NSW ALP says shootings require tough laws

Police are hunting a gunman who shot a man dead in a targeted attack in Sydney's south-west. Source: AAP

TOUGHER laws and more police resources are needed to stop Sydney's streets becoming "shooting galleries", NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson says.

Mr Robertson on Saturday called on Premier Barry O'Farrell to outlaw criminal gangs after a man was shot dead in a targeted attack in the city's west on Friday night.

The ABC says the man, who was killed next to his car on a suburban street in Greenacre, is 30-year-old Khaled Kahwaji, but a police spokeswoman was unable to confirm that to AAP.

Mr Kahwaji reportedly had links to the Brothers For Life street gang and was a suspect in the shooting murder of a man in the same area in 2010.

Mr Robertson said the shooting was the 220th since Mr O'Farrell became premier and it was time to pass legislation outlawing gangs.

"We've got to stop our streets looking more like shooting galleries than suburban streets," he told reporters.

The premier had laws in place for 12 months but had failed to act to outlaw gangs, Mr Robertson said.

He also called for greater police resources "to be thrown at this problem".

A neighbour, who has lived in Wilbur Street for 10 years, said she was shocked to see a body lying in the street in her usually quiet neighbourhood.

"It was just after six (on Friday night) and I just heard maybe about four to five loud sounds and I didn't realise it was gunshots," said Jenny, who did not want to give her last name.

"I came outside and you could just see the body on the ground."

The street remained closed as police continued investigations on Saturday.

"This is not a random incident. This person has been targeted and it's certainly not something that is random," Bankstown police Superintendent Dave Eardley told reporters.

"It's certainly an act that's quite vicious and callous."

Homicide Squad Detective Inspector Russell Oxford said the dead man, who was in his late twenties, was yet to be formally identified but was known to police.

He said police were speaking with residents on the street to try to determine why the man was there.

"The most important thing for us is to piece together the chain of events that brought the Rhodes resident to Wilbur Street," he said in a statement.

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell rejected the opposition's calls, saying extra powers and 250 additional officers had been given to police at the request of the commissioner.

"I'll continue to support the police who've done a significant job," Mr O'Farrell told reporters in Sydney on Saturday.

"One thousand arrests, extra police, additional powers, all to try and stop this targeted villain-on-villain shooting."

Mr O'Farrell also called on Prime Minister Julia Gillard to stop cutting staff and funds from the Customs department.

He said less than 10 per cent of air and sea cargo was inspected by Customs, making it easy for guns to make their way onto Sydney streets.

"It's no coincidence that last year NSW Police intercepted 220 Glock pistols being posted to this state.

"The quicker police are taking guns off the streets of western Sydney, the quicker they are coming back into the country because of the federal government's Customs cuts."

Mr O'Farrell that laws for the outlawing of gangs could now be applied - after the failure of a High Court challenge to them in Queensland - and would be discussed at the upcoming Council of Australian Governments meeting in April.

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Reporter detained in China live on TV

A journalist and his camera operator have been detained in Tiananmen Square live on British television.

British reporter Mark Stone and his Sky News camera operator have been detained in Tiananmen Square. Source: AAP

A JOURNALIST and his camera operator have been detained in Tiananmen Square live on British television, in what he described as a surreal but telling episode about reporting in China.

Viewers of the 24-hour British channel Sky News on Friday were treated to the bizarre sight of reporter Mark Stone being directed into a police van live from Beijing.

He reported live from inside the van, admitting that the Chinese officials with him - one them filming Stone herself - probably did not realise he was speaking directly to London.

"Still in the police van, should be leaving in just a second for this rather surreal experience, which gives you a little insight into what can happen sometimes" in China, Stone said.

The team were then taken into a room where they were told to await questioning.

"We were here in Tiananmen Square filming, doing lives (live reports) through the day; now they've stopped us because of one word. We were talking about the 1989 protest, they didn't like that," Stone said.

