Bill Shorten for orchestrating the "repugnant" attacks.

Health Minister Peter Dutton accused Mr Shorten of withdrawing from the media at the same time his office "quite deliberately" launched these attacks against the Abbott family.

"I believe very strongly that this is an orchestrated attack by Bill Shorten and it needs to stop," Mr Dutton told Network Ten on Sunday.

Mr Shorten's office has rejected the allegations, calling them "wrong, hurtful and completely without foundation".

"Bill has made his position very clear that families should not be dragged into the political debate," a spokesman for Mr Shorten told AAP in a statement.

"This shows the government will stoop to any low it can to distract from its budget failure."

AAP understands the prime minister's office was contacted by Mr Shorten on Wednesday when questions started being asked about a $60,000 scholarship awarded to Mr Abbott's youngest daughter Frances.

It's understood Mr Shorten told the office Labor was not behind the story and believed families should be kept off limits.

A subsequent story carried complaints about the appointment of Mr Abbott's eldest daughter Louise to a government job in Geneva.

Yet another story published on Sunday aired criticisms from Julia Gillard's partner Tim Mathieson about Margie Abbott's commitment to charity.

A spokeswoman for the prime minister declined to comment on Mr Dutton's allegations, saying the stories about the Abbott family were of a personal nature and a distraction from the budget.

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Iran billionaire executed over $2.8b fraud

A BILLIONAIRE businessman at the heart of a $US2.6 billion ($A2.8 billion) state bank scam, the largest fraud case since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, has been executed, state television reports.

Authorities put Mahafarid Amir Khosravi, also known as Amir Mansour Aria, to death at Evin prison, just north of the capital, Tehran, the station reported.

The report said the execution came after Iran's Supreme Court upheld his death sentence.

The fraud involved using forged documents to get credit at one of Iran's top financial institutions, Bank Saderat, to purchase assets including state-owned companies like major steel producer Khuzestan Steel Co.

Khosravi's business empire included more than 35 companies from mineral water production to a football club and meat imports from Brazil.

According to Iranian media reports, the bank fraud began in 2007.

A total of 39 defendants were convicted in the case. Four received death sentences, two got life sentences and the rest received sentences of up to 25 years in prison.

The trials raised questions about corruption at senior levels in Iran's tightly controlled economy during the administration of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mahmoud Reza Khavari, a former head of Bank Melli, another major Iranian bank, escaped to Canada in 2011 after he resigned over the case.

He faces charges over the case in Iran and remains on the Islamic Republic's wanted list.

Khavari previously admitted that his bank partially was involved in the fraud, but has maintained his innocence.

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Gunmen fire inside El Salvador bus, kill 6

Police in El Salvador say gunmen boarded a bus in a town near the capital killing six people. Source: AAP

POLICE in El Salvador say gunmen boarded a bus in a town near the capital and opened fired on passengers, killing six.

National police director Rigoberto Pleites said another five people were wounded during the Friday bus attack in the town of San Luis Talpa near San Salvador.

Pleites said witnesses told police the assailants were gang members dressed in uniforms similar to those issued to road maintenance workers.

He said investigators haven't confirmed they belonged to a gang.

Police Commissioner Mauricio Ramirez said there have been threats of increased violence in the country in the coming days, but he didn't provide any other details.

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Woodside weighs options for cash stash

WOODSIDE Petroleum chief executive Peter Coleman says he needs time to consider options for excess cash after the company's exit from the $US2.5 billion Leviathan project.

The announcement on Wednesday that Woodside would not buy a stake in the giant Israel-based gas project sparked speculation about a capital return to shareholders.

But Mr Coleman refused to commit to a special dividend on Thursday, saying capital could be directed to new projects.

"I think it's too early for me to give a commitment one way or the other as to what we'll do," Mr Coleman told media during an investor day briefing in Sydney.

Mr Coleman said management would take options to Woodside's board "in the not too distant future".

