Authorities Investigate Shark Attack in Western Australia

Child Protection Minister Jess Stojkovski says she visited Frisby Court in South Hedland twice during her quick visit to the Pilbara suburb following reports of vulnerable children, some as young as five, staying in a Frisby Court Department of Housing and Works house unsupervised.

Stojkovski flew to the Pilbara on Monday morning following the reports in The Australian and returned ahead of question time this afternoon.

She said she wouldn’t be providing a running commentary on the vulnerable family but said the parents were now at the house, and she was confident it was getting support they needed at the time.

Stojkovski pushed back on the claim that up to 15 children were sometimes at the house unsupervised.

Two teenagers are due to face court today after allegedly breaking into Perth Zoo and attacking its resident crocodile.

The boys, aged 16 and 17, are accused of breaking into the zoo just after 7pm on Sunday, before cutting the locks to the crocodile enclosure, entering, and “striking a crocodile with a metal pole”.

“CCTV cameras inside the enclosure captured the pair before it is alleged the males damaged both cameras by removing them from the wall,” A WA Police spokesperson said.

“The pair then left the enclosure and the zoo, before the matter was reported to police the following morning.”

After a lot of bluster during the 2025 election campaign and about 18 months of quiet since the Cook government has provided an update on its promise to purchase back the state’s freight rail network back from its current leaseholder, Brookfield.

During the campaign, Transport Minister Rita Saffioti pledged to purchase back the 5500-kilometre network that was sold for nearly $600 million by the former Court government in 2000.

The opposition said at the time it could cost up to $5 billion, and criticised the public pledge, saying it put taxpayers in a poor negotiating position.

Saffioti will introduce legislation to enact the purchase of the rail lines, which cover much of the Wheatbelt, in parliament on Tuesday.

Tame Impala’s lead singer, Fremantle local and Dockers number one ticket holder Kevin Parker has been spotted sporting his team’s jersey during a show in Denver.

But while he has made his love of his home team clear on an international stage as they gear up for a preliminary final on Friday, he has also made his position on the team’s major sponsor clear – blacking out the Woodside logo.

Conservation Council of WA fossil fuels program manager Gerard Mazza said Parker’s decision to tape-out the Woodside logo sent a strong message on the world stage.

“The Browse project would have a significant cost for Western Australians,” he said.

Today’s historic swearing in of One Nation’s first ever lower house MP, Luke Herdegen, has been somewhat overshadowed by furore surrounding the party’s national leader Pauline Hanson over comments she made a year ago describing Aboriginal Australians “the most primitive race on Earth”.

As he arrived for his first official day on the job, Herdegen was asked whether the comment was appropriate.

“I don’t want to comment on anything that Pauline Hanson said. I haven’t heard the podcast, so I’m not going to comment,” he said.

A few minutes earlier, One Nation WA leader Rod Caddies lashed the scrutiny of Hanson’s comments before deflecting to reporting in The Australian around complaints from child protection workers that their concerns about Indigenous girls being raped were not being followed up by the government.

Local Government Minister Hannah Beazley has defended the pace of the monitoring process undertaken at the beleaguered City of Perth as it gears up for another inquiry.

The City of Perth was the first council to have a monitor appointed under the state government’s recent local government reforms to oversee its operations following reports of dysfunction between the council and city staff.

That monitor’s report put the council on notice to clean up its act which it failed to do which has now forced Local Government Inspector Tony Brown to conduct his own three-month inquiry into the city and provide recommendations to the minister which could include the nuclear option of dismissing the whole council.

Despite the lengthy process, Beazley said it was much quicker than the last inquiry into the City of Perth, which took two years and cost nearly $8 million.

Greens MLC Jessica Beckerling has appealed to the state government to invest more in preventative domestic violence programs after a Perth father allegedly killed his two young children in Bali on Sunday in a suspected murder-suicide.

“Australia really does need to start grappling with the fact that family and domestic violence is a full-blown crisis, and that is why the Greens are going to be bringing a very important motion to the House tomorrow for debate,” she said.

“We’re calling on the Cook Labor government to set a target of zero murdered women and children, and to pull every single lever available to us in order to achieve that target.

“We’re seeing a woman being murdered by a man known to her every 11 days across this country.

“What we know from the evidence when we listen to the experts, is that primary prevention programs do work, that men’s behaviour change programs do work, but at the moment we’re only seeing $6 million from the Cook Labor government being invested in men’s behaviour change programs.

“That means that only 140 individuals out of 40,000 reported family and domestic violence cases last year are able to access those men’s behaviour change programs.”

Opposition leader Basil Zempilas has called on the state government to protect a group of up to 15 children who were discovered to be living without adult supervision in a rundown house in South Hedland.

The shocking situation was revealed by The Australian last week, with child protection minister Jessica Stojkovski flying up to the Pilbara yesterday to address the issue in person.

“The situation is absolutely harrowing,” Zempilas said.

“It’s incumbent upon the government to answer the question this morning: Are those children who appear to be living unsupervised in a property on Frisby Court, are they safe?” he said.

More politicians are arriving at Parliament House this morning, with local government opposition spokeswoman Kirrilee Warr stopping to speak with reporters about a formal inquiry being launched into the City of Perth’s conduct.

Local Government Inspector Tony Brown announced the inquiry last night after a five-month monitor’s review into the issues-plagued council was handed down.

The new inquiry is expected to take about three months and will cost ratepayers $120,000.

“I’m sure the ratepayers of Perth are wondering what is going on,” Warr said.

Nationals MP and resident trouble-maker, Lachlan Hunter, has returned to WA parliament this morning after completing his four-day suspension for repeatedly interjecting during Question Time last month.

“It’s good to be back,” he told reporters outside parliament.

Asked if he would be curtailing his behaviour in light of the suspension, he replied: “Absolutely not. We need a strong opposition in the state parliament. When I was kicked out of the state parliament just a little while ago, that was prior to the Secret Harbor by-election, and we just saw ... the Labor Party got their arse handed to them around that electoral result. So, if the Labor Party want to use their majority numbers to silence what the majority of Western Australians are thinking, then good luck to them.”

Asked if he could have competition as Parliament’s biggest troublemaker from incoming One Nation MP Luke Herdegen, who is being sworn in today, Hunter said he was looking forward to having another voice on the opposition benches.

“Hopefully we can give him a few tips and tricks about how to stir up the government,” he said.