Readers, it’s Friday night and it’s time to sign off.
Hope you stay dry tomorrow and enjoy your weekend, whether you’re planning to watch the UFC middleweight champion fight or the Wallabies play South Africa.
Or maybe you’re headed to Crown to see Anthony LaPaglia in the opening week of Death of a Salesman – word on the street is he knocks it out of the park.
We’ll have another live blog for you on Monday – take care.
In the Supreme Court, the exchange of top-secret medical reports has fuelled doubts about whether the woman who served as Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds’ chief of staff at the time Brittany Higgins alleged she was raped in Reynolds’ office will take the stand in the pair’s defamation row.
Former chief of staff Fiona Brown had been due to give sworn testimony in the West Australian Supreme Court on what unfolded in the days after Higgins’ alleged rape by Bruce Lehrmann in the former defence minister’s office after a night out on March 23, 2019.
Fiona Brown leaving court on December 19 last year.Credit: Steven Siewert
But on Friday, Brown’s barrister Dominique Hogan-Doran, SC, handed over two top-secret medical certificates and a report to a handful of lawyers and Justice Paul Tottle.
The substance of the documents is protected by strict confidentiality orders, but the parties have already alluded to using testimony Brown gave in a separate court matter.
Higgins went public with her rape allegation and claimed it had been the subject of a political cover-up on February 15, 2021 in interviews with journalist Samantha Maiden and The Project.
Lehrmann denies the claim and his 2022 criminal trial was aborted due to juror misconduct. He is appealing a Federal Court judgment that found the rape allegation to be true on the balance of probabilities.
Both Reynolds and Brown found themselves in the firing line over their handling of the allegation, being grilled about what they knew and when as the political furore grew.
On Thursday, the court was told about how Reynolds and Brown were at odds over whether to take the security breach, in which Higgins was found in a state of undress, to police, with Brown adamant they shouldn’t without Higgins’ permission.
Reynolds has been pursuing Higgins for more than a year over a series of social media posts she claims accused her of mishandling the rape allegation and attempting to silence victims of sexual assault.
The 29-year-old is defending the claim on the basis the substance of the posts is true, and that Reynolds is using the media to harass her.
To some sports news now and Alastair Clarkson, North Melbourne’s head coach, has described West Coast’s senior coaching role as the plum job of the competition, saying he would have jumped at the role if he were still an assistant.
The race to replace the departed Adam Simpson has turned into an intriguing ‘who wants it?’ battle.
Alastair Clarkson is the head coach at North Melbourne. Credit: Getty Images AsiaPac
Dean Cox was the initial hot favourite before pulling himself out of the running.
Josh Carr, Jaymie Graham, Ash Hansen, Nathan Buckley and Daniel Giansiracusa have recently followed suit.
Interim coach Jarrad Schofield is now the hot favourite to land the role full-time, especially after guiding the side to fighting wins over Gold Coast and North Melbourne during the past fortnight.
Former Richmond caretaker Andrew McQualter, GWS assistant Brett Montgomery and Bulldogs assistant Brendon Lade are still in the running.
The fact West Coast are still in the midst of the biggest rebuild in the club’s history may be a factor in assistants from around the country being hesitant to apply for the role.
AAP
A group aiming to end the “systemic over-criminalisation of First Nations people in WA’s justice system”, have today written an open letter to the WA premier, following evidence emerging from Cleveland Dodd’s coronial inquest.
Dodd was found unresponsive inside a cell in a troubled youth wing of a high-security adult prison in the early hours of October 12, 2023.
Social Reinvestment WA protesters outside WA’s magistrates court.
Social Reinvestment WA – a not-for-profit involving over 30 organisations including Reconciliation WA and Anglicare – wrote to Premier Roger Cook, calling on him to listen to the evidence and ultimately overhaul youth justice in WA and close Unit 18.
The letter was signed by 127 experts.
The group’s principal manager Sophie Stewart said WA’s first death of a child in custody should matter to every West Australian.
Here is what she had to say:
This Inquest has exposed institutional abuse of children ... We’ve seen frankly astonishing testimony where public servants admit to serious lies, and law breaking.
Cleveland and his family were horrifically failed by the WA Government.
The WA government has failed every child who has been subjected to cruel, unusual, and degrading treatment inside Banksia Hill and Unit 18.
Experts are unequivocal that Unit 18 needs to close - and now.
We can make sure this never happens again.
Bringing you back to the East Perth Primary School debate, and Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas has joined Gary Adshead on 6PR’s Mornings program to defend comments he made, calling Education Minister Tony Buti ‘Sleeping Buti’ and Deputy Premier Rita Safiotti ‘Rita Spend-a-lot-i’.
Buti described the name-calling as a personal attack on his Italian heritage.
“Is that having a go at his ethnicity? No, Tony, do you want to know what I was doing? I was having a go at your incompetence,” Zempilas said.
“Why was I doing that? Because he wrote me a letter that said, “we’re going to pay you market value for that land” and the attachment had the market value at $40 million.”
The state government and City have locked heads over new school plans. Credit: Holly Thompson/ Supplied
The letter was related to the land where the new primary school will be built. Buti was quick to say it had been a miscommunication.
A state government spokesman said the latest comments from Zempilas “just shows what the Liberal candidate for Churchlands and lord mayor is all about.”
“While he spends his time name-calling and coming up with pie-in-the-sky ideas, the state government is getting on with the job of delivering genuine projects in the City of Perth,” he said.
The state government this week announced they will pay the City $4.2 million for lost revenue from the carpark on the development site, that will be knocked down. But they are not paying for the land.
This decision prompted Zempilas to send a separate letter to Buti calling for a “fair deal” and stating there would be a rate hike under the current offer.
“When you lose revenue, you have to make it up. You can do that by other dropping services and the amenity that you provide, or you can increase rates,” he said.
“That’s just a fact of how local government runs.”
The state government has largely blamed Zempilas’ views on the school development on his political links.
Staying with the WA Supreme Court, where Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds’ lawyer has just launched a bid to subpoena Walkley award-winning journalist Nina Funnell over claims she was behind the fundraiser created to help bankroll Brittany Higgins’ legal, medical and counselling fees.
Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett levelled a demand for information from sexual assault survivor and advocate Saxon Mullins, the woman who green-lit a Chuffed page which has raised more than $50,000 to support Higgins.
But on Friday, he told the court an affidavit indicated Funnell was the original mastermind behind the crowdfunding.
Bennett has now launched an application demanding Funnell hand over all communications she had with Higgins, her husband David Sharaz and Higgins’ lawyer Carmel Galati before the fundraiser went live.
He told the court the fundraiser, the proceeds of which Galati is to hold on trust for Higgins, were part of a calculated campaign to mislead the public and characterise the proceedings as Reynolds seeking to silence a sexual assault survivor.
Publishing its contents on the day Reynolds climbed into the witness stand went to his claim of aggravating conduct.
“It is an attempt, we say, if done in concert with Ms Higgins, to mischaracterise this case and that goes to the central claim,” Bennett told the court.
Justice Paul Tottle is due to rule on the matter later today.
Turning to the WA Supreme Court now, and Liberal senator Wendy Askew has told of the toll the political firestorm over Brittany Higgins’ alleged rape had on senator Linda Reynolds over the past three years, recalling periods of absence and “great distress”.
Askew told the court she sat behind the former defence minister when she began fielding questions from the Labor Party about the handling of the alleged incident in February 2021.
Liberal senator Wendy Askew is sworn-in at Parliament House in 2019. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“I was very conscious of the questions being asked relentlessly of her, and especially the mannerisms across the chamber ... which were just heartless,” Askew told the court.
After several days of questions from both ministers and the media, Reynolds reported feeling her vision blur, legs buckle and her heart pounding before almost collapsing in the senate.
Askew told the court she recalled observing Reynolds struggling to speak and fleeing the chamber before she was taken to hospital.
As the opposition’s chief whip, Askew said she had since received leave requests for Reynolds “on a regular basis” that often coincided with media coverage of the saga.
“She often comes to me and says ‘I just can’t do it… I just can’t get through the day’,” she said.
But when grilled by Higgins’ lawyer Rachael Young, SC, Askew acknowledged less than half of 49 leave of absences were lodged in 2021, and just over half a dozen were for medical or personal leave in 2022 and 2023.
However, she also pointed out parliament was not sitting at the time Higgins posted the series of social media posts Reynolds is now suing her over.
Reynolds claims the posts accused her of mishandling the rape allegation, which Higgins is defending on the basis the substance of the posts is true.
Police are urgently seeking information regarding the whereabouts of an alleged domestic violence offender who has removed his electronic monitoring device.
Adamo Russo, 32, went missing about 5pm last night. He is known to frequent the Morley, Stirling and Busselton areas.
Police believe he is with Anthony Joseph Foti, 63, who has an outstanding arrest warrant.
Anthony Foti (left) and Adamo Russo (right). Credit: WA Police
Russo is tanned, 175cm tall, of medium build, with dark brown hair and brown eyes. Foti is tanned, 175cm tall, of medium build with a bald head and a brown goatee.
“Mr Russo may act in an unpredictable manner if approached. Members of the public are advised not
to approach him or Mr Foti but contact police immediately on 131 444 if sighted,” a police spokesman said.
A Perth man who stabbed his own mother 62 times while in a drug-induced psychosis, has been found guilty of her murder this morning.
Carol Cameron, 63, died after being stabbed by her son Callum who was in a drug psychosis.
Thirty-one-year-old Callum Cameron pleaded not guilty to murdering his mother, Carol Cameron, 63, four years ago, but did plead guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter.
He previously told the court he had no recollection of the incident after he overdosed on a cocktail of mushrooms, antidepressants and ayahuasca, a potent plant-based psychedelic.
Cameron went on trial in March this year in front of a judge only, due to the graphic and distressing nature of the evidence.
Today Justice Joseph McGrath handed down his judgement which was a verdict of guilty to the charge of murder.
He will be sentenced on November 4.
WA Police have just announced a ‘drone in a box’ trial, aimed at improving safety and enhancing intelligence gathering for officers responding to emergencies.
Footage captured by the drone, or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), can be livestreamed to the mobile phones of frontline police, as well as officers and other agencies at the State Operations Command Centre.
Papalia has announced the new technology has been trialled in Perth’s north. Credit: AFR
Stored in a transportable drone dock, or ‘box’, the drone can be deployed in strategic locations, launched remotely and have its battery automatically recharged.
To date, 80 flights have been completed as part of the Yanchep drone in a box trial, including successful use during simulated public safety scenarios such as missing person searches and the tracking of wanted vehicles.
Police Minister Paul Papalia said the technology could mean WA Police have eyes on an incident before responding officers arrive.
“Having a bird’s-eye view of a situation in real-time could give police important intel they otherwise wouldn’t have had, allowing officers to make informed decisions on the ground,” he said.
Police Commissioner Col Blanch said every second counted in an emergency, and that the technology could keep not only the community safe, but police officers too.