Follow our live coverage here.
Follow our live coverage here.
The man accused of murdering Indigenous Perth schoolboy Cassius Turvey claims he was stabbed first and lashed out in retaliation, but not with a metal pole.
Jack Brearley, now 23, is at the centre of the state’s case in the murder trial over the 15-year-old’s death in October 2022.
Cassius died 10 days after he was allegedly bashed with the metal handle of a shopping trolley in a creek in the north-east suburb of Middle Swan.
In the second day of the trial on Tuesday, Brearley’s legal team, led by barrister Simon Watters, told the jury the state had the wrong man, and alleged it was Brearley’s co-accused Brodie Palmer, 29, who bashed Cassius with the trolley handle, leaving him with bleeding on his brain that led to his death.
“For two long years, Jack Brearley has waited for a jury to listen to his account of what happened on the afternoon of October 13, 2022,” Watters said.
“You will hear on behalf of Jack Brearley that over the course of those days, he, like a lot of members of our community, had concerns for the welfare of others, concerns for his property, and concerns for his home.”
Read Rebecca Peppiatt’s report from the WA Supreme Court here.
Interested in climate change and protecting WA’s northern jarrah forests, but also in employment and the economy? A series of free public lectures next week might be up your alley.
This masthead has extensively covered controversy about the clearing of forests in south-west WA for bauxite mining.
Enter Curtin University academic Professor Ross Taplin, who had a conversation with a local environmentalist who believed the people of WA were largely uninformed about the extent of the clearing and would be deeply concerned if they knew more.
Taplin is a trained statistician who switched to the social sciences halfway through his career, and has spent years surveying people on their opinions and attitudes on everything from tourism to sustainability to trust in government.
“I am interested in empirical evidence and I thought I would find out,” he said.
“It doesn’t cost that much so I thought I would self-fund it – in academia now we get rewarded for doing work people are willing to pay for, but I still believe in doing things for the common good.”
He said there was additional value in keeping the work free of any accusation of bias through funding by any particular interest group.
Taplin surveyed more than 1000 West Australians and intends his seminars to reach a broader audience than the usual journal publication process.
He did a randomised experiment so people experienced different versions of the survey, giving more nuanced questions than just asking if people wanted to protect forests.
He was able to test the causal influence on responses of other factors, such as jobs, and whether people were shown images of the forests and clearing.
“This is something I really feel is in the public interest and there should be a public debate about it … the interaction is as important as the results,” he said.
Monday, February 17, 5pm: Seminar one considers the tourism and recreation potential of the Darling Range, how bauxite mining impacts this potential and the emotional impacts of mining on tourists.
Wednesday, February 19, 5pm: Seminar two considers WA’s knowledge of the biodiversity of the forests and what information can change attitudes both towards mining and towards conservation.
Thursday, February 20, 5pm: Seminar three considers how government transparency concerning bauxite mining can influence West Australians’ trust in government.
You can go to any or all of these free seminars. Register here.
One more campaign announcement: the WA Liberals today announced that if elected they will spend $140 million on supporting the provision of primary healthcare in WA.
They’ve promised:
At her press conference covered below, Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson criticised the Liberals’ GP training incentive. She said:
It will put money into the pockets of private practice owners … potentially draw doctors out of our hospital system and into private practice. It does not guarantee any more bulk billing, it doesn’t guarantee low fee appointments, and will not guarantee any control over what doctors charge … I also understand that $1000 of each of those grants goes to the peak body. That’s not money going into the health system, that’s money going to the peak body and to the pockets of private practice owners.
To the campaign trail now, and WA Labor has announced a $17 million funding commitment for women’s health over the next four years if it is re-elected in March.
Speaking at the Fremantle Women’s Health Centre in Willagee, Premier Roger Cook committed to an extra $14 million funding boost for the network of approximately women’s health centers that support 30,000 WA women per year around Perth and regional towns including Kalgoorlie, Port Hedland, Bunbury and Geraldton, on top of the $12 million per year already provided in funding for those centres.
He also announced $2.5 million to establish a dedicated women’s health day procedure centre at Cockburn Health Centre, which the government last year returned to public hands. The centre provides specialist women’s mental health services, including addiction support and WA’s first dedicated inpatient mental health facility for women, including the state’s first specialised eating disorder beds.
