Grange among world's top drops

More than 50 bottles of 1998 Grange shiraz were opened for 700 guests at a Los Angeles event. Picture: Milton Wordley Source: Supplied

AUSTRALIA'S most iconic wine, Penfolds Grange, has again wowed critics on the world stage at a prestigious tasting in Los Angeles.

The Wine Spectator New World Wine Experience featured Penfolds Grange as the first of five "wine stars" tasted at the event at the JW Marriot Hotel.

It shared the spotlight  with the legendary Chateau d'Yquem, Maison Louis Jadot and  Chateau Margaux from France and cult Californian wine Sine Qua Non.

Penfolds chief winemaker Peter Gago took to the stage to tell the story of Grange while presenting the highly rated 1998 vintage of the flagship Shiraz.

Mr Gago opened more than 50 bottles of 1998 Grange for more than 700 guests who paid $1850 per head to be at the event.

"It was an amazing line-up of the world's greatest wines and best producers and this is a South Australian wine up there and holding its own," Mr Gago said.

"In the new world versus old world debate, we're up there, we're kicking goals alongside the best."

SA photographer Milton Wordley attended the LA tasting and documented the event as part of his self-funded book A Year in the Life of Grange, to be  released next May, coinciding with the launch of the 2008 Grange.

"The Grange story is fascinating to me and it was amazing to be there and see the wine be invited into that stable," he said.

Mr Gago, who was named 2012 Winemaker's Winemaker of the Year by a panel of his peers from the Institute of Masters of Wine and UK magazine The Drinks Business, said continued negative press about Australia's wine industry did not offer an accurate picture of how our wines were faring overseas.

"We keep hearing all the horror stories, that Australia's no longer the flavour of  the month, comments about the wine lake (oversupply), or that our wines are out of favour.

"But I have to say, I've never been busier than I currently am," he said.

"Even in the US with its economic scenario, and our exchange rates of the last few years, people are still buying Grange.

"There's still massive interest, bigger than ever."

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PM's plan to 'Asianise' Australia

Asia expert Andrew MacIntyre says the Asian Century white paper is a good start – but the government must follow through.

JULIA Gillard has outlined an ambitious plan to "Asianise" the Australian economy and education system to tap into the vast middle-class markets that will emerge in China, India and Indonesia in the next two decades.

The vision, much of which is already underway, includes plans to free up tourist and business travel within the region, to lift Australia's tax-free threshold "to at least $21,000", to scrap inefficient state taxes such as stamp duty and to have Australian schools engage with at least one Asian school to promote language learning.

It would also provide Australian students with continuous training in Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian or Japanese throughout their schooling.

As part of the cultural refocusing, the ABC and SBS would be asked to provide more extensive coverage of the region "in all aspects of their content and programming, with special attention to news and information coverage".

Unveiling her long-awaited Asian Century white paper in Sydney, the Prime Minister declared "history asks great nations great questions - Australia is no exception".

She said the world was moving eastward to Australia's advantage and our location and high living standards would provide a valuable edge.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard speaks during the release of the Government's White Paper on "Australia in the Asian Century", at the Lowy Institute in Sydney. Picture: AFP

"For the first time in our history, Asia is not a threat to our high-skill high-wage road. It is a reason to stay on it, " she said.

Accordingly, the paper lays down long-term targets designed to boost national income, dramatically lift productivity, propel the education system into the global top five and "deeply integrate" economic links with Asia driving Australia's intra-regional trade to constitute "at least one-third of GDP, up from one-quarter today".

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said the Opposition "broadly welcomed" the paper, which constituted mainly "predictable common sense".

He said it appeared, however, that the Government was playing catch-up with the Opposition, which had always argued for a policy emphasis of "more Jakarta and less Geneva".

Among the few immediate initiatives is a commitment to provide 12,000 Australia Awards (Asian Century) Scholarships for studies here and in the region in the next five years.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says Asia's wealth should drive a profound change in our thinking about our economic relationship with the region. Picture: AFP

There also is a goal of elevating 10 Australian universities into the world's top 100 universities by 2025.

The Government wants the white paper to lead a transformation of Australia's mostly commodity-based export approach, toward a high-wage, high-skills service-based economy.

Ms Gillard said this was needed to meet growing Asian demands for education and technical expertise driven by the region's exploding middle classes.

Employers groups including the National Farmers' Federation welcomed the white paper.

