Follow our live coverage here.
Follow our live coverage here.
We take you now to a press conference with Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Darren Klemm and the Bureau of Meteorology’s hazard preparedness and response WA manager James Ashley.
Severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia has intensified faster than expected off WA’s Pilbara coast and is currently a category 5 system.
BoM senior meteorologist Angus Hines summed it up bluntly: “It doesn’t get any worse than that.”
Watch the press conference below:
Things are starting to get a little wild up north, so we’re bringing our regular live news blog to a close for today.
Don’t worry – we’ll still have the latest news from the Pilbara as Tropical Cyclone Zelia bears down.
All the latest cyclone news can be found in our dedicated live blog here.
We’ll keep that blog updated throughout today before taking a break overnight and resuming our coverage first thing tomorrow morning.
Thank you for joining us today, and to our readers in the North West, visit EmergencyWA for the latest emergency advice and warnings, and remember to stay safe.
Department of Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Darren Klemm has confirmed a road train has been washed off a bridge near Marble Bar, as the region braces for the impact of Tropical Cyclone Zelia.
During the press conference earlier, Klemm said the situation was currently evolving and DFES was dispatching a helicopter to assess the scene.
The news came as Klemm revealed the inland Pilbara towns of Marble Bar and Nullagine, and remote Aboriginal communities in the eastern Pilbara, were not being evacuated as the cyclone bore down.
“These communities are opting for a ‘protect in place’ strategy, with DFES warnings informing them of the best actions to take,” he said.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the members of the communities out there who are taking the appropriate steps to prepare their properties.
“They’re very strong communities up in the Pilbara, and I encourage everybody to look out for those that might be vulnerable in the community and make sure that they’re adequately prepared and looked after.”
Closer to the coast, Klemm said he was “particularly concerned” about Port Hedland due to its older housing stock.
“If we see [the cyclone] continually moving west, then we’re looking at impact into Karratha and Dampier,” he said.
“I’m particularly concerned about Port Hedland. If the track was to shift more to the east, then we would see a significant impact on Port Hedland.
“I think the housing stock, the building stock in Port Hedland is a bit older than what it is in Karratha, and so that’s where some of those maintenance issues come in to buildings that are a bit older … have they been maintained to the appropriate standard?”
Klemm said an evacuation centre had been set up in Port Hedland and any residents uncomfortable in their own buildings should go there.
Taking you back to that press conference earlier regarding Severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia, and the Pilbara’s infamous tides will play a major role in the severity of the storm surge that comes as the system makes landfall.
Tidal ranges along the Pilbara coast can reach upwards of 5 metres at times and can change within hours – just ask any fishers unlucky enough to find themselves caught out on the mud flats near Karratha.
If Cyclone Zelia’s landfall coincided with a high tide, that could make the storm surge “significantly worse”, according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s hazard preparedness and response WA manager James Ashley.
However, Ashley said a crossing that coincided with low tide wouldn’t even reach the highest astronomical tide of the year.
“But a crossing at the time of high tide could significantly be above that level. So the tidal range and the time of the coastal crossing is going to be critical to the impacts of that storm surge,” he said.
It’s not all bad news: the most likely scenario is that the cyclone crosses between high tides, which are predicted for just after midday and midnight on Friday and early Saturday morning. Cyclone Zelia is predicted to cross the coast about 5pm on Friday.
Premier Roger Cook will counsel one of his MPs over language used in a social media post railing against his Liberal opponent overnight.
Carine MP Paul Lilburne attacked his Liberal opponent Liam Staltari’s election promises in a series of Facebook posts on Wednesday, describing them as “empty puerile promises”.
He also described Staltari as “the Kalamunda Kid”, a reference to his candidacy in the 2021 election campaign for the seat of Kalamunda.
Cook was asked about the appropriateness and language of the posts at a press conference this morning, and said he would speak to Lilburne.
“No, that’s not appropriate language, and we expect people to carry out their campaigns in a respectful way, and making sure that, yes, they hold their opposite candidate to account, but we don’t actually resort to name-calling, for want of a better description,” he said.
“So I’ll counsel Mr Lilburne in relation to those things.”
Staltari was unfazed by the comments, and said he and his expecting wife were residents of Carine.
“We’ll be raising our family in Carine, and I’m also proud to be running a positive, community-focused campaign, and we’re getting great feedback because of that,” he said.
