News from Tasmania
Launceston weather forecast: The Bureau of Meteorology is predicitng a windy day with a top temperature of 19 degrees. There is a slight chance of showers during the afternoon. Winds are north to northwesterly at 30 to 45km/h.
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The Examiner’s top stories
Bass jobs jump The North is set to benefit from a long-awaited $24 million federal jobs package, with 140 positions expected to be created in the region.
Call to raise smoke prices Tasmania should hike cigarette prices even further if it wants young people and the disadvantaged to give up the habit, a leading health organisation says.
Lessons from seafood chef Seafood extraordinaire Donovan Cooke is schooling Drysdale TasTAFE students in the art of culinary cuisine.
No lifeline for Singh Relegated Senator Lisa Singh has not been saved by Labor’s national executive, with the committee placing her sixth on the party’s ticket.
Mohr ready for his return Former Launceston defender Tim Mohr will play his first AFL match in 665 days when GWS host Gold Coast on Saturday.
State of the nation
► MANDURAH: Waroona farmer Victor Thompson was blown away when his vegetable patch in Yarloop yielded a rather surprising crop.
“We were lucky enough that the fire didn’t affect the veggie patch, so it was about time to dig the sweet potatoes, so I saw this mound, and started digging around, and next you know, they’re larger and larger, and we’re struggling to dig it out of the ground, and weighed it, and it was 21.8 kilos,” Mr Thompson said.
He believes the “basketball” sized sweet potato could have broken an Australian record, and though he is yet to confirm this, the heaviest record he’s found was six kilos.
► NEWCASTLE: A Lake Macquarie solicitor was allegedly stabbed, bashed and forced to inject the drug ice into his arm while being held captive during a horrifying ordeal at Mayfield West, court documents state.
And when the solicitor, who cannot be identified, bled “profusely” all over the dining room floor, ice addict Gregory George Fernando, 28, allegedly became so angry he continuously punched him in the face “because of the mess”.
Mr Fernando, of Frewin Avenue, Woodberry, allegedly made the solicitor clean up the blood with towels before tying him up with rope.
► BENDIGO: A former Girton Grammar School captain claims to have been discriminated against by the school after being ejected from an event.
But headmaster Matthew Maruff has defended the actions of his deputy and said the young man was turned away from the Foundation Day Celebration because he was inappropriately dressed.
“The issue is what someone wears at the appropriate time and appropriate place,” Mr Maruff said.
► TAMWORTH: A Bushwalker who battled near-freezing temperatures has been rescued after three days lost in the forest and has praised volunteers who didn’t give up on him.
The 69-year-old was winched to safety yesterday afternoon from a remote creekbed in the Torrington State Forest, more than 45km from Deepwater.
LifeSaver 23 was scouring the rugged bushland from the air just after 2.30pm yesterday when it spotted the Glen Innes local – only about 500m from a team of volunteers searching on foot.
► NOWRA: “If the woman who killed my husband had looked twice he would still be here today.”
After Amanda Gates’ husband Steven was killed in a motorbike accident on his way to work last year in Strathfield, the Nowra woman is organising a charity ride to raise awareness of motorcycle safety.
Ride for Steve will be held Sunday, May 22 with all funds raised going towards the Motorcycle Council of NSW.
► SA: A Citizens' jury of South Australians will be selected to look at key issues surrounding the debate on whether to establish a nuclear waste facility in SA.
The waste facility the state government is exploring is separate to the low level waste facility planned by the federal government. It was recently announced a site near Hawker would progress to the next stage in the selection of a site for the federal facility.
Invitations were sent this week to 25,000 randomly-selected South Australians seeking an expression of interest for their participation in the citizens’ jury, with members to be selected by an independent, non-political organisation. This follows on from the Royal Commission handing down its final report this week, which made 12 key recommendations, including pursuing the establishment of nuclear fuel and intermediate level waste storage facilities in SA.
► WAGGA: Trent Harvey’s childhood was full of outdoor play through his family’s apple orchard in Batlow with his brother.
