As it happened: WA news on Thursday, August 8

Alas! Our non-stop Perth to London flight will now stop.

In Singapore, that is, to avoid flying over the Middle East.

Now operating under the new flight number QF209, outbound flights will refuel in Singapore to minimise flight disruptions, the airline said on Thursday.

A spokesperson said the airline was making adjustments to some flight paths due to the situation in parts of the Middle East as a precaution.

“We’re continuing to monitor the situation with a range of alternative flight path options available,” they said.

The return flight from London to Perth will operate direct, thanks to prevailing winds.

Qantas’ Perth-Paris and Perth-Rome flights will continue to operate direct in both directions.

Other flights to and from London are not affected as they use different flight paths.

“We monitor flight paths daily and make adjustments for a variety of reasons, including security and weather,” the spokesperson said.

In the WA Supreme Court, Senator Linda Reynolds is being cross-examined by Brittany Higgins’ lawyer Rachael Young, SC, about text messages she shared with alleged rapist Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyer ahead of his high-profile criminal trial.

Young grilled Reynolds about her decision to volunteer the names and contact details of staff members who may have been able to assist Lehrmann’s barrister Steven Whybrow, SC, in preparing a defence.

Reynolds defended this, and insisted it had been done in consultation with her lawyer.

When asked about remarks Whybrow made in their text message thread, including “shit is going to get real soon” and “hang in there. Karma comes to those who wait”, Reynolds told the court she could not remember receiving them and the inclusion of a “prayer emoji” in response was intended as a “thank you”.

Young pressed Reynolds on her decision to request copies of the daily transcript during Lehrmann’s criminal trial, one both Whybrow and her own lawyer deemed “inappropriate”.

Reynolds said this was purely to aid her civil case and made because she was unfamiliar with the legal process.

Young quizzed Reynolds about why the text messages were no longer on either of her mobile phone devices, putting it to Reynolds that she deliberately concealed them.

The senator said she couldn’t recall whether the text messages had been wiped manually or automatically, but rejected claims she was attempting to hide their existence.

Young ultimately concluded by suggesting the correspondence showed Reynolds was trying to help the accused challenge Higgins’ credibility, an allegation the senator denied.

Lehrmann’s rape charge was ultimately withdrawn and the criminal trial against him aborted due to juror misconduct in 2022. Lehrmann maintains his innocence.

The cross-examination continues.

Education Minister Tony Buti, during question time, has been asked when his government will “enlighten everyone” about the future of the abandoned St Andrews Hostel site.

The Katanning site was closed in 2009 after more than a decade of systematic sexual abuse and gross institutional neglect occurred within its walls at the hands of a paedophile named Dennis John McKenna.

Last week, WAtoday published an opinion piece asking why the abandoned WA ‘molestation sanctuary’ hadn’t been bulldozed to the ground.

In response, Buti has just announced that the state government, after years of inaction, will finally do just that.

“I’ll let the house know today that we will be demolishing the St Andrews hostel and after consultation with the victims, we hope to be able to erect a physical monument to the testimony of the suffering that those victims endured,” he said.

“So the reason that it was delayed is because [Roe member peter Rundle] and the Shire came to me and made representation to not demolish the hostel.”

Liberal leader Libby Mettam has accused Premier Roger Cook of favouring CFMEU workers over nurses, claiming the former have been given a sweeter pay deal.

However, Cook has labelled the comment and untruth, and in response to Mettam’s recent criticism of the CFMEU being the biggest donor to the Labor party this financial year, has dragged mining billionaire Clive Palmer’s name into the debate.

“When are you going to give the donations from Clive Palmer back?” he asked.

“I remember your predecessor used to travel the state in the private jet with Uncle Clive. Uncle Clive was probably bouncing him up and down on his knee, taking him around the state; ‘What else can we do Clive, what else can we do on your behalf?’.”

Cook claimed the Nationals were the new “enemy of the state”.

To state parliament now where question time has begun with opposition leader Shane Love accusing Premier Roger Cook of risking WA’s biosecurity after it emerged four illegal fishing vessels were found hiding in mangroves north of Broome earlier this week.