The square is a popular tourist site near the regime's nerve centre and the scene of 1989 democracy protests that were crushed by the Chinese authorities.

A police officer was filmed asking the Sky team to switch off their camera, saying they were now inside the Forbidden City and did not have permission to film there.

Stone, who was in Beijing reporting on China's leadership transition, said the police had been "utterly civil" throughout the incident.

While they had permission to film in the square, Stone said police told him the team were not displaying their passes correctly, and noted he was not carrying his passport as required.

China's foreign ministry insists that press censorship does not exist in the country, but journalists report the constant threat of interference from government officials.

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Women use cannabis to be social: expert

WOMEN are more likely to use cannabis to maintain relationships, an addiction expert says.

Professor Jan Copeland, director of the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre at the University of NSW, said recent research had revealed details of women's cannabis use.

She said that although more men use the drug, women become addicted for social reasons.

"They are more likely to report using cannabis in order to maintain social networks," Prof Copeland told the Medicine in Addiction conference in Sydney on Saturday.

"In order to maintain relationships, particularly with partners."

However, women are also more likely to remain abstinent after treatment and often relapse after feeling down.

"(Women) relapse in response to negative feelings and interpersonal problems," Prof Copeland said.

"Men are more likely to relapse because they're feeling very positive and in control and having a good time."

Women are also more likely to report physical symptoms during cannabis withdrawals, Prof Copeland said.

She said because a large proportion of cannabis users were young, the centre was experimenting with smartphone apps to communicate with addicts and reduce their use.

"(An app) avoids that little confrontation of talking to someone face-to-face, particularly if you're not really sure that your cannabis use is a problem."

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WA gets GST revenue cut in 2013/14

WESTERN Australia should receive half a billion dollars less in GST revenue in the next financial year because of its booming mining sector, the Commonwealth Grants Commission says.

However, in its annual advice on how the GST revenue pie should be carved up in 2013/14 the commission awarded Queensland nearly $700 million more to counter the impact of lower coal prices.

The commission's advice goes to the federal government each year before a final decision is made.

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Seven years for manslaughter of NSW cop

A MAN who pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of a police officer shot dead during a Sydney drugs raid has been sentenced to seven years in prison.

Philip Nguyen, 57, was sentenced in front of a packed courtroom in the Supreme Court on Friday for the shooting death of trainee detective Constable Bill Crews at a basement car park in Bankstown on September 8, 2010.

In handing down the sentence to a court room littered with red ties as a mark of solidarity to Const Crews, Justice Elizabeth Fullerton described him as "a son, brother, uncle and a mentor".

She said she accepted without qualification that his family felt his loss on a daily basis.

"There is no lessening of their grief," she said.

Nguyen pleaded guilty to manslaughter and to wounding Const Crews, 26, with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The court was told Nguyen produced a pistol in the basement after Const Crew and seven other officers executed a search warrant.

"What followed was a sequence of five shots fired from three guns in the space of seconds," Justice Fullerton said.

The court was told Nguyen fired the first shot, hitting Const Crews in the arm.

The 26-year-old fired three shots in return before a fellow detective fired once, accidentally shooting him in the neck.

Justice Fullerton said Nguyen "had no right to arm himself with a loaded pistol and no right to shoot".

"Although he didn't fire the shot that killed him, he caused his death."

The court was told Nguyen claimed that he believed Const Crews and the other officers were robbers.

But Justice Fullerton found it would also have been "reasonable" for him to have thought they were police because they identified themselves as such when entering the carpark.

She said Nguyen, a Vietnamese refugee, had turned to drugs since his wife's death in 2001.

Although expressing genuine remorse for Const Crews' death, Nguyen had shown "determination to continue to involve himself in some way with a drug milieu", she said.

Justice Fullerton was unable to find he had positive prospects of rehabilitation.

She said that aggravating factors, such as Const Crews' position as a police officer, "overwhelmed" any contrition.

