WA news LIVE: Weapons expo enters second day after protesters march through CBD

Acting Prime Minister and federal Defence Minister Richard Marles has talked up the jobs and economic impacts that AUKUS will have in WA and in particular the Henderson defence precinct.

Speaking at the Defence Horizons breakfast at Perth Crown this morning, Marles said Henderson would become the most important naval sustainment facility in the country once complete.

About $12 billion has been budgeted to get work started on the Henderson defence precinct but the Department of Defence itself believes the total cost could be more than $25 billion.

Marles said the final cost wouldn’t be as high as $60 billion as has been hypothesised by some defence experts, but said it would definitely come in over $25 billion.

Beaches in the Town of Cambridge will reopen this morning following the detection of high levels of E.coli in the water last week, likely caused by a beached humpback whale carcass.

The 31-tonne whale was removed from the shore on Wednesday, but subsequent water testing by the council on Friday revealed bacteria at unsafe levels.

Follow-up testing carried out on Monday has since returned safe levels for swimmers to return to the ocean.

“The whale carcass has been removed and the affected beach area cleaned and remediated,” a council spokesperson said.

Police are preparing for another major operation guarding the second day of the Land Forces expo at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Last night, around 2000 anti-war protesters who oppose the international weapons event took to the streets of Perth’s CBD to rally against it.

The peaceful protect began at Yagan Square and ended at Elizabeth Quay, with police making no arrests, and issuing no move on notices.

“We are the people; we won’t be silent,” some chanted.

It was a starkly different scene to the violence witnessed on the streets of Melbourne two years ago, when the city hosted the same event.

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

Good morning and welcome to our live news blog for this Wednesday, October 7.

Making headlines today, a Perth private paramedic collapsed in court after he was shown footage of a head-on crash he allegedly caused by driving on the wrong side of the road with unauthorised lights and sirens on his personal car.

Jack Dunn, 30, appeared in Joondalup Magistrates Court on Tuesday, charged with aggravated dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm, four counts of aggravated dangerous driving causing bodily harm and attempting to pervert the course of justice over Sunday’s crash in Wanneroo.

Meanwhile, it’s been one year to the week since WA Liberal MP Andrew Hastie quit Sussan Ley’s frontbench to speak his mind on migration.