As it happened: WA news on Monday, May 6

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As it happened: WA news on Monday, May 6

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Good night

Thank you for joining us on this very busy news day.

We just learned that Perth bikie Troy Mercanti is accused of ‘backhanding’ a woman and raping her after night out in Northbridge.

The 56-year-old appeared in Perth Magistrates Court on Monday via video link from Hakea Prison looking dishevelled and unshaven after a weekend in the cells.

In unbearably sad news, the girlfriend of one of the Perth brothers killed in Mexico has led the online tributes for them after Mexican authorities confirmed the identities of three bodies found in a well last week.

Prosecutors believe Perth brothers Callum, 33, and Jake Robinson, 30, and American Jack Carter Rhoad, 30, were killed after resisting the theft of their ute.

Callum’s girlfriend Emily Horwath, an American who lives in San Diego where he played professional lacrosse, expressed her devastation in posts about the brothers and their American friend.

“My heart is shattered into a million pieces,” she said. “You are one of one. I will love you forever.”

And a 42-year-old West Australian woman is accused of attempting to murder her disabled child by injecting her with insulin, a court has heard.

The mother, who cannot be identified to protect the identity of the child, went on trial in the WA Supreme Court on Monday. She was arrested and charged after blood tests taken in January 2022 following a triple-zero call showed the child had life-threatening levels of insulin in her system.

Finally, we offer you a change of pace here, with an inspiring opinion piece titled: I signed up for a one-way ticket to hell and (somehow) came out transformed. Perhaps it’ll inspire us to get out of bed that bit earlier and start exercising.

WA teachers offered 12 per cent over three years

By Hamish Hastie

The State School Teachers Union is looking to accept a new offer from the State Government of a 12 per cent pay increase over three years.

The previous offer was for a wage rise of 11 per cent over three years, including 5 per cent in the first year and 3 per cent in both the second and third.

The SSTUWA organised a half-day strike for teachers.

The SSTUWA organised a half-day strike for teachers.Credit: Holly Thompson

Teachers walked off the job recently to rally at Optus Stadium. They will be balloted on teh new offer which includes improvements to workloads.

SSTUWA president Matt Jarman said after seven months of negotiations, the union had received an offer that was worth putting to members.

“Our members turned out in their thousands to voice their opposition to the previous offers, and we’re very pleased the government has paid attention,” he said.

“We’ve always said these negotiations were as much about conditions as they were about pay and there are some very significant measures in this offer that will cut red tape and administration so our members can get back to their core job of educating students.

“We very much hope that if this offer is accepted by members, it will help to address some of the serious issues in our public education system, including the attraction and retention of quality teachers and school leaders.”

Reynolds steps up damages pursuit in new action over Higgins’ trust

By Jesinta Burton

WA Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds has opened up a new battle front in her pursuit of damages against former staffer Brittany Higgins, taking to the court seeking details of a trust she fears may prevent her from gaining a financial remedy.

Lawyers for Reynolds confirmed they had lodged the application in the Supreme Court on Monday, which demands Higgins hand over details of a deed governing a protective trust bearing her name, including the trustee.

Senator Linda Reynolds says she will continue with her defamation lawsuit against Brittany Higgins and her fiance David Sharaz unless they  accept findings there was no cover-up.

Senator Linda Reynolds says she will continue with her defamation lawsuit against Brittany Higgins and her fiance David Sharaz unless they accept findings there was no cover-up.Credit: Trevor Collens

The former defence minister claims the trust was established around the same time she launched legal action against Higgins’ fiance, David Sharaz, and was carefully designed to safeguard her $2.4 million federal government compensation payout from being drawn upon in legal proceedings.

Reynolds, if successful, then intends to launch a bid to have the trust set aside under the state’s property act on the basis she fears funds may have been transferred to it to defeat potential creditors.

It is understood Reynolds’ lawyers had already made several unsuccessful attempts to secure a copy of the deed via Higgins’ solicitors in recent months.

The move is the latest levelled by Reynolds in a bid to shore up her ability to secure a financial remedy against Higgins in the event her defamation action is successful. It comes just months after Reynolds took the row to her former staffer’s new home country, engaging a French lawyer in her pursuit of a freezing order over Higgins’ European assets.

For more than a year, the former defence minister has been pursuing Higgins and Sharaz for damages, as well as aggravated damages, over several social media posts she claims were defamatory of her.

