Category Archives: Western Australia

Australia news live: thousands rally in capital cities as CFMEU workers walk off sites; fears of overdose crisis as use of nitazenes grows

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Rallies in support of the CFMEU have kicked off across the nation’s capital cities, from Sydney, Melbourne to Brisbane. Follow the day’s news live

Jim Chalmers accuses Liberals of ‘economic insanity’ on potential housing cuts

Jim Chalmers was asked about the $100bn in cuts the Coalition is set to announce today, mostly from Labor initiatives, if it wins the next election. Would this appeal to the electorate?

What we know from what’s in the newspapers today is that they plan billions of dollars to cuts in housing at a time when we’ve got a very severe housing shortage, and this goes with the absolute economic insanity of the Liberals and Nationals. During an extreme housing shortage, they want to swing the axe on billions of dollars in housing funding.

Also this is $100bn they reckon – let’s see the details. They flagged more than three times that amount when it comes to cuts, so let’s hear them come clean on the other cuts. Let’s hear what it means for Medicare and pensions and for the economy more broadly.

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Australia records hottest ever winter temperature with some areas set to be 10C above average

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‘What’s really interesting about this warm stretch of weather, is it is going to last for a long time,’ BoM says

Australia has recorded its hottest ever winter temperature, with Yampi Sound in the Kimberley region of Western Australia reaching 41.6C on Tuesday.

The record, which has been provisionally confirmed by the Bureau of Meteorology, and will be officially confirmed by the organisation on Tuesday, exceeds the old national record of 41.2C which was reached at West Roebuck on 23 August 2020.

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Coalition senators split in voting on Ralph Babet motion on abortion – as it happened

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Murray Watt on visas: ‘We are using exactly the same processes as were used by the Coalition’

The opposition has continued its political attacks against visas being given to Palestinians from Gaza (before Israel seized and completely closed the Rafah border in May).

We are using exactly the same processes as were used by the Coalition when they were in power and when Peter Dutton was the minister. Mike Burgess, the director general of Asio, has confirmed that himself.

Peter Dutton was quite prepared to use certain processes when he was the minister. Now we’re in power, he wants to criticise that. He wants to find division, to find reasons for criticism and be negative of the government.

I think this is just a ridiculous example he’s [Adam Bandt] giving, to disguise the fact yesterday the Greens were the only party in the parliament who decided to side with John Setka … rather than taking the side of the Australian people.

We had a vote in the Parliament yesterday, in the Senate, that called on the Greens to say they wouldn’t take political donations from the CFMEU construction division, they refused to vote for that. So I think it’s pretty clear what the motivation here is in voting against this legislation.

We haven’t received a dollar from the CFMEU for a decade, the Coalition received $175,000 in the last two years, Labor has received millions of dollars and what we say is we have not received the money, it is not why we are engaged in the debate.

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Claims of government cover-up after Brittany Higgins’ alleged rape ‘completely and utterly false’, Scott Morrison says

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Linda Reynolds suing former staffer over a series of social media posts WA senator believes damaged her reputation

Scott Morrison has defended Linda Reynolds’ handling of Brittany Higgins’ alleged rape and dismissed claims of a government cover-up following the allegations as “completely and utterly false”.

And the former prime minister also told the Western Australian supreme court that he did not remove Reynolds from the defence portfolio because she called Higgins a “lying cow”, but instead because she could not continue in the role due to her mental health.

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Linda Reynolds believed Lehrmann rape trial was politically motivated, psychologist tells defamation trial

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April Jones tells Perth court she started counselling Reynolds after reports of Brittany Higgins’ accusations senator mishandled her rape complaint

Liberal senator Linda Reynolds believed Bruce Lehrmann’s rape trial was politically motivated and Peter Dutton undermined her, a psychologist’s notes read to a defamation trial have revealed.

Senator Reynolds is suing Brittany Higgins for defamation over a series of social media posts containing alleged mistruths that she believes damaged her reputation.

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Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Two women and baby dead after ute rolls in WA

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Four other occupants of Toyota HiLux taken to hospital, where one woman in her 30s died

Two women and a baby have died after a ute rolled in Western Australia late on Saturday night.

A member of the public called police to report a crash on Geraldton-Mount Magnet Road, just east of the intersection with Gabyon-Tardie Road, about 10.50pm.

