As it happened: WA news on Tuesday, November 12

We’re bringing our blog to a close for the day, thank you for joining us.

Scroll back to see some of the highlight’s from the day’s news. Making headlines today was the latest from the trial of two parents accused of starving their teenage daughter.

The girl’s mother took to the witness stand in Perth District Court and claimed her husband – also on trial over the same offences – kept information from her about concerns surrounding the girl.

Meanwhile, Police Minister Paul Papalia has delivered a pointed criticism of Liberal candidate for Churchlands and City of Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas over his position on firearms reforms.

And a WA mother “savagely killed the person she loved most” – her toddler son – while in the grip of psychosis, a Perth court has been told.

Also in court news, former West Coast premiership player David Wirrpanda has pleaded guilty to breaching a family violence restraining order.

Thank you again for joining us, we’ll see you again tomorrow as we bring you all the news you need to know.

A 22-year-old Shoalwater man - who has allegedly never held a driver’s licence - has been charged with reckless driving after allegedly bringing traffic to a halt on Sunday with a burnout on a busy road in Perth’s south.

Police allege the man was driving a Holden Statesman on Thomas Road in Oakford about 2pm on Sunday when he performed an “extensive burnout”, sending out a plume of smoke which caused other drivers to come to a halt.

A 22-year-old Shoalwater man has been charged, and his car towed after allegedly bringing traffic to a halt with a burnout in Oakford on Sunday.Credit: WA Police

What’s more, police claim the man was doing the burnout the day after a fatal crash involving a friend at the same location.

Among the Statesman’s passengers were an 11-month-old child, a teenage boy, and a woman in her 20s.

Police caught up with the alleged driver the next day, intercepting the car in Shoalwater. The 22-year-old man has been charged with reckless driving and no authority to drive, and his car was towed by police.

Road Policing Commander Mike Bell didn’t mince his words today:

This man allegedly committed an act of reckless driving a day after a fatal crash at that location involving his friend, and at a time when he had passengers, including an 11-month-old child in the car. This is beyond disappointing, this is completely idiotic.

The Shoalwater man is due to appear before Rockingham Magistrates Court on Friday, November 22.

One of the biggest thorns in the side of the WA Labor government is now being recognised by them.

Suresh Rajan can often be found at press conferences standing alongside migrant families berating the government for failures in health and multiculturalism and on Tuesday he was recognised for this effort as West Australian metropolitan senior of the year.

Suresh Rajan.Credit: WAtoday

Rajan’s win was announced alongside regional senior West Australian of the year, Aunty Irene Davey at the 2024 WA seniors awards today.

Rajan has spent four-decades advocating for multicultural communities and culturally and linguistically diverse Western Australians and in recent years has spent much of his time seeking answers from WA’s health system for migrant families like the family of Aishwarya Aswath.

“There is much to do in the aged care space, particularly in this environment of an ageing population,” he said.

“I hope that awards of this nature will spur others into engaging with communities so that we provide the very best for those in our community who have been the backbone of our society to date.

“We particularly need to do a lot of work in the space of intersectionality between diversity issues.”

Davey is a much-loved Bardi Jawi cultural elder from the Ardyaloon community in the Kimberley.

She has championed the preservation of her culture and language and has taught the Bardi Jawi language at One Arm Point Community School.

Her biography, A Lifetime of Truth-telling, will be out next year.

A Floreat mother accused of starving her teenage daughter has taken to the witness stand in her District Court trial, claiming her husband – also on trial over the same offences – kept information from her about concerns surrounding the girl.

The girl’s parents outside court last month. Credit: 9News Perth

The 47-year-old woman who cannot be identified, has been asked questions this afternoon about her daughter, who was enrolled in dance classes before teachers and parents began asking questions about her emaciated appearance.

She told the jury she did not know the Department of Communities was in contact with her husband or that he had booked and then cancelled multiple appointments with a nutritionist despite insistence from the authorities that she be checked by a doctor.

The mother, who at multiple times during her evidence broke down crying, told the jury her husband lied to her repeatedly over concerns around the girl’s weight.