Both Higgins and Sharaz had been defending the defamation case until last week, when Sharaz publicly declared he did not have the financial means to pursue the matter - which he compared to the ill-fated Titanic - to trial.

A six-week trial has been set down for July 24 after an attempt at in-person mediation failed. Higgins’ lawyers had attempted to postpone the trial amid fears for her mental health.

However, the pursuit was shut down by Justice Paul Tottle, who ruled it was not expedient or in the interests of justice for the trial dates to be vacated.

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Education Department yet to respond to questions surrounding radicalisation of teen

By Holly Thompson

The WA Department of Education is yet to respond to media requests for comment on issues surrounding the radicalised 16-year-old shot by police on Saturday, despite Premier Roger Cook stating they were the ones who should answer questions.

Parents at Rossmoyne Senior High School wrote to Education Minister Tony Buti expressing concerns about a group of students, including the boy who died, that they believed were spreading extremist ideologies at school after becoming indoctrinated online.

“We can confirm that a letter was sent to the Minister for Education and as is appropriate, the minister automatically referred that letter to the education department for action,” Cook said.

“I’ll leave that up to the education department to clarify.”

The Minister has not yet clarified what that action was, and the department is still deciding whether they will put Director General Lisa Rogers up for comment six hours after Cook’s press conference.

The Caucasian male who had converted to an extreme version of Islam, had a complex history of mental health issues and had been enrolled in a government-funded anti-extremism program since he was 14 years old.

Five other young people and four adults are also enrolled in the program in WA.

Girlfriend leads tributes to Perth man and his brother killed in Mexico

By Raul Cortes and Alex Crowe

Mexico City: Mexican authorities have confirmed the two Perth men and an American who went missing in northern Mexico last week are dead, after their families identified their bodies.

And the girlfriend of one of them has posted of her heartbreak.

Callum Robinson and his girlfriend Emily Horwath.

Callum Robinson and his girlfriend Emily Horwath.Credit: Instagram

The remains of Callum Robinson, 33, Jake Robinson, 30, and American Jack Carter Rhoad, 30, were found in a well last week in what authorities are treating as a murder investigation.

The three went missing last weekend during a camping and surfing trip, posting idyllic photos on social media of waves and isolated beaches along a stretch of coast south of the city of Ensenada.

Chief state prosecutor Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez said the alleged killers drove by their campsite, saw the foreigners’ ute and tents, and wanted to steal their tyres.

“My heart is shattered into a million pieces,” wrote Callum’s girlfriend Emily Horwath.

Read the full story here.

WA government overrode water warnings to approve Alcoa mining

The Cook Labor cabinet approved Alcoa’s mining in December despite its own experts warning it posed a high risk to Perth’s water supply and the state’s treasured jarrah forest.

The environment regulator opposed Alcoa’s mining management program “in its entirety” because it lacked “clarity and coherence” about what areas would be mined and provided insufficient information for the regulator to fully assess risks from its strip mining for bauxite.

Normally the ministers for water, state development and the environment approve Alcoa’s mining plan but for 2023 it was elevated to be a cabinet decsion.

Normally the ministers for water, state development and the environment approve Alcoa’s mining plan but for 2023 it was elevated to be a cabinet decsion.Credit: WAtoday

Our resources and energy reporter Peter Milne exclusively obtained, via freedom of information laws, the advice of the regulator, namely the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation. It revealed deep concerns about Alcoa’s mining, including a “foreseeable” risk it could render unusable the Serpentine Dam which supplies 18 per cent of Perth’s drinking water.

The regulator was concerned about the jarrah forest as well as Perth’s water supply, warning the scale of Alcoa’s clearing could have a “large adverse impact” on the forest’s diverse flora and fauna, including some endangered species with already declining populations, for example, the Carnaby’s black cockatoo. It said nothing in Alcoa’s plan addressed this threat “beyond generic statements”.

Read Pete’s exclusive here.

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Fresh charges for alleged Perth ‘Ponzi scheme’ fraudster

By Rebecca Peppiatt

A 24-year-old man charged over an alleged Ponzi scheme scam has been slapped with a further 11 fraud charges.

Mandurah man Jack Endersby made headlines in March after this masthead exclusively exposed him as the director of a company through which he allegedly scammed clients out of millions of dollars.

Those clients allegedly included his own grandmother.

Jack Endersby with his grandmother Lyn Newby.

Jack Endersby with his grandmother Lyn Newby.

