As it happened: WA news on Tuesday, June 3

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has urged WA regulators to consider the issue of concussion as a bare-knuckle boxing league vies to hold a fight at RAC Arena next month.

The state’s Combat Sports Commission is currently assessing an application by the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship – partially owned by former UFC fighter Conor McGregor – to stage its event on July 19.

A brawl over the issue has seen the sport labelled “morally reprehensible” in WA parliament, as the government distanced itself from the planned event.

Former sports minister David Templeman, who opened the door to the event in February when he amended regulations to recognise the BKFC as a sanctioning body, declined to discuss the topic when WAtoday contacted him on Tuesday.

Responding in parliament to the opposition’s demands that he “show some leadership” and stop the “morally repugnant event” last week, Premier Roger Cook said the league was “not his cup of tea”, but trusted the Combat Sports Commission to provide advice on how to run the event safely

The government continues to delegate responsibility for the fight to the Combat Sports Commission – but current Sport and Recreation Minister Rita Saffioti does have powers to veto the event.

At a press conference earlier on Tuesday, Cook stood firmly behind the Combat Sports Commission, despite admitting sports like mixed martial arts left him “a bit cold”.

“But look, I’m not here to lecture people about what they should and shouldn’t do,” he said, noting it was the commission’s job to ensure that, where combat sports take place, “they do so with appropriate supervision, particularly medical supervision, and in an appropriate manner”.

Saffioti, at a separate press conference today, said: “If you don’t regulate, if you don’t actually have rules in place, it goes underground, and that poses a far greater risk to everyone involved.”

But speaking to 6PR’s Oliver Peterson ahead of a cabinet meeting in Perth on Tuesday afternoon, Albanese raised concerns about concussion, revealing he had met last week with NRL legend Mark Carroll, who has said his time playing at the highest levels of rugby left him with chronic traumatic encephalopathy – also known as CTE.

“I think health advice is pretty important when it comes to all of these issues. And I’d be hopeful that whoever it is who’s making the decision bears that in mind,” Albanese said.

“It’s not really my responsibility as PM, but I do think that we need to be really cognisant about health advice when it comes to these issues, because they are really prevalent, and then in years past, there wasn’t as much concern about it.

“And I know of a number of footballers, a couple of whom I’m friends with, who are really doing it tough in their post-football life as well.

“And we’ve seen, certainly in across a range of football codes, but particularly rugby league and AFL, we’ve seen early retirements in order to protect people’s long-term health interests.

“I’ve never actually heard of bare knuckle boxing taking place.

“It’s pretty obvious what it is ... and there’s a reason why boxers wear gloves and wear appropriate protection, where it is appropriate, certainly in amateur boxing they wear headgear and all of that.

“You know, I do think that we need to have a bit of common sense here.”

We’re bringing our blog to a close for the day, thank you for joining us. We will be back soon with more live news coverage, so please join us then.

Here’s a recap of what we covered today:

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is in town with ministers to hold a special cabinet meeting, heralding WA as an integral part of his election success.

• New ambulance ramping figures released today show they have reached a May record.

• A 39-year-old man has been arrested and charged with numerous offences after allegedly leading police on a car chase across Perth on Monday.

• A statue has been erected in Mexico to honour Perth brothers Callum and Jake Robinson, who were shot dead during a surfing trip in Mexico last year along with an American friend.

• A 51-year-old man who was allegedly hit by an e-scooter in Perth’s CBD on Saturday night has died from his injuries.

• WA’s Transport Minister Rita Saffioti has revealed she wants to do a “compliance blitz” on modified e-scooters.

• Motorists have been warned of flooding on the Kwinana Freeway as a storm front soaked Perth on Tuesday morning.

• WA Police have launched a new campaign aimed at finding 364 “long-term” missing people who have vanished over the years with no explanation as to why.

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has urged WA regulators to consider the issue of concussion as a bare-knuckle boxing league vies to hold a fight at RAC Arena next month.