"Today, the important role for farmers in providing food, fibre, knowledge and expertise to the Asian region and, the challenges we must overcome to succeed in doing so, have been recognised," said the NFF's Jock Laurie.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard (centre) along with former Treasury secretary Ken Henry (left) and Frank Lowy, after delivering the white paper. Picture: Dan Himbrechts

But the Opposition's Julie Bishop dismissed it as disappointing and merely ''a grab-bag'' of existing government policies put together by Labor spin-doctors.

She said it appeared that the rigorous work of former Treasury head Ken Henry had been rewritten by Labor insiders to reflect government policy.

BY 2025 ...

EDUCATION: Children will graduate from high school with a working knowledge of Asia and every Australian university will be encouraged to send students to universities in Asia, to ensure the next generation's leaders are Asia-literate.

BUSINESS: Australia will be in the world's top five when it comes to ease of doing business after a National Productivity Compact with the states and territories, focused on regulatory and competition reform.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott at Parliament House in Canberra today. Picture: Gary Ramage

INFRASTRUCTURE: Infrastructure needs will be planned at least 20 years ahead and the National Broadband Network will reach across Australia, giving access to all corners of the Asian region.

AGRICULTURE: Producers and processors will be globally renowned as competitive, innovative and sustainable suppliers of high-quality food and agricultural products to Asia.

TRADE: Trade with Asia will increase from one-quarter to one-third of Australia's gross domestic product.

ENVIRONMENT: Australia will be a world leader in sustainable food production, energy, water use and biodiversity conservation.

TOURISM: Work and holiday agreements will be expanded and tourists will find it easier to get a visa, with a focus on attracting Chinese travellers.

Former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke (centre) arriving to listen to current Prime Minister Julia Gillard release the Asian Century white paper. Picture: AFP

DEFENCE: Trust and co-operation will be built in the region, supporting Asia's role in global order, and Australia's strong alliance with the US will be maintained for regional stability.

PUBLIC SECTOR: One third of the board members of Commonwealth bodies and one-third of senior leaders in the Australian Public Service will have deep experience in Asia.

REGIONAL AUSTRALIA: State and local governments will be diversifying their economic bases and making their own trade links with Asian counterparts.

Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke congratulates Prime Minister Julia Gillard after she delivered the white paper. Picture: Dan Himbrechts

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Labor, Liberals 50-50 in Newspoll

The Newspoll shows Julia Gillard holds an 11-point lead as preferred PM. Source: Herald Sun

LABOR and the Coalition are again deadlocked at 50 per cent each, according to the latest Newspoll.

The poll suggests the gender wars that have dominated recent political debate have benefited the Gillard Government.

Labor's primary vote rose 3 points to 36 per cent while the Coalition fell 4 points to 41 per cent.

The Newspoll puts both sides back to where they were in mid-September.

The Greens were steady on 10 per cent.

Based on preference flows, Newspoll - published in The Australian - estimates the parties are tied at 50 per cent each in two-party terms.

Liberal deputy leader Julie Bishop this morning said Labor's "character assassination" of Tony Abbott was partly to blame for gap closing.

Ms Bishop said expensive promises had probably helped lift Labor's standing.

"I also think that Labor's vicious character assassination against Tony Abbott has an affect," Ms Bishop told the ABC.

"I have not seen such a character assassination for a long while – it's certainly up there with the one they carried out against Kevin Rudd."

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she didn't comment on polls, but said there was a choice before Australians when they next go to voting booths.

"I think there is a contrast in Australian politics, it's Labor's plan for the future, and the Opposition lacking any plan," she said.

It is the first Newspoll since Ms Gillard's speech in Parliament three weeks ago in which she claimed Mr Abbott was sexist and a misogynist.

Mr Abbott also faced Labor claims last week that he was referring to Ms Gillard being childless when he said the Government had made cuts to the baby bonus because it did not have enough experience in family matters.

He denied that was his intention and offered an apology if Ms Gillard took offence.

The Newspoll shows Ms Gillard holds an 11-point lead as preferred PM, heading Mr Abbott 45 to 34 per cent.

Mr Abbott's satisfaction rating fell 3 points to 30 per cent while his dissatisfaction score rose 3 points to 58 per cent.

Ms Gillard's satisfaction dropped 1 point to 35 per cent with her dissatisfaction up 1 point to 51 per cent.

