Strong exports drive $2.3 billion trade surplus

STRONG coal and iron ore exports contributed to a "healthy" $2.3 billion trade surplus in August despite falls in exports and imports, economists say.
They believe the export outlook remains strong even though commodity prices are beginning to plateau.

International trade data released today shows exports were down 2 per cent in August in adjusted terms, compared with the previous month, while imports fell 5 per cent.

Australia had a $2.3 billion trade surplus in the month, matching economists' expectations, the data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed.

AMP Capital Investors chief economist Shane Oliver said the data was a "bit on the soft side", but there was nothing particularly concerning.

"I think it's still consistent with reasonable strength in the economy," Dr Oliver said.

While coal and iron ore exports were still quite strong, they had probably already peaked as prices came off since the June quarter.

Dr Oliver said strong export earnings, thanks to coal and iron ore exports, would flow through to higher national income and higher dividend payments, increased investment by mining companies, increased employment by mining companies and increased federal tax revenue.

"All of this has a stimulatory effect on the economy," he said.

However, CommSec economist Craig James said there was nothing in the trade data to make the Reserve Bank (RBA) more concerned about the inflation outlook and outlook for the economy.

He said a drop in gold exports had led to some volatility in trade figures, but overall the nation still had "a healthy trade surplus" thanks to coal and iron ore exports.

"Previously it was the case that we rode on the sheep's back and now clearly it's the case that we're riding on the miner's back," he said.

The ABS said the $2.346 billion August surplus came as it downwardly revised a surplus of $1.743 billion in July.

JP Morgan economist Helen Kevans said the improvement in the trade surplus was "less compelling" than expected.

"The disappointment was on the export side of the ledger, which failed to recover from the previous month's deterioration, falling a further 2 per cent, month on month," Ms Kevans said.

"In absolute terms, the balance of payments continues to benefit from higher commodity prices, which has led to a step-shift higher in export revenues and the trade balance relative to recent history."

She said while the trade balance may struggle to hit the June highs as commodity prices plateau in the near term, the risks around the export outlook that accumulated in the third quarter seemed to be "fading from view".

She expects the export outlook to remain "bullish", with robust commodities demand keeping the trade balance positive.

The economists said the trade data was unlikely to have swayed the RBA's decision to leave the cash rate unchanged at its October board meeting this afternoon.

The majority of economists and analysts had expected the central bank to lift the cash rate to 4.75 per cent from its current 4.5 per cent. 

Former Malaysian PM out of hospital in Melbourne

FORMER Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has been discharged from Melbourne's Epworth Hospital after he was admitted on Saturday for a chest infection.
Mr Mahathir had been in Melbourne to speak at a seminar.

A spokeswoman for Epworth said the 85-year-old Mr Mahathir left the hospital today but will remain in their care for the next few days receiving antibiotics and physiotherapy before he returns to Kuala Lumpur.

"His condition is stable but he will have some follow-up care," the spokeswoman said.

Mr Mahathir travelled to Australia with his own personal physician.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh calls for new blood on frontbench

Newly elected premier Anna Bligh admits many previous Labor voters deserted the party in the Queensland election and she's vowed to inject new blood into her frontbench.

The Labor leader claimed a fifth consecutive term for the party in Saturday's state poll, becoming the first woman in Australian history to be elected premier in her own right.
Ms Bligh said her victory had yet to sink in.
"I think there are many people who would never have thought that Queensland would be the state that delivered our first elected woman premier and I'm thrilled and proud of them that they proved everyone wrong," she said on ABC radio on Sunday.
Ms Bligh acknowledged many traditionally Labor voters had dumped the party, but added she would do everything in her power to win back their support.
"There is a very strong message here for us and that is that many people who have voted Labor for the last couple of elections didn't ... and they didn't because they are disappointed with our performance in a number of key areas," she said.
"If we mistake that message then that will be our undoing.

"I know people want us to do better. My task is to deliver on that expectation and win some of those people back."
Ms Bligh said she would reshuffle her frontbench.
"I will pick the cabinet and I will do it on the basis of merit and talent. Factional interests will be a very, very long way down the list in my considerations. In fact, they are very unlikely to figure at all.
"I want to see regional voices around the table. I want to see a mix of new blood and experience.
But I understand that people want to see a reinvigorated government."

