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In case you missed Sarah Brookes’ great story about a real ‘fixer upper’ that sold for $100,000 more than the asking price (this has been one of our most read stories today), check out the gallery which shows just how much cleaning would be required before moving day.
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Back to politics now, and Radio 6PR’s Oliver Peterson has revealed WA MP Mia Davies is being wooed by senior figures within the federal National Party to run in the newly proposed seat of Bullwinkel.
Peterson said it was understood The Nationals intended to send a “strong message” to Canberra regarding the ban on live sheep exports by 2028, a move it has vowed to overturn if it wins government at the next election.
Nationals MP Mia Davies.Credit: Peter de Kruijff
The electorate — named after wartime nursing hero Lieutenant Colonel Vivian Bullwinkel — would encompass Perth’s eastern suburbs, sections of Liberal-held seats Canning and O’Connor and parts of the Wheatbelt, including Davies’ hometown of Northam.
The major parties have their eyes on the new seat ahead of 2025, which would be held by Labor on a 3.3 per cent margin based on the 2022 ballot.
Davies declined to comment, but Peterson said the former opposition leader was “weighing it up”.
The Member for Central Wheatbelt stood down as opposition leader in 2023, declaring she had “no fuel in the tank” and would not contest her seat at the next state election.
The 45-year-old became the first Nationals opposition leader in almost 80 years in 2021 after former premier Mark McGowan took WA Labor to the biggest political victory in Australian history.
It might be seven months away but a Perth council has made the tough decision to cancel its popular Australia Day 2025 event and fireworks because of Metronet works to extend the rail line to Byford.
The City of Armadale said Metronet’s contractor has works planned for January 2025 that will make large public gatherings impossible in and around Minnawarra Park and Armadale Road.
Metronet works have forced the council to scrap its Australia Day fireworks.
Mayor Ruth Butterfield said staff had investigated a range of alternate locations for the event but in the end decided the best option was to scrap the event due to safety concerns.
“The city recognises the continuing popularity of our Australia Day event, and we want to ensure this annual feature is the best that we can offer,” she said.
“The unavoidable works taking place around Minnawarra Park meant that we had to look at alternative arrangements, and as a council we decided that cancelling the 2025 event was the best option under the circumstances.”
Butterfield said the event would return bigger and better in 2026.
Premier Roger Cook has his sights set on securing more direct flights between Perth and China ahead of Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s impending visit, declaring they would be better for the economy than the pandas Adelaide received.
The three-year trade ban on western rock lobsters is also expected to be on the agenda, with Cook insisting talks were progressing well.
Premier Roger Cook in Ocean Reef on Monday.Credit: 9 News Perth
“We’re grateful for China Southern putting back on Perth to Guangzhou, and we obviously saw the successful trial earlier in the year between Shanghai and Perth, but we’d like to see those links reinstated,” he said.
“[Pandas] are extraordinary, beautiful creatures, but I’ll take direct aviation links over pandas any day, and a few rock lobsters thrown in for good measure.”
Li is due to land in WA on Monday night, the final leg of his four-day trip to Australia.
The senior Chinese official will visit Tianqi Lithium’s Kwinana refinery before attending a business roundtable.
Cook said the visit would be a high security operation given the protesters at several of the locations Li has visited in recent days.
“This is a great opportunity for us to demonstrate to China that we are a good trading partner, that we want to be part of the battery supply chain and continue to grow the relationship with China to make sure that we can enjoy the prosperity that comes with it,” he said.
Cook made the comments at the site of the Ocean Reef Marina on Monday while marking the beginning of construction on the new headquarters for Whitfords Marine Rescue and the Ocean Reef Sea Sports Club.
More than 1350 Perth school students have been handed a $100 fine for travelling on the Transperth network without tagging on with their SmartRider this year, despite the travel being free.
The confusion over the requirement to tag on follows an announcement that school students would commute free of charge on weekdays to help families with cost-of-living costs.