She sentenced Nguyen to a maximum of nine-and-a-half years, backdated to his arrest in September 2010.

His earliest date of release will be September 7, 2017.

Outside court after the sentence was handed down, Const Crews's father Kelvin said he was disappointed at the sentence.

"It doesn't seem to us to be appropriate for our family, for the police, for the community," Mr Crews, who also served as a police officer, told reporters.

"He has given his life in the line of duty, we have been sentenced to life. The sentence that has been given down has been nothing to what we have been sentenced to."

"He was the world to all our family."

NSW Attorney General Greg Smith SC acknowledged community concern about Nguyen's sentence and said he would ask the Director of Public Prosecutions to consider lodging an appeal against it.

NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said his first thoughts went to Const Crew's family when the sentence was handed out.

"No father should have to bury their son," he told reporters.

He said a review of the events that occurred on the night of the shooting had been undertaken and "we do all we can to learn from it".

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Macquarie settles with Storm investors

INVESTORS who lost their life savings with Storm Financial have reached an out-of-court settlement with Macquarie Bank.

Around 1000 investors lost about $290 million when the Townsville-based financial services company folded in early 2009.

They pursued a class action against the bank in the Federal Court in Brisbane, seeking compensation for losses incurred when they took out risky margin loans with the bank.

However, after extensive discussions between the parties, Macquarie announced on Friday it had reached a settlement agreement worth $82.5 million, including costs of about $6.5 million.

The settlement included no acknowledgement of liability on behalf of the bank.

Stewart Levitt, who represented about 300 of the investors in the class action, said although his clients would not recoup all their money, the settlement assured them some return on their investment.

"Generally speaking, early settlement always represents a discount. It's a trade-off for certainty," Mr Levitt told AAP on Friday.

He said the investors had been heavily involved in the mediation process, with a team of seven representatives working with lawyers and a mediator over five days of negotiations.

"This wasn't something that was foisted on them by lawyers, ASIC or the bank, but something that was freely negotiated," he said.

Mr Levitt said the decision would likely give hope to other Storm investors involved in a class action against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia that public scrutiny of the bank's action could result in a similar settlement.

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Adelaide's hallowed turf to be free gifts

ADELAIDE Oval's hallowed turf has been dug up, cut up and is about to be given away.

As the $535 million redevelopment of the oval gathers pace, the turf of what has long been regarded as the world's most beautiful international cricket venue is being offered to the public for free.

It has been cut into about 2000, 30cm squares with people free to take away up to four each this Sunday.

"We want some of that historic turf to go to good homes," Infrastructure Minister Tom Koutsantonis said on Thursday.

"This is a first-come, best dressed, limited offer."

When work at the oval is complete it will have a new laser-levelled playing surface along with improved drainage and special drop-in cricket pitches to make it suitable for a variety of sporting codes including AFL, rugby and soccer as well as cricket.

The new turf is already being grown south of Adelaide and is expected to go down in August.

The oval revamp also includes major new grandstands to increase seating capacity to 50,000.

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Xi Jinping named president of China

XI Jinping was named president of China after a vote at the nation's parliamentary meeting in Beijing, four months after he took charge of the ruling Communist Party.

"Now I announce comrade Xi Jinping is selected as president of the People's Republic of China," said Liu Yunshan, a top official of the ruling party who chaired the electoral session at the National People's Congress.

To loud applause, Xi, 59, stood up and bowed to the delegates gathered in the Great Hall of the People, before shaking hands with other officials and walking off the stage.

The announcement came after the delegates to China's rubber-stamp parliament cast red ballot papers in a leadership vote where the outcome was never in doubt.

Li Yuanchao, a member of the Communist Party's Politburo but not among its top seven-member Standing Committee and a figure seen as having reformist leanings, was selected as vice-president, Liu said.

China's vice-presidency is a largely symbolic post, although it does carry a diplomatic role.

