Former foreign minister Alexander Downer says he asked Schapelle Corby's lawyer whether one of her relatives was involved in her drug smuggling attempt.

But Mr Downer said there was nothing more to it.

In a documentary screened on Sunday, Corby's former lawyer Robin Tampoe says Mr Downer told him he suspected Corby's brothers were behind the crime.

"'Speak to the brother, speak to the older brother', that's what Downer said to me," he said.

But Mr Downer said he had no special knowledge of the case.

"I did ask them about the brother and whether there was any family involvement, but I only asked them," he told ABC Radio.

"I mean, I just simply didn't know, and to this very day Schapelle Corby's been convicted by the court - I didn't know anything more than the evidence that's been presented to the court."

Besieged Labor backbencher Belinda Neal could face criminal charges over her run-in with restaurant staff three weeks ago.

One of Ms Neal's former staff has told police that Ms Neal told her dining companions what they should and should not put in their statutory declarations about the argument at Iguanas Waterfront, a Gosford restaurant and nightclub, News Ltd reported on Sunday.

Police say that if the claims are found to be true, they will consider charging the MP with conspiring to pervert the course of justice - an offence which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years' jail, Fairfax newspapers reported on Monday.

"(Investigators) would have to be thinking along those lines," a police source told Fairfax.

She could instead be charged with being an accessory to the creation of a false statutory declaration, Fairfax said.

Swearing a false statement is an offence under the Crimes Act and can lead to a five-year jail term

Convicted white collar criminal Nick Petroulias became assistant tax commissioner to "advance his own business interests", a Sydney judge said.

The 40-year-old was on Friday jailed for at least two years for corrupt conduct and unauthorised publication of commonwealth documents.

In December, a NSW Supreme Court jury found Petroulias guilty of two offences - agreeing to receive money on an understanding that his role at the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) would be affected, and publishing documents without authorisation.

In passing sentence on Friday, Justice Peter Johnson said Petroulias acted with "impropriety and deceit" while working in a position of trust.

"I'm satisfied that these are very close to the worst cases of crime of this type," Justice Johnson said.

Between 1997 and 1999, the latter part of which Petroulias was assistant tax commissioner, he accepted $41,000 in return for providing confidential ATO information.

Justice Johnson said Petroulias and his private business partners used the information to benefit their own enterprise

The Federal Opposition will refer a matter involving the Labor backbencher Belinda Neal to Parliament's Privileges Committee.

Ms Neal, the Member for the New South Wales central coast seat of Robertson, has been under pressure over an incident at a Gosford nightclub earlier this month.

The Coalition will refer a separate matter to the Privileges Committee because it says Ms Neal misled Parliament over a clash with Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella.

Ms Neal initially denied telling the backbencher that evil thoughts would turn her unborn child into a demon, but later apologised. Her comments were caught on the parliamentary broadcast service.

Yesterday the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan left the chamber before members voted on a parliamentary motion to protect Ms Neal from having to account for her behaviour at Iguanas club

Seventeen of the state's worst criminals will be given one more chance to challenge their life sentences, under new laws to go before the NSW parliament.

State Attorney-General John Hatzistergos says the change, which affects people jailed for life before truth in sentencing legislation in 1989, will save their victims' families the anguish of dealing with repeated court processes.

"These important new laws will protect victims and their families from being re-traumatised as they are repeatedly dragged through the courts," Mr Hatzistergos told reporters.

"Offenders will now be allowed just one re-determination application. If they are unsuccessful, they'll stay in prison and will not able to re-apply."

A bushwalker has discovered a body, believed to be female, in bushland on the NSW mid-north coast.

Police said the body was found in the Maria River State Forest about 10 kilometres south of Kempsey over the weekend.

A crime scene has been established and forensic investigators are examining the scene.

Police say they are treating the death as suspicious.

Two 18-month-old toddlers had been dead at least a week when their bodies were found in their Sunnybank Hills home last night.

The twins' bodies weighed 3.6kg and 4kg.

The parents of the boy and girl faced Brisbane Magistrates Court this morning charged with failing to provide the necessities of life.

The court heard the twins' mother, 30, had told police she was aware the babies were dead from about June 8 or 9.

They were found by an 11-year-old sibling yesterday after other children noticed an odour coming from a front bedroom.

