Good afternoon valued readers, and thanks for following along on what turned out to be an action-packed day.
To round things off here’s a breaking story from Peter Milne: Jobs, costs cut at MinRes’ luxury HQ as Chris Ellison takes the biscuit.
We’ll be back in the morning with more. Until then, stay safe and warm.
To some more positive environment news now, and an internationally renowned area of WA in the state’s far north will be further protected after a new national park was created.
This morning Environment Minister Reece Whitby announced the creation of Purungunya Conservation Estate, that will protect 4 million hectares of land in the Pilbara region.
The Nullagine River in the Pilbara region of WA.
Located near the Nullagine River, the estate encompasses 163,000 hectares of new national park and 39,000 hectares of new conservation park.
The area is internationally renowned for its 2.7-billion-year-old carbonate stromatolites, and the permanent deep pools of the river are also important for a range of wildlife species, with large fringing gums providing bird nesting and roosting areas.
Whitby said the newly created reserves would help protect the area’s rich cultural and natural heritage.
“It’s a breathtaking area that we have protected while enabling future opportunities for cultural and nature-based tourism among the 460 species of wildlife that can be found locally,” he said.
WA Senator Linda Reynolds has wiped away tears in court, saying suggestions she covered up the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins impacted her in myriad ways, from unrelenting questions in parliament to media pressure.
The former staffer gave a tell-all interview about her alleged rape by former colleague Bruce Lehrmann with The Project on February 15, 2021 (he maintains his innocence). Reynolds said in the days following, a “complete media frenzy” bombarded her and her office.
Senator Linda Reynolds has teared up on the stand. Credit: AAPIMAGE
When her lawyer Martin Bennett asked about the impact the allegations had on her, Reynolds told the court she was devastated and felt even members of her own party were questioning her innocence.
“There are actually no words to describe what it was like to be accused of covering up the rape of a young woman in my office, [an accusation] which I knew was not true,” she said.
“In the space of a couple of days, I had gone from a senator doing her job and doing it well to being nationally vilified.
“Everybody looked at me differently, even people on my own side were questioning ‘has she really done this thing?’ ... It was devastating.”
The former defence minister is now recounting how her vision became impaired, chest tightened and knees buckled in Parliament as she experienced her first experience with a then-undiagnosed cardiac disease.
“I had stared down these questions every day, but I just began sobbing uncontrollably,” she said. “I just had nothing left. I was completely incoherent.
“That’s the dirty little secret in Parliament House – we’re human beings, too. We don’t come wearing armour.”
More than 100 people have gathered outside WA Parliament to protest against Woodside’s Browse development and environmental law reforms the environment sector has found concerning.
The Conservation Council of WA organised the protest to call for the laws to be strengthened and to safeguard the Environmental Protection Authority.
The rally held at Parliament House on Tuesday.
Yesterday, WAtoday revealed the EPA was poised to reject Woodside’s Browse gas proposal off the Kimberley coast, finding it poses unacceptable risk to endangered pygmy blue whales, green sea turtles and the Scott Reef.
WAtoday has also recently reported on south-west jarrah forest ecosystem collapse and Perth’s little penguin population decimation.
Executive director of CCWA Jess Beckerling had this to say:
People have come out today to stand up for a strong, independent EPA and to save Scott Reef.
WA’s nature is in serious trouble facing the compounding impacts of climate change and industrialisation, and we need strong nature laws to defend the places we love.
Browse cannot go ahead without catastrophic impacts on Scott Reef and the endangered turtles, blue whales and other marine creatures that rely on it for their survival.
It is now incumbent on the WA and federal governments to respect the EPA’s independent scientific advice and expert opinion.
To Dumas House now where Premier Roger Cook and Police Minister Paul Papalia have this afternoon announced the introduction of new laws to crack-down on knife violence.
The new laws will allow police to use metal detectors at permanent protected entertainment precincts around Northbridge, Perth, Mandurah, Scarborough, Hillarys and Joondalup.
“In addition, senior officers will have the power to declare temporary knife scanning areas in public places, from shopping centres to public transport points, even sporting and community events,” Cook said.
He said the crackdowns would target people carrying concealed weapons who “think they’re above the law”.
Inspired by Jack’s Law in Queensland, Papalia said the laws were set to be the toughest in the country with the inclusion of walk-through metal detectors and increased penalties.
“A person who refuses to undertake a scan or produce an object when requested by police, will be breaking the law and could be jailed for 12 months and or face a $12,000 fine,” he said.
“Significantly increased penalties for those caught doing the wrong thing will also create greater deterrence for those who might think about it.”
The previous three-year sentence and $36,000 fine for being caught with a prohibited weapon will also be increased to a maximum of five years and a larger fine of $60,000.
Staying with WA Senator Linda Reynolds’ defamation trial against Brittany Higgins, and the former defence minister has just recounted the anger and hurt she felt as the first news publications, detailing the mishandling of her ex-staffer’s alleged rape, began emerging.
Reynolds told the court she was overcome by emotions in February 2021 while reading an article by journalist Samantha Maiden about Higgins’ alleged rape by former colleague Bruce Lehrmann and the “political cover-up” that followed.
Former Minister Linda Reynolds arrives at the Supreme Court in Perth.Credit: Trevor Collens
Lehrmann maintains his innocence.