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Poll has Labor losing in SA

THE South Australian Labor government will lose next year's state election in a landslide, if the results of new poll are repeated.

The Advertiser poll has put the Liberal Opposition ahead 59-41 per cent on a two-paty preferred basis in a result that would have Labor losing as many as 11 seats.

The poll is the first since Steven Marshall took over as Liberal leader earlier this year and comes ahead of his public debate on Friday with Premier Jay Weatherill which also marks one year until the election.

The Advertiser quizzed 412 people on Wednesday night with the poll revealing a big swing to the opposition.

It also has primary support for Labor slipping three percentage points since the previous poll in August to just 30 per cent and found support for the Liberals up nine percentage points to 54 per cent.

Despite Labor's woes, Mr Weatherill maintains a 36-33 lead over Mr Marshall as preferred premier.

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Govt jobs index falls for second month

THE federal government's leading employment index has fallen for a second consecutive month in March.

The declines came after six consecutive months of increases.

The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations indicator of employment declined by 0.029 index points in March, to 0.005 points.

"It is too early to confirm that the pace of employment growth is likely to remain below its long-term trend rate of 1.4 per cent per annum, because the indicator has fallen for fewer than six consecutive months," the department said on Wednesday.

The leading jobs indicator anticipates movements in the growth cycle of employment, with a turning point confirmed after six consecutive monthly moves in the same direction.

The indicator has four weighted components: ANZ Newspaper Job Advertisements, Dun and Bradstreet Employment Expectations, the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Leading Index of Economic Activity and the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index.

Official labour force data for February will be released on Thursday.

Economists expect the number of people employed in February rose by just 8000 compared to December, and not by enough to prevent the jobless rate rising to 5.5 per cent from 5.4 per cent previously.

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Study finds seven driver personalities

WHEN it comes to getting behind the steering wheel, are you an image seeker, a necessity driver or a risk taker?

A survey has identified seven driver personalities and found Aussie motorists are a mixed bag.

Almost a quarter (23 per cent) of the 1003 drivers surveyed are "reliability and efficiency seekers", valuing these qualities above the way a car looks, the survey by classifieds website Gumtree found.

However, 22 per cent are "image seekers" who are primarily concerned with brand and owning a flashy set of wheels.

The rest are identified as being necessity drivers who only want to get from point A to point B (18 per cent), performance seekers (17 per cent), risk takers who may have cavalier attitudes towards parking or drink driving (10 per cent), accident prone (6 per cent) or cautious (4 per cent).

Cars continue to be a status symbol for some with half, or 53 per cent, admitting they aspire to own a European luxury model such as a BMW, Mercedes Benz or Porsche.

BMW emerged as the most sought-after brand in Australia with 18 per cent indicating it was their most desired car make.

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Slippery track blamed for Qld train crash

Slippery tracks were to blame for a train crash at a Brisbane station, an investigation has found. Source: AAP

SLIPPERY tracks have been blamed for an accident in which a Brisbane passenger train crashed into a station, but investigators will still look at its brakes.

A preliminary report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) on Wednesday found a black spot - a section of track covered with contaminants such as wet leaves, wood, rust, and oil or lubricants - caused the accident.

Fifteen people on board the train and four people at Cleveland station were lucky to escape serious injury when the train ploughed into the station house on January 31, all but destroying the toilets.

Several people suffered minor injuries.

ATSB chief commissioner Martin Dolan says investigators will also look at the train's brakes to determine if they were properly designed for the conditions.

"The driver put the brakes on, and all the brakes worked, it's just that the wheels didn't have enough grip on the track to give them full effect," he told AAP.

"It's something that needs to be checked in a bit more detail."

The commissioner said older trains tended to have tread brakes, like bicycle brakes, which cleaned the wheels as they braked.

The train involved in the accident had newer disc brakes.

