Let current regulator police us: charities

SOME of Australia's biggest charities and community sector groups have banded together to warn the federal government it will commit a "huge mistake" by closing the national charity regulator.

The federal government will introduce the first of two bills disbanding the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) on its red-tape "repeal day" on Wednesday.

It will replace the commission with a smaller, charity-focused centre for excellence, which will act as an advocacy, training and development body. It will not be a regulator.

On the same day, more than 40 supporter groups - including the heads of the RSPCA, Youth Off The Streets, Lifeline and the Ted Noffs Foundation - will write an open letter to Prime Minister Tony Abbott asking the government to reconsider those plans.

"The ACNC has done what few new regulators achieve - gained widespread support across the sector it is regulating," the letter reads.

Scrapping the ACNC will be a "huge mistake" and potentially handing its powers backs to the Australian Tax Office will create more red tape and reduce services to the public and charities.

Community Council for Australia chief executive David Crosbie said returning to the "bad old days" of having the ATO determine what is and isn't a charity would create a clear conflict of interest.

"It is simply putting the fox in charge of the hen house," he said in a statement on Wednesday.

"It is a failed model from the past. It will not work."

Mr Crosbie accused the government of being dismissive of charities in assuming it knew what was better for the sector without consultation.

But Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews said the ACNC was increasing red-tape and making life harder for the sector.

"No evidence has been provided to justify establishing such a big regulatory structure with such extensive enforcement powers," he told AAP in a statement.

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Putin inks deal to incorporate Crimea

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin and leaders of Crimea and its biggest city Sevastopol have signed a treaty making the two entities new members of the Russian Federation.

The treaty goes into force immediately, but stipulates an interim period until the end of the year to formalise the accession of the 84th and 85th members of the Russian Federation.

The signing ceremony in the Kremlin on Tuesday came after an almost hour-long address to MPs and governors, in which Putin defended the move that has triggered the worst crisis between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

Putin stressed that Sunday's referendum in Crimea was fully legal, noting that more than 96 per cent of voters supported accession to Russia, according to official figures.

"The numbers were fully convincing," he said.

Putin compared Crimea's accession with Germany's unification after the Cold War, stressing that Moscow had explicitly supported this "unlike some other countries".

"I am convinced that the Germans will support us," he said.

Putin rejected Western accusations that Russia had invaded and annexed a part of Ukraine.

"We are being told that there was some Russian intervention in Crimea, an aggression. That's strange to hear. I do not recall a single case in history of an intervention without a shot being fired," he said.

Putin argued that while Russia did recognise Ukraine's independence in 1991, both countries never signed a treaty delineating the border between them.

He accused the West of "double standards and straight cynicism" over the issue.

"Our Western partners, led by the United States of America, prefer not to act according to international law but according to 'might is right'," he said.

He pointed to NATO-backed bombings in Yugoslavia and Libya, which went ahead without a UN Security Council mandate, as examples.

Putin again denied that Russian soldiers had invaded Crimea, saying that Russia merely "strengthened" its forces already stationed on the peninsula.

The Russian Black Sea Fleet is based in Crimea under an agreement with Ukraine.

Putin also brushed off sanctions, saying that Russia already suffered from limitations to its economy that were a legacy of the Cold War.

In a move unprecedented since the end of the Cold War, the US and the European Union on Monday imposed sanctions on Moscow that include asset freezes and travel bans on senior Russian government officials.

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Market blast kills 17 in Afghanistan

AT least 17 civilians have been killed and 46 others injured after a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded market in northern Afghanistan.

"A pregnant woman and two children are also among the dead," said Abdul Sattar Barez, deputy governor for Faryab province.

"The bomber driving an explosive-filled auto rickshaw and wearing an explosive vest blew himself up in the crowded Maisara area in Maimana city."

Most of the victims were shopkeepers and other vendors, he said, adding: "The blast was so strong that the bodies were torn to pieces."

The wounded were taken to nearby medical facilities and also to Mazar-e-Sharif, provincial capital for Balkh.

The crowds in the area were larger than usual as people were shopping for the Afghan New Year, according to another official.

Faryab is a restive province bordering Turkmenistan in northern Afghanistan.

In November, six Afghans working for the French agency Acted were shot dead by Taliban militants in Pashtun Kot district.

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Govt to try to push through bills

THE Abbott government has had enough of stalling in the Senate and will move a motion on Wednesday calling for a vote on bills abolishing the mining and carbon taxes.

The carbon tax repeal legislation has been bogged down in the upper house since December, frustrating the government's efforts to axe the impost.

Debate on the mining tax has stalled as well, appearing for the first time before the Senate on Tuesday.

The government will move a motion on Wednesday calling for a vote by Thursday night, when the Senate is due to rise for the week.

But its demands are likely to fall on deaf ears, as Labor and the Greens use their combined numbers to defeat the motion.

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Aust gets back-up in aircraft search

AIRCRAFT from New Zealand and the United States will bolster Australian search efforts in the southern Indian Ocean on Wednesday as the operation to find Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 continues.

Four RAAF aircraft have already started sweeping a 600,000 square kilometre patch of ocean some 3200 kilometres southwest of Perth, calculated as a possible location for the jet, which went missing with 239 people on board.

