PM labels PUP 'one man personality cult'

Labor MP Jason Clare (pic) says the coalition will regret its pre-election attacks on Clive Palmer. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has taken another swipe at Clive Palmer, dismissing his political outfit as "a personality cult for one person".

Mr Abbott has repeatedly accused Mr Palmer of trying to buy seats in parliament in a bid to further his own interests.

And on Wednesday, he asked what it meant for democracy when candidates were "a proxy for a minor party that is a personality cult for one person".

"It's something for voters to ponder in the lead-up to Saturday," he told ABC radio in Perth on Wednesday during the West Australian Senate election campaign.

On the party's appeal, Mr Abbott said: "I think there is a certain novelty value and obviously there has been a massive, massive, massive advertising spend.

"So far, the gentleman in question has spent - presumably from his own money - far more than the combined spending from both the Liberal Party and the Labor Party," he said.

But Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek, also campaigning in Perth on Wednesday, said it was up to each party to determine how much was spent on a campaign.

"We believe in a democracy," Ms Plibersek said.

"As long as a political party declares all its donations, as long as it abides by the rules, they've got every right to spend the money they raise."

Despite the Greens being the second biggest spenders in the re-run WA Senate election, leader Christine Milne said the party wanted to see expenditure on campaign ads capped in light of the Palmer United Party ad blitz.

"This is the first time in Australian politics where we've had a rich individual being able to so manifestly influence the vote," she said.

Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said his party's ad spending was different to PUP's because the funds came from a large amount of small donations.

Mr Palmer said PUP's advertising cash splash was his personal money to do with what he wished.

He said he had only spent a third of what the Liberal Party did at the 2013 federal election.

"No matter how much money you spend on advertising, if you have a bad idea people won't vote for you," Mr Palmer told Network Ten.

If PUP wins a WA Senate seat on Saturday, it will have three members on the upper house crossbench after July 1.

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Police 'amended' Hillsborough statements

POLICE officers' accounts of the Hillsborough disaster were amended to remove comments criticising police leadership or abusive remarks about fans, an inquest has heard.

Jurors sitting on the inquest into the deaths of 96 football fans at the FA Cup semi-final on April 15, 1989 will have to consider whether the changes were part of a policy to blame fans and deflect criticism from the police, coroner Lord Justice Goldring said.

Senior ranks and lawyers at South Yorkshire Police reviewed all self-taken statements by officers present at the disaster and amended some of them before forwarding them on to West Midlands Police, who were investigating the tragic events, the inquest jury was told.

The coroner said: "Over the years between 1989 and today it has become known that a large number of statements were amended in the review. The amendments vary in type and significance.

"Some simply involve corrections of language and factual error. Others involve removing expletives.

"A number involved the removal of comments criticising the police leadership on the day of the disaster.

"Others were of deletions of passages denouncing poor and defective radio communications.

"A small number were amended to remove comments which were critical or even abusive of the fans at the match."

Lord Justice Goldring said the jurors would have to consider whether the amendments affect their view of the "reliability" of early written statements given by the officers.

He added they would have to ask why the were amended, if it was an "innocent" alteration or "part of a policy of blaming fans in order to deflect criticism from the police".

The hearing continues.

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830 manufacturing jobs to leave Aust

MORE jobs are leaving Australia with 830 positions cut in just one day by three big employers.

Only hours after BP and Philip Morris announced 530 job cuts between them, Boeing on Wednesday evening said up to 300 jobs would go from its Port Melbourne site.

The aerospace giant said the jobs, mainly of contractors, would go by the end of 2014.

Philip Morris will also close its Moorabbin-based cigarette factory in Melbourne by the end of the year at the cost of 180 jobs.

BP's Bulwer Island plant in Brisbane will shrink from 380 staff to just 25 by mid-2015, while another 300 contractors could be affected.

Boeing said it would work to minimise job losses by not filling open positions and natural attrition.

"In line with a long established financial forecast, we will be releasing up to 300 people, primarily fixed-term contractors, by the end of the year," Boeing said in a statement issued on Wednesday night.

"Reducing employment on these programs is a natural part of the manufacturing cycle.