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

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has urged WA regulators to consider the issue of concussion as a bare-knuckle boxing league vies to hold a fight at RAC Arena next month.

The state’s Combat Sports Commission is currently assessing an application by the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship – partially owned by former UFC fighter Conor McGregor – to stage its event on July 19.

A brawl over the issue has seen the sport labelled “morally reprehensible” in WA parliament, as the government distanced itself from the planned event.

Former sports minister David Templeman, who opened the door to the event in February when he amended regulations to recognise the BKFC as a sanctioning body, declined to discuss the topic when WAtoday contacted him on Tuesday.

Responding in parliament to the opposition’s demands that he “show some leadership” and stop the “morally repugnant event” last week, Premier Roger Cook said the league was “not his cup of tea”, but trusted the Combat Sports Commission to provide advice on how to run the event safely

The government continues to delegate responsibility for the fight to the Combat Sports Commission – but current Sport and Recreation Minister Rita Saffioti does have powers to veto the event.

At a press conference earlier on Tuesday, Cook stood firmly behind the Combat Sports Commission, despite admitting sports like mixed martial arts left him “a bit cold”.

“But look, I’m not here to lecture people about what they should and shouldn’t do,” he said, noting it was the commission’s job to ensure that, where combat sports take place, “they do so with appropriate supervision, particularly medical supervision, and in an appropriate manner”.

Saffioti, at a separate press conference today, said: “If you don’t regulate, if you don’t actually have rules in place, it goes underground, and that poses a far greater risk to everyone involved.”

But speaking to 6PR’s Oliver Peterson ahead of a cabinet meeting in Perth on Tuesday afternoon, Albanese raised concerns about concussion, revealing he had met last week with NRL legend Mark Carroll, who has said his time playing at the highest levels of rugby left him with chronic traumatic encephalopathy – also known as CTE.

“I think health advice is pretty important when it comes to all of these issues. And I’d be hopeful that whoever it is who’s making the decision bears that in mind,” Albanese said.

“It’s not really my responsibility as PM, but I do think that we need to be really cognisant about health advice when it comes to these issues, because they are really prevalent, and then in years past, there wasn’t as much concern about it.

“And I know of a number of footballers, a couple of whom I’m friends with, who are really doing it tough in their post-football life as well.

“And we’ve seen, certainly in across a range of football codes, but particularly rugby league and AFL, we’ve seen early retirements in order to protect people’s long-term health interests.

“I’ve never actually heard of bare knuckle boxing taking place.

“It’s pretty obvious what it is ... and there’s a reason why boxers wear gloves and wear appropriate protection, where it is appropriate, certainly in amateur boxing they wear headgear and all of that.

“You know, I do think that we need to have a bit of common sense here.”

Returning to our earlier post from 8.07am about ambulance ramping and Premier Roger Cook has defended his government’s investment in the health system and blamed the issue on increased demand.

He rattled off a list of projects completed by the WA government in the health space like the WA virtual ED system, increasing the hospital system by 900 beds since 2021, 1800 new doctors and 4000 new nurses.

“You see record levels of people going through our hospitals, record levels of elective surgery being undertaken,” he said.

“It is an example and a sign of a growing population as part of being the strongest economy in the country, but that means we need to continue to invest.”

WA’s Transport Minister Rita Saffioti has revealed she wants to do a “compliance blitz” on modified e-scooters.

“What we have, I think, is this issue of private e-scooters that are modified, so I’ll talk to the minister for road safety on how we can do a joint compliance blitz, in particular in relation to the modification because that seems to be the real issue,” she said at a press conference this morning.

“We have very strict regulations about the speed and power of e-scooters, but it’s obvious that we need to do more in terms of compliance.”

She made that statement just before it was revealed the 51-year-old man who was hit by an e-scooter on Saturday night in Perth’s CBD had died.

The man was left in a critical condition after the incident, which led to the arrest of a 24-year-old British woman who is visiting Australia on a four-month tourist visa.