As it happened: WA news on Wednesday, April 23

To the Perth courts now and a WA woman has just been found guilty of careless driving over a crash that killed her daughter and step-son near Geraldton five years ago.

Stacey Leigh Cunningham, 34, was charged with three counts of careless driving causing death after her Mazda sedan crashed into an F250 ute, resulting in the death of her daughter Harmonie Cunningham, 10, and her step-son Nate Stewart, 7, in 2020.

Geraldton crash victims Harmonie Cunningham, 10 and Nate Stewart, 7.Credit: GoFundMe

A 31-year-old friend, Cameron Byfield, was also seriously injured in the crash.

Cunningham pleaded not guilty to the charges, her lawyer telling Perth Magistrates Court at the start of a trial last year that the crash occurred because of poor signage and visibility.

But Magistrate Sandra De Maio handed down her verdict this afternoon, telling the court she had determined that Cunningham had caused the crash by being distracted by her GPS.

Cunningham had told police she was lost after taking a wrong turn on the way to Pioneer Village when she crashed.

Her lawyer Dan Johnson has asked for a short break in court before his client is sentenced this afternoon.

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

Here’s a recap of the day’s headlines:

• Both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton visited Perth as part of their election campaigns; Dutton announced $21 billion in defence spending, while Albanese took aim at the Coalition’s energy plan while on the ground in Collie.

• WA Police are asking for the public’s help to solve the mystery of how a man came to be found unconscious and lying next to his car with significant head injuries near Armadale last week.

• Nearly 60,000 West Australians have already placed their vote for their preferred prime minister after the federal election pre-polling booths opening yesterday.
• A WA woman has just been found guilty of careless driving over a crash that killed her daughter and step-son near Geraldton five years ago.
• Mineral Resources director Denise McComish has resigned, becoming the third member of a committee tasked with supervising the embattled miner’s governance overhaul to walk in the past week.

• Labor’s candidate in Canning has redrawn his how-to-vote cards after the Legalise Cannabis candidate he preferenced third was disendorsed by the party over posts on social media accusing Israel of “playing the victim” in the Gaza conflict.

Thank you again for tuning in today. We’ll see you back here tomorrow for more news you need to know.

Labor’s candidate in Canning has redrawn his how-to-vote cards after the Legalise Cannabis candidate he preferenced third was disendorsed by the party over posts on social media accusing Israel of “playing the victim” in the Gaza conflict.

The post on Paul Gullan’s Facebook page in November included a cartoon of Adolf Hitler passing a bloodied baton emblazoned with a Swastika to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a running race.

In his post, Gullan said the Israeli prime minister was “doing a great job at mobilising global opinions towards Hitlers (sic) ideology”.

Legalise Cannabis disendorsed Gullan on Tuesday after the post in November and another in February accusing Netanyahu of orchestrating the October 7, 2023 attack resurfaced.

“Our party holds firm to a set of core values, including Anti-Discrimination, Tolerance, Human Rights, and Compassion. Upon review, we found that some of the content Mr Gullan has shared online does not align with these principles,” a Legalise Cannabis spokesman said.

Former Legalise Cannabis Canning candidate Paul Gullan’s Facebook post.

“The Legalise Cannabis Party is deeply committed to upholding equity, respect, and fairness for all people.”

Labor candidate Jarrad Goold had placed Gullan above his Liberal opponent Andrew Hastie in third position after the Greens on his original how-to-vote card.

That was edited to place Gullan in fifth place by Wednesday afternoon.

WA Labor State Secretary Ellie Whiteaker said the party changed its how-to-vote cards “immediately upon being made aware of comments from Mr Gullan”.

And in other news, Mineral Resources director Denise McComish has resigned, becoming the third member of a committee tasked with supervising the embattled miner’s governance overhaul to walk in the past week.

The company confirmed McComish’s departure in a statement to the market on Wednesday, praising her for her work as chair of a taskforce that has been rendered memberless less than six months after its inception.

Mineral Resources director Denise McComish.

The news comes just one week after fellow directors Jacqueline McGill AO and Susie Corlett resigned with immediate effect.

The trio were appointed to the governance committee the Osborne Park-headquartered miner established in late 2024 after the Australian Financial Review exposed an alleged offshore tax scheme founder Chris Ellison and four other executives had profited from that ran for a decade.

The committee had been tasked with strengthening governance practices by introducing new protocols for related party transactions, exiting legacy agreements between MinRes and its senior directors and eliminating the use of company resources by key managers.

The departures come as the corporate watchdog continues its probe into the scheme, which is set to cost Ellison his managing director role at the company he founded in 2006.

It also comes amid a plummeting share price that has wiped more than $3 billion from the business in the past six months.

To the Perth courts now and a WA woman has just been found guilty of careless driving over a crash that killed her daughter and step-son near Geraldton five years ago.

Stacey Leigh Cunningham, 34, was charged with three counts of careless driving causing death after her Mazda sedan crashed into an F250 ute, resulting in the death of her daughter Harmonie Cunningham, 10, and her step-son Nate Stewart, 7, in 2020.

