A THREE-YEAR-OLD girl has suffered serious burns to her back after falling into a camp fire on Maria Island, off the east coast of Tasmania, last night.
The police rescue helicopter was sent to the incident about 7pm.
The girl was treated at the scene before being transported to the Royal Hobart Hospital.
Home prices eased 0.4 per cent on average across Australia's capital cities during 2012. Source: Supplied
AUSTRALIAN home prices have fallen for the second consecutive year as nervous consumers continue to sit on the sidelines of the housing market.
Home prices eased 0.4 per cent on average across Australia's eight capital cities during 2012, according to the monthly RP Data/Rismark Home Value index released today.
Melbourne homeowners fared worst, with prices down 2.9 per cent on average over the year, while Brisbane and Adelaide prices were both down 0.8 per cent.
Darwin had the strongest housing market, with prices up 8.9 per cent, while Sydney prices rose 1.5 per cent and Perth prices climbed 0.8 per cent.
Home prices fell 0.3 per cent across capital cities during December.
RP Data senior research analyst Cameron Kusher said home prices had fallen for two consecutive years and were now 5.7 per cent lower than their historic highs of November 2010.
There was a bright spot in the data, however, with house prices up 1.8 per cent from their lowest point set in May 2012.
But Mr Kusher said recent interest rate cuts had not been enough to spur growth growth in the sector.
"It has become clear that adjustments to official interest rates by the Reserve Bank are not having the same impact on consumers as they have in the past," Mr Kusher said in a statement.
The Reserve Bank of Australia's cash rate, currently at 3.0 per cent, is 1.75 percentage points lower than its level at the start of November 2011.
Over the same period, standard mortgage rates have dropped an average of 1.35 percentage points.
Mr Kusher said that with consumers saving more and spending less, the housing market was likely to remain relatively subdued through 2013, though he did expect prices to rise over the year.
CommSec chief economist Craig James said property investors were still making money, with RP Data figures showing returns from the sector up four per cent over calendar 2012.
"While Aussies are cautious on going into debt, (the) population is still rising while home building has remained weak," Mr James said.
"So rents are still rising and so are investment returns on property."
Sydney remained the most expensive place to buy in 2012, with a median house price of $665,000, while Hobart was the cheapest, with a median house price of $325,000.
Paramedics located two rock climbers at the bottom of a 30m cliff in the Blue Mountains. Source: The Daily Telegraph
A WOMAN rock climber has suffered multiple serious injuries after plummeting down a 30 metre cliff in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.
The woman, aged in her 20s, is in a critical condition in hospital with injuries to her legs, chest, back and head.
She was believed to be rock climbing today with a man in his 20s, who has suffered a serious leg injury.
"He is otherwise stable," said a spokesman for Ambulance NSW.
Paramedics called to the scene found the pair at the bottom of a 30m cliff at Mount Piddington in the village of Mount Victoria.
"They were at the bottom of this cliff in a difficult to access area," the spokesman told Australian Associated Press.
Paramedics spent an hour treating the pair and the woman was winched out about 3.20pm (AEDT).
She has been taken to Westmead Hospital in a critical condition.
The man was winched out shortly after 4pm and was taken to the same hospital.
A BOY was freed on bail seven times before he allegedly used a box-cutter to inflict horrific injuries on a young father and his pregnant wife in their Melbourne home on Christmas Eve.
The 13-year-old has been charged after the man was slashed from the back of his head to his nose in front of his toddler son, The Herald Sun reports.
His pregnant wife was also allegedly kicked in the attack and suffered a severe head wound from the box-cutter, with both parents expected to be left scarred for life.
The boy, who is alleged to have attacked the western suburbs couple, had been granted bail seven times despite facing more than 60 outstanding charges including arson, armed robbery, robbery and aggravated burglary.
Police Association secretary Sen-Sgt Greg Davies said the law governing bail for young offenders needed to be changed.
Read the full report at The Herald Sun website.
Debate rages on whether Australia should get a new flag design. Picture: Bob Barker Source: The Advertiser
AUSTRALIA has become one of a small group of former British colonies to keep the Union Jack on its flag, after Fiji moved for change.