His upbringing held him in good stead to grow an appreciation for fresh fruit and produce – he just did not know it yet.
The region is renowned for producing some of the best apples in the country and Harvey spent his childhood relishing in farm life.
But it was not until he ventured overseas that his love of cooking developed.
National News
► Cleaners are Parliament House are sick and tired of being treated like dirt.
They haven't had a pay rise for four years, while watching Canberra's rates and rents skyrocket.
As well, the population of the building is now said to have risen to 10,000 when Parliament is sitting, but the cleaning workforce has been cut dramatically, putting a huge workload on the remaining, tired staff.
► Home visits by mobile GPs are booming in Australia, causing some doctors to question whether the "Uberisation" of medicine is ripping off Medicare.
New data shows the growth in private companies offering "free", bulk-billed home doctor consultations in people's homes out of business hours has cost Medicare $662.1 million since 2010, challenging traditional "family doctor" GP clinics.
The services have been a boon for people who want a doctor to visit them at home between 6pm and 8am during the week and on weekends and public holidays. In some cases, the doctors will provide pharmaceutical treatments such as anti-nausea drugs, saving people a visit to a pharmacy.
► The Baird government has created 19 new councils across Sydney and NSW. And the government has said it would merge another nine, pending the outcome of litigation over council mergers.
"The most comprehensive local government reform in more than 100 years will result in 19 new councils beginning operations from today," Premier Mike Baird said.
Administrators and interim general managers have been appointed to each of the new councils, which will not hold their elections until September next year - 12 months later than those not being merged.
National Weather
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International News
► BRAZIL: After more than 20 hours of speeches, the Brazilian Senate voted in favour of suspending President Dilma Rousseff in the early hours of Thursday morning.
A "half plus one" majority, from 81 senators, was needed to carry the vote and set in motion a 180-day suspension for Ms Rousseff, who will now be put on trial on charges of mismanaging the nation's budget. If she is found guilty she will be impeached.
A little past 3.30am Brasilia time, the necessary number of senators - 41 - had made their 15-minute speeches indicating they would vote in favour of the trial.
► BEIJING: When do you know your country's police force has a major credibility problem? Perhaps when the court of public opinion sides instead with a man alleged to have visited a brothel just two weeks after his wife gave birth to their first child. On their wedding anniversary.
The murky death of 29-year-old Lei Yang while briefly in police custody has set social media in China alight, with accusations of police brutality resonating widely and propelling the case into what is now a major national news story.
► LONDON: A former manager of Australian banknote company Securency walked free from court on Thursday, after being sentenced to 30 months' jail for bribing an official at Nigeria's mint.
Peter Chapman, Securency's former manager of African business, had paid the bribes while under "considerable pressure" from his superiors at Securency to achieve sales, judge Michael Grieve QC said.
They had encouraged or at least connived in the corrupt activity, and the company benefited from "highly lucrative" sales in Nigeria of the plastic used to print banknotes: orders worth around €30 million ($47 million).
On this day
1787 - Arthur Phillip sets sails with 11 ships of criminals to Botany Bay, Australia
1940 - Winston Churchill says I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears & sweat
1981 - Pope John Paul II is shot and critically wounded by Turkish gunman Mehemet Ali Agca in St Peter's Square, Vatican City
1989 - Approx 2,000 students begin hunger strike in Tiananmen Square, China
2014 – An explosion at an underground coal mine in south-western Turkey kills 301 miners.
Faces of Australia: Steve Peacocke
He up and left Summer Bay for pastures greener Stateside and has already landed himself in a major movie role alongside some stellar A-listers, such as Tina Fey, Margot Robbie and Billy Bob Thornton, but Hollywood has yet to go to Steve Peacocke's head.
The 34-year-old from Dubbo is humble about his part on dramedy Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (WTF, get it?), which he landed about a month after he left his role as Brax on Home and Away.
"It was a matter of timing, I guess. I just finished up on Home and Away in October [2014] and this came up in November or December and then by February we were in New Mexico shooting it," Peacocke told Fairfax Media while on his press run for the film in Sydney.
