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Tributes have begun to flood in for WA football great Andrew Krakouer, who died of a suspected heart attack yesterday, aged 42.
A failed crypto-trader who murdered his Perth mother and tried to claim her fake life insurance policies did so to appear cashed-up and impress his influencer girlfriend, a court has been told.
Andre Rebelo killed his mother, Colleen, 58, inside her Bicton home in 2020, and then placed her body in her shower to make it look like a natural death.
It wasn’t until he relentlessly began pursuing multiple life insurance policies that he had recently set up in her name that police became suspicious.
During his sentencing hearing in the Supreme Court of Western Australia today, prosecutors described the murder as a great betrayal of a woman who had done so much for her son.
“In lots of examples of murder the court deals with, often murder is committed for passion or jealousy, it’s less common for a person to kill for financial reasons,” prosecutor Brett Tooker said.
Tooker said Rebelo had shown no remorse, and continued to deny he killed his mother.
The state says he should receive a life sentence, with the Justice to determine how long his non-parole period will be.
The court is expected to hear victim impact statements from Colleen’s daughter and sister.
Our court reporter Rebecca Peppiatt is in the courtroom to bring you the latest as it happens.
A truck driver charged over the death of a cyclist on the Eyre Highway last year has pleaded not guilty to the charges and will take the matter to trial.
Anil Sharma was charged with manslaughter and destroying evidence, as well as failing to stop and assist after Chris Barker, 62, was fatally struck by a truck while taking part in an endurance bike event.
Sharma, 36, was allegedly behind the wheel of the truck when the incident occurred near Madura in South Australia near the WA border around 5.30am on March 21, 2024.
Barker was taking part in the Indian Pacific Wheel Ride, an unofficial event that runs across Australia from Fremantle to Sydney.
He died at the scene.
This morning, Justice Bruno Fiannaca set down Sharma’s matter for a 10-day trial in February 2026.
Sharma, who is from India, used an interpreter to understand the details of the hearing.
At the time of his death, Barker’s son said his father died doing what he loved.
“I’ve never heard dad talk so much about this one event in my life … my family lost a great person. My heart is broken,” he said.
The election circus has rolled into town with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visiting Midland Hospital with Premier Roger Cook to announce the $355 million upgrade.
Albanese was also pressed on the biggest political hot potato this past week – the delay to the assessment of Woodside’s North West Shelf 50-year extension proposal.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has pledged to make a decision on the proposal within 30 days if he wins the election and stated there was no reason as to why approval couldn’t be given.
Albanese lashed that pledge in Midland this morning, warning it would open up the project to legal challenges.
“If you go out there, and you preempt the law, which says that consideration must be given objectively by the minister, then you, by definition, put yourself in a position of legal challenge,” he said.
“Frankly, you could get any lawyer at random, pick them out, and they could be in that case because it is a shut case.”
Cook was also asked by the travelling Canberra press pack about his efforts to establish the Western Bears NRL team in WA.
Cook revealed the state was in discussions again after his government put tools down over the state election period.
“As I’ve said on many occasions, only WA can put the ‘N’ in NRL and we’d obviously welcome the opportunity to be able to have a team here, but where it has to be on the basis of value for money,” he said.
Albanese was speaking in the seat of Hasluck which used to be held by the Liberals with a 5.9 per cent margin however in the 2022 Tania Lawrence sensationally overthrew senior Coalition minister Ken Wyatt who held the seat since 2010.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is in Perth this morning. Watch his press conference live below:
The trip west is his 30th since his election. That is 30 eight-hour round-trips from Sydney or Canberra. A total of 240 travel hours, or 10 whole days spent in the skies across the nullarbor.
Why the effort? Albanese secured government with a tiny majority in 2022. And he unexpectedly won four Perth seats off the Liberal Party, which was unpopular in the state after then-prime minister Scott Morrison feuded with ascendant Labor premier Mark McGowan during the pandemic.
Retaining those seats – Tangney, Pearce, Swan and Hasluck – is critical for Labor as it fights to maintain its majority in the face of a national swing against the government.
Firearm owners have been given an extra three months to hand their weapons in as new laws restricting the right to own a gun in WA come into effect today.
A 90-day transition period is part of what the state government is calling a move towards increasing safety, rather than punishing those still in possession of now illegal firearms.
The WA Police Force has a dedicated transition team to assist in transferring all existing licence holders to the new licence types.
This team will contact licence holders before their licence expires to inform them of what they need to do to comply with the legislation.
To date, 52,000 firearms have already been handed back in a buyback scheme. There are 80,000 licence holders in WA, with more than 300,000 guns legally registered.
A major emergency has unfolded on one of Perth’s busiest roads in the heart of the city this morning, with a truck slamming into an apartment building.
It was a terrifying wake-up call for residents around 5.20am when a truck coming off the Kwinana Freeway on the Mounts Bay Road exit mistook a right turn and collided with a building.
Emergency services rushed to the scene, where the driver, a man in his 50s, had to be extracted and taken to Royal Perth Hospital.
Firefighters are also on scene mopping up a fuel spill.
A resident told 9 News Perth the crash sounded like a missile.
“There was a massive bang and that’s when I came down and 10 minutes later there’s just diesel everywhere,” he said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is in Perth this morning alongside Premier Roger Cook to promise to contribute $200 million towards a major upgrade of St John of God Midland Public Hospital if Federal Labor is re-elected.
The funding will deliver 60 more hospital beds, two more operating theatres, a new ICU and neonatal care beds and a redesign of the obstetrics and neonatal unit.
The state government has already announced $105 million to upgrade the emergency department and will add a further $50 million to the expansion project.
“We’re working with the Cook Labor government to build Western Australia’s future,” Albanese said.
“If re-elected, we will invest $200 million to extend St John of God Midland Public Hospital to deliver more beds and a new emergency department.”
Stay tuned as Albanese will be holding a press conference later on where he is sure to get pressed on whether he will recommit to WA’s GST deal.
Here’s what’s making news today across the country and around the world:
