As it happened: WA news on Monday, November 11

That’s all for today, thank you for joining us.

Here’s a recap of what happened in WA:

• The price tag for Western Australia’s new container port has jumped by more than $2.5 billion to an eye-watering $7.2 billion - making it our state’s biggest infrastructure project.
• Six public schools from across the state have been named as the best in their field at the state’s education awards.
• The Perth man accused of murdering his mother days after setting up several life insurance policies in her name has opted to give evidence in his trial.
• Taxpayer-funded electorate officers in WA Labor MPs’ offices routinely carried out political campaigning duties, a Corruption and Crime Commission report has found.
• The coronial inquest into the domestic violence murder of Perth mother Lynn Cannon in December 2022 has begun in Perth today.
• Resolute Mining has had close to $500 million wiped off its books after the WA gold miner confirmed its chief executive, Terry Holohan, and two other employees were being held by Mali’s military junta in the landlocked African country.

We’ll be back bright and early tomorrow.

Some breaking late news this afternoon and the Perth man accused over the fatal hit-and-run of an elderly man who was riding an e-bike on the Mitchell Freeway in 2022 has just been found guilty.

Costantino Mastrolembo, 47, has been on trial in the Perth District Court, charged with failing to stop and render assistance after striking David Kirby, 86, with his Mitsubishi ASX while on his way to work around 4.30am on October 9.

His defence for not stopping at the accident was that he thought he had hit a kangaroo.

He has not been charged for causing Kirby’s death. Riding a bike on the freeway is prohibited, and the elderly man died instantly upon hitting Mastrolembo’s windscreen.

It took the jury only a couple of hours to reach their verdict this afternoon.

Mastrolembo will be sentenced on December 4.

West Coast coach Andrew McQualter isn’t shying away from the high expectations on Harley Reid, tipping the rising star will take his game to a new level in the face of fresh challenges next year.

No.1 draft pick Reid took the AFL by storm under an intense spotlight in his debut season but will be even more heavily scrutinised by rival teams - not to mention fans and the media - in 2025.

West Coast Eagle Harley Reid.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images

It comes as new coach McQualter seeks to bed down a fresh game plan he hopes will lift the Eagles out of the doldrums in his first year at the helm.

“He’s going to have a huge pre-season learning a new game plan, which is a challenge for someone in their second year,” McQualter said of Reid on Monday, as he took charge of training for the first time.

“There will be no doubt some time to adapt to that but we’ll just look for him to keep doing the fundamentals of the game really well.

“We’ll try to set him up in a role where he can really shine and the expectation of him will be to give back to the group as well.”

WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam has had her say on the government’s Westport announcement this morning – suggesting it was not a priority of her party but refusing to say whether they would scrap the project altogether.

Mettam faced a barrage of questions to clearly define what would happen to the $7.2 billion project if elected, but would not provide any detail.

WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam.Credit: Hamish Hastie

“It’s not a priority of a Liberal government, as I’ve stated what our priorities are, and right at the top is cost of living, law and order, health, housing and restoring our regional services,” she said.

“Well, our question is the same as the questions many voters would be asking. Is this the biggest priority of the Cook Labor government?

“Between Metronet and Westport, we’re talking about $20 billion worth of investment while we have a health system which is on its knees, while we have patients being treated in corridors, while we have children waiting over 18 months to see a pediatrician. This highlights that the Cook Labor government have their priorities all wrong.”

A business case released today suggested the Fremantle container port would run out of capacity by the end of the next decade and the Kwinana port would likely not be finished until around then according to the current approvals and construction timeframe.

Mettam brushed aside those concerns and said Fremantle port was currently at 30 per cent capacity.

According to government figures the port is actually at 60 per cent capacity with the latest figures suggesting 860,000 container movements.

Fremantle Port has a capacity to deal with 1.4 million containers a year.

Mettam said she would release details on the Liberals’ transport policies closer to the election.

WA Corruption and Crime Commissioner John McKechnie has indicated that the CCC is trying to find out who illegally leaked a copy of a draft report to a journalist last month.

The West Australian published the findings of today’s report into WA Labor routinely using its electorate officers for campaigning, weeks before it had been finalised.

McKechnie today said the leak was illegal, and could result in up to three years jail or a $60,000 fine for the culprit.

Journalist: Have you done any investigation into that leak?

McKechnie: That’s a question I’m not going to answer … I’m not prepared to discuss ongoing operations by the Commission.

McKechnie said he was angered by the leak, and that the draft report was only provided to “some people”.

“Clearly it was leaked for a political purpose, I don’t know what that purpose was, if it was, as it were, a controlled detonation of a bombshell, well here we are today” he said.

Returning to the WA Supreme Court now, where murder-accused Andre Rebelo is continuing to give evidence after opting to take the stand in his own defence this morning.

Rebelo has given the jury a glimpse into the life of a successful Instagram model.

Andre Rebelo and his then girlfriend Grace Piscopo.

He says then girlfriend and mother of his child, Grace Piscopo, was employed through an agency called Neon Models who facilitated contracts between her and clothing and accessories brands.

Piscopo would then negotiate figures for either a one photo assignment or a series over the course of six months.

