As it happened: WA news on Tuesday, July 23

To some very important news now, and apparently no parent in Western Australia has named their baby Karen in the past two years.

Premier Roger Cook has pointed out the trend, joking that he’d “like to speak to the manager” about the name’s declining popularity, which has been dropping since peaking in the 1960s.

He’s also spotted that there were only three babies in WA named Roger last year, commending the parents for their great taste.

Previous baby name lists have revealed names like Bruce, Gary, Wayne, Sheryl and Beryl are also on the way out.

Returning to an earlier blog post we brought you on a violent home invasion in Perth’s northern suburbs this morning – WA Police have just held a press conference to shed more light on the attack.

Detective Senior Sergeant Bruce Bowers said a 68-year-old Innaloo man has been left “extremely traumatised” after a group of men bashed in his front door and jumped on top of him while he was asleep in bed around 4am this morning.

“The resident there was in possession of some high-value jewellery … so we believe that was the motivation [for the attack],” he said.

“He was actually wearing [around $50,000] in gold jewellery at the time, and we believe this is the reason why the home invasion became so violent and so physical.”

Bowers said the men attacked the victim with blunt items, suspected to be metal poles, and possibly a shotgun.

He sustained significant injuries to his face, arms, ribs and left thigh but was released from hospital this afternoon.

“This type of violence, attacking a 68-year-old resident in his home address, will not be tolerated,” Bower said.

“Every community member in WA has a right to remain safe and feel safe in their own home.”

Police are yet to identify the offenders, and are calling on members of the public with information, or CCTV or dashcam footage from the area to come forward.

Returning to the operation to remove a 20-tonne whale carcass from a beach in Geraldton earlier today.

The City of Greater Geraldton chief executive Ross McKim has just described it as the most difficult removal the council has undertaken in more than a decade.

Here’s what he had to say:

“The management of dead whales this size is difficult, we can manage smaller whales with our own equipment, but this was probably the heaviest whale we’ve had to remove in at least ten years.

“There were many considerations that the city needed to assess before the carcass could be removed including its formidable size, its distance from the nearest beach access point and the availability of machinery large enough to move the carcass to where it could be loaded onto a truck and taken to landfill.

“As it turned out, a six-wheel-drive vehicle was needed to drag the carcass 800 metres to Separation Point where two large cranes working together were needed in order to load the whale onto a truck and deliver it safely to Meru Waste Management Facility.”

Liberal leader Libby Mettam says reports of union intimidation, industrial sabotage and extortion by the WA branch of the CFMEU should be “ringing alarm bells” for the Cook government.

Her comments, said today during a press conference, follow investigations by this masthead, The Australian Financial Review and 60 Minutes uncovering allegations that bikie and underworld figures held key positions within the CFMEU in other Australian states, prompting a government review of the troubled construction sector.

The union put its Victorian branch into administration on Monday.

The WA government has repeatedly denied that WA’s construction industry was plagued by the same issues as over east, however, one union representative, Nathan Fisher, has been convicted of armed robbery, and another, Edmond Margjini, is facing charges relating to a home invasion, which he has pleaded not guilty to.

Mettam claimed the CFMEU was a “Labor-backed protection racket”.

“The criminal links within the CFMEU in WA should be raising alarm bells with the Cook Labor government, instead they continue to turn the other way,” she said.

“It’s difficult to understand why Roger Cook believes that the criminal activities and the intimidation tactics of the CFMEU somehow stops at the WA border.”

Since WA LAbor committed to publishing its political donations register, it has been revealed the CFMEU is the biggest donor to the party so far this financial year.

Police minister Paul Papalia encouraged anyone with information about allegations concerning the CFMEU to come forward to police.

“If anybody has any information regarding criminal activity in the building industry, they should report it in police, and our police in WA have the most powerful legislation behind them for tackling organised crime in the country, no question,” he said.

WAtoday reader Brian Poh has captured the moment a huge whale was craned off a beach near Geraldton earlier today.

The removal comes after a warning from Shark Smart that the carcass was attracting large sharks to the area, including a three-metre white shark which was spotted 50 metres offshore yesterday at Greys Beach.

Locals report the whale carcass beached at least five days ago.

Crews used two cranes to winch the carcass into an awaiting truck.

The City of Greater Geraldton is coordinating the removal.

The whale will be transported to Meru Waste Facility.

Federal Defence Industries Minister Pat Conway is today in Perth to announce a $2 billion project to build a fleet of army vessels in Henderson had been brought forward.

The project, due to deliver its first vessel in 2026, will include the construction of 26 significant landing craft for the Australian Army (18 medium and eight heavy) and is expected to generate 1100 jobs.

“We are bringing these projects forward, we are accelerating them to acknowledge the strategic circumstances that we face. We are bringing forward delivery of landing craft medium by two years, we will begin construction next year, with the first one to be delivered in 2026,” Conway said.

The vessels will be built at Austal Ship’s maritime precinct in Henderson, with WA’s Defence Minister Paul Papalia claiming the area will become a continuous ship building site.

“This is a huge announcement not just for WA but for the nation, for the first time we are going to have continuous shop building in Western Australia, that means generations of jobs. People can grow up knowing that if they want they can enter an industry that can employ them for their entire careers,” he said.

Today’s announcement of the army vessels project comes on the eve of the Indian Ocean Defence and Security Conference, which, for the first time, will host all three AUKUS admirals from the US, UK and Australia.

A man was taken to hospital this morning after being attacked during a home invasion at his Innaloo home.

The 68-year-old suffered serious injuries when a group of men forced entry to a house on King George Street around 4.15am.

A WA Police spokeswoman said the group assaulted the person inside the home before stealing personal items, including jewellery.

They then fled on foot.

The injured man contacted his neighbour for assistance and is currently in a stable condition at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.

Neighbour, Barry, said six men, one armed with a shotgun, burst into the house and “ripped off all his gold” which was worth about $50,000.

“His face was all beaten. They headbutted him with the rifle. He has got a leg injury, which made it worse as they kicked him, and they worked him over,” Barry said.

Meanwhile, police are searching for a group of people who fled on foot from a stolen vehicle around 9am this morning after a brief police pursuit through the Beechboro and Lockridge area.

It’s unclear if the two incidents are linked.

Data leaked to Radio 6PR presenter Gary Adshead suggests St John WA is under extraordinary pressure to fill its paramedic rosters, with the organisation offering an increasing number of triple-time shifts to fill in the gaps.

Adshead claimed 26 shifts on Saturday were logged as triple shifts, with that number steadily increasing in recent months, and regularly in double figures each day.

During a triple shift, a paramedic gets paid around $135 an hour.

In a statement, St John WA acknowledged it was experiencing high demand during the winter months and was “utilising every lever” it has to ensure ambulances and paramedics are on the road and ready to respond and care for the community.

Listen to Adshead’s full editorial below: