As it happened: WA news on Tuesday, December 10

We’re bringing our blog to a close for the day, readers. Thanks for tuning in.

But before we go, some breaking news from the City of Perth council meeting, where Basil Zempilas has unloaded both barrels on Labor in what could be his last address as lord mayor.

Perth Lord Mayor and Liberal Candidate for Churchlands Basil Zempilas.Credit: Trevor Collens

Zempilas sent a letter to Premier Roger Cook this week outlining six areas of tension simmering between the city and government since he was elected as lord mayor in 2020.

They included rejecting a city request to operate an East Perth car park as the government prepares to build a new primary school; the government’s intervention in a rates fight with the WACA; and the premier’s failure to meet with Zempilas this year, as required under the City of Perth Act.

And he opened tonight’s meeting by reading the letter aloud to council, giving air to his grievances with his political opponents as we round the corner to the state election next year.

Read Hamish Hastie’s full report on Zempilas’ comments here.

Thanks again for joining us today, readers. Tune in again tomorrow as we bring you more news you need to know.

An small update has come in on the surfer we reported this morning had been bitten on the leg by a shark around 5.40am at Pyramids Beach in Dawesville.

The surfer is in stable condition at Peel Health Campus.

Unfortunately, we have some more horror on our roads to report. A 24-year-old woman has died in a crash in the Perth hills this morning.

Police said the woman’s gold Mitsubishi Lancer and a Mercedes Benz truck collided on Brookton Highway, near the intersection of Logger Road in Karragullen, at 9.55am.

The 40-year-old truck driver received treatment for minor injuries.

It follows the death of a woman in her 50s on Kings Park Road this morning, which came on the back of the death of seven people over the weekend.

Major Crash investigators are still at the scene in Karragullen.

Today’s horror incidents takes the state’s road toll to 175 – three fewer deaths than WA’s last record high of 179 in 2016.

Dash-cam or mobile phone vision relating to the Karragullen crash can be uploaded directly to investigators here.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or report online via www.crimestopperswa.com.au.

National Steel Workplace in Hope Valley, Kwinana, has been fined $350,000 over causing serious injuries to a 16-year-old apprentice and not reporting the injury.

The company, which manufactures steel for residential construction, pleaded guilty yesterday in Rockingham Magistrates Court to failing to provide a safe work environment and thereby causing serious harm to a worker, and to failing to notify the WorkSafe Commissioner.

In July 2021, the apprentice was welding when his clothing caught fire, causing serious burns to his abdomen, chest and hand requiring two surgeries with skin grafts, long-term pain and infection, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

WorkSafe only became aware of the incident in November 2021 when an inspector paid a proactive visit.

Commissioner Sally North said the boy should have been closely supervised given his age and inexperience and should have been provided with fire-retardant clothing and instructed to wear a welding apron.

She said he did not get a formal induction with instruction on workplace safety, was not issued with company-supplied protective clothing, and no senior staff member was constantly supervising. His supervisor “walked past him a number of times but did not instruct him to wear an apron despite being aware of the risks.”

The young man’s clothing had previously caught fire and he was subsequently given a leather welding apron, but no policy was enforced that required workers to always wear the apron or a welding jacket.

“It’s not enough to simply have safety rules,” North said. “They need to be implemented.”

The state’s environmental watchdog has completed a whopping five-year assessment of a fertiliser proposal at Lake Mackay, WA’s largest inland salt lake at 100 kilometres wide.

The independent Environmental Protection Authority recommended the project proceed under strict conditions given significant impact potential for the critically endangered night parrot, endangered greater bilby and vulnerable great desert skink.

Lake Mackay. Credit: AFR

Agrimin Limited’s Mackay Sulphate of Potash Project is planned about 490 kilometres south of Halls Creek at the Northern Territory border and includes trenches, evaporation ponds, renewable energy and processing infrastructure, and a 350-kilometre sealed road to connect the site with Tanami Highway, to truck the fertiliser to Wyndham port nearly 1000 kilometres away.

EPA Chair Darren Walsh said the assessment had focused on the potential loss and fragmentation of significant habitat for the endangered species of the area.

The public environmental review process has included a month of public consultation, Agrimin responding to public submissions, twice amending its development envelopes and realigning the proposed road following consultation with Traditional Owner groups to reduce habitat clearing, so now about 30 per cent of it will be on an existing track that connects the Kiwirrkurra and Balgo communities.

The EPA has also increased buffer zones for the night parrot roosts from 100 to 300 metres and recommended clearing only during daylight hours, road speed limits to reduce roadkill and no operational use of the haul road at night. It also recommended other conditions to avoid direct impacts to the lake’s bird and underground fauna habitats.

The report to the Minister for Environment, who will make a final decision, is open for a three-week public appeal period, closing December 31.

In breaking news, Olympic cyclist Rohan Dennis has pleaded guilty to reckless driving almost a year after an incident that killed his wife, Perth-born Olympian Melissa Hoskins – but is not being held legally responsible for her death.

The 34-year-old fronted Adelaide Magistrates Court on Tuesday, where his lawyer Jane Abbey KC revealed prosecutors had agreed to drop the dangerous driving causing death and aggravated driving charges in favour of laying the lesser charge of aggravated creating likelihood of harm.

