Leave scheme to go ahead: Hockey

The government will go ahead with its planned paid parental leave scheme, Treasurer Joe Hockey says. Source: AAP

THE federal government will push ahead with its planned paid parental leave scheme even if a commission of audit deems it too generous in the current budgetary environment.

Treasurer Joe Hockey said the coalition will keep its promise to deliver the scheme, which is planned to begin in July 2015 and cost about $5.5 billion a year.

"The paid parental leave scheme will be fully funded and it is fully funded," Mr Hockey told the ABC on Wednesday.

He did not reject an assertion that an interim report from the commission found the scheme too generous in light of the budget's unhealthy position.

He also flagged that the government could overlook other commission of audit recommendations in its May budget.

"We won't accept every recommendation of the report," he said.

"It is a report to the government ... all the commission of audit reports that have been around previously, I don't think any government has accepted all the recommendations."

In his signature paid parental leave policy, Prime Minister Tony Abbott wants to give working women their regular wage for six months, capped at $75,000, after they give birth.

Labor is opposed to the scheme and in late February Nationals senator John Williams said he will only back the plan if there is a significant economic turnaround.

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Greens slam Tasmanian ALP, Liberals

Tasmania's Greens have slammed the Labor party for the progressive vote at the state election. Source: AAP

TASMANIA'S Greens have described the Labor party they shared power with for four years as a "shambles" in a pitch for the progressive vote at the state election.

Greens leader Nick McKim had already declared his party could be the official opposition in the island state after the March 15 poll with the ALP languishing in the polls.

He has used the Greens' official campaign launch to slam Labor and to warn Liberal voters of a "Hodgman/Abetz" government.

Mr McKim attacked Labor over rogue backbencher Brenton Best, who has called for Premier Lara Giddings to step down over the party's power-sharing arrangement with the Greens.

Mr Best renewed his attack on Ms Giddings on social media this week, referring to the premier as "La La".

"I say to progressive Labor voters your party is at war with itself," Mr McKim told Greens supporters in Hobart.

He accused opposition leader Will Hodgman of subservience to Tasmanian Liberal senator and federal employment minister Eric Abetz.

"I'd say this to some Liberal voters, particularly conservative people who hold traditional conservative values, that a vote for Will Hodgman is a vote for Eric Abetz and Tony Abbott," Mr McKim said.

The Greens have released a brochure declaring they stand for "real liberal values" more akin to Malcolm Turnbull's than Mr Abbott's.

It claims Tasmania's Liberals are controlled by "right-wing hardliners" such as Senator Abetz.

"Their policies are a mix of hard right-wing morality and old-fashioned corporate welfare," it says.

Mr McKim promised to create 10,000 jobs over the next decade by better marketing of Tasmanian products and produce.

He said the Greens would push a light rail proposal linking the city to the state's number one tourist attraction, the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA).

The Greens would also make Tasmania Australia's healthiest state by 2030 with a $13 million preventative health policy.

Mr McKim was introduced by the party's former federal leader Bob Brown.

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China premier's 'war' on pollution

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has "declared war" on the country's pollution problems. Source: AAP

CHINESE Premier Li Keqiang says he is "declaring war" on pollution, describing it as a "red-light warning" against inefficiency as he sought to address public concerns on issues from acrid smog to food safety.

China's three decades of rapid industrialisation and urbanisation have transformed its economy, and seen incomes soar.

But they have also brought severe environmental consequences, with the public enraged by cities regularly blanketed in smog, and incidents such as thousands of dead pigs in Shanghai's main river.

In his speech on Wednesday to the National People's Congress, China's legislature, Li described the deterioration of the environment as "nature's red-light warning against the model of inefficient and blind development".

"We will declare war against pollution and fight it with the same determination we battled poverty," said the premier, who took office in March last year.

The government will shut down 50,000 small coal-fired furnaces this year, clean up major coal-burning power plants, and remove six million high-emission vehicles from the roads, he said.

A cap will be put on the country's total energy consumption and measures will be taken to curb water pollution, conserve soil, recover wetlands and restore forests and grassland, he added.

Chinese authorities have repeatedly pledged action to improve the environment in recent months, but experts warn that implementation will be key.

"The fundamental goal of a government's work is to ensure that everyone lives a good life," Li said. "We will definitely enjoy more peace, happiness and prosperity as well as greater development."

