As it happened: WA news on Tuesday, April 8

We are sorry to leave you this evening with the news that eight days after he went missing, the body of missing teenager Richard Tu was found this afternoon.

Police said the circumstances surrounding Richard’s passing were non-suspicious.

They held a media conference earlier today, together with Richard’s parents and sister Rachel, who tearfully told journalists she was worried about him.

Police had begun searching bushland in Mount Richon this morning after his phone last ‘pinged’ in the area on March 31.

He was last seen getting off a bus on Armadale Road at 9.15pm that day.

Police will now prepare a report for the coroner.

Support is available from Lifeline, 13 11 14.

Thank you for reading; the blog will be back in the morning.

Labor has given Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas a trial by fire after his first question in Question Time.

Zempilas started with a stumble after failing to stand quickly enough to ask a question following the call from Speaker Stephen Price.

Zempilas in Parliament on Tuesday.Credit: Hamish Hastie

Technically, the MP that stands up fastest gets the call, and Dawesville MP Lisa Munday stood up like lightning – to the cheers of her Labor colleagues.

But the convention is that the opposition gets to ask the first question, so the call was given to Zempilas who directed it at WA Premier Roger Cook.

The former Perth lord mayor and broadcaster started asking about wasteful government spending, but was quickly shouted down by the Labor wall for including a preamble in his question, which is against standing orders.

Eventually Zempilas did get his question out: “Will the government shift its focus away from fantasy projects like rugby teams and race tracks, and to things that matter to West Australians, like fixing our hospitals and addressing crime in our suburbs and our towns?”

Cook said his government had a mandate for every policy it put to the public ahead of the election.

Zempilas followed up with a question over whether the premier would concede money would be better spent on police and hospitals then “fantasy” projects.

This set Cook off on an attack about the projects Zempilas talked up when he was lord mayor, repeating comments he made in jest on ABC radio during the campaign about “doubling or tripling” the size of the Bell Tower and placing it on a podium in the Swan River.

He also took aim at Zempilas’ comments as mayor that Perth needed its own dance festival like Coachella.

Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti also had a jibe about the women’s shelter controversy while Zempilas was in power.

A 28-year-old woman who died when the car she was travelling in rolled and crashed near York on Friday night has been remembered as “a beautiful person” who was on her way to Melbourne to start a new life.

Ashleigh Hall was the passenger inside a Toyota Hilux that was travelling east on the Quairading-York Road just before midnight when it left the road and rolled, police said.

Ashleigh Hall.Credit: GoFundMe

The 28-year-old male driver also died.

Ashleigh’s sister Dani Hall launched a fundraiser for her funeral which will be held in Padbury later this month.

“She always knew how to make you smile, even on her bad days,” she said.

“She put her friends and family first, never missed a birthday or Christmas.

“Ashleigh was only 28 years young when she passed, she had her whole life in front of her.

“She was travelling to Melbourne to start a new chapter in her life with her partner. Unfortunately, she was in a terrible car accident that took her from us.”

Police are seeking the public’s assistance with dash cam footage or information about the car in the lead up to the crash.

WA’s annual road toll to date stands at 55.

Back at Parliament and the ceremony has moved to the Upper House.

A military guard welcomed Governor Chris Dawson to the chamber where he has delivered an address to all MPs.

Governor Chris Dawson entering the Upper House.Credit: Hamish Hastie

Like Chief Justice Peter Quinlan earlier today, Dawson also delved into threats to democracy, warning that trust and faith in democratic institutions were being eroded in some parts of the world.

“We live in interesting and concerning times, times which are seeing tectonic geopolitical changes in the world’s rules-based order that was developed following the Second World War, which has delivered an unprecedented era of peace and prosperity,” he said.

That’s twice in the same day significant figures in the state’s democratic institutions have warned about trust eroding in Western democracies.

Some first day at work, huh?

Question time is set to begin in the lower house around 4pm, and we will be there to relay each blow.

Police have just addressed the media at a press conference in Mount Richon where they have spent the day looking for missing teenager Richard Tu.

Inspector Steve Scott said they had been “unable to locate him or any trace of him” and would be calling off the search at 5pm unless they received further information.

The 17-year-old was last seen getting off the 529 bus on Armadale Road after Seville Drive in Armadale around 9.15pm on Monday, March 31.

His phone last pinged in the Mount Richon area two hours after he disembarked the bus.

Tu’s sister Rachel also spoke to the media, tearfully thanking everyone who has offered help and support.

“We’re so thankful and grateful,” she said.

“We’re so worried. He’s out there alone.”

