Thank you for joining us on 3 million people in WA day.
It’s been a day of outrage over protest graffiti, and our desk editor Cameron Myles got so sick of hearing about the ‘controversy’ that he’s penned an opinion piece that’s definitely worth a read.
Catch up on today’s news you need to know about here, and we hope you’ll join us again tomorrow.
Three climate activists accused of targeting a Woodside Energy annual general meeting with stench gas and flares have pleaded guilty to creating a false belief, labelling their exploits a successful hoax.
Gerard Mazza, 32, Jesse Noakes, 35, and Tahlia Stolarksi, 36, had been charged with aggravated burglary with intent after a Disrupt Burrup Hub protest at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre in April 2023.
The trio pleaded guilty to the lesser charge in Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday after prosecutors dismissed the burglary allegation.
Activist group Disrupt Burrup Hub previously said anti-Woodside campaigners had attempted to evacuate the building using non-toxic stench gas and smoke flares.
Western Australian Police previously said the activists’ actions could have impacted the safety of hundreds of people but they were intercepted before it happened and gas canisters were seized.
Outside court on Thursday, Mazza said the group had pranked Woodside.
“We are guilty of pulling off a successful hoax,” he said in a statement.
Turning to breaking news now, and WA Police Union president Paul Gale has been ousted after members turned down the state government’s second pay deal.
Gale reportedly announced he would be vacating the top job while fronting the media to discuss the decision of officers to reject the offer, which included a 12.5 per cent pay increase over three years.
The deal represented a one per cent increase on the first pay offer, but was deemed unacceptable by 75 per cent of respondents in a ballot earlier this week.
He said the result signalled the union’s intention to escalate industrial action to ensure its members were “respected, rewarded, and retained”.
“We want to make it clear to the public that the frustrations of police officers, who risk their lives every day to protect the community, have been ignored for too long,” he said.
“We are prepared to take strong and decisive action to ensure our members are respected, rewarded, and retained.”
Gale is set to be succeeded by deputy Dave Flaherty in November.
To question time now, where the vandalised perspex sheet has again been raised by Opposition Leader Shane Love, who criticised Premier Roger Cook for his “inaction” on the issue.
Cook was less critical of the museum than his deputy was hours earlier.
He condemned the vandalism that took place and said the item was “not in his taste” but defended the museum for adding it to its collection:
I will not stand as censor-in-chief, and I will not, on behalf of the government, condone or condemn the actions of the museum.
The museum has also said that it does not indicate museum support … rather it’s recording the event and sometimes history is uncomfortable.
If we’re in the habit of deciding what did and did not occur in history, well then we go to a very dark place.
Opposition leader Shane Love has responded incredulously to our exclusive with Roger Cook published this morning where the WA Premier revealed his aspiration to double regional WA’s share of our growing population.
If Cook’s wish was granted today it would mean more than 1.1 million people living outside of the metro area.
At a press conference this afternoon Love accused Cook of copying his own aspirations which he has previously made public.
Love also wants to see major regional towns injected with funding to expand education and health services.
“What we need to see is a situation where, if you look at Queensland, and if you look in New South Wales and Victoria, you’ll see cities which have tertiary hospitals,” he said.
“What we should be seeing towns such as Karratha being a town similar to Townsville, or Geelong or some other larger centre which has its own university, it’s got its own tertiary hospital, and [international airport].
“These are the types of aspirations that that we have for those centres to ensure that our regions actually grow and thrive.”
The WA Museum’s acquisition of a piece of vandalised perspex remains a hot topic today as both Opposition leader Shane Love and Liberal leader Libby Mettam voiced their displeasure at the museum’s actions.
“Throw it in the bin,” Mettam said at a press conference outside parliament house just after lunch.
Ballardong Noongar man Desmond Blurton and ceramic artist Joana Partyka at the Art Gallery of WA last year. Don’t worry, the painting was protected by Perspex.
“It is an absolute insult to industry and the people of Western Australia that under Roger Cook’s regime there is not only no consequences, but these vandals are being celebrated in this way.”
Love did not back Mettam’s call to dispose of the item but said he welcomed the museum’s comments that it would not display it.
“Certainly, that would have given a terrible message to Western Australians that that sort of vandalism is acceptable and that people can act in that way and be celebrated for it,” he said.
“I think if it’s not displayed, then that’s that’s the biggest issue. But it’s unfortunate that it’s been publicised and that it had taken possession of it.”
Meanwhile, the great-granddaughter of Fred McCubbin – the artist whose work, Down on His Luck, was protected by the perspex sheet – said she supported the museum’s decision.
“As an act of protest drawing attention to the impacts of the expansion of fossil fuel extraction in our North West on the priceless ancient indigenous cultural heritage of the Burrup Peninsula, the perspex on McCubbin’s painting was an effective palette for this radical protest,” she said.
Sticking with Saffioti’s press conference, she has also brushed aside suggestions from Seven Group Holdings boss Ryan Stokes that nuclear power NIMBYs could be won over by incentives such as free power.
WA’s Labor government has roundly rejected the federal Coalition’s push to establish nuclear power in Australia and its plans to build a small reactor in Collie.
Would you live next to a nuclear reactor if it meant free power?Credit: iStock
Saffioti said Stokes’ idea, aired at a leadership breakfast on Thursday morning, would not change the government’s stance.
“No, it won’t get us over the line,” she said.
“We’ve got a plan, and that plan is a focus on gas and renewables.”
Saffioti then spruiked her government’s investment in big batteries in Kwinana and Collie.
Stokes, 48, told the breakfast it was time for “sensible debate” around the use of nuclear as an emissions-free baseload power source and suggested cynicism could be “easily” countered with incentives for those living near nuclear infrastructure.
“To deal with the NIMBYism — that’s easy. You can find ways to incentivise people to want to live around a nuclear environment where they have benefits, free energy, free power, or whatever the mechanism; you might be able to entice people who want to kind of be around that and remove the traditional concerns,” he said.
The nuclear debate flared up the same day a grievance by Labor’s Collie-Preston MP Jodie Hanns against the Coalition’s nuclear plan was heard in parliament.
WA Energy Minister Reece Whitby savaged the Coalition plan in his response.
“I think Peter Dutton is engaged in the most cynical political exercise in a generation,” he said.
“There are people who want to believe there is a simple fix to the challenge of the energy transition and climate change, and some even doubt the need to act at all.
“But Peter Dutton is only trying to score a political point and disrupt the transition to renewable energy, not to deliver a solution.
“It is incredibly selfish and reckless, and it threatens Western Australia’s and Australia’s future economic prosperity.”
To parliament now, where Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti has delivered a dressing-down of the WA Museum for accepting a piece of artwork-protecting perspex from the Art Gallery of WA that was vandalised by climate activists last year.
Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti: not a fan of graffiti protests.Credit: Trevor Collens
Saffioti said it was not something she would have done if she was the head of the museum.
“We don’t keep train carriages that people have graffitied ... we don’t do that. We clean the graffiti off because it’s illegal behaviour,” she said.
Saffioti said she didn’t accept the WA Museum’s comments that it accepted the perspex as a preservation of history.
Asked whether the museum should dispose of the item, she said it was not something she could direct museum bosses to do.
An update now on a story we brought you in the daily blog at the start of the month which would have sent shivers running down the spines of the swimmers who frequent City Beach.
In an effort to deter illegal camping at the popular coastal hangout, the Town of Cambridge announced it was turning off the hot water at the beach’s public showers.
Perhaps understandably, that was met with a chilly reception.
The beach is a popular swimming spot.Credit: iStockphoto
At the time, Visit City Beach marketing director Vanessa Baxter said the move seemed unilateral and short-sighted, and didn’t believe it was a solution to the issue of unauthorised campers.
“We do acknowledge there are issues around safety and concerns with some of the people choosing to temporarily or transitionally reside down here, but turning off the hot water to the showers for the whole community doesn’t seem like a particularly thought-through solution,” she said.
However, following the public pushback (and a string of chilly mornings of late), the council announced the hot water would be turned on again from October 19.
“At the end of September, the Town of Cambridge turned off the hot water in the public showers at City Beach as part of the multi-faceted response to address increased illegal camping in the area,” read a notice on the town’s website heralding the move.
“The main impacts of this illegal camping have been an increase in litter and rubbish at City Beach.
“Over the past three weeks, the Town has been working to address these issues with the installation of larger capacity 660L bins, increased frequency of bin collections (to daily), increased ranger patrols, review of CCTV and the issuing of infringements under relevant local laws.
“These measures appear to have been effective in reducing the number of illegal campers in the area and has enabled the Town to respond to the community’s desires for the hot water to be reinstated.”
Crossing now to Crown Perth, where Jesinta Burton is in the audience at The West Australian Leadership Matters business event featuring none other than the boss of Seven Group Holdings, Ryan Stokes.
Stokes, the son of billionaire media mogul Kerry Stokes, waded into the debate surrounding nuclear energy, barely a week after opposition leader Peter Dutton ventured to Collie to meet with the local shire about his proposal to plonk a nuclear reactor in town when its coal power stations close.
Seven Group Holdings boss Ryan Stokes said he believed it was time to progress the debate on nuclear energy.Credit: Jesinta Burton.
Stokes told the business event it was time for “sensible debate” around the use of nuclear as an emissions-free baseload power source and suggested cynicism could be “easily” countered with incentives for those living near nuclear infrastructure.
“You’ve got to have dependable power, and the whole network has to be in balance, so you have to match that demand and when you throw in a whole bunch of variable energy, you can’t do that – we can’t have 100 per cent renewables unless you’re going to build a ridiculous amount,” Stokes said.
“To deal with the NIMBYism — that’s easy. You can find ways to incentivise people to want to live around a nuclear environment where they have benefits, free energy, free power, or whatever the mechanism; you might be able to entice people who want to kind of be around that and remove the traditional concerns.”
Original URL: https://www.smh.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p5kkvs