WA Premier defends quick removal of Winmar statue

WA Premier Roger Cook has defended his government’s move to quickly remove the statue of disgraced AFL footballer Nicky Winmar, after the former St Kilda and Western Bulldogs player was found guilty of assaulting a woman in northern Victoria last year.

The statue was removed early yesterday, nearly seven years to the day since it was unveiled.

Cook said the decision to remove the statue was a tough one to make.

“Nicky Winmar was a major football legend,” he said.

“He made an extraordinary contribution to the debate around racism and racism in sport, in particular, through that iconic image, which is immortalised in that statue.

“But the standard you walk past is the standard that you would set, and the fact of the matter is that Mr Winmar has been guilty of a particularly violent act of family domestic violence, and so I didn’t think it was appropriate to continue to have the statue in that particular location.

“It is a reminder that we need to continue to do everything we can to prevent family and domestic violence in our community.”

WA Football says its Hall of Fame committee is reviewing Winmar’s membership in light of his recent criminal conviction.

The AFL is also reviewing Winmar’s status as a member of the Hall of Fame.

Today’s headlines

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

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

Police are still searching for a mystery cyclist who collided with a woman in Midland at the weekend before leaving the scene.
Testing has returned a “presumed positive” result for bird flu in samples taken from a dead giant petrel found near Mullaloo Beach last week.
WA minister Paul Papalia has announced his resignation from parliament this week, with a close family member’s “serious” illness the catalyst for him ending his tenure in politics and sparking a byelection in his southern suburbs seat of Secret Harbour.
WA Premier Roger Cook has defended his government’s move to quickly remove the statue of disgraced AFL footballer Nicky Winmar, after the former St Kilda and Western Bulldogs player was found guilty of assaulting a woman in northern Victoria last year.
Another union has waded into the fray at BHP’s Port Hedland operations, with Australian Workers’ Union members voting overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action at the nation’s biggest bulk export port.
WA Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas has taken aim at the state government’s decision to move one of the upcoming Italian football matches from Optus Stadium to HBF Park, saying the move is a sign that tickets for the festival are not selling.

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

What’s behind the shifting Juventus-Palermo match?

WA Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas has taken aim at the state government’s decision to move one of the upcoming Italian football matches from Optus Stadium to HBF Park, saying the move is a sign that tickets for the festival are not selling.

Acting Sport Minister John Carey on Monday released a statement saying the third game of the International Football Festival between Juventus and Palermo was now scheduled to be played at HBF Park.

Premier Roger Cook said the reasoning behind the move had more to do with concerns about the state of the grass at Optus Stadium.

“I’m not aware that ticket sales are too low,” he said.

Another union joins BHP’s Port Hedland headache

Another union has waded into the fray at BHP’s Port Hedland operations, with Australian Workers’ Union members voting overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action at the nation’s biggest bulk export port.

The union’s workers, in partnership with the Western Mine Workers Alliance, now join workers represented by the Electrical Trades Union and Australian Manufacturing Workers Union in calling for strike action which could close the big miner’s operations at the port for up to 24 hours at a cost of $120 million.

A statement from the AWU said 97 per cent of workers voted in favour of protected industrial action after applying for a protection action ballot with Fair Work in June.

“The result sends a clear message that workers are united and determined to secure a fair agreement,” the statement read.

“Tomorrow’s bargaining meeting is an important opportunity for BHP to demonstrate it is prepared to engage constructively and make meaningful progress towards a deal that workers can support.”

WATCH: Minister Paul Papalia expected to resign

WA government minister Paul Papalia is expected to announce his resignation from politics in a press conference scheduled to start at 1pm today.

Watch it live below:

Dead bird found at Perth beach a ‘presumed bird flu’ case: authorities

We’ve just received an update on the suspected bird flu case detected in a dead bird found near Mullaloo Beach last week.

Here’s the latest from acting chief veterinary officer, Sam Hamilton:

“Testing at CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness has determined the giant petrel found in the Perth North Metropolitan Area (Whitfords - Mullaloo beach) of Western Australia is presumed positive for H5 high pathogenicity avian influenza (bird flu).
“CSIRO’s ACDP has confirmed the giant petrel was infected with an influenza virus of the H5 subtype.
“In this case ACDP has been unable to sequence the virus.
“The Western Australian Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development is treating this case as a positive as a precautionary measure, because of the initial WA laboratory findings, and the consistency with recent findings in other petrels.
“The inability to obtain a sequence is not unexpected. A range of factors, including the amount of virus in the sample and the sample quality, can affect sequencing, particularly in wildlife samples from deceased animals.”

The case is the seventh confirmed or presumed bird flu case in Australia, and the first in Perth’s metropolitan area.

WA MP set to officially announce retirement after months of speculation

WA government minister Paul Papalia is set to announce his retirement from politics this afternoon, bringing an end to heavy media speculation over the MP’s political future.

Papalia holds several of the state government’s high-profile portfolios, including corrective services, emergency services, defence industries, racing and gaming, and veterans.

However, with his imminent resignation, questions are now being raised over who will take on the member for Secret Harbour’s current cabinet roles and when a byelection will likely be called for his soon-to-be vacated seat.

The long-serving politician has been under fire in recent months, including being called out by the state opposition following a damning report highlighting a “systemic failure across multiple prisons” in WA under the corrective services portfolio.

Bird flu test results for bird found at Perth beach expected today

Biosecurity authorities are today expected to release the test results from a suspected bird flu case discovered between Whitfords and Mullaloo beaches last Tuesday.

This infected giant petrel found near Esperance in WA marked the beginning of a spate of sick seabirds washing up on Australian beaches.

Preliminary local testing showed traces of the deadly H5 strain in the dead giant petrel, but the case is not considered confirmed until it is tested in the CSIRO lab in Victoria.

It comes as New South Wales confirmed its first case of the bird flu in a giant. There have been six confirmed cases in Australia in the past fortnight. Four have been found in Western Australia’s southern region, and one in South Australia.

There has been a total of 795 reports of sick or dead birds in WA made to the Emergency Animal Disease hotline since Friday 19 June.

Police searching for mystery cyclist involved in Midland hit-and-run

Police are still searching for a mystery cyclist who collided with a woman in Midland at the weekend before leaving the scene.

Officers from the major crash investigation squad allege the unknown male was riding on the footpath on Morrison Road around 4.40pm on Saturday when he hit a 64-year-old woman walking across Mathoura Street.

The man stopped to render assistance to the woman before riding away before emergency services arrived.

The injured woman sustained serious injuries and is in Royal Perth Hospital.

WA Police are appealing for anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers.

Across the nation and around the world

Here’s what’s making news across the nation and around the world:

Police are investigating whether cannibalism was a factor in the “extremely confronting” death in New South Wales on Saturday of a four-year-old boy whose mother has been charged with murder.

A mother has been charged with the murder of her four-year-old son at Wyong.

Cartels have created a genetically modified super coca plant to produce more crops annually and extract more cocaine, the Australian Federal Police has said, as production hits new peaks.
Prominent gambling reform advocate Tim Costello has blasted the government’s new advertising rules for streaming services as being much worse than the status quo, accusing Labor of removing existing protections to favour sports betting companies at the expense of families.

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As it happened: WA news on Monday, July 6