Category Archives: Western Australia

Australia news live: Bruce Lehrmann back in the witness box as defamation case kicks off third day

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Former Liberal staffer’s defamation trial against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson continues in the federal court. Follow the day’s news live

The minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, has said the government is yet to decide how to best consult with First Nations people after the loss of the Indigenous voice referendum.

Burney was on RN Breakfast earlier and said today’s Closing the Gap meeting, the first since the referendum, would focus on the silver linings from the loss.

What we have seen is a group of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people get involved in the political process.

We had 6 million Australians say yes. And the thing that really excited me about the outcome in places like the Tiwi Islands, where … Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people wanted this change. And those votes are really important.

Education is the most powerful cause for good in this world, that is where you learn.

If you want to protest, do it on the weekend. School is on, we expect them to be there.

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Man found dead after statewide search – as it happened

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Hostage release essential if truce to last, Paterson says

Rewinding to Liberal MP James Paterson’s appearance on RN Breakfast this morning, wheN he said more needs to be done to free the hostages Hamas is holding in Gaza.

We don’t know how many of them are still alive, and their continued release would be essential for any continuing ceasefire because otherwise Israel continues to have a legitimate military objective.

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WA government fails to back up premier’s claim expanding gas industry will be good for planet

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Western Australian government declines to say whether Roger Cook’s claims backed by publicly available government or third-party analysis

The Western Australian government has produced no evidence to back up a claim that expanding the state’s gas industry – and increasing its greenhouse gas pollution in the short term – will be good for the planet as it will lead to a “dramatic reduction” in global emissions.

The premier, Roger Cook, made the claim at a media conference on Thursday. Cook made similar arguments at a WA energy transition summit on Friday, when speakers including the federal resources minister, Madeleine King, backed the development of new gas reserves alongside renewable energy and critical minerals.

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Regional roads in dire state as Australian councils made to waste money on grants tribute signs: report

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Grattan Institute says Australia’s regional roads are a ‘dangerous disgrace’ due to paltry federal funding

Regional Australian roads have become a “dangerous disgrace”, according to a new report that warns they will get worse due to paltry funding that favours cities and forces poorer regional councils to waste repair money erecting signs in tribute to government grants.

In a new report, the Grattan Institute has found that roads across the country have become riddled with potholes and other hazards because inadequate federal and state government funding has left councils under-resourced and without sufficient knowledge or data to maintain the roads they are responsible for.

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WA community in lockdown and suspect in custody after man allegedly shot west of Perth

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Residents of Wooroloo told they could return to normal activity following earlier lockdown but urged to ‘remain vigilant’

A Western Australian community has spent several hours in lockdown and a man has been taken into custody after an alleged shooting on the outer fringes of Perth.

On Saturday morning, WA Police said officers responded to a “firearm incident” in the township of Wooroloo, about 45km from Perth.

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Wet weather relief for NSW and Queensland firefighters while blazes encroach south of Perth

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Rainfall is expected to fall on Saturday either side of the border after a torrid week of fires claimed more than 60 homes

Communities across Australia’s east coast are hoping a wet weekend will bring a reprieve to firefighters as rainfall starts to set in across New South Wales and Queensland.

But the bushfire threat has arisen in the west as parts of Western Australia experience extreme fire risk with threats to properties south of Perth.

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Murder charge over woman’s death in luxury hotel room at Crown Towers in Perth

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Homicide squad detectives have charged a 42-year-old man with murder after a woman in her 30s was found dead

A man has been charged with murder over the death of a woman whose body was found in a luxury hotel room in Perth’s casino precinct.

Emergency services were called to Crown Towers east of the Perth CBD about 11am on Monday, where the woman in her 30s was found dead.

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Cleo Smith detective leaked information to journalist he was in a relationship with, watchdog finds

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WA Corruption and Crime Commission report finds Cameron Blaine shared sensitive case details with 22-year-old woman

One of the detectives who rescued kidnapped girl Cleo Smith leaked sensitive information about the case to a young journalist he was in a relationship with, a corruption watchdog has found.

Former Det Snr Sgt Cameron Blaine was among the officers who found the four-year-old at abductor Terence Kelly’s home in northern Western Australia on 3 November 2021.

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Large crowd gathers at pro-Palestine rally in Melbourne as WA man mourns sister killed in Gaza

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Australians are grieving for those killed on both sides of Israel-Hamas war, Adam Bandt tells protesters

About 15,000 people have attended a rally supporting Palestine in Melbourne, with the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, telling the crowd they were mourning for those who had died on both sides of the bloody conflict.

Sunday’s protest was one of several held across the country at the weekend. Victoria police said that there were “no major incidents of note”.

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Thousands attend pro-Palestine protests across Australia

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Protesters marched through the Sydney CBD on Saturday after police green-lit the event, with similar rallies held in Perth, Hobart and Brisbane

Pro-Palestine protesters declared they were standing on the right side of history, marching for justice and humanity, as they turned out in their thousands at rallies across Australia on Saturday.

Thousands marched through the Sydney CBD on Saturday after police green-lit the event, with rallies also held in Perth, Hobart and Brisbane as more information emerges from conflict-stricken Gaza.