He did not rule out a return to Leviathan in the future, saying the Israeli field remained a world class asset.

The decision to forego the option to take a stake was driven by "surface issues" including taxation, he said.

Woodside emphasised new exploration and cost discipline in its presentation to investors, with Mr Coleman saying the company would not pursue assets that could not make a commercial return.

Investments would be in the $1 billion to $5 billion range and funded by debt, he said.

While the Western Australian Browse project is to be the key driver of growth for the company, Mr Coleman said Woodside had renewed its focus on exploration - an area that had been weak - by bringing in new expertise.

"We had developed an organisation that was technically and process-wise world class but we didn't have any oil finders," Mr Coleman said.

Australia remains the core territory for Woodside but it is now seeking to balance its assets with exploration in Africa, South America and Canada and projects in Ireland, New Zealand and Myanmar (Burma).

Media reports on Thursday suggested Woodside was considering a takeover of Papua-New Guinea-focused Oil Search.

Mr Coleman said while PNG was on Woodside's radar, companies and assets in the island nation were too expensive to add value at present.

Mr Coleman said he did not feel pressure to deliver a major project as investors were focused on earnings-per-share value rather than increased production at any cost.

Woodside chief financial officer Lawrie Tremaine said a forecast rise in free cashflow would allow the company to continue its strong dividend payout ratio - currently 80 percent of underlying net profit after tax "for the foreseeable future".

Woodside shares gained 49 cents or 1.19 percent to $41.72 on Thursday.

Morningstar resources analyst Mark Taylor said the oil and gas sector had benefited from a general rise but there was also some relief around the exit from Leviathan.

"I think that was a flawed strategy," he said.

Mr Taylor said Woodside should focus freed-up capital on new exploration around its Australian assets.

"I think they should really be pumping their existing assets for all they are worth," he said.

Mr Taylor was not supportive of a capital return to shareholders, saying the current dividend ratio was enough.

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GDP to look better than it really is

HEADLINE-GRABBING economic growth figures early next month will probably look good, but appearances can be deceiving.

Every three months there's a barrage of economic data that can dramatically change perceptions of the state of the economy.

It's a flurry of quarterly figures, culminating with the release of the national accounts and its headline gross domestic product (GDP) growth figure.

And it's just about upon us.

The national accounts are due on June 4, Wednesday week, and will cover the first quarter of this year.

The GDP growth number will most likely look just fine, even pretty good.

Economists already have some figures to plug into their estimates for the rise in GDP.

Retail trade and foreign trade data already published by the ABS show the economy was boosted by higher consumer spending and exports.

And imports likely fell, diverting spending power toward local businesses and also boosting GDP.

Taking just retailing and foreign trade into account, GDP would be up by about 1.2 per cent in the quarter.

That's only just shy of twice the 0.7 per cent average quarterly increase seen in 2013.

And it's about one-and-a-half times the long-run average of 0.8 per cent.

But it's not likely to end up so strong, and even then will overstate the economy's momentum.

Imports, judging by the monthly trade figures and price data from the ABS, have stopped rising.

Given the strong link between imports and overall spending, that implies weak or no growth in total spending in the economy, or domestic demand as economists call it.

The trade figures also suggest imports of capital goods fell even faster in the March quarter than in the previous three months.

And the great bulk of Australia's capital goods are imported these days.

That suggests business capital spending fell, dragging on growth in the quarter and partly offsetting those other positives from exports and retail trade.

Business capital spending figures from the bureau on Thursday next week should confirm what the import numbers are saying about what happened in the March quarter.

That report will also includes projections, based on the investment plans of the businesses surveyed by the ABS.

Those projections, extending out to mid-2015, should confirm that the long-awaited pickup in business investment outside the fading mining sector, essential for the economy's so-called "rebalancing", is still beyond the horizon.

In the meantime, not too much should be made of the strong-looking growth in the March quarter, at least to the extent that it's based on exports.