This new day procedure centre will provide free and affordable abortion care and other women’s reproductive health services to reduce wait times, remove financial barriers for vulnerable women, and provide care including free pre- and post-procedural counselling.
WA women have limited access to free surgical abortions, Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said, with private clinics largely undertaking around 98 per cent of abortions in the state, This centre is expected to facilitate about 4500 terminations a year.
The final component of the package is $850,000 towards the Australian Breastfeeding Association’s WA branch to expand its service including for providing 24/7 assistance.
Fremantle Women’s Health Centre’s Jenny Carter said many of the centre’s patients were vulnerable women with complex issues, including facing domestic violence, who nevertheless showed strength, bravery and resilience, but they faced waitlists that currently had to be cut off at two or three months because the demand was limitless.
The Indigenous All Stars side has suffered another injury blow, Alex Pearce the latest star to be ruled out of Saturday night’s clash with Fremantle in Perth.
Pearce injured his left ankle during Fremantle’s intra-club clash on Friday.
It was the second time in as many weeks Pearce had tweaked his ankle, and Fremantle are taking no risks.
Fremantle say they will assess Pearce’s availability for their next intra-club game on February 23 and the club’s pre-season hit-out against Melbourne on March 2.
The loss of Pearce is a big blow to the Indigenous All Stars, who will also be without Liam Jones after the Bulldogs defender injured his hamstring.
Jones has been ruled out for about two months.
Bulldogs forward Jamarra Ugle-Hagan was a lock to be selected for the All Stars match, but he wasn’t available due to personal issues.
Ugle-Hagan is currently on a flexible training program and facing a race against time to prove his readiness for round one.
Star Fremantle recruit Shai Bolton is still in doubt to represent the Indigenous All Stars after a minor calf injury in late January.
But teammate Michael Walters, who underwent minor knee surgery in the off-season, has declared himself ready to go.
Walters has been named captain of the side.
Fremantle will be without ruckman Sean Darcy, who has battled an ongoing knee issue over the summer and more recently underwent minor surgery to clear up an infection in his ankle.
Meanwhile, West Coast defender Jeremy McGovern has re-signed for a further season, tying him to the club until the end of 2026.
AAP
Your reporter was among hundreds who turned out last night to the advance screening of Stan original series Invisible Boys ahead of its Thursday premiere.
The screening of the first four episodes at Luna Leederville featured series stars Joseph Zada, Aydan Calafiore, Zach Blampied, Joe Klocek and Pia Miranda alongside executives, crew and Perth’s own Holden Sheppard, writer of the original Fremantle Press novel and on the series itself.
The series is set during the 2017 same-sex marriage plebiscite, exploring the challenges faced by, and the friendships between, a group of gay teens in Geraldton after one is outed on social media.
The series’ Logie and AACTA award-winning creator/director Nicholas Verso reminisced to the crowd that he’d gone back to the drawing board after running one episode past the producer, who admonished, “I thought you said this would be edgy.”
He said this was a rare thing to be told in the screen industry, and he’d taken the producer at her word and given himself the green light to take risks.
We can confirm the result is definitely edgy.
Asked, ‘Is it like Heartstopper?’ we gave a hard no. While it’s dealing with some similar themes and issues, it’s the antithesis of Heartstopper’s sweet innocence and dancing love-hearts.
Think of the difference between a hardscrabble port town on Western Australia’s stinking hot Mid West coast and the rolling green hills, cobblestone streets and charming pubs of London’s home counties. There’s your answer.
But does that mean Invisible Boys lacks romance? Hell, no. As well as being a perceptive portrait of regional WA it’s romantic to the hilt, funny, touching and raw.
And the pride in the room that this was a WA story, conceived, filmed and edited here – 49-degree sets and all – was palpable.
Get into it on February 13 on Stan (owner of this masthead). You can also read our feature on the series in the related article.
Now for some good news: a Perth woman who served in the Australian Army Corps in World War II, who only moved into her Success aged care home at 97, has celebrated her 100th birthday with cake and a letter from King Charles.