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Ex-Labor senator Fatima Payman appoints ‘preference whisperer’ Glenn Druery as chief of staff

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Druery says Payman could become the next Senate powerbroker in the mould of Nick Xenophon or Brian Harradine

Fatima Payman has appointed Glenn Druery as her chief of staff, as the political strategist and so-called “preference whisperer” suggests the newly independent senator could become the next Senate powerbroker.

Druery’s involvement with Payman was revealed in July, between the Western Australian senator crossing the floor to vote for a Greens motion in the Senate to recognise Palestine and her decision to quit Labor to sit on the crossbench.

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Brittany Higgins and husband schemed to ‘ambush’ Linda Reynolds, Liberal senator’s lawyer tells defamation trial

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Reynolds is suing former staffer over social media posts she alleges damaged her reputation

Linda Reynolds’ lawyer has told a court “every fairytale needs a villain” and has claimed Brittany Higgins and her husband schemed to ambush the Western Australian senator as part of a sophisticated media plan.

Reynolds is suing Higgins in the Western Australia supreme court over social media posts she alleges damaged her reputation, marking the latest in a series of legal battles related to Higgins’ rape in Parliament House five years ago.

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Australia news live: Coalition claims Labor education reforms a ‘school funding war’; NZ bushwalker’s body recovered from Tasmania hiking trail

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Follow the day’s news live

Murray Watt says advice needed from administrators to determine government support amid administration

Murray Watt, the newly-appointed minister for workplace relations, also weighed in on the Rex Airlines administration on ABC RN just earlier.

In terms of equity stakes or other financial government support, we’ll make those decisions once the situation becomes clearer through the administrator.

This would only be activated if the company is unable to repay entitlements to any workers who are retrenched, and let’s hope it may not get to that.

But also, our department would be providing employment support to workers who do lose their job to ensure that they can get back into work as quickly as possible.

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Nine Entertainment journalists vote for industrial action – as it happened

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Biden has been ‘a great fan of Australia’: Albanese

Anthony Albanese is speaking with ABC RN after Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the US presidential race.

The president has been a great fan of Australia. [A] very significant economic relationship has grown out our trade during his presidency … He’s someone who has stood up for values of social inclusion, and importantly as well for Australia and for the world he’s been a leading figure on climate action.

He was a gracious host to myself and Jodie during our state visit last year … [He] will continue to be over the coming months the most important leader in our globe. Of course, the United States is our most important ally.

The policies won’t change much. I mean, he’s obviously very interested in policies around tariffs and trade. I don’t think that will change much from his first term.

I think the challenge for us with with Donald Trump is to remind him that one of America’s unique advantages is its network of allies and partners and to make the maximum use of that. And there’s been great progress … in terms of Aukus [and] many groupings in the Indo-Pacific … and all these need to be sort of maintained and strengthened and that requires American leadership.

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Linda Reynolds’ lawyers pore over Brittany Higgins phone download ahead of defamation trial

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Team working through documents including more than 56,000 pages of information Australian federal police downloaded from Higgins’ phone

Lawyers for Liberal senator Linda Reynolds are poring over tens of thousands of pages of potential evidence taken from Brittany Higgins’ phone.

The former defence minister, who plans to retire from politics at the next election, is suing her former political staffer over a series of social media posts she says damaged her reputation.

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Indonesian boys jailed by Australia claim no translation provided in court

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Minors who were locked up in adult prisons for people smuggling say they could not understand proceedings and thought they were going home

Vulnerable Indonesian children say they were either given no interpreter or an interpreter who spoke the wrong language during deeply flawed people smuggling prosecutions, leaving them unable to understand court proceedings before their imprisonment by Australia in maximum security adult jails.

The Australian government last year agreed to pay $27.5m in compensation to more than 200 Indonesians who were wrongfully prosecuted and detained as adult people smugglers while they were children.

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Labor group praises Fatima Payman for upholding party ‘principles and policy’ to cross floor

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Exclusive: Labor Friends of Palestine hit out at federal government’s stance as ‘weakening’ commitment to Palestinian statehood

Labor Friends of Palestine have praised Fatima Payman’s decision to cross the floor to support Palestinian statehood as “entirely consistent with Labor principles and policy” and rejected federal Labor’s stance as a “weakening” of its commitment on the issue.

