As it happened: WA news on Tuesday, January 28

And that’s all from our first live blog for 2025, thanks for joining us today folks.

Among our headlines covered today was the news that thousands of WA households remained in the dark after extreme weather sparked a spate of pole-top fires and bushfires.

It was a crisis seized on by our politicians (there’s an election coming up in March, after all), with Opposition Leader Shane Love saying the outages represented a systematic failure of investment in critical power infrastructure.

For his part, Premier Roger Cook said occasional power outages were regrettable but not always avoidable.

He blamed the “strange set of weather patterns” over the past week for the 130 pole-top fires.

We also started the working week with a celebration of sorts, as the latest CommSec State of the States report once again crowned WA the nation’s best-performing economy.

A former Perth man was arrested and extradited from Brisbane over numerous alleged child sex offences dating back decades.

An escalating marine heatwave has been identified as the likely cause of more than 30,000 fish washing up dead in the Pilbara earlier this month.

Meanwhile, all eyes will be trained west on federal election night, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton told a press conference in Kalamunda.

And finally, the chief of executive of the new Perth Film Studios has been revealed, with 20-year veteran of the UK film industry Tom Avison to fly south to take on the role.

Thanks again for joining us today, come back tomorrow as we bring you more news you need to know.

To culture news now, and the chief executive of the new Perth Film Studios has been revealed, with current Sky Studios Elstree director of operations Tom Avison tapped to fly south for the role.

Avison’s background in film production has seen him involved in recent blockbusters including Wicked, Paddington 3, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy and Jurassic World: Rebirth.

New Perth Film Studios chief executive Tom Avison.Credit: Home Fire

He previously led 3 Mills Studios in East London, as well as Twickenham Studios in West London.

Avison said he had always been attracted to opportunities that were “full of creative energy”, which drew him to Perth and the emerging studio, driven by local company Home Fire.

“Not only did I see a world-class studio facility emerging, but also an experienced and successful screen sector growing at pace – I saw a chance that was too good to resist,” he said.

“I am very excited and honoured to be joining this team.”

Home Fire director Howard Cearns said Avison was a proven leader in the screen industry.

“Sky Studios Elstree, owned and operated by Sky (part of Comcast), is one of the UK’s largest studios, a 35-acre facility with 12 stages covering 260,000 square feet,” he said.

“To successfully host the production of Wicked and Wicked: For Good as its opening client, followed by a significant number of productions from NBCU and other major US studios and streamers, across multiple stages, highlights Tom’s expertise, experience, and reputation.”

Meanwhile, James Grandison has been brought on board as the business and industry development director. Grandison had been working as a consultant for Home Fire but is now with the company full-time.

Screenwest chief executive Rikki Lea Bestall said the new hired added to the confidence and momentum building behind the state’s screen industry sector.

Now, what’s the saying again? Lights, camera… action!

Everyone understands that exercise helps burn energy, so it follows that it must surely also increase your hunger, right? Right?

Well, not exactly. Just ask researchers at Murdoch University’s Health Futures Institute.

A new study has revealed that moderate-intensity exercise can significantly influence appetite-related hormones and perceptions in men with obesity.

Even moderate-level exercise can help regulate your appetite, according to a new study.Credit: Nicolas Walker

Associate Professor Timothy Fairchild, from Murdoch’s School of Allied Health, said the study confirmed previous work showing the benefits of incorporating regular exercise into daily routines.

“This latest study shows that even moderate-intensity exercise can have immediate and beneficial effects on appetite control in males with obesity,” said Fairchild, a co-author of the study.

“Despite a strong focus on weight loss drugs in society at present, this study shows that lifestyle factors still have a strong and relevant role in helping people to live their healthiest life.

“In fact, the hormones which have been shown to increase after exercise, are the same hormones which the most successful weight-loss drugs are mimicking.”

The study assessed food intake and appetite, and measured changes in hormones which helped regulate appetite.

The full study – Acute effect of exercise on appetite-related factors in males with obesity: A pilot study – can be found in the Physiological Reports journal.

So, if you needed some inspiration to get out and make a move on those new year’s resolutions, read no further.

All eyes will be trained west on federal election night, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has told a press conference in Kalamunda.

“When you move around Perth and here in Bullwinkel and across the state you can detect a change in attitude, a change in mood, and I hope that momentum continues up to election night,” he said.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton in Kalamunda on Tuesday. Credit: 9 News Perth

“We’ll be looking to the west to see the results and if we can change some of these seats over and Matt Moran can become the member for Bullwinkel then I think we can win the election, but there’s a long way to go.”

