Rudd said he texted Crean to block spill

Hello Julia, my name is Kevin... I'm here to help. Kevin Rudd has offered to tour Labor's Queensland battleground electorates with Julia Gillard in a sign of solidarity. Source: The Courier-Mail

KEVIN Rudd says he will tour Labor's Queensland battleground with Julia Gillard in a sign that the former leader is in lock-step with the woman he has tried to topple as Prime Minister.

"If the Prime Minister wishes me to campaign with her in seats in Queensland I am more than happy to do that - if she judges that to be appropriate," Mr Rudd told The Courier-Mail last night.

"Politics is one of those things where you get to a point, there's a resolution and you move on and that's what we're doing."

Mr Rudd pointed to the seats of Moreton, Dickson, Brisbane, Flynn, Herbert and Dawson as key battlegrounds - and he says he will tour all of them with Ms Gillard if she so chooses.

Mr Rudd's popularity in Queensland is well known, with The Courier-Mail/Galaxy Poll last month showing that his return to the top job would see Labor win the majority of Queensland seats.

It has also emerged that Mr Rudd sent Simon Crean a text message on Thursday morning urging him to consult with him before publicly instigating a leadership contest.

"Gidday Simon. I'm told you saw the PM last night," the message, believed to have been sent at 9.20am, reads. "If that's so and if it in anyway touches the leadership, and if you are making any public comments, please give me a call beforehand. My position is as before. All the best. Kevin."

HOLD ON: Kevin Rudd's text message to Simon Crean on the day of the disastrous ALP spill call.

Labor sources have said Mr Rudd was "surprised, stunned and disappointed" with Mr Crean's decision to call for a spill without consulting him.

It is believed the Member for Griffith met Mr Crean on Monday and Tuesday to discuss policy problems, but the conversation quickly turned to leadership questions and Mr Crean making clear his ambition to run for deputy leader should a vote occur.

Mr Rudd told Mr Crean he could not support such a move.

He learned of the possibility of Mr Crean's hour-and-a-half meeting with the Prime Minister on Wednesday night before heading to bed, texting him in the morning when more information became available. After receiving no reply, a call was made to Mr Crean's office that went unanswered.

At a press conference at Kangaroo Point yesterday, Mr Rudd said he was faced with clear defeat had he decided to contest the leadership.

"There was no significant majority (on Thursday) - in fact, there was no majority there at all," he said.

Kevin Rudd calls for party to unite behind Julia Gillard amid the ALP rubble. Cartoon: Leahy, March 23, 2013

He consulted, at various times, Chris Bowen, Anthony Albanese, Joel Fitzgibbon, Alan Griffin, Kim Carr and Richard Marles.

Mr Rudd told reporters yesterday that each told him the prospects of securing a majority was effectively "zero".

"Each of them said to me, 'Kevin, I believe you should not run because it would divide the party'."

Mr Bowen and Mr Carr resigned yesterday, becoming the latest casualties of Labor's political disaster.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is under pressure to convince voters she can heal her bitterly divided party amid worsening fallout from the botched leadership spill.

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Block finale hammers rivals in ratings

The Block Winners Phil and Amity at their house in Bondi. Source: News Limited

NOTHING compares to the birth of a child, but for The Block victor Amity Rankine the dizzying moment when her Bondi heritage terrace emerged the winner of the series' climactic auction reminded her of the blur of emotion and confusion which followed the delivery of her daughter, Poppy.

Like that life-changing moment when she had to ask husband Phil to "double-check" the couple had in fact welcomed a baby girl, Rankine says she was not sure, amid the cries and jubilation, the pair had pulled ahead in the bidding to clinch the first All-Stars series of the Channel 9 ratings hit.

In the dramatic finale, the blue house favourites pocketed $295,000 profit and $100,000 prize money after their renovated Federation cottage sold for $1.67 million under the hammer, beating out rivals Josh and Jenna Densten by just a $20,000 margin.

The action-packed auctions took contestants and viewers alike on a roller-coaster with the Denstens first to market and scoring a massive profit of $275,000 on their property which sold for $1.375m.

But celebrations were soured when the hard luck pairing of Mark Bowyer and Duncan Miller took a hit on their terrace, selling for just $25,000 above their $1.345m reserve.

It was a bitter blow for the tradie mates who endured a torrid time on the series, with Bowyer's wife diagnosed with skin cancer and then rushed to hospital himself after suffering a suspected heart attack.

Spirits were lifted in the third auction when Melbourne couple Dani Wales and Dan Reilly banked a tidy $220,000 profit for their terrace (selling for $1.575m), but it came down to the last bid on the last auction to seal it for the Adelaide couple, who juggled the supervision of their two children during the renovation.