Premier Roger Cook has defended the fines, and said the free transport offer is “about free transport, not rule-free transport”. He also noted the student fines were only a fraction of the 7.3 million rides recorded over that time.
Listen to Gary Adshead’s interview with Greens upper house member Brad Pettitt on the issue here:
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has told Robert Irwin to “lighten up, mate”, after the TV personality threatened to sue the producers of her political cartoon series over an episode satirising his involvement in a Queensland tourism campaign.
On Friday, FC Lawyers, representing Irwin, sent a cease and desist letter to Melbourne-based Stepmates Studios alleging an episode of Hanson’s Please Explain series, uploaded on the Queensland senator’s social media, was defamatory and deceptively used Irwin’s image.
But Hanson, during an interview with Radio 6PR in Perth this morning, has refused to take the video down.
“I’ve never met the young man, but I’d say to Robert, lighten up mate, okay, your father was an icon, he actually was a larrikin, he used to have a laugh,” she said.
“I just think it’s ridiculous, it’s not depicting Robert in a terrible way, whatsoever.”
Hanson claimed she had been given until 5pm today to remove Irwin’s image.
“I’m not backing down from it, and I will see it through to court,” she said.
“I’ve got one of the best lawyers in the country who has acted for me in a number of cases and has said this is not defamatory so I will fight it.
“It’s satirical, have we become so precious that we are actually looking at ourselves all the time without having a joke? Where’s the Australia that I grew up in where you could have a laugh and a joke at yourself?”
And in politics, Chinese Premier Li Qiang is expected to travel to Perth tonight for the final leg of his four-day trip to Australia, the first visit by a senior Chinese leader in almost two decades.
Li arrived at Parliament House to scores of protesters and supporters a short time ago, where he will attend a lunch with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Adelaide this weekend.Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald
Albanese has voiced his intention to discuss issues of disagreement between the two nations, from recent military encounters to the detention of Chinese-Australian academic Yang Hengjun.
The Chinese Premier is set to venture west on Monday night before meeting with WA Premier Roger Cook to tour Chinese-controlled miner Tianqi Lithium’s refinery in Kwinana and attend a business roundtable.
On Sunday, Cook said it was “telling” Li had chosen to visit WA over other states.
“He understands Western Australia is the powerhouse of the nation’s economy, and he understands that WA exports more to China than any of the other states combined,” he said.
Li began his visit in South Australia on Saturday, where he declared relations between Australia and China were “back on track” and offered to loan two new pandas to Adelaide Zoo.
The Chinese Premier also visited nearby wineries and met with local wine exporters.
The proportion of family income required to pay off a home loan has increased in WA however the state still fared well compared to the rest of the nation.
The latest REIA Housing Affordability Report showed the income required rose 1 per cent over the March quarter and 3.6 per cent over the year to 37.8 per cent, based on a median weekly family income of $2,612 and average monthly loan repayment of $4,277.
REIWA chief executive Cath Hart said rising house prices were having the most impact on affordability.
“A year ago, constant increases in interest rates saw mortgage repayments jump by about 40 per cent a month which impacted affordability at the time,” she said.
“Rates have been stable since November, but house sale price growth has accelerated over the past two quarters, rising 4.2 per cent over the December 2023 quarter and 5.5 per cent over the March quarter. The decline in affordability reflects this.”
Despite affordability improving in NSW it remained the least affordable state or territory in the nation, with homeowners requiring 56.3 per cent of family income to meet loan repayments.
Two teens, 16, will face Perth Children’s Court today, accused of stabbing two other young people near Karrinyup Shopping Centre on Sunday.
WA Police allege two 18-year-olds were stabbed, one in the abdomen, and the other across his wrists and thighs, during a pre-arranged meet-up inside a car around 2.30pm.
The younger teens, local to the area, have each been charged with two counts of grievous bodily harm and one count of aggravated armed robbery.
Here’s what you need to know before we get started:
Forty per cent of voters now rank Peter Dutton and the Coalition as best to manage the economy.Credit: Marija Ercegovac