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Coast's multimillion-dollar damage bill
Lost boats, berths, pontoons, navigation markers, moorings, livestock and roads all form part of the Gold Coast's mounting multimillion-dollar damage bill from weekend flooding. The Coast is tipped to make up a significant portion of a Queensland-wide storm damage bill which was at $100 million and rising yesterday. At John Muntz Causeway at Oxenford, the water level dropped to show the extent of damage there. As well as logs blocking the road, guard rails on both sides were torn off and left twisted across the road.
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Abbott's iron gaffe
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has been branded ``incredibly old-fashioned'' for implying that housewives still do all the ironing.
Mr Abbott made the comment in a Queanbeyan dry cleaners yesterday, as he warned of higher power bills under the Government's emissions trading scheme. ``What the housewives of Australia need to understand as they do the ironing is that if they get it done commercially it's going to go up in price and their own power bills when they switch the iron on are going to go up,'' Mr Abbott said. But Government frontbencher Greg Combet said landing women everywhere with the job of ironing ``demonstrates that he really is stuck in the past''.
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Neal begins fight for her political life
Federal Labor MP Belinda Neal failed to turn up to a crucial debate on climate change in Parliament yesterday as she fought to save her career.
Ms Neal skipped the first sitting day of the parliamentary week to lobby local branch members. As nominations officially opened for Robertson - the most marginal Labor seat in the country - Ms Neal made an urgent plea to Labor members at a two-hour meeting at Woy Woy, to have them endorse her.
However, it is now likely that a rank and file vote between Ms Neal and local teacher Deb O'Neill will be called when nominations close on Wednesday week. The two came face to face for the first time yesterday at the branch meeting.
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First super teacher on assignment to boost results
The first ``super teachers'' on salaries of almost $100,000 a year have started work in public schools under a landmark performance pay deal aimed at radically lifting classroom quality. Luisa Bosco, 33, is among an initial intake of 13 superior teachers, known as HATS or highly accomplished teachers, appointed to new-style leadership roles. After a rigorous selection process they are handed remuneration packages 20 per cent above the highest rate of pay, encouraging them to continue teaching in public schools. Ms Bosco, based at Macquarie Fields High School in Sydney's south-west, has a two-year mission to boost the learning environment and improve students in one of the city's most disadvantaged communities. While taking her Year 12 students for English, she will liaise with the local university and other schools, work with Aboriginal students, hold leadership meetings, help colleagues in other classes and communicate with parents.
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Stars come out to play hardball
Rugby league yesterday broadened its attack on the AFL by unveiling the NRL All Stars at Blacktown just a few kilometres from the Greater Western Sydney base. After AFL legend Kevin Sheedy attended his first GWS training session last week in league heartland, the NRL wasted no time reclaiming its turf by unleashing homegrown stars Jarryd Hayne and Israel Folau among more than 300 junior players. A tough-talking David Gallop delivered the AFL a backhander when he said: ``In western Sydney grandfathers, fathers and sons all go to the game together, and that kind of generational support is not something that can be bought overnight.''
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Dame Elisabeth, 101, shares birthday stage with MRC
Ever the arts philanthropist, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch shared her 101st birthday last night with the Melbourne Recital Centre, which was also celebrating an important milestone. The private party in the MRC's foyer to mark its opening to the public a year ago and a concert in the 1000-seat Elisabeth Murdoch Hall were attended by Melbourne's political and business elite, and more than 60 members of Dame Elisabeth's family. The guests included Victorian Governor David de Kretser, former premier Steve Bracks and his wife Terry, and former prime minister Malcolm Fraser and his wife Tammie. The Calvert-Jones and Kantor families, with the Victorian government, Audi and Etihad Airways, donated significant funds to the $74.5 million music auditorium, which opened to acclaim last February 8. ``The Melbourne Recital Centre has made an excellent debut, and I know my mother is thrilled with its success,'' said Janet Calvert-Jones.
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Shot flying foxes suffer a cruel death
Fruitbats are dying slow, cruel deaths because of culling methods approved by the State Government, an expert said. University of Sydney ecologist Dr Kerryn Parry-Jones has studied the animals for more than 20 years and warned the Government was breaking animal cruelty laws by allowing farmers to shoot fruit bats. The Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water has issued 41 licences across NSW for fruit farmers to shoot the bats to stop them harming crops. Dr Parry-Jones said there was barely any regulation on how many bats were shot or whether they were killed instantly. She cited a study showing up to a third of all shot bats were still alive more than eight hours later. ``If you can imagine shooting a flying fox in an orchard, most of the silhouette is wing so that's what gets shot,'' she said.
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Mother duck's play pool
As a place to learn to swim, it's a very public one.
A mother duck has chosen to hatch her ducklings in the commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial in the heart of Canberra.
It's the fourth year in a row she has picked the same location. War Memorial staff said that this latest group was the fifth group of ducklings to learn to swim in the pool of reflection. Memorial staff said tourists had a ``short opportunity'' to see the eight ducklings find their water wings. Soon after they begin swimming they usually migrate to the wide open spaces of nearby Lake Burley Griffin.
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We're full, find a hotel - No room in hospital for multiple transplant patient
Erin Crocker has been bleeding internally for 10 weeks. The 29-year-old has one-fifth of the normal amount of blood in her body. Yesterday, she was turned away from pre-booked surgery at a Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and told to book a room at a nearby hotel. She and her mother Maureen said they were told to wait at a Camperdown hotel for 48 hours and if a bed wasn't available they should drive five hours home to Jindabyne. Since she first fell ill, Ms Crocker, a triple transplant patient, has had more than 18 blood transfusions to stay alive. She needs a vein in her donated liver to be widened to stop blood loss. Ms Crocker said she was worried about the effect the delay would have on her donated liver - her second transplanted liver - and kidney.
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Read the lighting on the wall
Two talents marked Joseph Kosuth out early: alarming precocity and an uncanny knack for being in the right place at the right time.
While studying at the Cleveland Institute of Art, he stayed in an Ad Reinhardt lecture after the faculty and other students had walked out in outrage. The great abstract expressionist kept talking and afterwards said, ``Well, let's go, kid, I think it's only you and me.'' He spent the rest of the day walking the teenager through galleries and talking to him about art.
The following year in Paris, Kosuth had coffee with Alberto Giacommetti, dined with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. He was 19. ``I just met people,'' he says simply when asked how a boy from Ohio found entree to these circles. ``I was an obnoxious American, which always helps . . .''
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Newspix - Now representing Tim Clayton
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