“Given the presence of foot and mouth disease is on our doorstep in Indonesia, why did it take so long for your government to take this seriously?” asked Love.

Cook responded by blaming the former Liberal-National government, claiming when they were in power they “ruined” the Department of Primary Industry and Regional Development.

“When you see things such as threats to our biosecurity, of course, it’s a concern, which is a reason why we are rebuilding the department to make sure that we have the capability,” he said.

“We’ll continue to work with the Commonwealth to ensure we keep Western Australians safe; safe from exotic diseases, safe from pests.

“But it’s no thanks to you and the work you did historically to gut the department.”

Protesters have gathered outside the Australian Institute of Company Directors annual awards lunch at The Westin in Perth today, where Woodside boss Meg O’Neill is the keynote speaker.

The group is protesting the oil and gas giant’s Browse project after WAtoday revealed that the environment watchdog was poised to recommend the $35 billion project not go ahead, forcing the federal government into a potential choice between environmental protection and its commitment to long-term gas supply to Australia’s trading partners.

Speaking after the protest, Conservation Council of WA spokeswoman Jess Beckerling said:

“This week the WA Premier said Woodside’s reckless Browse Gas plans absolutely should not go ahead if the impacts to Scott Reef are unacceptable. He was right.

“Browse cannot go ahead without profound and unmanageable impacts to Scott Reef and the endangered turtles, blue whales and other marine life that rely on it for their survival.

“Given the history of political pressure applied to the WA EPA, it is imperative that the EPA process is independent and the government resists any interference from Woodside.

“The community response this week shows the depth of opposition to Woodside’s Browse Gas and widespread community support for a strong and independent EPA.

“The West Australian community looks forward to the Cook Government listening to the independent science and making the responsible decision to protect Scott Reef.”

Read more here. 

We’re back at the WA Supreme Court, and Liberal senator Linda Reynolds has continued to defend her decision to leak top-secret letters about the compensation claim by her former staffer Brittany Higgins to the media, telling the court she believed Attorney General Mark Dreyfus was trying to “stitch her up”.

During cross-examination, Higgins’ lawyer Rachael Young, SC, grilled the former defence minister at length about her decision to forward three legally sensitive letters to The Australian newspaper’s Janet Albrechtsen in December 2022.

Reynolds had been named a defendant in Higgins’s $2.4 million compensation claim over the mishandling of her alleged rape by colleague Bruce Lehrmann in Parliament House in 2019, an allegation Lehrmann denies.

After seeking financial assistance from the Commonwealth, Reynolds took issue with a breakdown of terms that required her to remain tight-lipped about the case and at arm’s length from the mediation.

Young submitted Reynolds sent the emails from her personal address to avoid them becoming public, a claim the senator denied.

And Young accused Reynolds of leaking the letters to Albrechtsen, including a response outlining her concerns and claims the settlement was being handled by people with a conflict of interest, to ensure favourable coverage.

“Did I want Ms Albrechtsen to know I had not had the ability to defend claims? Yes, I was incredibly angry because I could see the Attorney General of this country was stitching me up on allegations I had not seen and believed had expired,” Reynolds told the court.

“I had respect for her even-handedness and know you cannot influence her. I had no expectation of how she would write it, I just provided evidence of corruption, and she could report that as she saw fit.”

Young put to Reynolds that her hope was that Albrechtsen would publish that she had in effect been muzzled by the Commonwealth, to which the senator responded: “I had been, but it was up to her to decide whether she believed that.”

When asked whether she believed leaking the emails would be taken by the Commonwealth as a breach of the confidentiality requirement, Reynolds told the court she did not consent to the Albanese government taking over her defence of the matter and said they “may well have never wanted it to see the light of day”.

Young put to Reynolds that in publicly challenging the process by which the Commonwealth reached the settlement with Higgins, she would cast doubt over whether she should have received it.

“I had no issue with Ms Higgins, my issue was with the Attorney-General and how the law had been manipulated to muzzle me,” Reynolds responded.

“It was about what I saw as government corruption.”

The cross-examination continues.

Listen to journalist Gary Adshead breaking the news this morning that WA’s tow truck industry will finally be regulated after his investigative reporting into the sector forced the state government to act.