“They would say, pick out 20 pieces of clothing, post four photos, one a week, for X amount of dollars, post the photos at a set time on a set day, and then you would get paid an advance and then the rest at the end,” Rebelo told the jury.

He added that along with business posts, a ‘lifestyle blogger’ would have to post personal photos “to make it seem authentic”.

Rebelo revealed Piscopo would command figures of between $40,000 and $100,000 for a six-month contract and would often be gifted free goods, trips and flights.

He claims she was once contracted to fly to the Maldives to make a YouTube video, which was all expenses paid and that the couple often flew to Sydney and Melbourne for events.

A “bankrupt” Rebelo is accused of murdering his mother, Colleen Rebelo, in May 2020 in an attempt to maintain him and his girlfriend’s “plastic existence”.

He denies killing Colleen, but admits to fraudulently setting up several life insurance policies in her name in the days before her death, and then going to extreme measures to try and claim them.

The coronial inquest into the domestic violence murder of Perth mother Lynn Cannon in December 2022 has begun in Perth today.

The 51-year-old “strong, funny and kind-hearted” woman was stabbed to death by her estranged husband, Paul Cannon, in a jealous rage a day after he found out she had a new partner.

Lynn Cannon, 51, was murdered in December 2022.

The inquest will examine whether the police response on the day of the death was adequate.

“The first police vehicle arrived one hour and 14 minutes after [Lynn’s sister] Christine Holmes first raised concerns about her sister’s welfare with police, and around half an hour after Lynn had been stabbed and the neighbours and housemate called police,” Counsel Assisting, Sarah Tyler said.

“The central question to be considered in this inquest is “was there a missed opportunity, on the part of the WA Police, to save Lynn’s life?”

The inquest heard Lynn’s sister initially provided the wrong street number, 23 instead of 24A, which caused some confusion with police, and that coupled with a “significant demand” for police that night led to a delay in a response.

The Perth man accused of murdering his mother days after setting up several life insurance policies in her name has opted to give evidence in his trial.

Andre Rebelo, 28, has taken the stand this morning after the state’s case against him wrapped up.

Andre and Colleen Rebelo.

He admits going to extraordinary measures, including forgery and lying to “many people” including his family and police to try and access up to $1 million after his mother’s sudden unexplained death in Bicton in May 2020, but denies killing her.

He told the jury he had “no idea” how his mother died, with an autopsy unable to determine the cause of death after she was found slumped over in her ensuite shower.

He admits seeing his mother on the morning of her death “sometime before lunch”, but claims he left her after realising he had many missed calls and messages from his then-partner, Grace Piscopo, so needed to return home.

“I had to tell my mum I was leaving,” he said.

Prosecutors allege he ignored those calls over a 45-minute period as they occurred while he was in the process of killing his mother.

Rebelo is being asked about his family life after his father left when he was a teenager, and has said his mother “did her absolute best” to financially support her four children in the aftermath, and was a nurturing mother.

We’ll bring you more of his evidence throughout the day from our reporter Rebecca Peppiatt who is inside the courtroom.

Premier Roger Cook has just spoken at a business breakfast event this morning, revealing the Kwinana port project will cost an estimated $7.2 billion.

“Built over the space of a decade, it will be the single biggest project we’ve ever undertaken in this state,” he said.

“Not acting would be our biggest and most costly mistake, we need to start now if we want it to be ready for Fremantle Port reaching capacity in the late 2030s.”

Cook announced $273 million would be committed to finalising designs and approvals, resolving any remaining risks and fine-tuning costings.

He said an analysis by Westport found not building the port would cost the economy around $5 billion each year.

“If we reach capacity at Fremantle Port without an alternative port, we face a very embarrassing and expensive problem and that is getting even more of our freight shipped to the east coast and transported back to WA by road and rail,” he said.

“It’s the very definition of inefficiency and low productivity.”

Following on from the news we brought you yesterday that three WA mining executives have been detained in West Africa, the Perth-based company involved, Resolute Mining, has released a statement this morning.

Resolute Mining confirms that the Company’s CEO, Terence Holohan, and two other employees, have been detained in Mali by government officials.

The executives were in Bamako to hold discussions with the mining and tax authorities regarding general activities related to Resolute’s in-country business practices, and to progress open claims made against Resolute, which the company maintains are unsubstantiated.

Following the conclusion of these meetings on Friday, 8 November 2024, the three employees were unexpectedly detained.

Resolute has followed all official processes with respect to its affairs and has provided the authorities with detailed responses to all the claims made.

Resolute’s priority remains the safety and wellbeing of its employees. The company is in regular communication with the three detained employees who remain held at the Economic and Financial Centre of Bamako (Pôle Économique et Financier de Bamako).

The employees are being treated well and continue to receive support on the ground from the UK and International Embassies and Consulates.

The company is continuing to work with the government on a resolution and will provide further updates on the situation as appropriate.

Gold-focused Resolute owns the Syama Gold Mine, a large-scale underground mine that it controls through a local subsidiary Société des Mines de Syama S.A. with an 80 interest. The other 20 per cent is held by the government of Mali.

The company also mines in eastern Senegal where it owns the open pit Mako Gold Mine.

Read more here.