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Detectives are this morning searching for a brazen thug who left a Perth father with multiple broken bones in his face after a late night attack.
The victim told 9 News Perth he considers himself lucky to be alive after being set upon around 2am on Saturday morning while walking along Challenger Avenue in Parmelia.
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After the Dutton and Albanese political circuses left town yesterday, an eerie calm has descended over WA, with local politicians tasked with spruiking their party messages this morning.
The Liberals had some east coast firepower with them in Scarborough this morning, where Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley joined Curtin candidate Tom White and WA Senator Michaelia Cash to announce $1.5 million for safety enhancements at the foreshore.
Further south in Tangney, Labor MP Sam Lim was joined by ministers Madeleine King, Patrick Gorman and Matt Keogh in his electorate of Tangney to announce $1.5 million to fund upgrades to the Bull Creek Bombers’ football club facilities.
Cash used the awkward “air kiss” between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek at the Labor campaign launch in Perth yesterday to launch an attack on delays to a decision on Woodside’s North West Shelf 50-year extension request.
“What we were looking for here in Western Australia was a joint press conference where they could announce their decision on the North West shelf project,” she said.
“The most you got was an incredibly awkward air kiss. Well, guess what, that does not serve the people of Western Australia well.”
Cash has accused the Albanese government of delaying the decision until after the election to avoid upsetting east coast inner-city voters.
Last month WAtoday revealed the latest delay was decided by Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water bureaucrats to give it time to assess requests by Greenpeace and the Conservation Council of WA to fold more Woodside projects into the decision.
Cash said she was not accepting excuses from Albanese about thorough investigations or timelines needing to be extended.
“No, the country is depending on this,” she said.
Resources Minister King said the Coalition’s statements put any potential approval of the project in legal jeopardy.
“This is orderly decision-making. Nothing more, nothing less,” she said.
“We would agree that the approvals process has to be improved, and that’s exactly what we’ve been trying to do, and Minister Plibersek has been trying to do for the last three years.”
WA Police claim a successful WA businessman who had his Maserati confiscated and turned into a patrol car has been caught again driving his Mercedes, which has also now been impounded.
The 42-year-old had his first car confiscated after he was caught driving in September without an interlock system in his car to test his blood-alcohol reading.
Police paraded the rebranded $100,000 car around on April 1, and just two days later, WA’s top traffic cop, Mike Bell, alleged the man was back on the roads.
“He’s realised how significant this is,” he said.
“I don’t think we’ll be seeing him drive again.”
WA’s new anti-hooning laws will soon be in force, which will see anyone driving more than 40km/h over the speed limit fined $1200 and seven demerit points. They could also be jailed for up to nine months and risk having their car confiscated.
The two Perth bouncers accused of assaulting patrons at The Lookout last night have just appeared in the Perth Magistrate Court.
The brothers, Enver Ibrahimovic, 37 and Nezir Ibrahimovic, 32, have been granted bail but are not allowed to work as security guards while their charges are going through the courts.
Read our court reporter Rebecca Peppiatt’s full story by clicking on the related article link.
The corporate watchdog has dragged embattled gold producer Wiluna Mining and its former chair Milan Jerkovic to court over allegations it mislead investors.
The Federal Court civil suit centres around a $57.3 million capital raising undertaken by the company in June 2022, which operated a mine in the northern goldfields.
But the Australian Investments and Securities Commission now claims $7 million of those funds were never received, something investors were left in the dark about.
Less than five weeks later, the company was plunged into administration before being de-listed on the ASX in April 2024 for failing to meet its financial reporting obligations.
In a statement released on Monday, ASIC confirmed it had taken legal action against Wiluna and was seeking a declaration of contravention for breaching its continuous disclosure obligations.
Further, the corporate watchdog alleged Jerkovic breached his director duties by failing to detail the amount raised by the company, while former chief commercial officer James Malone has been accused of failing to ensure the statements issued to the market were not false and misleading.
The pair are both being pursued for declarations of contravention and facing the prospect of a financial penalty.