After Anthony Albanese temporarily suspended the senator from caucus, the group wrote to Payman declaring that she had “the support of thousands of rank-and-file ALP members”.

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Shadow energy minister says system in ‘dire trouble’ – as it happened

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Australia needs more gas supply on east coast, Albanese says

Anthony Albanese is speaking to the ABC from Devonport.

We’ll work those issues through with Aemo.

We need more gas supply. We announced our future gas strategy a short while ago because we understand that we need more supply. Gas has an important role to play in manufacturing in particular. But also in providing firming capacity for the renewables rollout.

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WA police formally apologise to family of Aboriginal woman who died in custody in 2014

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Ms Dhu died two days after being locked up at police station after arrest for unpaid fines of $3,622

Western Australia’s police chief has formally apologised to the family and community of a 22-year-old Aboriginal woman who died in custody a decade ago.

Yamatji woman Ms Dhu, whose first name has not been used for cultural reasons, died two days after being locked up at South Hedland police station on 4 August 2014.

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WA premier Roger Cook says murder of mother and daughter in Perth home ‘senseless’ and ‘chilling’

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Gunman shot Jennifer and Gretl Petelczyc, aged 59 and 18, at Floreat home where it’s believed his ex-wife was staying, before taking his own life

Western Australia’s premier says more needs to be done to combat domestic violence after the “chilling and horrific” murder of a mother and daughter by a gunman searching for his ex-wife, though police say they cannot classify it as a family violence matter.

Cook also said he would consider strengthening WA’s tough gun laws, which were recently updated and are in the process of passing through the parliament.

The gunman, 63, shot Jennifer Petelczyc, 59, and her 18-year-old daughter, Gretl, on Friday at their Floreat home, where his ex-wife was believed to have been staying, before taking his own life.

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Labor takes aim at Adam Bandt’s refusal to support two-state solution in Middle East – as it happened

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Bandt condemns antisemitic graffiti on school, calls for end to Gaza invasion

Adam Bandt was also asked about the threatening graffiti discovered at Mount Scopus Jewish day school in Melbourne on Saturday, where the words “Jew die” were painted on the school’s front fence.

I condemn those words. There’s of course no place for that and we’ve said from the very beginning, from the first moment this got debated in parliament, no to antisemitism, no to Islamophobia, no to the invasion.

I think what you are seeing across the country is a very strong push for peace. People are fighting not only against antisemitism, but fighting to end the invasion of Gaza as well.

It’s up to Palestinians and Israelis to equally enjoy those rights. And if that’s what they choose to self-determine, then that’s what they choose to self-determine. Our point is that the international community can no longer pretend that the slaughter and the invasion is not happening.

Well, support for Israelis as well as Palestinians, as I’ve said, both having their rights to self-determination under international law. Now, at the moment, what is happening at the moment is that we are seeing over 34,000 people killed. A region brought to the brink of starvation and this is a manmade famine.

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Man, 63, fatally shot friend of ex-wife before killing himself at home in Perth’s west, police say

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Police believe the man was looking for his former wife at the house where he killed a 59-year-old woman and her 18-year-old daughter

A man has shot and killed a woman and her teenaged daughter in a west Perth home before turning the gun on himself in an apparent murder-suicide, police say.

The 63-year-old man is alleged to have gone to the house in Berkeley Crescent, Floreat just before 4.30pm on Friday looking for his ex-wife, who was not at the house.

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‘A lot of asbestos in the streets’: WA declares ‘hazmat emergency’ after tornado hits Bunbury

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More than 100 homes damaged when tornado ripped off roofs, collapsed walls and sucked up debris in state’s south-west

Asbestos scattered over residential streets has prompted a “hazmat emergency” response in Western Australia’s south-west, with specialist crews urgently working to contain any possible exposure aftter a devastating tornado.

More than 100 homes were damaged when the tornado ripped off roofs, collapsed walls and sucked up debris into the sky at Bunbury on Friday afternoon.

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Aurora australis: spectacular southern lights might be seen as far north as Queensland after ‘extreme’ solar storm

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Social media users post pictures of skies lit up around the country while the Bureau of Meteorology warns of solar storm’s impacts

Aurora australis has lit up skies across southern Australia after an “extreme” geomagnetic solar storm.

Social media users in posted pictures of brightly coloured skies in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and across the Tasman in New Zealand.

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