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd applauds Anna Bligh's 'gutsy' performance in Queensland election

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has lauded Anna Bligh's achievement in becoming the first female elected premier in Australia as "very gutsy"

Ms Bligh claimed a fifth consecutive term for Labor in the Queensland election on Saturday.
She is the first female premier in to be elected in her own right.
"This goes down to a gutsy performance, a very gutsy leader, Anna Bligh," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told Channel 9.
"Full marks to her - she was up against a cyclone, an oil slick, a conservative billionaire throwing millions at the Liberals and Nationals' campaign but she came through."
Mr Rudd, who has known Ms Bligh for around 20 years, said it was a great day for Australian women.

Four injured as shade sail collapses at park in Burwood

FOUR people have been seriously injured in the collapse of a large canvas shade sail in Sydney's inner west.

Emergency services workers were called to a park at the intersection of Burwood Road and Wilga Streets, Burwood about 3.25am (AEDT) on Sunday following reports the shade sail had collapsed, injuring people who had climbed on top of it.
Police say paramedics treated three males and one female at the scene before taking them to hospital.
It was possible all four had sustained spinal injuries, a police spokesman said.
It is not know which hospital they were taken to.

Recession virtually impossible to avoid, says Prime Minister Kevin Rudd

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd admits it is virtually impossible for Australia to avoid slipping into recession.

Mr Rudd says the global economic recession will get worse before it gets better.
"It's clear that the impact of a worsening economic global recession will make it virtually impossible for Australia to sustain a positive economic growth for the period ahead, with impacts, of course, for budget and employment, which underlines the importance of global action in response to the global recession," he told Channel 9.
The Prime Minister said the International Monetary Fund's revision down (a contraction of up to one per cent) for global economic growth would directly hit the Australian economy.
When quizzed on whether there would be further stimulus packages, Mr Rudd said the Government reserved the right to take whatever action was necessary to support jobs.
Mr Rudd said economic stimulus was on the agenda for the G20 summit in London next week.
He said the May budget needed to be really tough.

"What have you got on one side of it, is collapsing government revenues coming straight off the back of the global economic recession, happening with every other budget around the world," Mr Rudd said.
"The Chinese budget has gone into deficit I am advised.
"(Treasurer) Wayne Swan's hair will be getting greyer and greyer and greyer as we prepare the budget."

Reward offered for information about missing Sydney man, Simon Knight

A $100,000 REWARD is being offered to anyone with information about the disappearance of Sydney man Simon Knight.

Mr Knight, 32, was last seen at the City Crown Hotel in Surry Hills, in the inner city, on July 21, 2005.
Deputy State Coroner Hugh Dillon could not confirm whether Mr Knight was alive or dead at the conclusion of an inquest in July last year.
NSW Police Minister Tony Kelly said the Government had approved the reward to help Mr Knight's family.
His family deserves to know what happened to him,'' Mr Kelly told said.
"Anybody who has got any skerrick of information about Simon Knight or about his disappearance should call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.''
At the time of his disappearance, Mr Knight was about 170cm tall, with a medium to solid build and a fair complexion.

Australian soldier killed last week, Sergeant Brett Till, begins journey home

THE body of the Australian soldier whose smile would "crack the frown off a hundred faces" arrives home this week.