Professional singer, Amity, who will leverage her TV fame with an east coast tour of her stage show starting in May, said the heady auction experience made for a better time than when the couple finished last during their first appearance on The Block in 2003.

"I could have thrown up or passed out...I've never been so nervous about anything in my whole life. The pressure of everyone saying we were going to win felt like we were jinxed."

But after host Scott Cam confirmed the result, she said: "literally all the cliches in the book, my head was spinning, I couldn't hear anything, I was crying, it was just amazing."

Phil Rankine, who earned fan favouritism for his love of coffee martinis, revealed they toasted their victory with more of the cocktails and champagne and a party that ended in the wee hours yesterday.

Their win was vindication after the final weeks of competition became a tense affair after Dan and Dani conspired with Josh and Jenna to rob the Rankines of a room victory.

But Amity said last night: "everyone congratulated everybody. Aside from Mark and Duncan, which was really upsetting, everybody did so well how could you not be happy walking away with between $200,000 and $275,000. That certainly cooled any tensions because everyone got a reward for their efforts."

The show's producers were also popping the cork on another successful spin-off, with the All-Star season earning its contenders a total of $815,000 in profits.

But local property experts warned while the auction results were "strong" for the Bondi area, there was no "real world" profit in the outcome.

Bondi real estate expert Ric Serrao, principal at Raine & Horne Double Bay, said the results achieved at The Block auction were strong for the current Bondi market. But when taking into consideration what had been spent on the homes, there is not that much profit left over.

"If you'e looking to flick a Bondi house like that then you'd need to spend somewhere in the area of $250,000 to $300,000 to renovate, then consider stamp duty and holding costs," Mr Serrao said.

"I think The Block is a great show, I think it's fun. But if people really think they can do the same thing themselves, and they're not professionals, then they're getting the wrong message," he said.

THE  BLOCK ALL STAR PROFITS

$815,000

Auction reserves and sale prizes

Phil and Amity
Reserve $1.375m
Sales $1.67m
Profit: $295,000

Josh and Jenna
Reserve $1.375m
Auction result $1.65m
Profit $275,000

Dani and Dan
Reserve $1.355m
Auction result $1.575m
Profit $220,000

Mark and Duncan
Reserve $1.345m
Auction result $1.370m
Profit $25,000
 

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BP sues to block Gulf spill deal payment

BP has sued to block what could be billions of dollars in settlement payouts. Source: AAP

BP has sued to block what could be billions of dollars in settlement payouts to businesses over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the worst offshore oil spill in US history.

The London-based oil giant accused the court-appointed administrator for the settlement, Patrick Juneau, of trying to rewrite the terms of the deal.

BP said Juneau violated the settlement in the way he used a complex formula to determine the payments to businesses.

Last week, BP warned investors that the settlement's price tag will be "significantly higher" than initially estimated.

BP estimated a year ago that it would spend roughly $US7.8 billion ($A7.55 billion) to resolve tens of thousands of claims covered by the settlement.

It revised its estimate earlier this year, saying it expected to pay $US8.5 billion, but now says it can't give a reliable estimate.

"Although the ultimate exposure is at this time inestimable, it grows daily and could cost BP billions," BP's lawyers wrote on Friday.

US District Judge Carl Barbier appointed Juneau and has upheld his decisions for calculating payments.

Barbier also is presiding over a trial designed to determine the causes of BP's April 2010 well blowout and assign percentages of fault to the companies involved in the disaster, which killed 11 workers and spawned the spill.

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Block other mines, residents tell premier

RESIDENTS want the NSW government to block other coal mining projects after Premier Barry O'Farrell indicated he would kill off a controversial project on land owned by Eddie Obeid.

It comes as the directors of Cascade Coal sought to distance themselves from corruption allegations involving its Mt Penny project in the Bylong Valley.

Mr O'Farrell on Thursday said he would take into account matters of public interest when considering Cascade's application for a mining lease worth $1 billion.

That included evidence before the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), which is investigating claims former mining minister Ian Macdonald rigged a 2008 tender process for coal exploration licences to benefit Mr Obeid.

It also heard the Obeid family took a secret stake in Cascade Coal.

A spokesman for Cascade Coal said the company's directors were concerned about the activities outlined at the ICAC.

But Cascade Coal and its directors had at all times acted in good faith and were not involved in any corrupt conduct, he said, "and on the relevant evidence, were misled and deceived by other parties".

The ICAC is also probing the Yarrawa Coal project by Loyal Coal and the Doyles Creek project by NuCoal Resources at Jerrys Plains.

Lock The Gate Alliance Hunter regional coordinator Steve Phillips called on Mr O'Farrell to block those projects as well.

"They have been forced onto unsuspecting and unwilling local communities through a dodgy process that is now the subject of one of the most far-reaching investigations in ICAC history," he said.

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