According to its website, Boeing Aerostructures Australia employs 1300 people at its Melbourne site, in design, test, certification and manufacture of advanced structures for commercial airplanes.

BP said the emergence of large low-cost oil refineries in Asia was the reason for its decision to close its Brisbane operations.

"While this decision will significantly improve our competitive position, it will result in job losses and I would like to acknowledge the enormous commitment and contribution made over many years by our staff at Bulwer Island," BP Australasia president Andy Holmes said.

Tim Wall, the managing director of the Bulwer Island refinery, said it was a sad day for all of the plant's staff.

"We will be putting measures in place to assist our affected employees, including transitional support and job placement assistance," he said.

Philip Morris is sending its cigarette production to Korea, partly blaming over-regulation in Australia for the move.

John Gledhill, PMI managing director for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, said the introduction in 2010 of reduced-fire risk requirements for Australian-made cigarettes had resulted in products that did not match consumers' preferences in other markets in the region.

"Despite the introduction of plain packaging and the continued growth in illicit trade, PML's volumes were stable in 2013," Mr Gledhill said in a statement on Wednesday.

"However, with any significant export opportunity restricted by Australian government regulations, our Moorabbin factory is significantly under-utilised, operating at less than half of its currently installed capacity."

The Australian Workers Union said it was in negotiations with the company over the shutdown.

"These are people who have done an honest job, been loyal to their employer and contributed to the life of this state. They need jobs," AWU Victorian secretary Ben Davis said.

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Artist plants fake Bieber CDs in LA stores

AN artist is making it difficult to believe there's actually a copy of Justin Bieber's latest album for sale in Los Angeles stores.

Paz, a 25-year-old electronic musician and artist, says he planted 5000 copies of an album that appears to be Bieber's Believe but actually contains a copy of his own CD at retailers on Tuesday, April Fool's Day.

"We were meticulous," said Paz, who fancies the stunt as more of a performance art piece than an April Fool's gag. "We paid a lot of attention to detail because we wanted these to stay up on shelves as long as possible."

From the outside, the wrapped CDs resemble Believe right down to the bar code and silky Bieber portrait on the cover. However, Paz's artwork is inside the back cover, and the disc itself is slathered with images of cats, pizzas and a dog stuffed inside a taco. The CD contains the 13 tracks from Paz's synth-heavy independent release From the Bottom of My Heart to the Top of Your Lungs.

The Associated Press independently verified the stunt by purchasing random copies of what looked like Bieber's Believe from widely scattered LA area locations. In each instance, the CDs were scanned and paid for as if they were Bieber CDs. But when they were opened outside the store, each contained a copy of Paz's album, not Bieber's.

Why replace Bieber?

"The world won't really miss a Justin Bieber record," said Paz.

Paz, whose full name is Paz Dylan, said he wanted to use so-called "big-box retailers" as his artistic canvas by "droplifting" his music into the hands of consumers.

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Amazon cancels Czech distribution plan

US retail giant Amazon says it has abandoned plans to build a distribution centre in the Czech Republic's second largest city after it was rejected by local authorities.

Brno councillors three times rejected the plan, which would have created up to 2,000 jobs, arguing the land Amazon wanted to build on was not zoned for such projects.

Tim Collins, who is in charge of Amazon's European operations, said in a statement on Wednesday that Amazon respects this decision and will look to open its centre in another Eastern European country. No details were given.

Czech Finance Minister Andrej Babis called Brno's rejection "absurd".

Collins says Amazon's existing plan to build a similar centre near Prague's international airport has not been affected by the failure of the Brno project.

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Planes, ships in seven-nation MH370 search

Tony Abbott says Australia owes it to the world to do everything it can to aid the search for MH370. Source: AAP

ORANGE objects spotted by a plane searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet have turned out to be nothing more than fishing equipment, as prime minister Tony Abbott declared there's no time limit on the search for MH370.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said the objects had been analysed and spokesman Jesse Platts said "they have nothing to do with the missing flight."

An Australian P-3 Orion search plane spotted at least four orange objects in waters west of Perth on Sunday and were described by Orion pilot Russell Adams as the most promising lead in the search so far.

