As it happened: WA news on Tuesday, August 12

Cook then likened Zempilas to an ‘inflatable flailing arms man’, with a visual demonstration for the house to go with it.

“This man is a risk to patients’ lives, his message today,” he said.

“We have the inflatable flailing arms man flailing around saying ‘don’t go to hospital, don’t go to hospital’, scaring western Australians because he sees a small gap of political opportunity here.”

Swinbourn said WA remained “committed to dealing with our carbon emissions” but said major players including the US walking back emissions commitments made our actions “pale into insignificance” and rendered action in WA “meaningless”.

“What will address this is global action,” he said.

Asked about WA’s continued lack of a legislated carbon target, he said parliament had been prorogued for the election and Minister for Energy and Decarbonisation Amber Sanderson was working on new legislation regarding a 2050 net zero target.

Asked about 2030 targets, proposed today by Climate Analytics, as reported in our 9.15am post, he said WA needed “to be careful in terms of what we set and what we can achieve” but again this was a matter for Sanderson.

“It’s all very well to send a virtue-signalling type of target,” he said.

“But these things don’t happen in a vacuum, they affect other areas of our economy … it’s a competitive space out there.

“We’re moving out of coal … modernising our transmission network, which is really important for connecting to renewables, and we are spending a lot of time both on policy settings and actual action for renewable energy.”

He further told WAtoday that since WA’s climate legislation was introduced, the way greenhouse gas emissions from industry in WA were regulated had changed, with the federal government taking the lead through the strengthened safeguard mechanism, so the government was taking some time to review the legislation to ensure it delivered the best outcomes for WA.

“We are focused on ensuring that our approach aligns with the most effective measures available to drive down emissions and support our transition to a decarbonised economy,” he said.

Shadow corrective services minister Adam Hort said prisoners should face punishment if the accusations, currently under investigation by the Department of Corrective Services and the RSPCA, are found to be true.

“As more information has come out around this story it is concerning. We’ve heard a number of accusations about what might be happening in these day release programs,” he said.

“The community rightly expects that when people go into prison, there is a rehabilitation process that sees them come out at the other end in a batter position.”

Corrective Services Commissioner Brad Royce said yesterday that he was surprised to learn inmates were eating offsite.

“If I can ask us all in the room to do anything from here, it’s just to stay in the moment, embrace everything that comes with the challenge of the next however many weeks,” he said.

“And let’s f---ing win that cup.”

The 33-year-old is the last remaining player at the club to have played in Fremantle’s one and only grand final appearance in 2013 where they lost to Hawthorn.