GDP growth is important because it generates employment.

And the current growth in exports is coming mainly from mining, where employment and investment are falling as the sector moves out of the investment phase and into the production phase.

So it will be a kind of hollow, jobless growth.

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WA Labor tight-lipped on Ferguson move

LABOR'S West Australian branch is remaining tight-lipped about moves to have former federal resources minister Martin Ferguson ousted from the party.

On Monday night, the ALP's WA executive endorsed a motion put forward by the Maritime Union of Australia to remove Mr Ferguson from the party.

Mr Ferguson - who in October accepted the newly created chairman's role with the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association's advisory board seven months after resigning from Julia Gillard's cabinet - has previously labelled the MUA a "rogue" union.

In February, he singled them out for delays and blowouts to the massive Gorgon gas project in WA.

And on Tuesday, Mr Ferguson told ABC radio in Perth that he would "not be losing any sleep" about the MUA's motion.

"This is the same branch of the ALP that in many ways is a national disgrace," he said.

"They should be debating more seriously why at the recent half-Senate election, why they let down not only the working people of Western Australia but the working people of Australia in their inability to elect two or three Labor senators.

"And the fact there's too much union influence in WA pre-selections at the state and federal level, and in policy determinations.

"It's about time we broadened the church of the Labor party and encouraged rank and file participation rather than union dominance."

A WA Labor spokesman said state leader Mark McGowan would not be commenting on the matter as it was "an internal issue".

But WA opposition treasury spokesman Ben Wyatt retweeted a quote by federal leader Bill Shorten: "The Labor party has to learn to live with people with different views within its ranks".

The MUA was being sought for comment.

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Abbott contradicts budget on uni fees

A student union says Tony Abbott behaved cowardly by cancelling a university visit amid protests. Source: AAP

CONFUSION abounds over government plans to deregulate university fees after Prime Minister Tony Abbott contradicted his own budget.

But students who protested in Sydney and Melbourne are certain of one thing: they'll have to pay for the government's decisions and they're not happy.

Mr Abbott told ABC radio that only students who start studying in 2016 would face potentially higher fees when universities can charge what they like.

"If you start next year, your conditions of study won't change," he said.

But the budget papers clearly state that anyone who enrols after May 14 will face deregulated fees in 2016.

Only those who were already studying on budget day would continue to have their fees capped - and only if they finish their studies by 2020.

Education Minister Christopher Pyne reiterated this in a separate ABC radio interview after Mr Abbott's comments.

A mother asked him whether her daughter, already at university, would have to pay more.

"If that student stays in the course that she's doing, she'll continue under the rules that she started," he said.

"If she changes course, then quite rightly she will face the new measures."

A spokesman for Mr Pyne said the prime minister "may not have been as clear as he could have been".

Universities Australia told AAP it understands there's not been any change to policy.

It wants the government to take more time to look at any unintended consequences of the higher education changes before setting them in law.

Students were enrolling now to start in the second half of 2014 and universities had to be able to tell them what the costs would be from 2016.

"There is no time for universities to be able to cross the Ts and dot the Is to be able to advise students on what those fees might be," chief executive Belinda Robinson said.

National Union of Students president Deanna Taylor wasn't surprised by the confusion at high levels.

"I don't think the government really put a great deal of thought into their policy," she told AAP, saying it appeared to be very ideologically driven.

The union organised a national day of action on Wednesday with thousands of students protesting the changes.

In Melbourne, students clashed with police, while one activist was arrested in Sydney.

A police risk assessment before the protests forced Mr Abbott and Mr Pyne to cancel plans to visit a Geelong research facility at Deakin University.

Mr Abbott said students were looking for "a big rumble" and an excuse to riot.

Ms Taylor labelled the prime minister cowardly and said students weren't violent rabble-rousers out to cause trouble.

"They're trying to make us sound like spoiled little brats who don't know how good we've got it. They have a very clear agenda," she said.

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