Fears about the impact of China's pledge to prop up its iron ore miners on the price of the bulk commodity, along with the depressed outlook for crude oil prices, sent Australia's listed resources sector tumbling on Thursday pulling the sharemarket into the red.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index and the broader All Ordinaries Index each lost 0.5 per cent on Thursday, to 5932.2 points and 5901.5 points respectively. A resources rout overshadowed a positive lead from the United States. Wall Street finished higher on Wednesday, as the minutes of the latest Federal Open Markets Committee meeting firmed expectations the central bank board expects to start hiking rates later this year but remains split on when exactly. 

Local shares remained subdued on Thursday afternoon despite a strong session around the region. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index surged as much as 3.8 per cent to a seven-year high in early trade as new rules that increase access for mainland Chinese investors encourage a flood of fresh capital. 

The Metal Bulletin spot price for iron ore delivered in China was hovering just above last week's seven-year lows at $US48.05 per tonne on Thursday, with Dalian iron ore futures traders tipping a big fall before the local market opens on Friday.

"Policy actions in China to protect local iron ore producers by helping the industry reduce its cost base through lower taxes and power costs will obviously be bad for foreign seaborne producers," T. Rowe Price head of Australian equities, Randal Jenneke said.

read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/iron-ore-oil-price-worries-drag-asx-lower-20150409-1mhadg.html

Tony Abbott's hyper masculinity blueprint will not save us from danger. It is the danger, warns Lyn Bender.

LOOKING INCREASINGLY confused and anxious on our screens, Tony Abbott and his government cling to the cult of hyper masculinity with its inflated stereotypical macho mode.

Hyper masculinity has been identified as a disorder in the DSM IV. It venerates toughness, and domination, eschews compassion and scapegoats and mistreats the vulnerable.

We the Australian citizens are, metaphorically speaking, in the very unsexy, Abbott red room of pain, of dominance submission and fear. But this is not just a bad movie based on a pulp novel: This is Australia in 2015.

In hyper masculine mode Tony Abbott declares that he

'will not succumb to the cries of human rights lawyers.'

read more: https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-tony-abbott-red-room-of-pain,7586

A new law giving security guards in detention centres power to cause grievous bodily harm if they "reasonably believe" it is necessary to protect life or prevent injury is likely to encourage abuse of and violence against asylum seekers in detention, a Senate committee has been told.

Former judge of the Victorian Court of Appeal Stephen Charles QC said the law allowed security guards to use lethal force "with impunity" because it would be "almost impossible" for them to face prosecution in the courts.

"These amendments will authorise detention centre guards to beat asylum seekers to death if they reasonably believe it is necessary to do so to save either themselves or another person from serious harm," he said.

Mr Charles cited a legal opinion that the police officer who shot a black American eight times in the back was likely to escape a murder conviction because of the way the "reasonable belief" test has been applied in the United States.

His concerns were amplified by several witnesses who appeared before a Senate committee in Sydney on Tuesday, including the president of the Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs.

"I think it is terrible legislation," Mr Charles told Fairfax Media after appearing before the committee. "The guards at present are very inadequately trained and they are talking about giving them minimal training and then making it impossible to sue them.

"It means they will be vastly less trained than prison guards or federal or state police, yet they are authorised to use lethal force with impunity because it's almost impossible to sue them."

The absence of any effective way for detainees to take legal action against security guards who used excessive force would encourage abuse and attacks on detainees, he said.

Representatives of human rights, refugee and law bodies told Senate's legal and constitutional committee the government should either scrap or comprehensively amend the so-called "good order" legislation.

Greens senator, Sarah Hanson-Young, said her party would be opposing the legislation in the Senate and urging cross-benchers to do the same.

"With the high levels of secrecy in detention centres, giving guards unchecked powers to use force is a recipe for further cover ups of abuse and misconduct" she said

read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/new-law-will-increase-violence-against-asylum-seekers-former-judge-20150416-1mmf56.html