She urged people to come forward with any information they may have about her brother.

Police are continuing to search for a missing teenager.

Richard Tu, 17, was last seen getting off the 529 bus on Armadale Road after Seville Drive in Armadale around 9.15pm on Monday, March 31.

Richard’s phone last pinged on the Monday night he vanished, with police mounting a large-scale search near Bedfordale, but coming up empty-handed.

That is a wrap on the first session of formalities in the Upper House but not without a sobering warning about the fabric of democracy from Chief Justice Peter Quinlan who was there this morning overseeing the MPs making their oaths.

Before vacating the speakers chair the state’s top judge gave rare insight into his thoughts on the current fragility of Western democracies and making the point that sometimes that fragility comes from within.

“[The oath or affirmation] is a reminder that the power with which we have been entrusted is not our own, that we are simply its temporary custodians and are responsible to exercise it for the benefit of the community as a whole,” he said.

“We live at a time when in other Western democracies with whom we share a common heritage, public institutions such as ours are under significant threat, and where public confidence in those institutions is deliberately sought to be undermined.

“Often, those threats come from the very people who have been entrusted with responsibility to uphold those institutions.

“It is a stark reminder of the sometimes fragility of our institutions of government, either the Parliament, the executive or the court, and how it is the responsibility of each branch of government to uphold the legitimate roles and responsibility of the others and the need is the responsibility of all of us.”

Back to parliament now where the swearing in of the upper house members is happening.

Before the ceremony members milled about in the chamber shaking hands and joking with each other.

Stephen Price dragged to his position.Credit: Hamish Hastie

Roger Cook visited the opposition side of the chamber where he embraced shadow treasurer Sandra Brewer and Deputy Liberal Leader Libby Mettam and had a quick conversation with Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas.

The public gallery is packed with friends, family and colleagues of the new MPs.

Roger Cook embraces Sandra Brewer.Credit: Hamish Hastie

Each MP swears an Oath or Affirmation of office which they can do using a religious text, and several MPs swore Oaths to King Charles.

Some MPs have brought their own bibles in including new Nationals MP Lachlan Hunter who brought in a bible with impressive golden accents which WAtoday is told has been blessed by Catholic Bishop of Geraldton Michael Morrissey.

Basil Zempilas about to deliver his Oath.Credit: Hamish Hastie

After the swearing in the election of the new speaker will take place, which Labor has chosen as Forrestfield MP Stephen Price.

As part of the odd medieval Westminster traditions that are still adhered to in WA’s modern-day democracy Price will then be ‘dragged’ to the Speaker’s chair by Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti and Premier Roger Cook.

Roger Cook shakes Shane Love’s hand.Credit: Hamish Hastie

And, on a final note from today’s press conference, Rita Saffioti has also been questioned under her role as transport minister over a story which ran in The West Australian claiming there was a lack of patrons making use of the extended Joondalup (now Yanchep) Line during peak hour.

Saffioti hit back at that article, saying “catching one train and making some false accusations, is not what WA is about”.

Rita Saffioti has hit back at The West Australian newspaper.Credit: Hamish Hastie

“When you look at those three new stations, first of all, they’re end of line. The other point, I would say there’s more people catching (the train from) these new stations than many existing stations,” Saffioti said.

“This is nothing more than a WA Liberal Party obsession with attacking Metronet. If they win they’ll probably tear up the lines or close down stations.

“These are stations where there’s housing being built every day. There’s going to be more and more people catching this rail line, because there’s more and more people moving in.”

Saffioti said the Mandurah Line had received the same criticism when it first opened.

“Imagine those southern suburbs today, without the Mandurah rail line, you wouldn’t be able to move on that freeway,” she said.

Sticking with this morning’s press conference and Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti has said a working group was being created to address the violent incident at an Ellenbrook shopping centre where a teenage boy had his head “stomped on”.

The victim was left with a broken jaw and potential spinal complications and the 15-year-old alleged attacker has been charged.

“Michelle Maynard as the new local member is creating a working group which has involvement of the school, the shopping centre and the local police,” she said.

“We’re going to be working with the shopping centre management. We’ve asked for more police presence at the shopping centre after school … to try and de-escalate the current issues and tension that’s in there.”

Saffioti said the new Education Minister Sabine Winton was getting across all the issues and, as a former teacher, “really wants to make sure she can work hard and work with school communities to try and address these issues before they escalate in the school and off school grounds”.

An eight-year-old boy was also hospitalised on the same day as the 14-year-old in a separate incident, after a violent attack in the school playground.