As it happened: WA news on Monday, February 17

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

Here’s what made headlines today:

• A Perth doctor has been charged with manslaughter after a crash in Dalkeith killed a young woman and left another man fighting for his life.

• West Australian schools relying on a free lunch program to help students and their families through the cost of living crisis have reported an increase in the number accessing the service.
• Housing Minister John Carey has partially blamed WA’s most infamous public servant for public housing stock going backwards for several years under Labor.

• Decades of falling productivity in housing construction has restricted the supply of new homes and contributed to increasingly unaffordable housing, research from the Productivity Commission has revealed.

• Pearce MP Tracey Roberts will recontest the upcoming federal election despite being diagnosed with a rare neurodegenerative disease similar to Parkinson’s disease.

Thank you again for tuning in. We’ll see you again tomorrow for all the news you need to know.

Pearce MP Tracey Roberts will recontest the upcoming federal election despite being diagnosed with a rare neurodegenerative disease similar to Parkinson’s disease.

Roberts took to Facebook today to detail her fight which she had been battling behind closed doors.

Labor’s Tracey Roberts after she won the seat of Pearce.Credit: Holly Thompson

“Recently, I had some unfortunate health news. I have been diagnosed with multiple systems atrophy, which will pose some changes to my mobility and speech,” she said.

“I was shocked to receive this news and a little scared, as it’s rare, and I hadn’t heard of it before.

“But now I know the details and with the strong support of my family, friends, our wonderful community in Pearce, and sound advice from my medical team, I am committed to standing for re-election and I intend to serve a full term if re-elected.”

The US Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke said MSA is “characterised by a combination of symptoms that affect both the central nervous system (which controls how a person moves), and the autonomic nervous system, which controls involuntary functions such as blood pressure or digestion.”

It said the symptoms usually appear in people over 50 and advance rapidly over five to 10 years – eventually leaving the sufferer bedridden.

WA Police have just released footage of a man, who allegedly took off his electronic monitoring device, being found hiding in a cupboard.

The two-week long manhunt for Phillip Dodd, 36, came to an end this morning.

It’s alleged he was granted bail for serious family violence charges on January 23 and was subject to wearing a tracking device.

However on January 29, Dodd allegedly breached his electronic monitoring device conditions, and was found by police a short time later and hauled back before a magistrate who again released him on bail.

It’s alleged two days later he again removed the device, this time spending two weeks avoiding police apprehension.

He was located in a house, hiding under a kitchen sink in Utakarra. He has been charged with breaching bail, and removing or interfering with his monitoring equipment.

A Perth obstetrician accused of causing a horrific crash that killed a young woman and left her ride-share driver fighting for his life was allegedly driving at 130km/h in a 50km/h zone while drunk with tears blurring his vision.

Rhys Bellinge, 45, appeared in Perth Magistrate’s Court this morning via a bedside hearing, accused of crashing his Jaguar into a stationary ride-share car around 10pm on Saturday night on Birdwood Parade in Dalkeith.

The passenger using the ride-share service, 24, died just metres from her destination.

Police prosecutors allege Bellinge was driving in an arrogant and aggressive manner and ran a red light before accelerating heavily which caused him to clip the curb and lose control of the vehicle, slamming into the ride-share car which was on the other side of the road.

He allegedly blew 0.183 blood alcohol reading at the scene, and admitted to police he had been drinking at his parent’s house while watching a game of football on the TV.

It’s claimed he told police in an interview that he couldn’t see while driving due to tears in his eyes.

Bellinge and his wife had recently separated, with the dashcam footage from his car at the time of the incident revealing some “unflattering remarks” about her.

“We have a nine-minute period between 10.02pm and 10.11pm that have put him here, we have an upstanding citizen otherwise,” defence lawyer Tony Hager said.

Decades of falling productivity in housing construction has restricted the supply of new homes and contributed to increasingly unaffordable housing, research from the Productivity Commission has revealed.

The damning assessment of the residential construction sector found that over the past 30 years, physical productivity has declined by 53 per cent and labour productivity by 12 per cent. In contrast, labour productivity in the broader economy has increased by 49 per cent over the same period.

It comes on top of construction costs increasing by 40 per cent in the past five years while residential build times are up 80 per cent over the last 15 years.

Commission chair Danielle Wood said governments were rightly focused on changing planning rules to boost the supply of new homes, but the speed and cost of new builds also mattered.

“Lifting the productivity of home building will deliver more homes, regardless of what is happening with the workforce, interest rates or costs,” she said.

A complicated and slow approval process, lack of innovation, a fragmented industry dominated by small players (the average residential building firm employs less than two people), and difficulties in attracting and retaining workers are all issues that have dragged on productivity, the report found.