She also told the jury the girl, who weighed just 28 kilograms when she was almost 17 years old, lived on a diet of pasta, gnocchi, stir fries, chickpeas, casserole, chips, popcorn, chocolate, lollies, crackers, hummus and avocados.

The woman’s husband gave evidence earlier this week that he withheld information from his wife of 20 years about authorities raising concerns about the girl’s weight and appearance.

The trial continues.

Sticking with question time, Police Minister Paul Papalia has delivered a pointed criticism of Liberal candidate for Churchlands and City of Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas over his position on firearms reforms.

Papalia described the media personality’s weekly ‘Ten Things’ column in Friday’s edition of The West Australian as his “ten commandments”.

WA Police Minister Paul Papalia.

He lashed Zempilas for deflecting to Liberal leader Libby Mettam when asked by the ABC for his position on Labor’s firearms reforms last week.

He also challenged Zempilas to declare in his column his support for Mettam as Liberal leader and the firearms laws and commit to not watering them down if the Liberals and Nationals form government after the March election.

“Liberal candidate for Churchlands. You’ve got a platform … it’s not like you’re voiceless,” he said.

“One or two out of 10 should include those points. I look forward to reading Friday’s paper.”

Churchlands includes the suburb of Floreat where Jennifer Petelczyc, 59, and her 18-year-old daughter Gretl were fatally shot by Mark Bombara in May.

The Liberals commitment to Labor’s firearms reforms, which have gained royal assent and will come into effect next year, was thrust into the spotlight last week after Nationals leader Shane Love said his party would not form government with the Liberals unless they committed to rewriting the act.

Zempilas was contacted for comment.

Let’s head to Parliament House now, where yesterday’s $7.2 billion Westport announcement has taken up much of question time.

Premier Cook in question time today.Credit: Parliament of Western Australia

Asked a Dorothy Dixer on the port, Premier Roger Cook savaged the Liberal Party’s opposition to the project.

Referring to comments made by Liberal leader Libby Mettam on Monday that the port was not a priority of her party, Cook said failing to build the port would cost $5 billion a year by the end of the 2030s when Fremantle Port reached capacity.

“We know the growth of the port is continuing. We need to act now,” he said.

“The Liberals’ position is to ignore it?”

Mettam then asked her own question about the port, calling it a misguided investment when WA was facing rolling crises in health, housing and women’s safety.

Cook said his government was addressing health, housing and the cost of living while also building infrastructure.

Directly after that question Saffioti had another spray at the Liberals’ infrastructure plans, showing an image of Liberal party supporters of the now defunct Roe 8 and Roe 9 projects.

She said “Honk for Roe 8 and Roe 9” was the extent of their infrastructure vision.

The opposition has moved a matter of public interest motion on Westport that will be debated after question time.

It follows the Property Council today calling for the state to consider delaying major infrastructure projects as fierce competition for construction workers exacerbates the housing crisis. You can read that story in the related article.

Warning: this report contains distressing details.

A WA mother “savagely killed the person she loved most” – her toddler son – while in the grip of psychosis, a Perth court has been told.

Sara McCullock is accused of murdering her 14-month old Jace on April 26, 2022 inside their Madora Bay home.

The 31-year-old admits to repeatedly slamming her son’s head on the kitchen floor, but has pleaded not guilty to murder due to unsoundness of mind.

Sara Jade McCullock has been charged with alleged murder of her 14-month-old son Jace.

During the first day of her Supreme Court trial today, the prosecution alleged McCullock had a long history of mental illness, but said she had been able to function well when properly medicated for her paranoid schizophrenia.

During the early stages of Jace’s short life, he was healthy, well-dressed and his mother took him to activities such as swimming lessons and rhyme time.

But in the early hours of April 27, she opened her front door to police – who were responding to a complaint about noisy music – holding her baby’s body.

The state alleges McCullock had stopped taking her medication in the months before the death, and had voluntarily taken cannabis and alcohol in the days and weeks before, exacerbating her mental impairments.

McCullock’s mother and sister noticed her acting erratically, lying on the floor in public, skolling wine and dancing in the street, and tried to get her to see a doctor.

On the night Jace died, McCullock told her sister she would go to the hospital the next morning, but was tired and wanted to sleep first.