An investigation by this masthead revealed Endersby drove around in a Maserati, made regular trips to Dubai and New York, and lived a lavish lifestyle in an apartment overlooking Elizabeth Quay while his clients raised concerns over their investments.

Those same clients took their concerns to police and Endersby was arrested and charged with 11 counts of fraud. Now, further police investigations into Endersby’s business dealings have led to him being charged with another 11 counts of gains benefit by fraud.

Police now allege Endersby’s offending dates back to 2019 and that he received more than $2.5 million in funds from 22 victims across Australia.

Read the full exclusive here.

State steps up as property developer

By Hamish Hastie

With four days until their first state budget drops, Premier Roger Cook and Treasurer Rita Saffioti’s drip-feed of details is increasing in volume – and this morning’s announcement in Cloverdale is one of the most interesting.

The state will add $843 million to its social housing budget, increasing its target from 4000 to 5000 homes.

An artist’s impression of the Pier Street development.

An artist’s impression of the Pier Street development. Credit: Department of Communities

Half the money is for the Social Housing Fund, now rebranded to include the word ‘affordable’.

Housing Minister John Carey said this was a deliberate change to indicate the increased flexibility of the fund and improve chances of getting federal funds through the national Housing Australia agency.

“We don’t just need more social housing, we also need affordable rentals and to leverage the funding from the federal government as part of their massive investment,” he said.

“What this means, in short, is that we will have a pool of funding that can provide and support projects that have a mix of social and affordable apartments.”

The government will also spend another $144 million to accelerate its pipeline of affordable projects, like the Pier Street build-to-rent social/affordable high rise.

Carey said this extra money was not reflective of a cost blowout on Pier Street.

Final text from radicalised Perth schoolboy revealed

The final text from a radicalised teenager, who police shot on Saturday night after he stabbed a random stranger, has been published in a joint report by our deputy editor Heather McNeill and our colleague Michael Genovese at 9 News Perth.

Concerned members of the Muslim community called triple-0 after getting the text.

CCTV captured the moment the boy confronted police who had responded to reports of someone running around with a knife.

CCTV captured the moment the boy confronted police who had responded to reports of someone running around with a knife.Credit: 9 News Perth

The message, seen by this masthead, read: “Brothers, please forgive me for any time I have wronged you, I am going in the path of Jihad tonight for the sake of Allal Azzawajal. I am a soldier of the Mujahideen of Al-qaeda and take responsibility for the actions that will in Sha Allah Ta’ala take place tonight.”

WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said the attack had the “hallmarks of terrorism” but he did not declare it a terrorist act, as he believed the boy was working alone, and was not part of a broader terror cell.

The boy’s school, Rossmoyne Senior High School, and the education department, had received complaints about the boy trying to convert other students into practising “extreme Islam”.

Premier Roger Cook has commented this morning on the boy’s participation for the past two years in a government-funded anti-radicalisation program, but also noted: “The law doesn’t prohibit people from having extreme thoughts”.

Scroll down to our earlier posts on Senator Jacqui Lambie’s criticisms of these programs.

Read the full report here.

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Guess who we overtook? Perth rental growth is country’s highest

By Sarah Brookes

Moving to Melbourne has never sounded better.

Perth’s had the strongest rental growth across the capitals in the past year, up 13.6 per cent to $669 per week, according to new data released on Monday.

CoreLogic’s rent report found Perth is now the third most expensive rental market in the country behind Sydney ($770) and Canberra ($674) – overtaking Melbourne, and only $5 off passing Canberra to take second place.

Serpentine-Jarrahdale had the largest annual rent growth across what the Australian Bureau of Statistics terms Australia’s “statistical area level 3” markets, at 19 per cent, followed by Belmont-Victoria Park at 17.8 per cent and Armadale and Mundaring at 17.2 per cent apiece.

Experts pointed to a few reasons for the staggering increase post-COVID, especially a lack of supply, as well as the move from share houses into smaller households with spare rooms used as home offices.

Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee said the market was “really stuck”.

“We’ve got construction problems, we’re lacking the money to get these homes built and governments are so indebted after COVID there are not many levers they can pull,” she said.

Here’s the data in all its horrifying glory:

Read the full report here – our property reporter Sarah Brookes has further consulted the CoreLogic head of research, AMP chief economist and the Property Council of Australia’s policy expert for perspectives on the causes of, and potential solutions to, the problem.

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