But despite yet another false alarm, Mr Abbott said the search will not be scaled down.

"I'm certainly not putting a time limit on it... We can keep searching for quite some time to come," Abbott told reporters on Monday at RAAF Pearce, the Perth military base coordinating the operation.

"We owe it to the families, we owe it to everyone that travels by air, we owe it to the anxious governments of the countries who had people on that aircraft. We owe it to the wider world which has been transfixed by this mystery for three weeks now."

The Australian naval vessel Ocean Shield conducted sea trials of hi-tech detection equipment on Monday before its 1850km journey to a tract of the southern Indian Ocean west of Perth.

The trials included a US Navy black box detector, an unmanned underwater vehicle and other acoustic detection equipment.

The Ocean Shield is expected to take up to four days to reach the huge, 319,000 square kilometre search zone, another navy ship, the frigate HMAS Toowoomba, at top speed reached the area by mid-morning on Monday after two days at sea.

It's a race against time, given the box's low-frequency acoustic beacon has a limited battery life. That has extended from an estimated 30 days to roughly 45 days, according to Captain Mark Matthews, a US Navy equipment specialist.

"These are rated to last 30 days, but that is a minimum. In my experience, they do last a little bit longer than that," Capt Matthews said yesterday.

But the operation remained an extraordinarily difficult exercise, Mr Abbott said.

"We are searching a vast area of ocean and working with quite limited information," he said after touring the Pearce base, where search planes from seven nations are being deployed, involving 550 personnel.

Defence Minister David Johnston said about 1000 sailors were looking for debris at sea - but the task was still onerous.

While each country involved was currently bearing its own costs, Australia was paying for running the co-ordination centre, which will have about 20 staff and be led by retired air chief marshall Angus Houston from Perth CBD headquarters.

Mr Abbott also said his Malaysian counterpart was not too hasty in announcing last week - before any debris had been recovered or confirmed as being from MH370 - that the plane was lost in the southern Indian Ocean and all on board were assumed dead.

"That's the absolute overwhelming weight of evidence and I think that Prime Minister Najib Razak was perfectly entitled to come to that conclusion," he said.

In China, home to 153 people on board the flight, a comment piece in the China Daily newspaper called for "rationality" among relatives - some of whom insist their loved ones could still be alive.

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British girl, 9, drunk on vodka

A NINE-YEAR-OLD British girl needed hospital treatment after consuming vodka, according to police.

The nine-year-old girl, who lives near Consett, County Durham in England, was found to be in a dazed state after drinking vodka with two friends who were about the same age. Her parents called an ambulance.

Medics alerted the police, who spoke to the family last month.

The shocking incident was not unusual, with officers blaming peer pressure for an increase in drinking among the very young.

Durham Police are also investigating how a 12-year-old required accident and emergency treatment over three consecutive weekends for alcohol-related injuries.

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Search for fishing boat suspended

A SEARCH has been suspended for a fishing vessel believed to have got into trouble off Antarctica, with authorities saying it's unlikely anyone survived.

An RAAF P3 Orion aircraft and a civilian jet were on Sunday sent to look for the 75-metre long boat after an emergency beacon was set off in the southern Indian Ocean about 3200km southwest of Perth and 648km north of the Antarctic mainland.

"The vessel was not located but debris was seen in the location of the beacon signal. There were no signs of a life raft or people in the water," the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said on Monday.

"Based on expert medical advice ... in the current weather conditions there is no prospect of survival."

It's believed the vessel may have been illegally fishing.

Foul weather, with swells up to seven metres, winds of up to 70km/h and water temperatures as low as zero degrees celsius, has led investigators to conclude there were two possibilities.

Either equipment, including the vessel's EPIRB (emergency position indicating radio beacon), were swept overboard in rough weather and the boat continued on its course or the vessel foundered and all the crew drowned.

"Due to discrepancies in the ship's records AMSA has been unable to establish an owner, flag state, or what the vessel's purpose was in this area," AMSA said.

"Indications are the vessel may have been involved in illegal fishing activities."