After making the gruesome discovery, the court heard the 11-year-old child told the mother, "I know why you've been crying now."

The children later told police they had rarely seen the twins since they were born

Potential allegations of indecency, pornography and blasphemy are not the only issues that concern artists – it appears that a new tort of invasion of privacy may also be an issue for artists especially in their capacity as photographers.

The Henson debate comes at a time when the Australian government is considering a report prepared by the Law Reform Commission for a new statutory tort of invasion of privacy. It follows a recent trend of cases in the UK – initiated by Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas – for a new tort of invasion of privacy as a result of being photographed by the paparazzi without their consent.

Former Victorian Supreme Court Judge Professor George Hampel QC told the Melbourne Age that the nude 13-year-old girl in Henson's photograph might be able to sue Henson for damages when she turned 18. The precise cause of action on which the girl might bring proceedings for damages was not made clear.

A committal hearing into an alleged kidnapping of a Gold Coast man whose ears were severed has begun with a fiery outburst from the police officer in charge of the case.

David Holmes, 38, had his ears cut off in November last year, after he was allegedly abducted from his Currumbin home by a group of bikies over a reported $40,000 drug deal gone bad.

He was later found by picknickers at Springbrook National Park.

Four men charged over the alleged attack today appeared before Southport Magistrates Court, where they face various charges including kidnapping, torture and committing acts with intention to maim

Many Australian motorists think hybrid cars are too expensive, don't suit their needs and wouldn't even consider buying one, a survey reveals.

Conducted by motoring website carsguide.com.au, the internet survey was completed by 1,075 people, 98 per cent of whom don't own a hybrid, despite versions of the petrol-electric cars being on the market for more than 10 years.

It found that, despite soaring petrol prices, 44 per cent still wouldn't even consider buying one.

The top two reasons cited for not considering the greener option were the cost (41 per cent) and that hybrids did not offer what they were looking for (28 per cent).

The results are a potential blow for Australian car companies like Toyota, Lexus and Honda that already have hybrids in their range, but also for local producer Holden, which has pledged to have a hybrid model of the Commodore on sale in about two years.

NSW Police Minister David Campbell says state police working with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to uncover a child pornography ring expect to make more arrests.

Seventy people - including a policeman, teachers and a sports administrator - have been arrested across Australia as a result of the six-month-long Operation Centurion.

Twenty-three of the arrests were in NSW, the AFP said on Thursday.

The operation was triggered when a hacker posted child porn images on a European website, which attracted 12 million hits in just 76 hours.

More than 2,800 of the computer IP addresses were traced back to Australia.

A bouncer photographed kicking a reveller outside a Melbourne strip club has been sacked, the venue's owner says.

The bouncer was captured in mid-kick as the man cowered on the ground near Bar 20 in King Street.

The bar's owner John Trimble said two bouncers had been sacked by the contracted security firm after the photograph emerged on the front page of Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper today.

"Their security company we deal with has said that they have terminated the persons that were involved in that fracas," Mr Trimble told ABC Radio.

He said the incident occurred after three drunken men were refused entry to Bar 20.

"They wandered off down the street and picked on some innocent bystander and started assaulting him.

The bodies of the 38-year-old Jyoti Mehta and a nine-year-old girl were found in Blue Mountains bush yesterday after being reported missing by the woman's husband on May 5.

Police say two bushwalkers saw the woman's body at the bottom of Echo Point lookout in the Blue Mountains, about 50 kilometres west of Sydney, and called police at about 2pm.

The girl's body was found nearby at about 6pm.

Detectives from Blacktown local area command went to the husband's home in Dunn Way, Blacktown at about 10.15pm last night and arrested him.

A carload of young men have fired on a Subaru after throwing a can of soft drink at it and chasing it through western Sydney, police say.

Both cars had stopped on Mamre Road, at the corner of the Great Western Highway, about 4.40pm when police say someone inside the Commodore threw a soft drink can at the Subaru WRX.

The Subaru tried to flee the other car, but the Commodore, carrying four men, chased it for several minutes, before cutting it off and forcing it to stop on the Great Western Highway.

Two of the men inside the Commodore got out and approached the Subaru. One of them then fired a shot at the car which hit a door and lodged there.