Tuesday's news

30 Jul 2013

Fuel discounts driving up petrol prices, asylum seekers to be housed in tent city on Nauru, young girl saves baby thrown from burning building, commuters prepare for major rail shutdown in Perth, biker killed after being targeted a second time.

Fuel discounts driving up petrol prices

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has warned that shopper-docket fuel discounts could wipe out competition and drive up petrol prices.

This week, supermarket chains Coles and Woolworths offered fuel discounts of 45 cents per litre off the bowser price.

ACCC Chairman Rod Sims told an Australian Institute of Company Directors gathering that if discounts continued at this level there would only be two players in the country selling petrol.

While these discounts offer short-term gains to consumers, in the long-term they will make it difficult for other fuel retailers to compete, which will ultimately lead to higher prices.  

"While large shopper-docket discounts provide short-term benefits to some consumers, the likely harm to other fuel retailers, and therefore to competition and the competitive process for petrol retailing, could well be substantial."

Sims suggested that if supermarkets want to offer their customers a discount, it should be off supermarket products, not petrol.

Read more at SMH.

Asylum seekers to be housed in tent city on Nauru

The Federal Opposition has announced plans to expand tent facilities used to house asylum seekers on Nauru.

If it wins this year’s election the opposition will establish a tent city that will house 2000 asylum seekers.

The announcement of the five-year plan follows riots earlier this month, which caused an estimated $60 million damage to detention facilities on Nauru.

Read more at ABC.

Young girl saves baby thrown from burning building

A 10-year-old girl has caught a baby thrown from a burning building in the US.

After evacuating the building, Zna Gresham was called on by her neighbour to help.

The one-month-old baby was thrown from the second floor window of the apartment building in the Atlanta suburb of Decatur.

“I caught the newborn baby from falling. Before it hit the ground I caught it,” Gresham told a local television station.

Two other children, aged two and three, were also thrown and sustained minor injuries in the fall.

Read more at The Daily Telegraph.

And watch video.

Commuters prepare for major rail shutdown in Perth

Commuters in Perth face extended rail closures for the second time in a month.

The Perth Undergound station and Fremantle line will be shut down for five days while work is carried out on the City Link project.

Work will begin on Wednesday and service will resume on Monday 5 August.

There will be no impact on the Midland, Thornlie and Armadale lines as the Perth central station will stay open.

The closures will impact transport to the West Coast Eagles versus Gold Coast Suns AFL game at Patersons Stadium on Saturday 3 August. 

Read more on Perth Now. 

Biker killed after being targeted a second time

A teenage biker who survived being shot in the two neck weeks ago has been killed in an overnight shooting.

A known associate of the Comanchero biker gang, Bassil Hijazi was shot multiple times in a car park on Albyn Street in Bexley.

Two weeks earlier Hijazi survived being shot in the neck while he sat in his car a few kilometres away from where he was again targeted.

Hijazi’s shooting was one of two reported on Monday night.

At this stage police do not believe the two deaths are linked.

Read more on SMH.