"They are more efficient at applying pressure to the wheels, but don't clean them if they've got slippery goo on them," Mr Dolan said.

"While we don't want to speculate too much, tread brakes might have reduced the risk of an accident like this happening."

The ATSB will also look into the train's anti-slip mechanism, which did not work properly before the crash.

The final report on the accident is due by the end of this year.

Queensland Transport Minister Scott Emerson said the report was a wake up call for Queensland Rail, but as there had been no catastrophic brake failure the government would focus on inspecting tracks for black spots.

"QR will now look to identify black spots where potentially this could happen," he told reporters.

Drivers will also be trained to handle such emergencies.

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Govt apologises for Sydney train delays

THE NSW government has apologised to commuters after major train delays caused havoc on the Sydney network.

Citybound trains were suspended on the Northern Line between Hornsby and Epping on Tuesday morning and delayed from the city centre to Epping because of urgent overhead wiring repairs at Epping.

It's the seventh major train delay in six weeks on the CityRail network.

Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian apologised to rail commuters in parliament, saying they deserved better.

"I would like to start by apologising to our customers who were travelling on the northern line this morning for the inconvenience caused," Ms Berejiklian said.

I agree that simply services need to improve... customers deserve better."

She said the O'Farrell government had inherited a rail system from Labor that was 20 years behind what was best practice.

She said the government had a plan to fix the rail system, noting that "every single spare dollar" was going into improving it.

Opposition transport spokeswoman Penny Sharpe said earlier on Tuesday that the problems with overhead wiring identified as the cause of the delays were a direct result of budget cuts.

The disruptions follow what Ms Sharpe described as a "horror month" of delays in February.

They come after the NSW government's announcement it would replace RailCorp with two new agencies, Sydney Trains and NSW Trains, from July 1.

London Underground chief Howard Collins has been selected to lead the new Sydney Trains.

Mr Collins has a 35-year career in London public transport, during which he was responsible for the restoration of the Underground after the July 2005 terror blasts.

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Falkland Islanders vote to stay British

Falkland Islanders voted overwhelmingly in favour of remaining a British oversees territory. Source: AAP

FALKLAND Islanders have voted overwhelmingly in favour of remaining a British oversees territory in a referendum designed to send a strong message to Argentina, which earlier derided the poll as illegal.

Some 92 per cent of the islands' 1,672 eligible voters turned out to deliver a 98.8 per cent "yes" vote in favour of staying an internally self-governing British territory, election officials in the capital Port Stanley announced.

Only three votes out of 1,517 were cast against the islands remaining British.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague welcomed the result, saying it "demonstrates more clearly than ever the Falkland Islanders' wish to remain an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom.

"We have always been clear that we believe in the rights of the Falklands people to determine their own futures and to decide on the path they wish to take," he said in a statement on Tuesday.

"It is only right that, in the twenty-first century, these rights are respected.

"All countries should accept the results of this referendum and support the Falkland Islanders as they continue to develop their home and their economy."

International observers - from Canada, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand, Paraguay, the United States and Uruguay - monitored the polling stations.

The resounding "yes" result, delivered at around 10:30pm on the remote South Atlantic archipelago sparked unprecedented celebrations.

"There's so much noise here, it's huge," Legislative Assembly member Barry Elsby told AFP.

"There are hundreds of people outside the cathedral, celebrating, singing and waving flags.

Elsby called it a "tremendous point in time" for the islands which "sends a message around the world".

He said that Argentina would be "very frightened" because "this process was democratic".

"They can't dismiss it," he added.

Argentina, which invaded the islands in 1982 before its troops were ousted by a British task force after a short but bloody war, maintained its dismissive line on the vote.

"It's a manoeuvre with no legal value, which has neither been convened nor supervised by the United Nations," said Alicia Castro, Argentina's ambassador to London.

"We respect their way of life, their identity. We respect that they want to continue being British, but the territory they inhabit is not British," she told Buenos Aires radio station La Red.