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Labor governments push for national road-user charging after Victorian EV decision

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Treasurer Tim Pallas says refunds being considered after high court ruled charge was unconstitutional

Labor governments in three states are pressing the commonwealth to consider national road-user charging, after the high court struck down Victoria’s electric vehicle tax.

On Thursday the Victorian treasurer, Tim Pallas, said the government will consider refunding a tax paid by electric vehicle owners after the high court deemed it invalid, but suggests registration costs could rise or a national levy could be implemented in its place.

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Mark McGowan phone call allegation puts fossil fuel influence in WA under new spotlight

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Carmen Lawrence says former premier’s behaviour, if true, is ‘certainly improper’ and ‘ethically questionable’ and shows power of oil and gas interests

Claims that the former Western Australia premier Mark McGowan directly put pressure on the independent Environmental Protection Authority to withdraw climate guidelines opposed by gas companies are evidence of the fossil fuel industry’s “ownership” of the state, senior figures say.

Carmen Lawrence, another former Labor premier, said McGowan’s alleged behaviour four years ago, if true, was “certainly improper”, “ethically questionable” and “illustrated the power that fossil fuels have to influence the government” in the state.

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Australia’s emu war: John Cleese outrun in race to shoot movie of how flightless birds thwarted army’s machine guns

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An Australian take on how the emu won the 1932 battle premieres this month, before shooting on the UK comedian’s film has begun

A troupe of Australian comedians appears to have gazumped John Cleese to bring the bizarre story of the great emu war to the big screen.

In 1932, soldiers armed with machine guns were deployed in Western Australia to battle huge flocks of the giant native birds. Their annual migration from the arid interior to the coast had increasingly met the rapidly expanding wheat belt, to the delight of the emus and the horror of the farmers.

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WA police condemned for ‘shocking’ demand for ABC to hand over footage of climate protesters

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Civil society groups call on broadcaster not to comply with order they say is an ‘alarming overreach’ and ‘undermines press freedom’

Civil society groups have accused Western Australia police of undermining press freedom by demanding the ABC hand over Four Corners footage of climate protesters, and urged the broadcaster to protect its journalists’ sources.

In response to the police demand the ABC’s managing director, David Anderson, has said the broadcaster would never reveal its sources, but he did not rule out handing over the vision.

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World’s tallest wooden building to be built in Perth after developers win approval

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Developers say South Perth’s C6 building will be made up of 42% timber and be carbon negative

Western Australia is set to become home to the world’s tallest timber building, a “revolutionary” 50-storey hybrid design reaching a height of 191.2 metres.

Timber will make up 42% of South Perth’s C6 building, including the tower’s beams, floor panels, studs, joinery and linings.

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Meta fights Andrew Forrest for documents in battle over alleged crypto scam

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Facebook owner issues summons to demand files as it prepares defence over accusations it allowed bogus ads to use billionaire’s image

Facebook’s parent company Meta has issued a summons for billionaire Andrew Forrest to hand over sensitive documents amid a legal battle over an alleged cryptocurrency clickbait advertising scam.

Lawyers for the tech giant took the unusual step of issuing a summons to demand 20 categories of documents, alleging the mining magnate’s lawyers had failed to hand over papers relevant to the legal battle.

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Voice to parliament referendum: early voting opens as yes and no campaigners hit the hustings

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Early polling locations open in Victoria, Tasmania, WA and NT with other states to follow on Tuesday

Campaigners for both sides of the Indigenous voice referendum have hit the hustings as early voting opens across the country.

The yes and no campaigns have less than two weeks to make their case over whether to enshrine an Indigenous advisory body in the constitution.

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Confused cows and more time after work: the pros and cons of daylight saving across Australia

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At 2am on Sunday the clocks roll forward an hour in NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the ACT. So why aren’t Queensland, WA and the NT onboard?

Depending on who you ask, it’s either the most wonderful time of the year or the bane of their existence.

As most Australians sleep through Saturday night and into Sunday morning, time will skip ahead one hour – but only in some states and territories.

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Qantas pilots in Western Australia to strike for 24 hours over pay deal

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Industrial action could affect more than 50 flights including routes from Perth to regional towns and mine sites

Qantas pilots who operate passenger, charter and fly-in-fly-out (Fifo) services in Western Australia will stop work for 24 hours next week, as workers negotiating a new pay deal complain of wages “significantly lower” compared to other airlines.

The Australian Federation of Air Pilots (Afap), which represents pilots employed by Network Aviation – a subsidiary of Qantas Group which operates Qantas Link, Fifo and charter services for the airline in Western Australia – said it notified Qantas management on Thursday afternoon about the stop work action.

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Hundreds of Aboriginal children likely buried in unmarked graves at three WA missions

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Exclusive: More than 740 First Nations people, the majority of them very young, are believed to have been buried with no record at Moore River, Carrolup and New Norcia

As many as 400 Aboriginal children and babies are likely to have been buried in unmarked graves at three former Western Australian missions, the vast majority of them interred after dying when five or under, a Guardian Australia investigation can reveal.

Spanning decades, more than 740 First Nations people, the majority of them very young, were most likely buried with no record at just three church and government-run missions in the state: Moore River, Carrolup and New Norcia.

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