Fiji's Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama announced in a New Year's Day address that his country will be getting a new flag.
Harold Scruby, executive director of Ausflag - a group campaigning for a new flag design - said it is an embarrassment that Fiji will change its national flag before Australia.
"Australians need to wake up," Mr Scruby told Australian Associated Press today.
"We need to stop playing the emperor's new clothes and pretending this flag is an Australian flag. It is not.
"How embarrassing Fiji has beaten us to it. I think it is disappointing that a country like Fiji has got so much more vision than a country like Australia."
But Bert Lane from the Australian National Flag Association (ANFA) said the current flag reflects our history and that it was a "stupid statement" to say it was embarrassing that Fiji would be changing their flag before Australia.
"Ausflag, they want to destroy the Australian flag," said Mr Lane, the immediate past president of ANFA Western Australia.
"A lot of people love our flag. The symbolism on the Australian national flag - we have the Union Jack to talk about our heritage and our history ... we have have the Southern Cross on there to identify our place on the face of the earth."
Mr Lane said the Australian flag was the only flag to be designed by the people, for the people, in a competition that attracted 32,823 entries.
He said there was also a lot of military history and pride attached to the current Australian flag.
THE Australian embassy in Cairo is investigating reports an Australian man has been killed in crossfire in Syria.
A video on YouTube posted by Syrian rebels hails an Australian man as a martyr for fighting alongside the anti-government Syrian rebels.
The Australian reports the man's name as Melbourne bricklayer Yusuf Toprakkaya.
In a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs said it was investigating the reports.
"The Australian embassy in Cairo and consular officials in Canberra are making inquiries regarding this matter,'' the statement said.
Acting Greens leader Adam Bandt has challenged Minister Jenny Macklin to spend a week living on the dole with him.
GREENS deputy leader Adam Bandt has challenged Families Minister Jenny Macklin to join him in spending a week living on the $35-a-day dole.
Mr Bandt issued the challenge in response to Ms Macklin's claim that she could live on the Newstart allowance, which has drawn outrage from welfare groups.
The Greens MP said living on the dole wasn't living, it was barely surviving.
Ms Macklin, a Cabinet member earning $903 a day, pushed 84,000 single mums off the parenting payment and on to the dole yesterday as part of a budget cut designed to save $738 million over four years.
The move will cost a single mum who works part-time up to $233 a week.
Jenny Macklin's comments on the Newstart allowance have caused outrage. Picture: Kelly Barnes
Mr Bandt said the minister had clearly not listened to what welfare groups had been telling her.
He said for the minister to say it is possible to live on that amount was "an outrageous statement".
"Once you take into account your rent your bills, your food, there's not much change left over from $35 a day," he told reporters in Melbourne.
Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt says living on the dole is not living, it's barely surviving.
"There has been inquiry after inquiry, report after report saying this is an income that's below the poverty line, it's not really an income at all.
"I think the minister needs a first-hand experience of living off the dole and perhaps she will change her mind," he said.
The Greens say the allowance should be increased by $50 a week to help people on the allowance meet some of the most pressing expenses.
"One of the things that is immediately clear is that is you need planning and budgeting to make it work," Mr Bandt said.
Mr Bandt said he had the luxury of being able to return to his well-paid job and nothing he could do would fully put himself in the shoes of someone who lives on $35 a day.
But he wanted to do it to draw attention to the difficulties faced by those living on the Newstart allowance.
"The real issue is whether the dole is adequate in this country," he said.
But Housing Minister Brendan O'Connor defended Ms Macklin and the new policy, while slamming Mr Bandt.
''I think it's quite patronising to pretend that you can actually live the experience by living on the unemployment benefit or Newstart for one week,'' Mr O'Connor told Sky News today.
''Our efforts are better deployed in working out ways that we can get people off unemployment benefits and into work.''
He said the Gillard government understood it would be difficult to survive on $35 a day, but the policy was designed to get people into jobs in the long-term interest of families.
''It increases the likelihood of people participating in the workforce, acquiring the skills needed, so that they do not find themselves indefinitely unemployed; that of course would be a terrible tragedy.