She later told authorities she thought people were trying to torture Jace and that it would be better for her to kill him.

The defence claims the tragedy was caused by a deep-rooted schizophrenia, not a drug-induced psychosis.

The state says to claim she was not accountable, the defence must prove that her intentional intoxication with THC oil played no role in her actions.

with 9 News Perth

Sticking with Premier Roger Cook’s press conference in Clarkson this morning, he has admitted he still hasn’t read the Corruption and Crime Commission report into Labor electorate officers doing party-political activity on the taxpayer dime.

This is despite the whole report being triggered by comments made under oath by his former staffer Sanja Spasojevic that it was common practice for Labor electorate officers to do campaign work during office hours.

Premier Roger Cook today. Credit: 9 News Perth

The report made damning findings that it was highly likely this practice was widespread among Labor MP offices but made no findings of serious misconduct because there were no timesheets to prove – or disprove – the allegations.

It was published at 8am Monday but Cook said he hadn’t read it, though he had received a briefing.

Here are his responses from the press conference:

No, I haven’t read it. I’ve received a brief briefing in relation to its contents, and obviously it raises the ongoing issue of maintaining integrity in our public service. As I made the observation yesterday, it is not surprising that people who work for politicians are working to assist that politician to get re-elected, but it’s important they do so with integrity and respect the roles that they play as a full-time public servant.

Journalist 1: Shouldn’t you have read it? It’s talking about a risk of serious misconduct within Labor electorate officers. Surely that’s important enough for you to read?

Yeah, well, as you say, it says that there’s a potential for risk, but it doesn’t say that there has been any misconduct.

Journalist 2: It does say, though, that it’s suspected that electorate officers were working [on party politics] in their work time, but he couldn’t prove it, because there’s no actual proper record-keeping. So should that be rectified at least?

Well, I’ll leave that up to the CCC to speculate on.

Journalist 1: Isn’t it up to you to decide whether to act on the CCC’s recommendation, and yet, you haven’t read it?

And we will be looking at the CCC report and responding to it in due course. OK. Thank you very much.

Returning to politics, WA Premier Roger Cook has weighed in on the City of Perth’s plan, reported in our 10am post, to elect another stand-in lord mayor ahead of the potential departure of current Lord Mayor – and Liberals candidate – Basil Zempilas, branding the current situation a “shemozzle”.

City of Perth councillors are expected to spend the next week mulling a recommendation to appoint councillor Catherine Lezer to the role ahead of the March state election, with concerns the office may be vacant for an extended period if Zempilas secures the seat of Churchlands.

When quizzed about the move at a press conference in Clarkson today, Cook said:

The Lord Mayor of Perth is on one hand advocating for the people of Perth, but on the other hand telling the people of Churchlands that he’s advocating on their issues. When he was [re-]elected, he told the people of Perth that he would stay for a full four years, but just three months later indicated that he would be aspiring towards representing the people of Churchlands. This is entirely a matter for the City of Perth, but it really is a shemozzle and should be sorted.

The comments come just days after Zempilas formally opened his Wembley campaign office alongside former premier Colin Barnett and several weeks after Cook admitted to dodging scheduled meetings with the mayor over the “changing dynamics” of the relationship.

Explosive testimony from the Supreme Court of WA just now where our crime reporter Rebecca Peppiatt is covering accused killer Andre Rebelo taking the stand for the first time in his murder trial.

He has told the jury pressure from his mother to set up three life insurance policies in her name was to blame for naming himself the sole beneficiary of $1.15 million in the event of her death.

The 28-year-old also said putting his address and not his mother Colleen Rebelo’s on an application, days before she died, was because he was sleep-deprived due to his toddler and was rushing.

Rebelo denies killing his mother on May 25, 2020 but has admitted forging documents in an attempt to draw down on one of the policies, worth $500,000.

On Tuesday, he told the jury he made “silly mistakes” when setting up the policies, and claimed he set up the premium repayments to come from his own bank account because he didn’t want to disturb his mother for bank details and admit to her he hadn’t set up the policies yet.

The court has previously heard Rebelo was in debt and being hounded by collection agencies at the time his mother died.

Read more of Rebelo’s testimony in the related article.