"A further three Air Force P-3 Orions will join the search," John Young, head of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority's emergency response division, said of plans for Wednesday.

A New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion will also head to the search zone on Wednesday, along with a US Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft.

China has offered more assistance.

Australia is co-ordinating the effort in that region because the search zone falls into its international maritime responsibility.

The search of the area has been described as difficult and is expected to take weeks.

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PM to start red tape cull

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott plans to light the nation's "biggest bonfire of regulations" on Wednesday with a promised $1 billion cull of red tape.

The government intends getting rid of 10,000 redundant acts of parliament and regulations, putting it about three-quarters of the way to meeting the $1 billion target.

"This is essential if we are to get our competitiveness and our productivity up," Mr Abbott told parliament on Tuesday.

Bills will be introduced to parliament on Wednesday with the expectation of passing the lower house the following week.

Labor and the Greens fear that some of the changes will adversely impact on families, business and the environment.

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Australia attends Jakarta maritime talks

INDONESIAN immigration officers in the area where asylum seekers set off for Australia - and where the first orange lifeboat came back - say they are undermanned and overwhelmed, but still stopped almost 1000 people risking their lives last year.

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Bali Nine's Lawrence moves jails

THE Bali Nine's Renae Lawrence has been allowed to transfer from the remote jail she was sent to as punishment for an alleged prison murder plot.

Lawrence was moved from Kerobokan jail to another prison in Bali in October, amid accusations the 36-year-old had conspired with another inmate to murder two female prison guards.

The head of Jembrana prison, Armin, said Lawrence was moved to another prison, Bangli, on Tuesday morning, at her request.

Her family had complained the prison was too far from Bali's centre, Denpasar, when they came to visit.

"While she was in our prison, she was doing well and acting orderly," he said.

Jembrana prison is about 130 kilometres from Bali's centre, Denpasar, while Bangli is only about 60 kilometres.

Lawrence was sent to Jembrana as punishment for the prison plot, and was banned from receiving cuts to her 20-year sentence for at least 12 months.

Another member of the Bali Nine, Scott Rush, also recently transferred jails by request.

Still in Kerobokan are Martin Stephens, Matthew Norman, Si Yi Chen, Tan Duc Than Nguyen and Michael Czugaj, all serving life for the 2005 plot to smuggle more than eight kilograms of heroin from Bali to Australia.

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are also in Kerobokan, and have been sentenced to death for their roles.

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Labor gives Abbott no credit for SPC deal

LABOR has accused Prime Minister Tony Abbott of inconsistency in jobs investment, despite the announcement by food processor SPC Ardmona that it has signed a $70 million deal with supermarket giant Woolworths.

SPC announced on Tuesday the massive contract to supply 24,000 extra tonnes of tomatoes, fruit and beans to Woolworths, in a major boost to the company that was recently refused $25 million in federal government assistance.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he always believed SPC Ardmona was a sound business.

But Mr Shorten, who was in Perth to begin campaigning for the West Australian Senate election re-run, said the Abbott government should take no credit for its hardline approach.

"The Victorian government stepped into assist SPC," he said. "I am pleased that there is good news at any point about jobs, but I was appalled the Abbott government had no plan about SPC jobs.

"What makes this position so inconsistent is that a chocolate factory in Hobart (Cadbury) can get Abbott government money but a fruit-processing plant in the Goulburn Valley doesn't.

"There is no consistency."

The Abbott government refused to provide $25 million in support to the Shepparton cannery, saying its parent company, Coca-Cola Amatil, should step in and save the food processor.

In the end, the Victorian government offered the SPC Ardmona $22 million, as part of a $100 million co-investment strategy with the company.

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'Smuggling boss' to fight Aust extradition

AN alleged people smuggling kingpin will fight long and hard against a decision to grant his extradition to Australia, his lawyer says.

Sayed Abbas is accused of being a notorious people smuggler who has eluded Australian justice since 2009.

He is wanted on 27 charges including organising the passage of three boats intercepted en route to Christmas Island between 2009 and 2011.

But he is suspected of leading a syndicate behind many more journeys, including one that sent at least 200 asylum seekers to their deaths, when their boat sank in the Sunda Strait in December 2011.

Abbas denies the charges, claiming he is a victim of mistaken identity.

He has previously argued extradition should be rejected on humanitarian grounds, as he is a refugee, and claims he worked as a paid informant for the Australian Federal Police.

Australia last tried unsuccessfully to extradite him last year, when South Jakarta District Court found Indonesia's 1979 extradition law did not cover the crime of people-smuggling.

But he was re-arrested, the decision was reviewed and this week a panel of judges approved extradition, angering Abbas' lawyer Mohammad Mahdi, who says they will use every avenue of appeal.

"If ... they who didn't have grounds for appealing can do this and win, we'll definitely be using the same (avenues) as they did," he said.

The lawyer says he hasn't yet received the document granting the extradition, after which time he has seven days to launch a Supreme Court appeal.

If no appeal is received, the request can go to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for approval - but Mr Mahdi has flagged he will draw the case out beyond the president's term, which ends later this year.

"Believe me, there's still long time until the (extradition's) execution, even after SBY steps down," he said.

It's believed Abbas, an ethnic Hazara, even managed to stay in business while he was imprisoned in Jakarta, such was his reputation.

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