''You do not want to see a child grow up in a jobless household; that has a long-term adverse impact not only on the parents, but on the children.''
Single mothers have reacted angrily at ''appalling'' and ''degrading'' comments.
Corinna Taylor, a 43-year-old Brisbane mother of two, who expects to be moved on to the new system and lose $90 a week, said the comment was ''appalling''.
''I found it quite degrading,'' she said.
Ms Taylor said the new arrangements will force her to seek charity help or family loans.
It will also force many single mothers to rort the system, she said.
''But I would challenge anybody to live on $35 a day and not in some way have to rort the system.''
The government's changes will put those in different circumstances in the same basket, she said.
''I now will live on the same allowance as my 19-year-old nephew, but he rents a room for $120 a week,'' Ms Taylor said.
Office manager Cate Flaherty, a single mother of two, agrees.
''As a single mother who has always worked part-time and raised polite, considerate children, I feel that I am now being treated as somebody who adds no more value to society than some junkie who sits on the couch all day,'' she said.
Ms Flaherty says her budget will now be cut by $230 a fortnight, almost double that of a non-working single mother.
''We've actually copped a bigger hit than non-working single mothers, and what's really bothered me is that they're saying it encourages people back to work, but they wouldn't be punishing the ones doing the right thing all along,'' she said.
''It's made it harder for me to work.''
Ms Flaherty said she felt ''gutted'' by Ms Macklin's comments.
''It makes you feel worthless to society when you're doing such an important job,'' she said.
''I should be a die-hard Labor voter, but I've put a boycott on Labor for the rest of my life.''
Parramatta single mother-of-two, Luana Barrett, 41, said she would like to see Ms Macklin survive on the Newstart allowance and take care of her eight-year-old daughter, Mikayla, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
''She's more than welcome to come to my home, look after my daughter, drive my bodgie car to work and try to make ends meet,'' Ms Barrett told AAP.
A casual shop assistant, Ms Barrett broke down in tears as she described how her family would try to cope with the cuts.
''I don't think I can afford to send Mikayla to dance class this year.
''It's only $20 a week.... I don't know how I'm going to find that money.
''We suffer mentally (worrying about our finances), but it's the kids who will suffer the most.''
Terese Edwards, chief executive of the National Council of Single Mothers and Their Children, said Ms Macklin's comments had been greeted with "great dismay and distress" by single mums around the country.
"It has resonated as salt in the wound for these mums who are facing such an uphill battle," she said.
Ms Edwards said she went to her local supermarket in Adelaide on Wednesday morning to check prices and found $35 a day would be impossible to make ends meet.
She said if rent cost a single mum $28 a day, plus school bus tickets for two children, cereal for breakfast, cheese sandwiches for lunch, sausages and vegetables for tea, it came to nearly $54.
That was without fruit, toiletries or cleaning products, not to mention electricity, healthcare, clothes and the rest, Ms Edwards said.
"I think it would be wonderful for many politicians on all sides of government to walk a mile in the shoes of a single parent, who will be forced from already a modest amount to a completely inadequate amount."
Ms Edwards said poverty could lead to a sad and lonely life for children with even small treats like DVDs and popcorn unaffordable.
"They're the kids that aren't going on the school camps, they're the ones that don't have the right uniform, they have the out-of-date books.
"They are marked in the school yard as the poor kids," she said.
The sensitivity of Ms Macklin's dole remark became clear when a ministerial transcript issued just hours after yesterday's media conference described as "inaudible" the reporter's question and the crucial first part of Ms Macklin's reply.
Last night, her office claimed its recording had been affected by a revving car.
Three parliamentary inquiries, the OECD, the Business Council of Australia, former Treasury Secretary Ken Henry and even Employment Minister Bill Shorten admit the dole is inadequate.
A spokeswoman for Ms Macklin yesterday accepted full responsibility for the transcript omission.
Cassandra Goldie from the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) said Ms Macklin would struggle to live on $35 a day.
"The minister's claim is extraordinary and it flies in the face of all of the other evidence,'' she told ABC Radio today.