Sergeant Brett Till was farewelled by fellow diggers in Tarin Kowt, southern Afghanistan, on Saturday.
He became the 10th Australian soldier killed in Afghanistan while trying to defuse an improvised explosive device (IED) last Thursday.
The 31-year-old was the fourth Australian to die from an IED blast in Afghanistan.
A cortege of vehicles, including one carrying Sergeant Till's flag-draped casket, passed along a route lined by his Australian colleagues and representatives from coalition forces in Oruzgan.
Eight of his mates then carried his casket into an awaiting RAAF C-130 Hercules, which will bring Sergeant Till home.
Sergeant Till was serving with the Special Operations Task Group (SOTG).
The group's commanding officer, whose name has not been released, said Sergeant Till's death was not in vain.
"Without question, Brett's work on the day he died saved the lives of his mates," the officer said.
"He was a man who, with his team, would deliberately place himself directly between dangerous and unstable high explosive devices and the soldiers of SOTG on a daily basis, in order to ensure that they could carry out their important mission to make this country a safer place.
"Brett will be forever remembered both here and at home as a bloke that made a difference and saved lives."
Sergeant Till's body will arrive in Australia later this week.
Details of his arrival have yet to be released.
Sergeant Till's widow, Bree Till, paid tribute to her husband on Saturday, in a statement released by the Australian Defence Force.
"Brett was such a beautiful man. His smile would crack the frowns off a hundred faces," she said.

Queensland Liberal leader Lawrence Springborg says he should have fought dirtier in election campaign

QUEENSLAND Liberal National Party (LNP) leader Lawrence Springborg regrets not fighting "fire with fire" during the state election campaign.

On a two-party preferred basis, Labor won 51.3 per cent of the vote to the LNP's 48.7 per cent, representing a 3.5 per cent swing to the state's new, merged conservative party.
Mr Springborg on Sunday told reporters the party should have hit back at Labor's "scare campaign" on LNP economic policy, which was to cut $1 billion in waste from the state budget to fund election promises.
Labor and the unions campaigned heavily on claims this would cost 12,000 public sector workers their jobs.
Labor also ran ads attacking Mr Springborg's economic credentials, particularly after he described the global financial crisis as "peripheral" to the state.
Mr Springborg didn't fault the LNP's fiscal plan, but said its mistake was running a positive campaign.
"The only thing that I regret we didn't do, which I think ultimately proved detrimental, was we didn't answer Labor's scare campaign and we actually stuck to our own script," he said.
"The reality is scare campaigns can and do work, you only need to change one or two votes in a hundred."
Mr Springborg said the party underestimated how far Labor would go with the tactic, and the influence the union movement would have on the public service.
"I think that we probably should have fought fire with fire," he said.
"There are any number of things that we could have pointed out against Ms Bligh including the fact that she said she wouldn't have an early election and she did ... her close connection with her colleagues such as Gordon Nuttall, and her personal exoneration of his criminality in parliament, we could have done that.
"Those sorts of things would have stuck significantly, but we chose not to do that."
Mr Springborg said he would step down from the leadership for good this time, and would not name any favoured successors.
"I am not contesting the leadership today, I am not contesting the leadership again," he said.
Mr Springborg said the LNP had proven it was a party for all of Queensland, having defied expectations by winning seats in the urbanised southeast.
Mr Springborg nominated the merger of the coalition parties in July last year as his proudest achievement, and said the result of its first outing proved its strength.
Despite being the merger's key driver, he expected the new party would hold together when he returned to the back bench.
The party room is expected to meet next Wednesday to elect its new leader.

Students at RMIT University in Melbourne protest over lack of Muslim prayer rooms

MELBOURNE Muslim university students will protest tomorrow, saying they are being sexually harassed and discriminated against due to a lack of prayer rooms.

But RMIT University management deny this, insisting Muslim students are well catered for.

The RMIT Islamic Society want Muslim-only prayer rooms on the university's city campus.

In late 2007, construction work on the building that contained a dedicated Muslim prayer room meant the facility was demolished.

The Islamic society said the university reneged on its promise to replace that with another room.

"As a result, students and staff have been forced to pray outside in the heat of summer and the cold of winter," the society's website said.

It alleged females have been subjected to sexual abuse, harassment and religious vilification while praying.

They are now forced to pray two at a time in cramped women's rooms, corridors and empty classrooms.

The society said "enough is enough", insisting it was sick of being given the run around and would hold a mass protest at the university on Monday afternoon.

"No longer can we remain quiet and have students compromise between their safety and prayers, RMIT made a promise, it must fulfil it," the website said.

But the university described the action as "unfortunate and unnecessary".

There are already eight Muslim prayer rooms across the university's three campuses, Dr Maddy McMaster, Acting Pro Vice-Chancellor (Students) said.