Rohan Dennis and Melissa Hoskins.Credit: Instagram

The magistrate told the court Dennis pleading guilty to a new charge did not equate to an intention to kill his wife or a responsibility for her death.

Magistrate Justin Wickens told Dennis he drove when his wife was on or near his vehicle, knowing it was likely to cause harm, or being recklessly indifferent to whether harm was caused, and that it was aggravated offending because the pair were in a relationship.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison.

Dennis was arrested shortly after Hoskins was struck by his vehicle outside their Medindie home in Adelaide’s inner north on December 30.

The 32-year-old mother of two sustained serious injuries and later died in Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Dennis was released on bail and is expected to front court for sentencing on January 24.

More than 100 people gathered to farewell Hoskins in an emotional funeral service in Fremantle in January, including Dennis.

Hoskins, who originally hailed from Lesmurdie, competed in the team pursuit at both the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and was part of the squad that secured gold in the 2012 world championships.

AAP

The WA Greens will push for a 90-day cap on entire homes listed on short-term rental sites during the next term of government, they announced this morning.

The party hopes to hold the balance of power in the upper house after the state election, to leverage support for their policies.

They have been calling on the government to introduce the 90-day cap, plus powers for owner’s corporations in apartment buildings to ban or limit short stays, and a 7.5 per cent investor levy on entire homes listed as AirBnBs to generate “millions” in additional revenue for building social and affordable homes.

Housing spokesperson and Legislative Council candidate Tim Clifford said the policies would stop investors hoarding homes for major profits during a rental crisis.

The Greens say the government’s $10,000 cash incentive for owners to switch their short-stay holiday homes to long-term rentals, registrations for which opened this year, has resulted in only 276 properties unlocked so far at a cost of $2.7 million (though the scheme has been extended and is still taking registrations until mid-2025 with the aim of attracting an extra 400 homes).

The Greens say their policy would unlock closer to 3000 rentals.

Greens WA MLC Brad Pettitt said this was based on modelling from the Parliamentary Budget Office of Victoria, which modelled a similar policy and indicated it would return one-third of AirBnBs to the rental market.

“There are more than 10,500 entire homes listed on AirBnB across WA,” Pettitt said.

“I think [3000 returning to the rental market] is quite a conservative assumption.”

The Real Estate Institute of Australia released figures last year showing the number of short-stay entire dwellings only made up 0.4 per cent of Perth properties, or two to every 100 in Perth, though the number is slightly higher in regional WA at 1.7 per cent/12.1 to every 100).

The government has previously defended its AirBnB incentive saying that in a rental crisis every home makes a difference.

The WA Liberals were forced to remove social media posts criticising the state government’s recently opened Ellenbrook rail line this morning after realising a major delay impacting hundreds of commuters were unrelated to the operation of the line.

Transperth was forced to stop Airport, Ellenbrook and Midland line trains at the Bayswater junction after an incident at Maylands station in the morning.

It was the second full day of operations for the Ellenbrook line which opened on Sunday after more than two years of construction.

Passengers stuck at Bayswater station were moved onto rail replacement buses as emergency services dealt with the incident at Maylands.

On their Facebook page the WA Liberals shared a news story about the delays and said: “Billions over budget. Years behind schedule. And what do locals get on day two? A bus ticket.”

Churchlands candidate Basil Zempilas also shared the story with a post saying: “Metrodebt”.

Both posts were removed shortly after being shared.

I’m sorry to report that the woman in her 50s hit by a car in Kings Park this morning has died.

Major Crash investigators are still examining the scene.

The woman was hit near the corner of Outram Street and Kings Park Road around 7am.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or report online via www.crimestopperswa.com.au.

An American oil and gas company that wants to frack Western Australia’s Kimberley region has resubmitted its plans to the federal government.

Black Mountain Energy, a company owned by Texan billionaire Rhett Bennett that was taken off the stock exchange in February, withdrew its earlier application after discrepancies were identified between its state and federal applications.

The project would be the largest ‘tight gas’ fracking proposal in Australia and bigger than the two current fracking projects in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin. It entails the drilling and fracking of an initial 20 wells in the National Heritage listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River catchment, but Black Mountain’s previously released plans to build a pipeline from its wells to Woodside’s refineries in the Pilbara, which would require at least 1200 gas wells to underpin the development.

One of Black Mountain’s proposed wells is two kilometres from Mt Hardman Creek in the Kimberley.Credit: Martin Pritchard

In its new application, the company has argued its project Valhalla should not be assessed as “controlled action” under national environmental laws that apply to projects that impact threatened species and water.

But conservation group Environs Kimberley is calling on Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to undertake a full environmental assessment.

Anti-fracking environment group the Lock The Gate Alliance says the plans could impact a range of vulnerable and endangered species including the endangered greater bilby.

Spokesperson Simone van Hattem said their group was calling on the Cook Labor Government to extend the areas where fracking was banned to include the Kimberley, before next year’s state election.

The public has 10 days to respond; public comments on the documents close December 23.