SYDNEY, May 19 AAP - The NSW government is prepared to consider increasing speed limits on freeways if it’s deemed safe, Premier Barry O’Farrell says.
Roads Minister Duncan Gay has flagged raising speed limits by 5km or 10km per hour, if the roads meet certain standards.
Mr O’Farrell has backed the initiative, stressing any moves to increase limits would need to be properly assessed by the Centre for Road Safety.
“We should have speed limits that are appropriate for the roads on which people are driving,” he told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.
“If that means that we build better freeways, if that means you can travel safely on those freeways at a higher level.. then we’re prepared to have the safety experts look at it.”
Opposition leader John Robertson said the government needed to come up with evidence that showed increasing speed limits didn’t lead to more road deaths.
“I’ve not seen a safety report that says we ought to be increasing speed limits to drive down the road toll,” he told reporters Sydney.
“I want to see the safety reports on this because what we know, and what police tell me, is that speed kills.”
NSW had driven the road death toll down to record levels by cracking down on speeding, he said.

SYDNEY, May 9 AAP - NSW’s top cop has urged tougher restrictions on importing firearms into Australia amid a police crackdown on gang-related gun crime.
Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said on Thursday he wanted stricter rules for guns brought into the country.
“I’d just like to see the importation of firearms to be restricted and stopped,” Commissioner Scipione told reporters.
He said that would be “a very big ask” but he was dealing with the effects of firearm importation “downstream”.
“More needs to be done … to actually stop them from coming into the country so we’re not dealing with them at crime scenes.”
His call came as police revealed they had arrested 220 people in three months as part of a crackdown on outlaw gangs and gun crime.
NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell and Mr Scipione said the arrests were part of Operation Apollo launched in February to target gang-related gun crime.
Mr O’Farrell said in a statement that 420 charges had also been laid and 70 firearms taken off the streets.

By Lema Samandar

SYDNEY, May 6 AAP - Kay Schubach would scramble for the landline while she was being beaten in her own home but her abuser would pull it out of the socket.
He would go through her mobile phone regularly to find out what she was up to.
Such cases have prompted the NSW government to launch a discreet smartphone app for victims of domestic violence.
The Aurora domestic violence app has a “message friends” section allowing users to quickly send an SMS to a trusted friend or family member when they are feeling threatened.
It has a choice of three in-built messages - “call me”, “come and pick me up” and “call the police for me” - that can be instantly communicated in emergencies with three quick touches on a phone pad.
The app also allows users to customise texts to include a secret codeword shared only with a trusted friend or relative.
“My abuser almost killed me in my own home,” Ms Schubach told reporters on Monday.
“This would have been a life saver for me.
“I could have called emergency services quickly or I could have sent a message to one of my friends.”

By Paul Farrell, Luke Bacon, Lawrence Bull

May 2, 2013: Following revelations that easily spread asbestos remained unaddressed at Villawood, the NSW Police Association is threatening to ban officers from the controversial detention centre.
The police association may ban its members from attending emergencies at the Villawood immigration detention centre unless the federal government immediately has the asbestos threat at the facility independently reviewed.
The federal Greens, calling this “a potentially life and death situation for employees and the people being held in Villawood”, also demanded action.
The concerns follow revelations in The Global Mail with Detention Logs this week that 165 current asbestos contaminations – including 27 classified as “medium risk” and friable, or easily spread – had been detected and reported at the Villawood centre in both 2011 and 2012.

By Tara Ravens

SYDNEY, April 29 AAP - A silver bullet to reduce underage boozing is available but the NSW government has bowed to industry pressure instead of protecting the young, police have told an inquiry.
Reduced trading hours, limiting the sale of high-alcohol content drinks, and lockouts resulted in a 37 per cent decrease in late night assaults when the measures were trialled in Newcastle.
“If that was the road toll there would be handstands being done down Macquarie Street to introduce it,” Peter Remfrey, secretary of the police union, said.
He was speaking at a parliamentary inquiry into strategies to reduce alcohol abuse among young people.
“We can only surmise that it’s the influence of the industry that has stopped the ongoing rollout of this,” Mr Remfrey said.
Scott Weber, president of the Police Association of NSW, told the hearing the model should be rolled out across NSW.

SYDNEY, April 22 AAP - Police in the NSW Hunter have had a lucky escape after two Molotov cocktails thrown at a police station failed to ignite.
Officers found two smashed glass bottles at the back of Cessnock Police station around 3am (AEST) on Friday.
Investigators also found fluid nearby and determined that it came from a Molotov cocktail that had been thrown at the station’s roof, police said.
Detectives are appealing to anyone with information about the incident to come forward.