“If the Labor member for Carine wants to make nasty comments, it’s a matter for him, we’ll be keeping it positive. I think that’s what people in Carine and everywhere expect from their representatives.”
Staltari said his commitments, like $1.35 million for a new Carine netball hub, and his pledge to support the Sorrento Surf Life Saving Club were not “puerile”.
To some police news now, and a 65-year-old man faces 29 child sex abuse charges following an investigation into historical allegations.
Police allege the man assaulted four girls between the ages of eight and 15 over a period of time from 1998 to 2007.
The Cooloongup man faces 10 counts of sexually penetrating a child over 13 years and under 16 years; six counts of indecent dealing with a child over 13 years and under 16 years; two counts of sexual relationship with a child under 16; indecently recording a child over 13 years and under 16 years; six counts of sexually penetrating a child under 13 years; and four counts of indecent dealing with a child under 13 years.
The man is set to appear before Rockingham Magistrates Court today.
Fortescue workers have dispersed to surrounding cafes after a smoky situation saw them evacuated from their new digs at the top of St Georges Terrace.
Firefighters were on the scene and smoke could be seen billowing from a vent next to the building about 10.30am on Thursday.
Your blogger is reliably informed that an issue with a generator is to blame, with emergency services first alerted about 10.22am.
Firies are currently on the scene, so there’s not much else we can bring you at the moment, but we’ll let you know if there are any developments.
Three people have escaped a house fire in Currambine overnight.
Emergency services were called to the home on Renoir Lane about 3.20am on Thursday, finding it engulfed in flames.
A WA Police spokeswoman said the fire caused “significant damage” to the home before Department of Fire and Emergency Services officers extinguished it.
Three people were home when the fire broke out. They managed to escape uninjured, with one person treated at the scene by St John Ambulance for smoke inhalation.
The cause of the fire currently remains unknown.
In other news, WA mining giant Mineral Resources has confirmed its embattled founder Chris Ellison has now paid the multimillion-dollar penalty he was hit with over the tax scandal that is set to cost the managing director his role.
But it could be another six months before the company announces the new board chair tasked with selecting his replacement.
In a governance update released on Thursday, MinRes revealed the recruitment process was “well advanced” and it would announce chair James McClements’ replacement in the June quarter.
The Osborne Park-headquartered miner embarked on a governance overhaul in November amid shock revelations by the Australian Financial Review that Ellison and four executives had profited from an alleged offshore tax scheme that ran for a decade.
A board-ordered probe into the equipment markup scheme found Ellison had used company resources for personal gain, tasking staff with working on his own properties, his boat and his personal finances and affording relief to entities tied to his daughter.
Ellison, who remains the largest shareholder with an 11.5 per cent stake in the $7 billion company, was ordered to repay the $3.8 million in funds owed, forfeit up to $9.6 million in bonuses and donate $5 million to charity before stepping down within 18 months.
The company confirmed Ellison had now paid the $3.8 million penalty – a sum just shy of what he paid the ATO to settle the tax debt in May 2023.
It also detailed its progress on the initiatives it vowed to implement to strengthen governance practices in the wake of the scandal, including new protocols for related party transactions, eliminating the use of company resources by key managers and managing whistleblower complaints.
Shares were up 6.4 per cent following the update, trading at $33.90.
State political reporter Hamish Hastie is at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA’s pre-election breakfast at Crown Perth this morning, where Treasurer Rita Saffioti is addressing the state’s business community.
Saffioti has revealed she lodged Labor’s first round of election commitments for costing by Treasury on Friday, which had determined they would cost the state budget $2.1 billion over the next four years.
In the same breath, she attacked the Liberals and Nationals for not submitting their election commitments to the WA Treasury, nor revealing who was doing their costings.
“They say they’re doing their own costings … we have no idea who’ll be doing their costings and also whether they’ll be independent,” she said.
Saffioti said that, combined, the Nationals and Liberals commitments were nearly $9 billion.
Election costs are always a touchy subject in the absence of an independent budgetary office, like other states have.
Liberal leader Libby Mettam has previously said they would not submit their commitments to the Labor government-run Treasury, but would get them costed independently.
She is yet to reveal when those costings would be made public or which firm is doing the costings.
For the full list of major commitments to date check out our election tracker below.