Warragamba dam in NSW nearing capacity after two West Australians were hospitalised on Friday
Warragamba dam could spill over the Mother’s Day weekend amid severe weather warnings on the east coast, and after a tornado tore through the West Australian city of Bunbury, injuring two people.
WaterNSW issued a warning on Friday that the Warragamba dam was nearing capacity after several days of rainfall, and that a spill event was “likely in coming days”.
Continue reading...WA premier Roger Cook suggests teenager who allegedly stabbed man in Bunnings car park in Willetton may have been radicalised online
Western Australian police say they have shot and killed a teenager who allegedly attacked a man in a Perth car park on Saturday night.
Detectives on Sunday said there was no ongoing threat to the public and the 16-year-old was believed to have been acting alone in Willetton.
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PM responds to reports regional women camping out, sleeping in cars
Anthony Albanese has commented on reports that carparks in regional areas are being opened for women to sleep in tents or their cars.
We have allocated funding through our Housing Australia Future Fund for emergency accommodation for women and children escaping domestic violence. I will be in discussions with the states and territories as well about what more can be done.
We know that the circumstances where a woman is escaping a violent situation [and] has to sleep in her car or surf on a couch of a friend and rotate around, we hear stories about that as well, is unacceptable in 2024. We need to do better. There’s no question about that.
We need to look at bail laws. More importantly, we actually need to look at how we can keep women, or victims and children in the home environment and force the perpetrator to leave. We have a program in NSW called the Staying Home: Leave Violence program. There are over 138 LGAs in this state at the moment, only 91 have access to that program, even though we know it is incredibly effective. We need programs like that funded immediately, not just across NSW but across the country.
I am optimistic about who we are as a country and our capacity to take responsibility for ourselves. The time of us to do this is now. We don’t have three months, which is what the government is suggesting, to wait and see what happens next. By then another 23 women will have lost their lives.
Continue reading...Emma Heyink and Tom Power say the premier made false comments about protest at company’s annual general meeting
Two 17-year-old climate activists are alleging the Western Australian premier, Roger Cook, defamed them by falsely claiming during a press conference they intimidated and threatened the children of the CEO and chair of petroleum giant Woodside Energy.
The two teenagers, Emma Heyink and Tom Power, are activists involved with campaign group Disrupt Burrup Hub and were involved in a protest at the Woodside annual general meeting at Crown Casino last Wednesday.
Continue reading...Up to 160 whales have beached themselves at Toby Inlet near Dunsborough, more than 250km south of Perth
Authorities are rushing to save more than 150 whales from a mass stranding at a beach in Western Australia’s south-west. Four pods have spread across roughly 500 metres at Toby Inlet near Dunsborough and 26 of these have died, Parks and Wildlife Service Western Australia confirmed.
“There are 20 whales in a pod about 1.5km offshore. Another pod of about 110 animals are together closer offshore,” a spokesperson said.
Three brothers and family friend died at the scene in Clackline in the state’s wheatbelt
Three brothers, one of them only nine years old, and a family friend have been killed in a car crash in the Western Australian wheatbelt region.
The brothers, aged 21, 19 and nine, died at the scene in Clackline in the early hours of Friday morning, along with a 45-year-old man, who was visiting from NSW.
Continue reading...Advocates say the boy took his own life, leaving his family ‘devastated’ and triggering a coronial inquest
A 10-year-old First Nations boy has died in an apparent suicide in state care in Western Australia, advocates for the family say.
Advocates for the family say the boy, who cannot be named, took his own life on Friday night, leaving his family “devastated” and triggering a coronial inquiry.
Continue reading...About 50 calls to SES for assistance as ‘very localised’ storm reportedly dumped up to 130mm of rain in less than an hour
Parts of Perth broke a six-month-long dry spell on Friday with a fierce storm and flash flooding that left people stranded in submerged cars and caused part of a shopping centre roof to collapse.
A spokesperson for WA’s emergency services said SES volunteers had been going “flat out” to help fire crews with rescues. There had been about 50 calls for assistance over the course of the afternoon.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Opposition leader travelled at own expense to lavish party, but documents reveal two staff also made the trip to Perth
Peter Dutton’s office claimed nearly $6,000 in public expenses for staff and security to travel to Perth with the opposition leader when he attended Gina Rinehart’s lavish birthday party.
Dutton’s office has said he travelled at his own expense to the party for Australia’s richest woman, which included a horseriding performance, multiple large cakes and onstage pyrotechnics. But travel information obtained under freedom of information shows members of Dutton’s team – which his office said included a staffer and a security detail – claimed travel from Melbourne to Perth and back again on 29 February, the night of the party on the banks of the Swan River.
Continue reading...Search was conducted in difficult terrain near Mitchell Plateau as Coalition presses government over ‘third boat since November’
A man has been found in “relatively good condition” after becoming separated from a group of people who reached a remote pocket of the Kimberley coastline in Western Australia by boat.