Read more here. 

Sticking with Premier Roger Cook and Housing Minister John Carey’s press conference in Perth this morning, and Carey has partially blamed WA’s most infamous public servant for public housing stock going backwards for several years under Labor.

The total public housing stock dropped by nearly 2000 properties in the five years after Labor came to power in 2017, from 44,087 to 42,661.

WA Premier Roger Cook at this morning’s press conference with Housing Minister John Carey (left) and Property Council executive officer Nicola Brischetto (right).Credit: Hamish Hastie

It has since crept back to 44,591 as of September last year, but the issue has been a sore point for the government as the state grapples with a housing crisis.

In announcing a suite of new housing election promises, Carey defended the slow growth in social housing numbers – blaming the now-jailed former Housing Authority general manager Paul Whyte.

“The whole organisation came to a standstill because of a major corruption scandal that had to reset the whole agency,” he said.

“Procurement processes had to be relooked at, everything had to be done.”

Whyte stole more than $22 million from the Department of Housing over a decade and is serving a 12-year prison sentence after being convicted of fraud in 2021.

Carey said his government had a target of 5300 new public housing dwellings - with 2800 constructed to date.

Opposition housing spokesman Steve Martin said Labor was blaming everyone else for their failures in housing.

“The ‘dog-ate-my-homework’ excuse doesn’t stack up,” he said.

“With less than three weeks before the election you’re trying to con voters that your focus is housing. What have you been focused on for the past eight years.”

Labor also promised $80 million to be tipped into the state’s social housing fund as well as $150 million in incentives to get build-to-rent apartment projects off the ground.

Premier Roger Cook has just given an update on ex-tropical cyclone Zelia, saying the state government was ready to deploy emergency relief payments as needed.

“The rapid damage assessment is ongoing, I’m advised the floodwaters are pretty much at their peak, so hopefully they will start receding soon,” he said.

“It’s a difficult situation … most of our focus at the moment is on the De Grey and Carlinde stations where the most extensive damage was experienced.”

The centre of the cyclone crossed the Pilbara coast on Friday afternoon as a category 4 system, bringing with it wind gusts up to 285km/h at its core.

The De Grey river catchment reached record-breaking flood levels and is still considered a major flood event three days on from the cyclone.

To some education news now and West Australian schools relying on a free lunch program to help students and their families through the cost of living crisis has reported an increase in the number accessing the service.

Eat Up said 77 per cent of state schools using their program had recorded an increase in the number of students accessing it compared to the same time last year.

Now, around 20 per cent of students at each school are regularly relying on the free lunches. In the past financial year, Eat Up delivered a record-breaking 948,583 free school lunches to 912 schools nationwide – a 47 per cent increase in just 12 months.

Eat Up founder Lyndon Galea said the demand for services was exploding, with no signs of slowing down.

“More kids right across the country are relying on us for their school lunch because, for many, it’s the only one they’ll get,” he said.

“The reality is some parents simply can’t afford to send their kids to school with lunch every day. With schools now returning, more families are looking for help.”

The WA Greens have announced their plans to allocate $1.6 billion to provide free lunches statewide if elected in March, and have vowed to push other parties to adopt the policy if they are not elected.

A bushfire that was threatening lives and homes in Dunsborough yesterday is now under control, and has been downgraded to an advice alert.

Residents were last night told to evacuate due to the blaze’s unpredictability, with flames burning dangerously close to homes.

However, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services said the fire was now contained and crews were this morning mopping up and patrolling the area.

The bushfire came close to homes. Credit: Wallcliffe Volunteer Fire Brigade

A Perth doctor has been charged with manslaughter after a crash in Dalkeith killed a young woman and left another man fighting for his life.

The 45-year-old man will front court this morning, accused of being behind the wheel of a Jaguar around 10pm on Saturday night when it crossed onto the wrong side of the road, slamming into a parked ride-share car.

A 24-year-old woman inside the ride-share died at the scene. It’s understood she was just metres from her destination on Birdwood Parade.

Neighbours rushed to help the woman.

“It was just a massive crash, it was just an awful thing to hear,” resident Ellen told 9 News Perth.

“Someone from just the public were giving CPR until ambulance arrived quite a bit later.”

Despite efforts from paramedics, the passenger died from her injuries.

The driver of the Honda, a man in his 20s working as a ride-share driver, was left trapped in the car and emergency services had cut him out using the jaws of life.

He was fighting for survival in Royal Perth Hospital on Sunday night.

The doctor also suffered serious injuries.

He has been charged with manslaughter and dangerous driving and is due to front Perth Magistrates Court this morning.

His medical website says he will be unavailable for appointments due to “unforeseen circumstances”.