ASIC chair Joe Longo said the company and its two senior officials allegedly engaged in serious contraventions of the Corporations Act by misleading its investors.
“The lack of transparency and subsequent corporate failure have the potential to drive a loss of confidence in our capital markets,” he said.
“Market integrity concerns like this may lead to diminished investor participation in capital raisings in all or sections of Australian equity markets, which ultimately impacts the Australian economy and international standing.
“ASIC will continue to take action to hold directors and officers of publicly listed companies accountable for their misconduct.”
Wiluna remains in the hands of FTI Consulting administrators, who have been working to sell its gold mine.
Just a final quick one from the Cook press conference.
He has responded to a rumour broadcast this morning by our friends at Radio 6PR on their Rumour File segment that Victoria Police are trying to poach WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch.
Cook didn’t discount the rumour completely.
“Hands off Col,” he said.
“He’s a great police commissioner that’s done an incredible job on behalf of the community, and we would obviously be very, very cranky if anyone thought that they could try to poach him,” he said.
Sticking with the Cook press conference, he’s provided some illuminating commentary on his efforts to bring the Western Bears NRL team to WA.
The WA government has submitted its offering to the NRL (see details below) which, according to this masthead last week, the league was not impressed by.
WA’s NRL offer
- $20 million for a rugby Centre of Excellence in Malaga
- $35 million for grass roots development through schools and Clontarf Foundation
- Game day support
- No money for an NRL license fee
The NRL has not yet formally rejected the deal, however, and Cook revealed he had spoken to NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo online on Friday night.
“We continue to work with them and those conversations are continuing to be positive,” he said.
“They haven’t formally responded to that offer in writing, but there is a delta, and that’s of course what those conversations are about.”
Cook was stinging in his criticism of the NRL last week after reports his offer was rejected, accusing the NRL of treating WA “like a cash cow”.
Cook said the cash cow comment did not come up in the chat he’d had on Friday.
“It wasn’t raised in the conversation, it was much more polite than that,” he said.
The NRL hosted a double header in WA at Optus stadium on the weekend which was attended by 30,000 people.
To the Perth CBD now, where Housing Minister John Carey and Premier Roger Cook have held a press conference to mark the opening of the Perth Hub – that glass tower at the edge of the Perth City Link next to the RAC Arena.
Questions immediately moved to the Coalition and Labor’s election pledges for first home buyers announced yesterday.
Peter Dutton promised to allow first home buyers to deduct interest payments from their taxable income for the first five years after purchasing a newly built home.
While in Perth yesterday Anthony Albanese pledged $10 billion to build 100,000 homes for first home buyers and allow first home buyers to purchase a property with just a 5 per cent deposit, with the government to guarantee the remaining 15 per cent.
Plenty of economists have panned both ideas as inflationary to house prices.
When asked about their impact on home prices in WA, Carey skirted to crux of the question and instead said boosting supply was the only way to bring down house prices.
“As the Housing Minister, I’m advised every day or given different advice on strategies about the housing market, but it is fair to say that more housing supply is the best way to drive more affordable homes and provide that certainty for new home buyers,” he said.
To breaking news now and two Scarborough security guards will front court this morning after being accused of assaulting two patrons outside The Lookout last night.
WA Police allege the guards had a physical altercation with a 39-year-old man, and a woman in her 20s, outside a bar along The Esplanade around 8.15pm.
The male victim had to be treated at Joondalup Health Campus for injuries to his head and face.
A 32-year-old man from Balga has been charged with causing bodily harm, wilfully destroying evidence, stealing and common assault.
A 37-year-old man from Nollamara has been charged with causing bodily harm.
Both are due to appear in Perth Magistrates Court today.
To overnight news now and two cars at the same business in Mirrabooka have been torched over the weekend, one day apart.
WA Police say the incidents occurred outside an office on Chesterfield Road, one at 9pm on Saturday, and one at 7.20pm Sunday.
Firefighters extinguished both blazes and the arson squad is at the scene this morning.
The vehicles sustained fire and smoke damage, and had smashed windows.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers.