As it happened: WA news on Friday, February 7

Good afternoon readers, and thanks for following along.

Perth Festival 2025 kicks off today: 24 days, 104 different events (64 of which are free), more than 380 artists, including 143 international artists and 173 local WA artists.

Launching tonight, and illuminating the skies every night during the festival, is the powerful Karla Bidi (Fire Trail). Inspired by the Noongar tradition of lighting fires to greet and guide visitors, this installation transforms the Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River) into a stunning trail of campfires from Walyalup to Mandoon, from Fremantle to Guildford.

With 11 locations scattered along the river’s edge, each activation starts from 7.45pm on 15-minute loops with a short interval and runs until late. No tickets, no theatre seats – just the sky, the sounds and the riverbank.

Other notable locations for the festival include the reinvigorated, reopened East Perth Power Station, Heath Ledger Theatre, Studio Underground, His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth Town Hall and Regal Theatre, all with an incredible variety of music acts and theatre performances.

Discover the full Perth Festival 2025 program at perthfestival.com.au.

Have a great weekend; we’ll see you next week!

Elon Musk’s Tesla will establish a battery service and repair centre in Collie under a deal inked by the WA government in December but only revealed today on the election trail.

Premier Roger Cook and Energy Minister Reece Whitby were in Collie on Friday near the site of the new “remanufacturing” facility, which will allow it to service and repair its grid-scale Megapack batteries in WA, rather than send them to China.

Tesla’s Megapack batteries are being used in the Neoen Collie battery project next door to the Tesla site expected to open in 2026.

Cook said the facility would renew Tesla’s battery products across WA with the potential to become a South East Asian hub.

“Once scaled up, it will be able to service residential Tesla batteries and EV charging equipment,” he said.

“This means faster repairs of batteries for WA and will help to encourage more battery uptake across the state.”

The facility will employ about 50 people once it has reached full scale.

When asked whether the state government considered Musk’s political activity following his appointment in the Trump administration when deciding to work with Tesla, Cook said no.

“Tesla is a big global public company,” he said.

“They are looking to invest and invest significantly in Western Australia, because they see the potential of our energy transition of Western Australia becoming a renewable energy powerhouse.”

Collie has been pumped with cash over the past eight years of government, with special industry funds pouring hundreds of millions into private ventures into the coal mining town to help it transition away from coal.

Cook also announced a further $30 million for the Collie industrial transition fund.

All Stars coach Xavier Clarke and the AFL hierarchy are confident the league will soon experience an uptick in the number of Indigenous players, reversing a worrying trend partly blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Clarke in 2017, when he was assistant coach for the Richmond Tigers.Credit: Getty Images AsiaPac

Clarke, an assistant at North Melbourne, has been named as coach of the Indigenous All Stars side for the February 15 showdown with Fremantle at Optus Stadium.

The number of Indigenous players featuring in the AFL has fallen in recent years, going from an all-time high of 86 in 2020 down to just 63 ahead of the 2025 campaign.

It represents the lowest number since 2006, when only 58 Indigenous players were on AFL lists.

Clarke said it had been disappointing to see the numbers drop, but was optimistic about what lay ahead.

He dismissed the notion AFL clubs were turning away from players from disadvantaged backgrounds or communities.

“I’ve seen it first-hand, clubs are crying out to draft more players and talent,” Clarke said.

“Clubs now are really well resourced in terms of drafting Indigenous players. It’s better than I’ve ever seen it.”

The last time the All Stars match was held was in 2015, when a sellout crowd of 10,000 fans watched West Coast triumph by eight points at Perth’s Leederville Oval.

With Optus Stadium boasting a capacity of 60,000, the AFL have invested big this time around, and Perth football fans are expected to rock up in droves.

AAP

WA’s weather has been all over the shop over the past year, according to the Bureau of Meteorology latest annual climate statement.

Heavy rainfall was recorded above the average across the inland areas of the state where it is usually dry, but well below-average rain on the south-west coast.

Heatwaves also battered Perth, with the city doubling its record for the number of days hotter than 40 degrees in February.

Australians overall experienced their second-warmest year since records began in 1910.

The trend of extremes seems like it could continue, with severe heatwaves, a cyclone and bushfires all happening this January, sometimes on the same day.

You can view the fullnational wrap below.

The conservatives in Australia’s most cashed-up state can get off the canvas after a thumping at the last election, but they face another four years in opposition.

A Newspoll published by The Australian newspaper on Friday had Labor ahead of the Liberals 56-44 on a two-party preferred basis – a swing of almost 14 per cent from the 2021 election.

Former WA premier Colin Barnett during an address to the National Press Club of Australia in Canberra on Wednesday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

If replicated across Western Australia, it would hand the Liberals a further 12 seats but still leave them facing a third-consecutive landslide defeat.

Former premier Colin Barnett says his party had a “very high mountain to climb” to win office and “a credible result would be to win back a further 10 seats” giving it 13.

“That would be about a 10 per cent swing, which I think is very much achievable,” he told AAP on Friday.

“It would take a significantly bigger swing, probably a 20 per cent swing or so, to get anywhere near getting into government.

“So it’s a recovery operation for the Liberal Party.”

But he said winning back seats would make the WA Liberals “formidable opposition” in 2029.

He also said WA was a mining and agriculture state and the Albanese government’s nature-positive laws and the live sheep export ban had not gone down well with voters.

AAP

Who doesn’t love some feel-good news about a cute marsupial?

New research has revealed the Gilbert’s potoroo – Australia’s most critically endangered marsupial and the world’s rarest – is showing signs of population recovery in WA.

The Gilbert’s potoroo.

The little marsupial was near extinction but years of ongoing efforts from scientists is changing that.

The research, led by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions in partnership with university researchers and The Gilbert’s Potoroo Action Group, was published in Pacific Conservation Biology.

It details 30 years of conservation work since the species was rediscovered at Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve near Albany in 1994, after being presumed extinct for over a century.

Following its rediscovery, scientists established two ‘insurance populations’ between 2005 and 2014 – one on Bald Island off Cheynes Beach in the Great Southern region and a second in a mainland enclosure within nearby Waychinicup National Park.

These insurance populations proved vital when a devastating bushfire swept through Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve in 2015, effectively wiping out the original population.

Scientists are now working to restore this population using animals from the insurance colonies.

Turning to the District Court now, and a former Nationals MP who was serving almost three years in jail for child sex abuse until having his conviction quashed has lifted the lid on his 410-day prison stint as he awaits a date for his retrial.

James Dorrin Hayward stood trial in August 2023, where he was found guilty of abusing an eight-year-old girl on two occasions between 2019 and 2021 and sentenced to two years and nine months jail.

Former Nationals MP James Hayward speaks to media outside Perth District Court on Friday.Credit: Jesinta Burton

But the 56-year-old was released on bail last month after having his convictions set aside and his request for a retrial granted by the Court of Appeal.

During a District Court hearing on Friday, the state requested a four-week adjournment before dates were set for a retrial to assess the availability of witnesses.

The matter is expected to return to court on March 7.

The court is yet to release its reasons for the decision, but Hayward is understood to have claimed he did not receive a fair trial.

Outside court, Hayward told the media the 410 days he spent behind bars were “tremendously difficult” and vowed to lay bare the poor treatment of prisoners should he be successful in his bid to return to parliament.

“It was very depressing. Prison is a pretty awful place to be, and there are a lot of guys in there doing it really, really tough,” he said.

“There are three guys in a cell at Hakea [Prison] at the moment in a cell designed for a single person – I mean, that’s the outrageous state of our justice system in terms of how we’re looking after our prisoners.”

Since his release, the former upper house member has been vying to return to parliament because the convictions which rendered him ineligible for higher office have since been overturned.

Hayward confirmed he had penned a letter to parliament seeking clarification on whether he could return and deliver an hour-long valedictory speech protected by parliamentary privilege, something he told the media he wanted to utilise to “say some things some might not want to hear”.

Hayward resigned from the WA Nationals when the charges were laid in December 2021, but continued serving as an independent MP until he was convicted.

The day after Hayward’s conviction, the government passed a motion which stripped him of his rights as a former member of parliament – including his right to access Parliament House.

Hayward has always maintained his innocence.

The Liberals have been licking their chops after that Productivity Commission report we reported on earlier this morning.

Leader Libby Mettam has wasted no time capitalising on it, announcing a new nurse attraction strategy.

WA Liberal Leader Libby Mettam. Credit: AFR

The Pathway to Patients election pledge is a $40 million program that would offer nurses studying and working in WA up to $20,000.

Student nurses would be offered $12,500 over the course of their degree and a further $7500 if they stay in the state and work in the hospital system for two years.

Mettam said she expected the program to put at least 2000 additional nurses in the pipeline.

“Under Roger Cook we have some of the lowest rates of nursing in the country,” she said.

“Healthcare professionals are leaving the sector because they’re being asked to do more with less under WA Labor.

“By directly supporting university students financially through the Pathways to Patients program, we are investing in more than just students, we are investing in the future health of West Australians.”

Mettam was flanked by studying nurse Amy who said a commitment like that would mean she would not need to worry about student debt.

“I can put my money toward important things like a house deposit and cost of living as well because I’m not going to have the pressure of a large student debt,” she said.

When asked whether she was worried about entering the strained system Amy gave the government a good plug.

“I know that we do need a lot more nurses. I know that the government is going to support us so I’m not feeling very worried,” she said.

He’s a one-cap England international whose glorious mullet is already causing problems at schools, and now Nic Dolly has his eyes firmly set on donning Wallabies gold.

Dolly was among the Western Force’s big off-season signings, and he has high hopes of helping the Super Rugby Pacific franchise snare a finals berth this year.

Nic Dolly with his mullet on full display.Credit: Getty Images Europe

His journey to Perth has been a unique one.

Sydney-born Dolly had just completed high school when he set off to England at the end of 2016 for what was meant to be an eight-week holiday to visit family.

That eight-week plan turned into an eight-year English adventure, which included a shock Test debut for England against South Africa in 2021 under Eddie Jones.

The 25-year-old’s shock appearance for England ended up being in a brave win over South Africa.

It would be Dolly’s only appearance for England, and he is now eligible to represent Australia given more than three years have passed.

Dolly’s mullet has already had a big impact on kids across England, and the theme is set to continue in Australia.

“It’s quite funny when parents come up to you and say, ‘my kid’s got a mullet because of you’, or ‘The school made him chop it off and he’s devastated’,” Dolly said with a laugh.

“It’s pretty cool you can have that influence on kids.”

Dolly, who will compete with Brandon Paenga-Amosa and Tom Horton for the hooker role at the Force, declared he is keen to stick around and help the club achieve long-term success.

AAP

But, on another health-related note, it’s good news for St John WA – after a tumultuous time under the spotlight for growing wait times for priority one cases, the latest data shows they are now the fastest metropolitan ambulance service in the country.

Priority one response times were 9.6 minutes in the 2023 to 2024 financial year. Across WA, the response time was 9.9 minutes, in line with Tasmania in the top spot.

St John WA is now top of the country when it comes to response times. Credit: St John

Triple zero call takers answered 97.3 per cent of calls in under 10 seconds – the best result for WA in the past decade.

St John also received over 3 million calls – also the highest number of calls, emergency incidents and total patients in a decade.

St John WA chief emergency officer Brendon Brodie-Hall hailed the findings as the result of all the hard work of team members working together to meet the communities’ expectations of their ambulance service.

Chief-executive Kevin Brown agreed, welcoming the findings.

“I couldn’t be prouder of our people on the frontline and in our State Control Centre – they do an incredible job getting information quickly and calmly from people during the most stressful time in their lives to ensure they deliver the best patient care possible,” Brown said.

“And I thank those who co-ordinate, innovate and transform the service to respond appropriately to patients needs while ensuring in a life-threatening emergency we have the resources to deploy rapidly.”