Ms Goldie said the decreased payments put families already under financial stress further below the poverty line.
"The evidence is clear - they are living below the poverty line and we as a country can afford to address that.''
Opposition Families spokesman Jamie Briggs said the government should focus on balancing its own books rather than lecturing single mothers.
"After five years of delivering record debt and deficits, the last thing the Gillard Labor Government should be doing is lecturing single mums on how to live within their means," Mr Briggs said in a statement.
"The Gillard Labor government is incompetent and untrustworthy - it can't even be trusted to get a ministerial transcript right.
"Plainly, it would be tough to live on the dole but the question to be answered today is why did Minister Macklin try to hide her answer?"
West Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert spent a week living off the allowance last year and said she found it impossible.
How much Jenny Macklin earns
- $328,698 annual cabinet minister's salary
- $6321 per week
- $903 per day
(Source: Parliamentary remuneration and entitlements, August 17, 2012)
What you can get for $903 per day
- One night at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Melbourne, Club Deluxe King room, $575, plus $280 Ladies Pamper Package;
- Degustation experience at top Melbourne restaurant, Vue de Monde, $250 per person. Matching wines $15-$25 extra per course;
- 1996 Hyundai Sonata GLE with 220,000km, $700 (carsales.com.au);
- Zone 1 myki pass valid for 210 days, $903;
- Melbourne Cricket Club entry membership, $900;
- Taxi ride from Melbourne to Wagga Wagga, NSW, $880 (Taxi Fare Calculator);
- Six family passes to Luna Park Melbourne, $816
Detectives have charged a 24 year old man in relation to a bashing earlier this week.
The sisters of Rye brawl victim David Cassai, have spoken of their heartache after the 22-year old's tragic death. They told Ten's Emma O'Sullivan, their brother was a popular young man, who would never harm anyone
David Cassai's organs will help save lives. Source: Supplied
AN 18-year-old man will face the Melbourne Magistrates' Court today charged with the manslaughter of David Cassai.
Dylan John Closter was the second man to be charged by Homicide Squad detectives yesterday in relation to the fatal bashing of Mr Cassai, 22, on a Rye shopping strip in the early hours of New Year's Eve.
The scruffy-haired Millgrove teenager appeared nervous as he was led into an out-of-sessions court hearing at St Kilda Rd Police Station last night, wearing a white T-shirt, dark-coloured sport shorts and thongs on his feet.
He was charged with one count of manslaughter and one count of affray. He was also charged with two counts of assault intending to cause injury on two others injured that night: Andrew John and Vincent Tran.
One of Mr Cassai's mates, a 23-year-old Warranwood man, suffered a broken jaw in the alleged attack.
Closter said he understood the charges read out to him by Detective Senior Constable Carla McIntyre from the Homicide Squad.
He did not apply for bail and was last night remanded at the Melbourne Custody Centre after being led out of the brief, three-minute hearing.
Police have also charged a 24-year-old Kilsyth man with intentionally causing injury and affray.
The man was bailed by police to appear at Melbourne Magistrate's Court on February 20.
Dylan John Closter covers his face when leaving a brief out of sessions court hearing, charged in relation to the death of David Cassai at Rye. Picture: Jason Sammon Source: Herald Sun
Mr Cassai, of Templestowe, died in hospital hours after he was allegedly attacked.
Homicide detectives interviewed a Kilsyth man, 20, and a Yarra Junction man, 22, on Tuesday night before releasing them pending further investigations.
Police said the investigation into Mr Cassai's death was continuing.
Tributes have flowed on Facebook for Mr Cassai, whose organs were donated for transplant.
His sister Luisa Cassai wrote: "You are my hero. My love for you is eternal you have touched everyone's life not only me but everyone - even people that didn't know you beb.
"The lucky recipient of your heart and other organs they will have with them your love for life, a part of your personality and they will feel a sudden urge to `get s--- done' something you always emphasised always because that's what we all need to do with our lives - live life to the upmost and do what you love. That's what you did David in everything. RIP.''
- with Wayne Flower
wayne.flower@news.com.au