“From beginning to end, I felt sick. She said she felt forced to decide between reporting the rape to the AFP and keeping her job, and that was simply not true. It just went downhill from there in terms of what she was alleging,” Reynolds told the court.
She said numerous statements in the article were, according to her, untrue and that comments she had never uttered were attributed to her, including that she told Higgins “as a woman, this is something we go through”.
Reynolds said she spent the hours that followed casting her mind back to cues she may have missed and trying to comprehend how their recollections could be so different before Higgins’ tell-all interview with The Project aired later that night.
“I was angry at Brittany, but I was also angry at myself and wondering how we had got it so wrong,” she told the court.
“I was incredibly angry and hurt, and she probably didn’t even realise this, but she couldn’t have picked a worse issue to bring me down. It is such an abhorrent thing… to say someone has mistreated a rape allegation and covered it up.”
The trial continues.
Back at the WA Supreme Court, Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds has requested a break from questioning after recalling late Victorian senator Kimberley Kitching’s warning that Labor intended to “rain hell” on her and the Morrison government over Brittany Higgins’ alleged rape – before making the extraordinary claim that this led to Kitching’s death.
Reynolds told the court she and Higgins had parted ways on good terms in mid-2019, when Higgins was offered a job in the office of Reynolds’ fellow Senator Michaelia Cash.
Outside of a media enquiry from the Canberra Times about the security breach involving Higgins and alleged rapist Bruce Lehrmann for a story never published, Reynolds said the next time she discussed the incident was early February 2021. Lehrmann has always maintained his innocence.
The former defence minister told the court Kitching approached her with an apology on February 2, 2021, before revealing she had received an anonymous letter about the alleged rape – about to be weaponised by the opposition.
“I was completely incredulous. I said ‘why would anyone weaponise such an incident?’” Reynolds told the court.
“I still can’t find the words to describe it… even for Labor, and they pull some pretty nasty stunts. I just found it hard to believe.”
Reynolds said Kitching had told her she forwarded the letter to police, and that this infuriated Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong who had wished to weaponise it.
Reynolds told the court she took the matter straight to her chief of staff before scheduling an urgent appointment to see then-prime minister Scott Morrison to discuss the perceived imminent attack.
Reynolds told Justice Paul Tottle her blood pressure was “starting to go up”, before making the extraordinary claim that the saga led to Kitching’s untimely death.
“This is a particularly difficult … given it led to Senator Kitching’s death,” she told the court.
Kitching died of a heart attack on March 10, 2022, at the age of 52.
Her death was followed by allegations she had been bullied by several of her parliamentary colleagues.
To Perth Magistrates Court, where a woman accused of stabbing her teen daughter’s secret boyfriend has pleaded not guilty to the charges and will now fight the matter at trial.
Jennifer Chin, 47, allegedly chased the 14-year-old boy around her Parkwood home with a knife last October and stabbed him four times to the back and chest, the wounds piercing around two centimetres into the skin.
Chin, an accountant, had allegedly been unaware her daughter had a boyfriend, and allegedly launched the attack upon discovering the boy in a bedroom.
She has been on bail under strict conditions since her first court appearance, which include avoiding the alleged victim and only having contact with her daughter through supervised visits.
The matter will now be prepared for trial and Chin will be back before the courts in November.
Further to our earlier post, detectives have charged another five people over the robbery and assault of a 68-year-old man inside his home in Innaloo last month.
The 68-year-old was left with serious injuries. Credit: WA Police
A group of people allegedly entered the man’s home on King George Street around 4am on July 23, bashed him and stole jewellery.
The 86-year-old was left with serious injuries to his face requiring surgery.
At 9.30pm on the same day police arrested a 29-year-old Butler man and charged him with various offences. He remains before the court.
A vehicle police will allege was used during the incident was also seized.
On Sunday Mirrabooka and Joondalup Detectives, with Tactical Response Group officers, searched homes in Joondalup, Yanchep and Greenwood, arrested four men and two women and seized jewellery, ammunition, three firearms and drugs.
The firearms – a modified sawn-off .22 calibre shotgun, homemade shotgun, and .22 calibre rifle – will be examined.
The six were charged with a total of 29 offences relating to the above incident and others, including aggravated burglary, aggravated armed robbery and possession of unlicensed firearms and illicit drugs.
The second female was released pending further inquiries.
Staying with WA Senator Linda Reynolds’ defamation action against Brittany Higgins, and Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett has launched a bid to subpoena Higgins, her husband and sexual assault campaigner Saxon Mullins over a fundraiser to bankroll Higgins’ legal fees.
Bennett told the court he would seek to obtain all communications between Mullins, Higgins, David Sharaz, political advisor Emma Webster and Higgins’ lawyer Carmel Galati over the fundraiser Mullins launched on Monday.
He told the court the fundraiser, the proceeds of which Galati is to hold on trust for Higgins, were part of a carefully calculated campaign to mislead the public and characterise the proceedings as Reynolds seeking to silence a sexual assault survivor.
“It is not coincidental, nor do we see it as an attempt to attract followers to Higgins’ advocacy of sexual assault victims. It implies there is an attempt to prevent her from speaking about her alleged rape,” Bennett told the court.
Higgins’ barrister Rachael Young SC has been given until the end of the day to respond to the application.