Geraldton crash victims Harmonie Cunningham, 10 and Nate Stewart, 7.Credit: GoFundMe

A 31-year-old friend, Cameron Byfield, was also seriously injured in the crash.

Cunningham pleaded not guilty to the charges, her lawyer telling Perth Magistrates Court at the start of a trial last year that the crash occurred because of poor signage and visibility.

But Magistrate Sandra De Maio handed down her verdict this afternoon, telling the court she had determined that Cunningham had caused the crash by being distracted by her GPS.

Cunningham had told police she was lost after taking a wrong turn on the way to Pioneer Village when she crashed.

Her lawyer Dan Johnson has asked for a short break in court before his client is sentenced this afternoon.

Dutton has made his 13th campaign visit to a petrol station, this time in Perth’s outer northern suburbs.

Dutton was driven into the fuel stop by Liberal candidate for Pearce, Jan Norberger.

Dutton and Liberal candidate for Pearce, Jan Norberger.Credit: James Brickwood

A ute driver loudly revved his engine as Dutton and Norberger filled up at the bowser and chatted about the opposition’s pledge to temporarily halve the excise on fuel.

“If you go through a lot of petrol as some people do, you’ll get a special bonus,” Dutton said in reference to the attention-seeking motorist.

Norberger said cash-strapped voters in the suburb of Alkimos, about 40 minutes north of Perth’s CBD, had to drive long distances and would benefit from cheaper petrol.

“If you’re a pensioner here, you drive,” he said.

Dutton, who had his tie removed and had two buttons undone on his white business shirt, has been hitting up service stations across Australia since early in the campaign.

He was initially criticised for failing to hammer home the fuel policy announced days before the campaign.

Dutton paid $56.92 for the petrol, did not ask for a receipt, and told the service station worker that his business would receive a boost from the excise reduction.

The Coalition leader’s son Tom joined him for the event but was not involved in any way. Senator Linda Reynolds was also in attendance.

Sticking with the Prime Minister and Premier’s press conference down in Collie, Premier Roger Cook has just addressed the news that WA dairy company Brownes needs a new owner.

Brownes has been put up for sale after its Chinese owner Mengniu Dairy Co fell behind on a $200 million loan.

WA Premier Roger Cook.Credit: Hamish Hastie

Cook moved to allay fears that Brownes was in trouble and expressed his hope it would be purchased by a local entity.

“We’re not anticipating this being any problem in relation to finding a new owner for Brownes Dairy, it services about 50 dairy farmers in the local district, and plays an important role as part of our agricultural industry,” he said.

“The reason why it’s having difficulties at the moment is because of disagreements amongst the owners, not because of the commerciality of actual Brownes Dairy itself.

“It’s a profitable operation, and we expect to find a new buyer for it. It’d be great if it’s a local company.”

Albanese has opened his press conference by attacking the Coalition’s energy plan.

As mentioned, the PM is speaking from the Collie Power Station here in Western Australia, the site of one of the Coalition’s proposed nuclear power stations.

The prime minister has questioned why Dutton is missing from Coalition’s proposed nuclear power sites.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“Dutton … refuses to visit this site,” Albanese said.

“He refuses to visit any of the sites. He hasn’t been near any of them.

“You would think that there was radiation coming from these sites,” the PM said.

“He just won’t come and won’t talk about what his plans actually are.

“Peter Dutton talks about nuclear power but isn’t prepared to back it up, and certainly isn’t prepared to consult local communities about whether they want these nuclear power energy powers in their local communities.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese landed in WA a short time ago and will join WA Premier Roger Cook at a press conference at Collie Power Station shortly.

Watch the conference live below:

Peter Dutton is now at the Centenary Avenue Ramp in the Labor-held marginal seat of Tangney, in Perth’s south-east, announcing $112 million to widen a bridge that crosses over a river.

He’s flanked by Liberal candidate Howard Ong, whose brother is a minister in the Singaporean government.

Howard Ong speaks at the press conference announcing the upgrade to Shelley Bridge as Dutton watches on.Credit: James Brickwood

Ong is taking on Labor’s Sam Lim, a former dolphin trainer elected in 2022. Federal Labor won four seats from the Liberal Party at that election off the back of WA Labor’s success borne out of pandemic management.

WA Police are asking for the public’s help to solve the mystery of how a man came to be found unconscious and lying next to his car with significant head injuries near Armadale last week.

The 53-year-old was last seen in the car park adjacent to the Settlers’ Common Environmental Centre in Bedfordale around 7.45pm on Thursday.

The man was found unconscious by his car in Bedfordale.Credit: WA Police

He was discovered by a member of the public 15 hours later around midday on Friday and rushed to hospital, where he remains in a serious condition, and is yet to regain consciousness to speak with detectives.

“That 15-hour timeframe is what we’re looking for,” Armadale Detective Matt Warne said.

“He has broken ribs and serious head injuries.

“We believe there is somebody out there that holds valuable information about how this man received these injuries.”

Warne said police were unsure what the man was doing in the area at the time.

“He had been at the car park for several hours, there had been meetings going on [at the environment centre], we don’t know if he was part of those meetings are not, they were open to the public,” he said.

The injured man’s family are also at a loss to explain what could have happened.