Follow our live coverage here.
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The Bullwinkel electoral rollercoaster continues with Liberal Matt Moran retaking the lead by a razor-thin 48 votes.
Labor’s Trish Cook had been narrowly leading the count all morning, but postal votes are breaking ever so slightly in Moran’s favour giving him the edge as of 3pm.
The race is not over yet with about 2120 postal votes and more than 4500 absentee votes still to be counted.
Neither party is sure what trends the absentee votes will throw up.
So far, Moran has posted a 3.4 per cent swing toward the Liberals.
Meanwhile, in Fremantle an electoral commission count of preference flows has Josh Wilson ahead by 277 votes.
The ABC election tracker website is showing a combination of the preference count with the more advanced first count, predicting Wilson was ahead by more than 1800 votes.
A final result in both seats is unlikely to occur today.
We’re bringing our blog to a close for the day now, thank you for joining us. We will have more for you in our next coverage.
Here’s a recap of some of the day’s headlines:
Thank you again for tuning in. We’ll see you back here tomorrow for more news you need to know.
An update now on a story we brought you earlier this morning about a house fire in Bassendean.
Police have laid charges against a woman over the blaze, which engulfed the property on Hamilton Street early in the morning.
A man was taken to Fiona Stanley Hospital for treatment after suffering serious burns to his right leg, while a HAZMAT warning was issued over asbestos found at the rear of the property.
A 29-year-old Bassendean woman has now been charged with one count of breach of duty, and she is due to face Midland Magistrates Court on Wednesday.
Police are still investigating the blaze and anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, or make a report online.
The Bullwinkel electoral rollercoaster continues with Liberal Matt Moran retaking the lead by a razor-thin 48 votes.
Labor’s Trish Cook had been narrowly leading the count all morning, but postal votes are breaking ever so slightly in Moran’s favour giving him the edge as of 3pm.
The race is not over yet with about 2120 postal votes and more than 4500 absentee votes still to be counted.
Neither party is sure what trends the absentee votes will throw up.
So far, Moran has posted a 3.4 per cent swing toward the Liberals.
Meanwhile, in Fremantle an electoral commission count of preference flows has Josh Wilson ahead by 277 votes.
The ABC election tracker website is showing a combination of the preference count with the more advanced first count, predicting Wilson was ahead by more than 1800 votes.
A final result in both seats is unlikely to occur today.
Qantas has today announced two new direct flights from Perth – one to Auckland and one to Johannesburg, both set to take off from December.
The routes join other direct international destinations added in recent years from Perth including London, Paris, Rome and Tokyo.
Qantas international chief executive Cam Wallace said the connections would boost tourism opportunities in WA.
“Our new Perth to Auckland route offers a convenient one-stop connection for West Australians to New York via Auckland on our popular QF3 service while the new direct flight to Johannesburg provides a vital connection for customers in Perth to visit popular cities like Cape Town through our partnership with Airlink,” he said.
We have some good news!
Parks and Wildlife staff, with the help of 10 volunteers, have been able to save one of the false killer whales beached near Bremer Bay.
The team managed to “refloat” all three of the whales that were still alive, after the group of seven became stranded on Monday evening.
However, while one swam away, the second remained in shallow water and the third re-stranded.
Those two whales will continue to be monitored.
Aerial surveillance has not detected any other whales offshore. The area will continue to be monitored to ensure there are no sharks that could pose a risk to the safety of others in the area.
Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti said it was a distressing scene.
“My thoughts are with everyone dealing with that extraordinary situation,” she said.
WA has recorded a double-digit increase in building approvals, bucking a national decline in March according to fresh data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Perth’s building approvals in the March quarter of 2025 were 5061, up 10.9 per cent from the previous quarter and well above the five-year average of 4160.
KPMG Urban Economist, Terry Rawnsley said the housing construction boom in Perth showed no signs of slowing down.
“A strong local economy and abundance of land coupled with a reliance on detached housing have meant our western capital has avoided some of the severe cost pressures seen on the eastern coast,” he said.
Nationally approvals for single-family homes fell by 4.5 per cent however in WA it lifted 11 per cent to 1603 in March.
Oxford Economics Australia lead economist Maree Kilroy said it was positive news after the west recorded its lowest monthly result on record in April last year. But she warned the lack of new apartments was concerning.
“Attached dwellings, however, fell back to earth, recording only 210 approvals for the month,” she said.
Turning to an update on the seven false killer whales stranded at a beach near the tourist town of Bremer Bay.
Parks and Wildlife has said a team of 13 people with “extensive knowledge and experience in marine mammal incidents” are at House Beach to assess the situation.
They are undertaking drone surveillance to rule out any signs of further strandings, and will attempt to “refloat” the three remaining alive whales.
The other four died overnight, before anyone could reach them to assist.
A report released by the Australian Medical Association today has revealed up to 70 per cent of WA doctors working in children’s hospitals and health services experienced burnout last year, as wait times for paediatric services continue to balloon.
The Hospital Health Check 2025 report also found nearly one in three junior doctors had experienced bullying, discrimination or harassment.
Premier Roger Cook acknowledged the findings of the report, but said conditions had generally improved since the previous years’ report.
“We always know that we can improve more,” he said.
“Over the last term alone we have increased the number of doctors and nurses working in our hospital system by 1000s, including over 1800 new doctors.
“We know that having more people in the workplace means people aren’t suffering burnout as much.”
But shadow health minister Libby Mettam said doctors deserved a safer work environment.
“When inadequate staffing, bed blocks and delayed upgrades are already putting hospital staff under immense pressure, the government should be doubling down on its efforts to ensure staff do not have to endure such an unhealthy workplace culture,” she said.
To the weekend’s federal election now and there are still two seats too close to call in Western Australia – Bullwinkel and Fremantle.
In Bullwinkel, Labor candidate Trish Cook is currently ahead of Liberal candidate Matt Moran by just 28 votes, with 93,400, or 77 per cent of the vote counted.
In Fremantle, independent Kate Hulett is narrowly leading sitting Labor member Josh Wilson by 155 votes (45,391 votes to 45,236 votes) with 79 per cent of the vote counted.
If the counts remain this tight, the Australian Electoral Commission can, at its discretion, order a recount, particularly if the difference ends up being less than 100 votes.
Transport minister Rita Saffioti has just provided an update on the construction of the new Fremantle traffic bridge, flagging the old bridge’s closure in early 2026 and significant changes to nearby intersections to accommodate traffic during the new build.
“We can’t wait to build a new bridge, demolish this one and have new north-south connection,” she told reporters this morning.
The original bridge, built in 1939, was designed to last just 40 years.
The construction of the replacement bridge has reached a new milestone with all 28 piles and some of the concrete piles caps now installed.
Saffioti said residents will soon start to see “towers emerge from the water”, with the old bridge to be demolished at the start of 2026 to clear the path for construction to continue.
Asked if the 12-month closure time for the bridge could blow out, similar to major works on the Armadale train line, Saffioti said she was confident in the timeframe.
The new bridge will have two lanes in each direction and pedestrian and bike paths.
Investigations have found that to keep traffic in and around Fremantle moving during the closure and to avoid severe delays on Stirling Highway, a series of temporary intersection modifications will be required including changes to various intersections on Stirling Highway.