Buenos Aires has stepped up its sovereignty claims against the backdrop of the discovery of potentially valuable oil reserves in the territorial waters of the islands it calls "Las Malvinas", some 400km away from the Argentine coast.

Britain has held the Falklands since 1833 but Buenos Aires maintains that the barren islands are occupied Argentinian territory.

Buenos Aires claims the islanders are an "implanted" colonial population and thus do not have the right to self-determination.

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Changes mean fewer hours for L-platers

LEARNER drivers will be able to go faster and complete fewer hours of supervised driving before going for their Ps under changes announced by the NSW government.

Outlining reforms on Tuesday, Roads Minister Duncan Gay said L-platers will be allowed to travel up to 90km/h instead of 80km/h from July 1.

Those who take part in a new Safer Drivers Course as well as professional lessons will also be able to cut their number of compulsory supervised driving hours from 120 to 80.

Mr Gay said the changes were needed because the system was a "sentence on families across the state".

"This ... will be done by putting in place proper training so young people aren't just doing the hours, they're being taught the proper rules in road safety," he told reporters in Sydney.

Under the changes, if learners complete a four-hour safe driving course they can get 20 hours worth of credit towards their 120 hour logbook.

Ten hours worth of professional lessons will continue count as 30 hours towards the logbook total.

Learners would be able to accrue a maximum of 40 hours as credit, effectively reducing the logbook total from 120 to 80 hours, Mr Gay said.

Mr Gay said the safer drivers course would be affordable and 60-80 per cent subsidised by the government, with the exact price to be announced in July 1, when the new rules take effect.

Centre for Road Safety general manager Marg Prendergast told reporters an affordable price for the new safer drivers course would be around $200.

The changes follow recommendations made last year by the NSW Auditor General.

A new list detailing the types of cars that L-platers can learn on will soon also be released, as young drivers can't learn on some cars with turbo- or super-chargers.

Assistant Police Commissioner John Hartley denied the changes would lead to more young drivers dying on the state's roads.

"This is a sensible solution to the problem of long driving hours for people who haven't got time for it," he said.

"It think it's a step forward for NSW."

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Aurizon, Hancock to develop rail and port

GINA Rinehart's part-owned Queensland coal company has joined with Aurizon to develop new rail and port facilities for the Galilee Basin worth about $6 billion.

Freight company Aurizon says the development will unlock Galilee Basin coal reserves and help support the next phase of coal growth in the Bowen Basin.

Aurizon and Mrs Rinehart's joint venture company GVK Hancock plan to develop and manage a port and rail project with the capacity to ship 60 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).

The projects involve a greenfield rail project and a development right for a coal terminal at Abbot Point.

"The proposed development of the rail and port infrastructure which is expected to deliver export capacity of 60mtpa could represent an investment for Queensland in the order of $6 billion," Aurizon said in a statement on Monday.

Under the proposed deal, Aurizon will acquire a 51 per cent interest in Hancock Coal Infrastructure (HCI), which owns GVK Hancock's rail and port projects.

Aurizon believes the development will unlock Galilee Basin coal reserves, including GVK Hancock's Alpha, Kevin's Corner and Alpha West coal mines.

Aurizon's shares were one cent higher at $4.07 at 1502 AEDT.

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Bikie admits assaults after mum's evidence

NOTORIOUS Perth bikie Troy Mercanti has dramatically admitted beating his former partner over a span of 15 years, after changing his pleas midway through his trial.

Mercanti, a former senior Coffin Cheater who defected to the Finks, had denied five charges of assaulting Tammy Kingdon, the mother of his two children, during the relationship which began in 1997.

Ms Kingdon had been cross-examined by Mr Mercanti's lawyer Colin Lovitt for almost six days over her allegations that he had beaten her so badly she needed a plate in her face to fix a broken eye socket, had suffered two sets of broken ribs and had her tooth knocked out on Christmas Day 2006.