Quizzed on the new national chief scientist’s criticism of his nuclear power plan, he said there was no credible pathway to net zero by 2050 without it.

He said for smelters and heavy industries to operate they needed reliable baseload power which would require “a lot more gas in the system” then a transition to nuclear. It would also require extended reliance on coal, he said.

He said this plan was “44 per cent cheaper” than Labor’s transition plan involving green hydrogen and batteries; a “pipe dream” that would spell power interruptions.

“Twiggy Forrest has decided to pull back from green hydrogen. It’s not commercially viable and it’s not scalable,” he said.

“The prime minister actually has no pathway to replace coal-fired generation.”

He accused the PM of having different messaging in different states, telling West Australians “gas is great” but Sydney voters that the federal government would not be investing in gas.

He said “every credible energy expert in the country” was saying gas production would need to ramp up as demand would increase and without greater supply, prices would spike.

He reiterated the Liberal Party would match Labor’s $350 million commitment to widen the Kwinana Freeway, but Premier Roger Cook this morning rubbished his comments, saying Dutton pledging support while the state’s shadow treasurer Steve Martin saying they would not support the plan was “an example of just how much of a shambles they really are.”

Cook said Dutton had three things he needed to do in WA while here: commit to the production tax credit for hydrogen and critical minerals businesses, back the GST deal and rule out a nuclear power plant in Collie.

“It’s a ludicrous, uncosted, ridiculous, and distracting commitment,” he said.

Not content with famed WA engineer C.Y. O’Connor’s existing 600-kilometre Perth to Kalgoorlie water pipeline, the Nationals have revealed ambitious plans to build a new pipeline between Esperance and the Goldfields town to alleviate its water supply woes.

The existing Perth to Kalgoorlie water pipeline.Credit: Getty

Nationals leader Shane Love was in the Goldfields today to announce the commitment to spend $2 million on investigating the 350-kilometre pipeline and $100 million from Royalties for Regions to get the project under way if feasible.

Kalgoorlie’s industry is currently hampered by its lack of commercial water supply, with the existing pipeline for drinking water only. Most businesses draw water from the ground which is six times as salty as seawater.

Love said water was as precious as gold for inland communities like Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

“Water is currently a limiting factor to expansion of the Goldfields population and economy; this transformational project would remove that limitation,” he said.

“While Kalgoorlie has nearly enough water at the moment to serve its needs, nearly enough is not enough.”

Nationals candidate for Kalgoorlie Tony Perron said the state should look at using a disused gas pipeline between Esperance and Kalgoorlie to transport seawater from the coast to businesses in Kalgoorlie as the town waited for a desalination plant.

The WA Liberals have already pledged $14 million for the Kalgoorlie water bank stormwater capture project if elected.

In case you’re closely following Permai’s journey across the desert, here’s the full video made about day one of her journey.

If you just want a quick squiz at the lady herself eating leaves, that’s around the two-minute mark.

An escalating marine heatwave has been identified as the likely cause of more than 30,000 fish washing up dead in the Pilbara earlier this month.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development has said the incident at Gnoorea Beach near Dampier but it was “likely that prolonged thermal stress” due to these conditions was associated with the deaths.

Executive Director, Fisheries and Agriculture Resource Management Nathan Harrison said marine heatwaves could last from days to months and have wide-reaching impacts on habitats, plankton, fish and fisheries.

Environs Kimberley acting chief executive Martin Pritchard observing coral bleaching at Entrance Point, near Broome.Credit: Damian Kelly

And a warmer ocean off WA during 2024 preconditioned a high marine heatwave risk scenario for the summer months.

The nearshore waters along the Pilbara coast were currently around 31 degrees, 2-3 degrees above normal for this time of year.

It follows WAtoday reporting just before Christmas on coral bleaching at two reefs near Broome amid spiking ocean temperatures.

The Conservation Council of WA has linked WA’s fossil fuel expansion and increasing carbon emissions to the climate crisis, particularly the recent approval of Woodside’s North West Shelf gas plant to operate until 2070, and the company’s application to drill for gas near the Scott Reef, a haven for endangered marine life, as part of the same operation.

They have called for the WA government to phase out fossil fuels and pass laws to limit pollution.

Environs Kimberley Executive Director Martin Pritchard said 70-90 per cent of corals were predicted to die worldwide even under conservative predicted climate trajectories, that is, warming of 1.5C.

He said the organisation was concerned about the state government’s lack of “any action or response” to the recent marine heatwave, coral bleaching and fish kill.