"The university's policy is that prayer rooms in its spiritual centre are multi-faith, open to bookings by members of all faiths," she said.

Muslims get preferential access to two of those rooms.

"With space at a premium on our city campus, we have bent over backwards to find an amicable solution," she said.

Gestures of good faith have been rejected, she insisted.

"Multi-faith spaces are commonly accepted as supporting a range of religious practices, including those of the Muslim faith.

"It is disappointing that the RMIT Islamic Society chooses to reject established multi-faith principles," she said.

The society did not respond to AAP requests for comment.

Murderer Gregory John Brazel paid up to $83,000 for alleged prison assault

TRIPLE killer Gregory John Brazel has received a secret $3000 payout and up to $80,000 in legal costs paid by taxpayers.

He has also been given a series of perks in Port Phillip prison.
Brazel, who murdered three women, received the cash windfall after suing the Government for being bashed at his previous jail, Barwon.
The payout - kept secret until now - was nominally for medical expenses, but was paid into his prison account.
Sources say Brazel is spending it on horse racing bets and other perks.
As part of the settlement, Brazel gains extra phone time and the right to wear a red beanie covering scars, sources said.
At Brazel's request he was moved to the mainstream prison as part of the settlement.
But the trial soured and was ended when other prisoners refused to work with him.
The $3000 adds to a nest egg of $12,000 Brazel has won from the insurer of private Port Phillip prison after he was slashed by an inmate with a broken bottle.
Brazel has allegedly assaulted guards and other prisoners, started fires, caused sieges, staged fake hunger strikes and smuggled in banned items.
The payout was meant to be for medical expenses, including treatment to fix scarring after he was bashed, but it is believed Brazel is gambling it and spending it on treats.
He has also had access to a computer and more phone calls than other prisoners.
Since being moved from Barwon prison, Brazel has made allegations against Port Phillip prison staff, had them removed and threatened other staff, insiders said.
"Management are believed to bow to his every need and have built this monster, with fear of being sued, as that is Brazel's game," the source said.
"He wears that red hat with his (green) prison gear and he's like a vicious little elf," a jail source said.
Corrections Victoria would not comment on Brazel's windfall or prison arrangements.

One dead after airport gang brawl

A MAN has been bludgeoned to death at Sydney Airport when a bikie gang confronted a rival group at one of the domestic terminals.
Police said a group of men arrived on a flight to Sydney about 1.30pm (AEDT) on Sunday and were unexpectedly met by what they believe to be a rival outlaw bikie group.
At the arrival area of the Qantas T3 terminal, witnesses told police the fight ensued and made its way to upstairs to the departure area where one of the men was hit over the head with a portable bollard.
Ambulance crews treated the man on the scene before he was rushed to Prince of Wales Hospital at Randwick.
Four other men have been arrested over the incident and are being questioned by police.

Queensland premier Anna Bligh to reshuffle frontbench

NEWLY elected premier Anna Bligh admits many previous Labor voters deserted the party in the Queensland election and she's vowed to inject new blood into her frontbench.

The Labor leader claimed a fifth consecutive term for the party in Saturday's state poll, becoming the first woman in Australian history to be elected premier in her own right.
Ms Bligh said her victory had yet to sink in.
"I think there are many people who would never have thought that Queensland would be the state that delivered our first elected woman premier and I'm thrilled and proud of them that they proved everyone wrong," she said.
Ms Bligh acknowledged many traditionally Labor voters had dumped the party, but added she would do everything in her power to win back their support.
"There is a very strong message here for us and that is that many people who have voted Labor for the last couple of elections didn't ... and they didn't because they are disappointed with our performance in a number of key areas," she said.
"If we mistake that message then that will be our undoing.
"I know people want us to do better. My task is to deliver on that expectation and win some of those people back."
Ms Bligh said she would reshuffle her frontbench.
"I will pick the cabinet and I will do it on the basis of merit and talent. Factional interests will be a very, very long way down the list in my considerations. In fact, they are very unlikely to figure at all.
"I want to see regional voices around the table. I want to see a mix of new blood and experience. But I understand that people want to see a reinvigorated Government."