But after Mercanti's brother Michael, and then his mother Sybil, both testified the assault did take place, the West Australian District Court was told the 45 year-old had been "shaken" and was pleading guilty to four of the five assaults.

The last charge was dropped by the prosecution after a trial lasting two weeks.

Mr Lovitt requested a sentencing hearing be held on Wednesday.

The trial had been told that Mercanti's physical violence towards Ms Kingdon had started just days after they had first became involved.

He was accused of punching her in the face outside a hotel in Bunbury, leaving her with black eyes and a fractured eye socket that required a metal plate to heal.

The pair continued their relationship, and Ms Kingdon gave birth to two boys by Mercanti in the following four years.

Prosecutor Justin Whalley said Mercanti punched her again in 2002, leaving a facial cut that needed stitches, and launched a prolonged assault on Christmas Day 2006 which left her missing a tooth.

In 2011, he allegedly punched and kicked her and made her stand naked in front of their Duncraig house after an argument following a sex party involving a friend of Mercanti's.

Following an alleged beating in January 2012, when with broken ribs, she was left naked and cowering outside a neighbour's home, Ms Kingdon went to police and made a statement that stretched to 104 pages.

He had also urinated on Ms Kingdon, threatened to tie her with gaffer tape to a tree to stop her attending her sister's wedding and ordered her to lie on a dog bed and bark, the court was told.

Mr Lovitt in his cross examination, accused Ms Kingdon of being a "liar and an actress", that she was out for revenge, and also claiming she was accident prone.

Mercanti's mother, however, said she had witnessed the Christmas Day assault.

"He is my son and I know that he is not the perfect son but I love him and I can't take that feeling away ... I really don't want to be here today," Mrs Mercanti told the court.

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Qlders cold-called on privatisation plans

HUNDREDS of thousands of Queenslanders can expect a call at home asking if they want to join a union campaign against privatisation.

The public service union Together has commissioned automated calls, which ask people whether they support selling off state government services - a key recommendation of the Costello report.

Brisbane-based Liberal National Party seats were targeted on Saturday.

Of the 50,000 people who responded, 85 per cent said they were against the privatisation of services.

Together Secretary Alex Scott said thousands also said yes when asked if they wanted to join a campaign to stop privatisation, but he didn't have an exact number.

The government has dismissed the survey as push-polling - a marketing ploy used to influence the views of respondents under the guise of a survey.

ReachTEL was commissioned by the union to conduct the calls.

It told AAP the data was not subject to the usual rigorous quality controls, and no statistically accurate conclusions could be drawn.

Mr Scott said that over the next week another 300,000 people would be called, and the work will continue until every electorate is surveyed.

Only those on the Do Not Call register won't be bothered.

"We need the community to have a strong say, to get involved, to make sure that every Queensland household has an opportunity to get up and stand up," he said.

Mr Scott admitted the data wasn't "scientifically demographically balanced".

But he insisted it was a good gauge of public opinion.

The call campaign will cost $200,000.

Treasurer Tim Nicholls said the Together union's "dirty" tactics had been exposed by the polling company it had commissioned.

"It's patently clear the polling company was only commissioned to gauge interest in political campaigns conducted by the union," he said in a statement.

"As such, no demographic questions were asked and the data was not subjected to the rigorous quality control that commissioned ReachTEL polls are put through.

"ReachTEL itself says it is statistically inaccurate to draw any conclusions from the data provided to the Together Union."

He said the government had made it very clear it would not sell government businesses without an election mandate.

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Man drowns on Sydney beach

A MAN has drowned after being swept off rocks at Whale Beach in Sydney's north.

Despite the efforts of jet ski riders, surf lifesavers, water police and ambulance officers, the man could not be revived after being washed into the sea on Sunday morning.

It's believed he may have been fishing off rocks at the beach and was not wearing a life jacket.