The government aims to lift more than 10 million people out of poverty this year, he said, adding that efforts will be made to narrow the income gap and improve social safety nets.

In an apparent response to worries over the country's scandal-prone food industry, Li promised to crack down on the production and sale of counterfeit and shoddy goods, improve safety monitoring systems and introduce tracing mechanisms.

"We will... apply the strictest possible oversight, punishment and accountability to prevent and control food contamination and ensure that every bite of food we eat is safe," he said.

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S Sudanese flee into Darfur

Refugees from violence in South Sudan are so desperate they are fleeing to Sudan's Darfur region. Source: AAP

THE civil war in South Sudan has left people so hungry and desperate for relief that they are even fleeing across the border into Darfur, a long-troubled region of famine and suffering in neighbouring Sudan, the UN humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan says.

Some 900,000 South Sudanese are homeless since the war erupted in December, and about 195,000 of them have fled as refugees to Uganda, Ethiopia and even into Darfur, Tony Lanzer said on Tuesday.

South Sudan broke away from Sudan to become independent in 2011. Sudan's western Darfur region has been gripped by violence since 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government.

"I never thought I would see people fleeing into Darfur," Lanzer said.

"It's a very painful thing for the world's youngest country if your people are fleeing."

South Sudan's civil war broke out in December between supporters of ousted Vice President Riek Machar, from the Nuer ethnic group, and the forces of President Salva Kiir, who is an ethnic Dinka. The two sides agreed to a ceasefire in January, but that agreement does not appear to be holding.

A total of 3.7 million South Sudanese are "food insecure," or unsure of where their next meal will come from, Lanzer said, out of a population of about 11 million.

Lanzer is organising donations for international relief aid in the coming weeks during the dry season, when roads are passable. The World Food Program hopes to pre-position 146,000 tons of food. By June, during the wet season, supplies would have to be airlifted at far greater cost.

"Now, 90 per cent of funds go toward relief, and 10 per cent to delivery," Lanzer said. By June, that ratio will have flipped.

Adding to the urgency, people need to sow crops before June but are afraid to go into the fields.

"There will not be a harvest if people do not cultivate," Lanzer said.

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Australian tells of detainment in N Korea

An Australian man detained in North Korea has recounted "long and gruelling" interrogation sessions. Source: AAP

TWO hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon.

Australian missionary John Short has revealed detail of his "long and gruelling" interrogation while detained in North Korea for breaches of the country's religious laws.

The 75-year-old was held for 13 days in the capital Pyongyang after being picked up en route to the airport on February 18.

In a statement issued on Wednesday Mr Short said recounting scripture helped him endure the "long and gruelling investigation".

"There were two-hour sessions each morning, which were repeated again in the afternoons," he said.

The keen walker who clocks up an average 5kms a day said his seated confinement was challenging.

"This I found to be most painful physically as an active senior person."

It was also stressful being under constant guard, he added.

When first detained Mr Short said he insisted he was not a spy and did not intend bringing hostilities to North Korea.

He was told that by distributing religious pamphlets at a Buddhist temple and in a crowded train he violated local laws which prohibit the dissemination of religious material, and faced 15 years in prison.

"I confessed that I had knowingly broken the law in what I believed is my God directed duty and as I do in every place and country I visit," Mr Short said.

The non-denominational Christian Evangelist, originally from South Australia, who has lived with his wife in Hong Kong since 1964, thanked his family along with consular officials who helped publicise his case and facilitate his release.

North Korea's official news agency, KCNA, reported that the decision to expel Mr Short without penalty was partly in consideration of his age.

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Speaker should be neutral, Burke says

A Labor frontbencher has hinted a level of dissatisfaction with the federal parliamentary Speaker. Source: AAP

A FEDERAL Labor frontbencher has hinted there is community disquiet about the objectivity of parliamentary Speaker Bronwyn Bishop.

Clashes between the manager of opposition business Tony Burke and "madam speaker", as Ms Bishop is referred to in the lower house, have become a common fixture during question time.

Asked about Ms Bishop's style on Wednesday, Mr Burke said there are rules which limit what he can say outside of parliament.

"As a principle I guess the best way to describe it from my end, is: on the sporting field I don't think the referee ought to get involved in the sledging," he told Sky News.

"I think that's the sort of view I hear throughout the community a fair bit too."

Ms Bishop was appointed Speaker when the coalition came into power for the 44th parliament.

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