“We need the state Environment Minister Reece Whitby to take action here so we actually understand the damage to Kimberley marine life so far,” he said.

“Then he can tell us how the WA government will make sure it doesn’t get worse.”

The minister was contacted for comment.

WA experienced one of the worst marine heatwaves on record in 2010/11, which caused major losses of seagrass and kelp, and impacts on fisheries such as Roe’s Abalone and Gascoyne saucer scallops.

A former Perth man has been arrested and extradited from Brisbane over numerous alleged child sex offences.

Craig Norwood, 49, is alleged to have assaulted three male victims between 1997 and 2007 in the Perth metro area where he used to live.

He is due to appear in Perth Magistrates Court today after being arrested at Brisbane Airport and returned to WA by sex crimes division officers.

“Even though you might have thought you got away with it all those years ago, we’re still coming for you”, were the words WA Police commissioner Col Blanch had today for the alleged offender.

Speaking on Radio 6PR, Blanch said three factors generally led to breakthroughs on cold cases.

“The first one is the advancement of DNA,” he said.

“We’ve had some extraordinary successes. More recently with just acceleration of technology in the DNA world, we revisit cold cases and we look for new leads and new ideas. And probably the last one to commend the most is victims themselves. [They] have got to a point in their life where they want to come forward and tell their story.”

Blanch said arrests in historic cases such as this gave much relief to victims.

“We can’t ever turn back time, but we can give them that sense of justice that they’ve probably been yearning for – for years,” he said.

Norwood was charged with 48 child sex offences, two counts of stupefying in order to commit an indictable offence, two counts of sexual penetration without consent and one count of supplying a prohibited drug (cannabis).

This investigation is ongoing and detectives urge anyone with any information relating to this or similar matters, to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or via www.crimestopperswa.com.au.

Back to the power outages issue now, and Premier Roger Cook has responded to the opposition’s comments reported in our 8.40am post, that outages represented a systemic failure to invest in critical power infrastructure.

Cook said occasional power outages were regrettable but not always avoidable.

They were averted wherever possible through measures including the underground power program, with about 50,000 homes taking part in the latest program, and the cleaning and maintenance of the system’s roughly 1 million poles and wires.

He blamed the “strange set of weather patterns” over the past week for the 130 pole-top fires.

“We apologise, and thank people for their patience while our Western Power crews are working around the clock to ensure that we can rectify this situation as quickly as possible,” he said.

“We know what the opposition wants to do. They want to privatise the system … rip profits out of people’s pockets for their power bills. We own our poles and wires. Why? Because WA Labor kept our poles and wires in public hands, and as a result of that, we have some of the most competitive power prices in the country.”

He acknowledged this was a struggle for people, particularly small businesses, even if they had insurance for such situations, and encouraged everyone eligible to apply for compensation payments.

He said the timeline for the phase-out of coal was still realistic and the state’s renewable energy investments, including in big batteries, were building the resilience and capacity of the system.

WA is the country’s best-performing economy for the second quarter in a row, shows the latest CommSec State of the States report.

The report tracks eight economic indicators and compares the latest data with decade averages (or the “normal”).

WA led the national performance rankings for the second time in a decade, ranked first on five of the eight indicators: retail spending, relative unemployment, relative population growth, housing finance and dwelling starts.

“What this report shows is what every West Australian knows,” Premier Roger Cook said in a press conference this morning.

“That WA has the strongest economy in the nation. The report also talks to the strongest jobs market in the nation and a strong housing market in the nation. Importantly, we’re top ranked for dwelling starts, which is the strongest sign yet that our housing plan is starting to work, and my WA Labor team has turned the finances around. We have restored the AAA credit rating. We have overseen the creation of more than 340,000 jobs. We’ve put WA in its rightful place as the engine room of the nation’s economy.”

Queensland moved up from third spot, joining South Australia in second spot. Victoria remains in fourth place, with Tasmania steady in fifth.

NSW leapfrogged the ACT into sixth from seventh place, with the nation’s capital slipping back to seventh. The Northern Territory remains eighth.

Chief CommSec Economist Ryan Felsman said overall, economies had slowed in response to higher interest rates and inflation, but were proving resilient due to a strong job market and solid population growth.

As consumers responded to higher borrowing costs and price pressures, the future path would depend whether the job market could hold up as well as the trajectory of interest rates over coming months.

The report also compares annual growth rates of the eight indicators, enabling comparisons of more recent economic momentum. It showed resources-focused Queensland and WA both have the strongest annual economic momentum, and Queensland was now in first spot with Western Australia slipping to second.