The Newspoll also is the first since the resignation of Peter Slipper as Speaker and comes after Craig Thomson was raided by police last week.

It is the second time Labor and the Coalition have been level pegging since March 2011, just after Ms Gillard announced a carbon tax.

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Ned Kelly's family to receive remains

Ned Kelly's remains are at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, where they were identified using DNA from a family member. Source: HWT Image Library

REPRESENTATIVES of Ned Kelly's family will meet the Victorian government and the coroner's office to discuss the handover of the bushranger's remains.

Anthony Griffiths, whose great-grandmother was Kelly's sister, said the way was now clear for Kelly's remains to be returned to the family after an appeals period against their return passed two weeks ago without any appeal being lodged.

"There's no question the remains can be returned," Mr Griffiths told today.

Representatives of the family will now sort out the details around handing over the remains with the state government and the coroner's office on Monday.

The headless remains of infamous Australian bushranger Ned Kelly will be returned to his descendants, paving the way for him to be buried alongside his relatives.

But Mr Griffiths said the actual handover was likely to be a long way off with many legalities and practicalities to be sorted through.

He said the family was yet to decide on any burial or ceremony plans and would begin discussing it over coming weeks.

They were yet to decide whether they would hold public or private events.

Ned Kelly. Hanging at Old Melbourne Goal.

"That's part of the process that's under way, to sit down and work out what are we going to do," Mr Griffiths said.

Australia's most famous bushranger Kelly was hanged in 1880 for killing three police officers, but the location of his remains had been a mystery until late last year.

After two dozen skeletons were exhumed from Melbourne's Pentridge Prison site, where criminals were buried in mass graves, scientists later identified Kelly's bones through extensive DNA testing.

Ned Kelly's death mask and skull at the Old Melbourne Gaol in the 1970s. Picture: National Trust

In August, the Victorian government signed an exhumation licence to grant his remains to his descendants.

But Kelly's skull is still missing after being stolen from an Old Melbourne Gaol display case in 1978.

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Surge in telco gripes amid bill shock

High bills and poor coverage lead the list of mobile phone-related complaints to the Telecommunications Ombudsman. Picture: ThinkStock Source: Supplied

UNREASONABLY high phone bills and poor network coverage continue to plague Australian mobile customers, according to the Telecommunications Ombudsman.

General mobile phone complaints increased by more than nine percent over the last year, according to the TIO report released this morning.

Within that figure, complaints regarding mobile internet charges complaints increased by 150% over the last year, which was attributed to an increase in smartphone uptake.

Nineteen mobile phone complaints made over the last year were for bills of $20,000 or more and 49 were for bills of $12,500 and over.

Mr Cohen said these were "extraordinary figures".

The report showed telcos were not doing enough to alert customers when they had an unusallly high phone bill or had reached their data limit for the month.

More than 15,500 complaints made over the last year had to do with inadequate credit management tools - almost double last year's figure.

Almost 14,000 complaints related to bill disputes - a 33 per cent increase from last year.

And more than 4000 complaints were made about disputed roaming charges - a 69 per cent increase from 2011.

Telecommunications Ombudsman Simon Cohen said the TIO consistently received "very simple complaints that took hours, weeks and months and a number of different departments to resolve".

"(Customers) have either not been able to solve the problem or if they can, having the promise to solve it broken," he said.

"It's a consistent problem we see in literally tens of thousands of complaints every year."

Mr Cohen said consumers were very confused when it came to understanding all the charges on their mobile phone bill.

"They don't understand the charges beyond the minimum spend on their plan, how much data they are downloading and its potential cost, and as a result, they are getting unexpectedly high phone bills," he said.

TIO spokeswoman Mirjana Jovetic told News Ltd that from September next year, the major telcos will be required to notify customers when they are exceeding their bill limits.

"They'll need to notify them at different perfentages - 50, 75, and 100 per cent, to give them some warning so people can better plan for how they will use the remainder of their data allowance," she said.

The new Telecommunications Consumer Protection (TCP) Code enacted by the Australian Communications and Media Authority also requires telcos to notify customers about the TIO up front at the beginning of complaint handling processes.

The new code will bring greater awareness about what customers can do to have their complaints resolved.

NSW took out the top spot for the number of complaints with 60,398 issues logged between 2011-2012.

Victoria took out second place with 56,785 complaints, followed by Queensland with 34,077.