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Whale verdict won't hurt Japan: Brandis

Peter Garrett has welcomed the court verdict that Japan's annual whaling hunt is not scientific. Source: AAP

THE federal government doesn't believe a decision in Australia's favour in the UN's top court to ban Japan's whale hunt will affect ties between the nations.

The International Court of Justice on Monday evening ruled that Japan's whale hunt in the Southern Ocean was not scientific and it should cease the program "with immediate effect".

The decision comes less than a week before Prime Minister Tony Abbott heads to Tokyo in a bid to finalise a free trade agreement with Japan, Australia's second-largest trading partner.

When asked if he thought the outcome would affect negotiations between Australia and Japan on the long-awaited trade deal, Attorney-General George Brandis said: "I'm sure it wouldn't".

Senator Brandis said the fact Australia and Japan could differ on this "narrow" issue but remain close was testament to the "endearing" nature of the relationship.

"The relationship between Australia and Japan is an excellent relationship," he told reporters in Perth on Monday.

Senator Brandis said he had been briefed by Australia's solicitor-general at The Hague, and understood the effect of the court was "to stop the existing program".

Labor welcomed the historic decision, saying a program that had killed thousands of whales over the years would finally come to an end.

Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek said Australia's opposition to whaling had been vindicated and in the process they'd successfully held Japan to account on its legal commitment.

"The court has now upheld our arguments, and the international rule of law will be stronger for the action we have taken," she said in a joint statement with shadow ministers Mark Dreyfus and Mark Butler.

Both nations had agreed to abide by the court's decision so it was now time for the federal government to take up discussions with Japan on non-lethal methods of whaling research, she added.

Former environment minister Peter Garrett said he felt vindicated over Labor's decision in 2010 to pursue the case in The Hague against so-called "scientific whaling".

"I'm absolutely over the moon, for all those people who wanted to see the charade of scientific whaling cease once and for all," the former Midnight Oil singer told ABC Radio on Monday evening.

Greens leader Christine Milne paid tribute to the "champions" at Sea Shepherd, calling the ICJ verdict "justice at last".

Sea Shepherd Australia chairman and former Australian Greens leader Bob Brown congratulated the captain of the fleet that made its name in daring clashes with Japanese whalers in Antarctica.

"A whale of a win! Paul Watson is a global hero and Australians can all feel proud. Sea Shepherd Australia chairman," Mr Brown posted on Twitter.

Australian Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson said Australia had shown it could be a "powerful force" for nature on the world stage, and it was vital the job was seen through to the end.

"When Tony Abbott visits Japan in just over a week, whales must be top of the agenda," he said in a statement.

ANU professor of international law Don Rothwell said the ICJ decision provided "significant guidance" for the first time on how a legitimate whaling program could be run in the future.

"This could provide Japan with a basis to undertake future whaling programs consistently with its international legal obligations," he said in a statement.

Sea Shepherd Australia Managing Director Jeff Hanson said the court decision vindicated Sea Shepherd for not only upholding Australian federal laws but also international laws in defending the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary "for the whales and for future generations".

"In the absence of law enforcement in the Southern Ocean, Sea Shepherd has been the only organisation upholding the law in defence of the International Whale Sanctuary," he said in a statement.

Greenpeace Oceans campaigner Nathaniel Pelle said the ruling confirmed Japan's whaling program was an "illegal and unnecessary hunt of protected species" and it was high time the industry was "consigned to the history books".

"We're calling on the Japanese government to immediately abide by this decision, scrap the Nisshin Maru factory ship, and cease all future attempts to continue commercial whaling."

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Elton John to have 'quiet' wedding

ELTON John and his partner David Furnish are planning a low-profile wedding in May, following a change in British law allowing gay marriages.

The singer has told NBC's Today show he wants to celebrate "very quietly".

"It will be a joyous occasion and we will have our children," John said.

The two men, who have been in a civil partnership since 2005, have two children.

In quotes released on NBC's website on Monday, John said: "We shouldn't just say 'Oh, well, we have a civil partnership, we're not going to bother to get married'. We will get married."

Same-sex marriages were allowed for the first time in Britain on Saturday.

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