Police said that two people on a jet ski came across the man floating off rocks at the northern end of Whale Beach at about 8am (AEDT) on Sunday.

He was retrieved by local surf lifesavers and CPR was administered but he could not be revived.

Police said the man was yet to be formally identified but was described as being of Asian appearance, aged between 20 and 40, and wearing a yellow sweatshirt, full-length lycra compression pants and shorts.

Surf Life Saving NSW spokesman Dean Storey said the death was another tragedy which could have been avoided if safety precautions had been taken.

"Ocean conditions today are deceptively dangerous, with clear skies, light winds and a moderate long period swell - common conditions when it comes to rock fishing tragedies.

"It is reported that the man was not wearing a life jacket, which would have greatly increased his chance of survival."

Mr Storey said rock fishermen should always wear life jackets, even if weather conditions were good and there appeared to be little risk.

"The ocean is unpredictable and even the most experienced rock fisherman can be caught out," he said.

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Gillard congratulates WA Liberals on win

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has congratulated West Australian Premier Colin Barnett for his government's re-election.

She also acknowledged WA Labor opposition leader Mark McGowan's hard-fought campaign.

The Liberals, who will once again form a coalition with the Nationals in WA, kept all of the 24 seats they won at the 2008 election and secured a further seven seats, with a few more still up for grabs.

"The Gillard government looks forward to continuing to work with the Barnett government on a range of important initiatives which will benefit the people of Western Australia and recognise the importance that WA plays to the national economy," the prime minister said in a statement on Sunday.

Earlier, Mr Barnett said the election result was clearly better news for federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott than for Ms Gillard.

But he said the campaign was fought largely on local issues.

"This was not an election about how people regarded the prime minister," he told reporters in Perth.

"Yes, federal issues were there as a factor but they were not the determining factor."

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Budget will pay for Gonski reforms: Swan

FEDERAL Treasurer Wayne Swan will outline the savings in May's budget to pay for the government's school reform plan.

Mr Swan says investment in education is a priority for federal Labor and Australia.

"As a country, we're kidding ourselves if we think we can stroll complacently into the Asian Century assuming we'll enjoy economic wealth without developing the skills we need to harness its opportunities," Mr Swan said in his weekly economic note on Sunday.

The treasurer said the government's proposed Gonski school reforms were central to improving skills and education.

"We will put in place the savings to ensure it's a key part of this year's budget," he said.

The treasurer will hand down his sixth budget on May 14.

The Gonski review proposed an extra $6.5 billion spending in total by the commonwealth, states and territories for schools.

Mr Swan is yet to outline the spending cuts or areas where more money will be raised to pay for Gonski and the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

He also lauded the latest economic growth data, which he said showed why Australia had one of the lowest jobless rates in the developed world.

Australia's economy grew by 0.6 per cent in the December quarter for an annual rate of 3.1 per cent, according to official data released last week.

Mr Swan said Australia's job market remained one of the most resilient among developed countries despite local firms becoming circumspect in employing more workers.

"We know that ongoing global uncertainty, the sustained high dollar and changing consumer patterns have made some businesses more cautious in their hiring," he said.

The eurozone's unemployment rate rose to a record 11.9 per cent in January, while the US rate was 7.7 per cent last month.

Local jobs data will be released on Thursday.

The market forecast is for 10,000 jobs to be added in February while the unemployment rate is tipped to rise 0.1 percentage points to 5.5 per cent.

Mr Swan again attacked the opposition for its plans to roll back income tax cuts linked to the carbon tax if elected in September.

"Under the Liberals' changes, seven million Australians will have their taxes hiked up," he said in a statement.

"For a mum and dad earning $65,000 each, the Liberals' tax hike would mean their family would pay $600 more a year in income tax alone, while Tony Abbott himself would only pay an extra $3."

The treasurer said the government would introduce legislation in the next fortnight to provide more funding for the independent parliamentary budget office to cost the policies of all political parties.

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