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More Aussies now battling the bulge

Two out of three Australian adults are now overweight or obese. Source: Getty Images

TWO out of three Australian adults and one in four children are now overweight or obese according to the latest check up on the nation's health.

Australians are giving up smoking and are drinking less but the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics Health Survey shows we're eating more.

The proportion of overweight Australians has increased by more than two percentage points on 2011-12 when compared to the last Australian Health Survey in 2007-08.

Men have the biggest problem with more than 70 per cent of males weighing in too heavy compared to 56 per cent of women.

The nation's obesity crisis has spread to the under fives with one in five 2-4 years olds measuring in as overweight according to the latest snapshot of the nation's health.

And the number of overweight Australians grew by 2 million in the last four years according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The survey shows more than 138,000 children aged 2-4 are obese.

Since 2007-08, the number of overweight and obese children of all ages has increased by 143,500 to 736,000.

The number of smokers has fallen three percentage points in the last four years to just 16 per cent of adults.

And there was a 1.4 percentage point drop in the number of Australians drinking more than two standard drinks per day.

Mental distress is also on the decline with one in ten Australians reporting high or very high levels of psychological distress, down from 12.% in 207-08.

Cancer rates have remained stable with 1.5 per cent of the population battling the disease in 2011-12 compared to 1.6 per cent four years ago.

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Mum tells why she had daughter sterilised

A mum has spoken out about why she sterilised her daughter. Source: Supplied

AN Australian mother had a contraceptive device implanted in her disabled adult daughter for fear she might fall pregnant and be unable to raise the child.

If her daughter was to give birth, the "child would be dead within a week", the unnamed mother said in her submission to a Senate inquiry.

The inquiry is examining the involuntary or coerced sterilisation of people with disabilities in Australia.

In her submission, the unnamed mother said the decision to have the contraceptive device implanted in her 27-year-old daughter four years ago had filled her with anxiety.

But it would have been negligent to leave her daughter unsterilised, the mother said.

Her daughter lives independently in a unit, has a boyfriend and has a carer visit just to touch base.

"She has developed a life for herself beyond any that I could have dreamed for her," the mother said, but added her daughter was not stable enough to support another life.

"Advocates who say she has the right to have a child need to factor in her ability to be responsible for that child."

The mother said if her daughter was to give birth the "child would be dead within a week".

"Human services would have to be involved," she said.

The mother said giving birth would be a traumatic experience for her daughter.

"She rings me or other family members every time she bumps her knee or gets a scratch, so I cannot even fathom the mental trauma childbirth would induce for her," she said.

Having reared three children of her own, at 54 years of age the woman said she could not contemplate raising another child.

The Senate inquiry is looking at sterilisation practices, exclusion or limitation of access to sexual health, contraceptive and family planning services.

There are no statistics on how many sterilisation procedures occurred each year and under what circumstances decisions were made.

The inquiry will report back on April 24, 2013.

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Rudd wants 'honesty' on 2010 spill

Then prime minister Kevin Rudd and Maxine McKew in 2010. Source: The Courier-Mail

FORMER prime minister Kevin Rudd says it's important for Labor figures to be "honest" about the events of mid-2010.

The events leading up to Julia Gillard seizing the Labor leadership from Mr Rudd in June 2010 are analysed in a book published today by former MP, Maxine McKew, entitled Tales from the Political Trenches.

Ms McKew writes that Ms Gillard - who has insisted she only made up her mind to challenge on the day she walked into Mr Rudd's office - was "impatient for the prime ministership" and allowed other MPs to create a sense of crisis around the Rudd leadership.

Ms Gillard had "pretended" that it was in the national interest to take over.

The prime minister told ABC radio today that she had dealt with the issue before and would not make further comment.

"It's just simply not my focus. My focus is on this nation's future," she said.

"I'll leave the commentary about these things to others."

Mr Rudd told reporters in Canberra ahead of parliament sitting for the week that he had contributed to Ms McKew's book, but had not yet read it.

"Maxine posed questions to me as she posed to many, many people," he said, adding he provided a single statement about his experiences at the time which was there for all to see.

"I'd simply say this: it is important for all of us to be honest about what happened at the time and that is the best way for us all to move forward. That I believe is the right approach."

Mr Rudd said it had been a "traumatic period for the country, for the Labor Party and for a whole bunch of people who are deeply associated with those events".

But it was important for the party and government to "move on to the big policy challenges of the future".

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