HUGE numbers of voters in Julia Gillard's heartland Labor seat have turned against her in the wake of her plan to tax carbon, according to a new poll conducted exclusively for the Sunday Herald Sun.

Less than a year after 64 per cent of voters in the western suburbs electorate of Lalor gave the PM their primary vote, Labor would be forced to rely on preferences to hold her seat.

Trade and Industry Alliance latest opponent of carbon tax

AN industry group representing millions of businesses will today launch a mass television campaign against the carbon tax, claiming it would hurt Australian families.

In a blow to Prime Minister Julia Gillard's bid to sell the unpopular tax, the Australian Trade and Industry Alliance is opposing the Government.

Deal lets asylum seekers find jobs

ASYLUM seekers sent to Malaysia under Julia Gillard's refugee swap deal will be granted the right to work, giving them an advantage over others who have not attempted the perilous boat journey to Australia.

But Australian government officials believe legal work rights will not undercut the strong deterrent of being sent back to Malaysia and losing tens of thousands of dollars paid to people smugglers for passage.

Legal challenge may free alleged people smugglers 

Peter Munro and Cameron Houston - The Age

AUSTRALIA'S migration laws could be unravelled by a landmark legal challenge in Victoria arguing alleged people smugglers are lawfully entitled to assist refugees seeking asylum.

Lawyers acting for 52 Indonesian men awaiting trial in Melbourne prisons say their clients are poor fishermen tricked or coerced into assisting organised smugglers. Some have been detained here for as long as a year and face mandatory five-year prison terms if found guilty.

AS ELECTION day in NSW drew near and polls showed the Greens might hold the balance of power in the upper house, the Catholic Church issued a statewide warning.

Signed by 10 bishops, the two-page statement on ''The Green Agenda'' said a vote for the Greens was for a party that ''conflicts directly with the beliefs and values of virtually all religious people''.

It was described by the Greens as ''profoundly misleading'' but its leading signatory, Cardinal George Pell, said the document could have kept voters informed of the Greens' ''extreme'' policies.

Young voters a force to be reckoned with

YOUNGER voters are the wild cards in the Australian electoral game. They are having a profound influence on the electoral landscape; an influence that has gone largely unrecognised.

There is a general acceptance that electoral change is afoot. The major parties have been unsettled by dwindling membership numbers and the increasing frustration of their ageing membership. The Labor Party has been rocked by its troubles at the ballot box and in the polls. The Liberal Party swings from elation at its resurgence in NSW to frustration with its containment federally. Both are grappling with organisational reform and factional arm-wrestling in the wake of the reviews by their respective party elders. The Greens, buoyed by increased parliamentary numbers and balance of power in the Senate, are opining about the day they might form government in their own right.

INDIAN call centres are teaching staff Australia is the world's "dumbest continent" where people "drink constantly" and are "quite racist".

Staff taught "how to act Australian" are also told to "speak slowly" to customers on the other end of the phone line because they tend to be technologically "backwards".

Indian-based telephone spruikers and helpline operators are also warned that Australians are "touchy" about their pets.