A source confirmed to Guardian Australia that nine individuals had broached Australia’s mainland but did not confirm what nation they had arrived from.
Continue reading...Western Australia police appeal for information after second death in race after British ultra-endurance cyclist Mike Hall was hit and killed near Canberra in 2017
Tragedy has again befallen the Indian Pacific Wheel Race, with a cyclist dead and another in a serious condition in hospital after separate incidents along Western Australia’s remote Eyre Highway on Thursday morning.
The race sees participants ride solo and unsupported from Fremantle in Western Australia to the Sydney Opera House, covering 5,500 kilometres. It builds on a rich history of riders traversing Australia as early as the 1890s – considered to be the first “Overlanders”.
Continue reading...Road conditions are dangerous along the route the group is believed to have taken from Kalgoorlie to Tjuntjuntjara, police say
Severe weather is hampering search efforts for seven people who are missing amid ongoing flooding in remote Western Australia.
The group – which includes four children and two elderly drivers – left Kalgoorlie, about 600km east of Perth, on Sunday and were travelling in two vehicles north-east to the Tjuntjuntjara Aboriginal community.
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Birmingham backs Dutton’s asylum boat comments
The shadow foreign minister, Simon Birmingham, was on ABC RN earlier this morning.
It is our responsibility to hold the government to account and if there are cuts to the Border Force budget, if there are reductions in terms of any aspects of maritime surveillance, if the Border Police Commissioner is saying that his resources are being stretched, then these are the things for us to absolutely call the government out on.
Vegetation clearing and repairs to damaged powerlines and poles continue. However, given the extent of the widespread damage, it may still take some days in extreme circumstances to restore electricity to all of those impacted.
Continue reading...PM says federal government will make ‘no changes’ to Western Australia GST payments, which could hit $50bn over a decade
The federal government is considering “time-limited support” for the nickel industry in Western Australia as it faces growing international competition from Indonesian producers, Anthony Albanese has said.
The prime minister also pledged to maintain WA’s lucrative share of GST payments by signing a promise on a newspaper front page and on a reporter’s arm in marker pen, before encouraging the journalist to get it tattooed on his body.
Continue reading...Move comes after second group found in Western Australia and believed to have arrived on same boat as group found 25km away on Friday
More than 40 asylum seekers have been taken to Nauru after they were found in a remote part of Western Australia.
Guardian Australia has confirmed a second group of 13 asylum seekers was found at an Indigenous campsite at Pender Bay, about an hour after a group of 30 men were found at Beagle Bay on Friday.
Continue reading...Almost nine out of 10 the shops are within walking distance of schools, WA audit discovers
Vape stores are concentrated around schools and in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities, Australian researchers have shown for the first time in an audit of dedicated shops in Western Australia.
The study led by researchers from the University of Notre Dame Australia and published on Wednesday in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health found almost nine out of 10 vape stores were within walking distance of schools.
Continue reading...Oliver Jordan Schulz, who is accused of murder over the shooting of a young Afghan, applied for his bail conditions to be loosened
A former SAS soldier and accused war criminal requires assessment by police checking in on him while on bail because his military training presents a physical danger, a court has heard.
Oliver Jordan Schulz, 42, is expected to be able to fly to Perth to visit his lawyers after a bail variation hearing at Sydney’s Downing Centre local court on Monday.
Continue reading...Traditional options standing the test of time in top 20 popular baby names for 2023
Names that have stood the test of time have prevailed again in the ranks of the most popular baby names in Victoria, with Amelia rising to be the most popular name for girls in 2023, and Oliver retaining the crown for boys for the tenth year in a row.
The name Amelia knocked Charlotte to second most popular after it held the title in recent years. It was followed by Olivia, Mia, and Isla, while new entrants to the top 20 most popular girls’ names were Harper, Evelyn and Sienna.
Continue reading...Police charge 20 people with a total of 56 offences in three-day Kalgoorlie operation as part of crackdown on outlaw motorcycle gangs
Western Australian police say they have busted a backyard gold refinery in Kalgoorlie, seizing more than 30 tonnes of gold-bearing ore that was allegedly stolen from the region’s mines.
Investigators believe the alleged racket was connected with outlaw motorcycle gangs, and the gold-bearing ore was stolen with the intention of refining and laundering the gold to gain cash to purchase illicit drugs that would be sold to the community.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Leader of successful class action says government should ‘step in to overturn the convictions’, amid calls for a formal apology
The Indonesian fisher who led the challenge against Australia’s unlawful detention of hundreds of children found on people-smuggling boats has urged the government to help quash all remaining convictions linked to the scandal.
The federal government relied on a deeply flawed age assessment technique – interpretations of wrist X-rays – to detain hundreds of Indonesian children found crewing people-smuggling boats in 2009 and the early 2010s.
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