“The secret to living to 100 is being happy, being religious and drinking lots of black tea,” said Hackett, who lives at Southern Cross Care’s Frank Prendergast House with 68-year-old daughter Bernadette, who had a stroke in recent years.
Before moving into the residential care home, Patricia lived in Southern Cross Care WA’s co-located retirement village, Success Village and regularly volunteered her time at the aged care facility to connect with residents and share stories about her army service.
“I was reflecting on ‘how did she get to 100 years?’” said her daughter Donna.
“And I think it’s her very strong faith and the fact she’s always surrounded herself with family. She’s always been a very giving person. That and the black tea that she drinks multiple times a day.”
Patricia has four daughters, 14 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. At her birthday party last week, City of Cockburn Mayor Logan Howlett presented her with the congratulatory royal letter.
Perth’s spectacular Kings Park has beaten Sydney’s Hyde Park in a list of the most reviewed public open spaces in pocket atlas Google Maps.
To mark two decades of Google Maps helping people navigate bustling streets and explore remote regions it has released a list of Australia’s most reviewed locations – with a handful of Perth and WA hotspots making the list which covers everything from iconic landmarks, museums and restaurants to fish and chip shops.
Perth’s Kings Park and Botanic Garden reigns supreme as Australia’s most reviewed park, boasting 26,100 reviews and a near-perfect 4.79-star rating.
The most reviewed visitor attraction was Darling Harbour (58,300 reviews, 4.64 average rating) with Elizabeth Quay (18,000 reviews, 4.5 average rating) and Busselton Jetty (13,000 reviews, 4.6 average rating) also making the top five.
Simmos Ice Creamery in Dunsborough ranked third in the list of most reviewed ice-cream shops with 2633 reviews and a 4.63-star average rating.
The WA Museum, Boola Bardip failed to make the top list of best museums with the top spot going to the Melbourne Museum and Tasmania’s unconventional MONA following closely behind.
WA’s most dangerous road locations have been revealed as in Baldivis, Melville, West Perth and Carlisle.
The latest RAC Risky Roads survey asked West Australians which roads and intersections they thought were the most dangerous, receiving 18,000 nominations.
The junction of Baldivis and Kulija roads, Baldivis, and Melville’s dog-leg at Canning Highway, Rome and Hislop roads were the top two most risky intersections.
Nominators thought both provided little chance to turn or cross traffic and had a confusing layout, with many suggesting a roundabout could relieve problems.
A stretch of Mitchell Freeway in West Perth topped the list as the riskiest metropolitan road with little chance to turn or cross traffic, a confusing layout and no overtaking opportunities.
Second was Archer Street, Carlisle, with nominators saying it lacked a median strip, was unsafe for pedestrians and was too narrow.
RAC external relations general manager Will Golsby said the survey got the highest number of nominations ever this year.
“With over 50 per cent of nominators having been involved in or witnessed a serious crash or a near-miss at a risky road or intersection, there’s clearly urgent work that needs to be done,” he said.
“We look forward to working with governments and road safety authorities to improve key problem areas and reduce the number of deaths on WA roads, which increased by 19 per cent last year.”
Full top-10 results below the video.
FULL RESULTS
Top 10 risky intersections
- Baldivis Road & Kulija Road, Baldivis
- Canning Highway, Rome Road & Hislop Road, Melville
- Armadale Road & Eighth Road, Armadale
- Anstey Road & Mandurah Road, Secret Harbour
- Garden Street & Nicholson Road, Canning Vale/Thornlie
- Great Eastern Highway & Scott Street, Greenmount
- Clayton Street & Military Road, Bellevue/Midland
- Lewis Road & Welshpool Road, E Wattle Grove
- Marmion Avenue & Seacrest Drive, Sorrento
- Karrinyup Road & Muir Street, Innaloo
Top 10 risky roads
- Mitchell Freeway, West Perth
- Archer Street, Carlisle
- Guildford Road, Mt Lawley to Bayswater
- Kwinana Freeway, Como
- Mason Road, Kwinana Beach
- Hampton Road, Beaconsfield
- Rowley Road, Banjup to Hilbert
- Farrington Road, North Lake to Murdoch
- Neaves Road, Banksia Grove to Bullsbrook
- Hopeland Road, Hopeland to Nambeelup
Here’s what’s making news this morning.