As it happened: WA news on Friday, March 20

Thanks for joining us.

A reminder of today’s top headlines:

• A Perth man found guilty of the “sustained, relentless and brutal” murder of a mother of four has been sentenced to life in prison as a Supreme Court judge lashed him for trying to cover up his actions by “incinerating” the woman’s body.
• Australia’s largest petrol station operator is racing to lock in alternative fuel shipments from the United States and Europe but it says it has more than enough stock on hand to meet demand, even as some outlets struggle to keep up with panic buying and temporarily run dry.
• Premier Roger Cook has signed off his final question time until May by assuring the public he would be “appropriately transparent” when it came to a secretive deal with Crown to secure a parcel of land from the casino operator crucial to its Burswood racetrack plan.
• A woman who ran over and killed a man in her car before reversing, driving around him and fleeing the scene has been sentenced to 18 months jail, after a Perth court heard she had attended a wedding on the same day as the hit-and-run.
• Perth’s booming property market has seen virtually all house resales make a profit, with the median profit jumping to more than $500,000 – a figure which has jumped by more than one-quarter in the space of a year.

We’ll see you back here next week as we continue to bring you the most relevant breaking news updates, have a lovely weekend.

Police have put out a call for help to track down a man they believe may be able to help with an investigation after a phone booth and a couch were set alight in Armadale earlier this month.

The public phone booth and the couch, which had been left on the verge for collection, were set on fire between 2.30pm and 3pm on Wednesday, March 4.

The couch and phone booth were both damaged by the flames, which did not spread any further.

Now, police have released a picture of a man who was seen in the area at the time, and who they would like to speak to about the incident.

Rewards of up to $25,000 are offered for information that leads to the identification and conviction of an arsonist.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, or make a report online.

A woman who ran over and killed a man in her car before reversing, driving around him and fleeing the scene has been sentenced to 18 months jail.

Analiza Sagang Curtis was sentenced in WA’s District Court on Friday, having pleaded guilty to the hit-and-run death of Perth father Jamie Murray last year.

The court heard Murray was hit on a road in Dudley Park in the early hours of March 1 last year, with Curtis dragging him for 90 metres before reversing and realising she had hit a person.

She then fled the scene and failed to notify the police. Curtis was declared dead in hospital.

District Court Judge Laura Christian sentenced her to 18 months jail on Friday. She will be eligible for parole after nine months.

The WA government will extend a program to increase apprentice and trainee uptake at small and medium-sized businesses with a $19.6 million injection included in the upcoming May budget.

The group training organisation wage subsidy program has already supported 1000 apprentices and trainees since its inception in 2022, and the new round of funding will support a further 330.

Of those placements, the wages of 205 apprentices and trainees will be subsidised at 50 per cent, 75 places at 75 per cent and a further 50 places for women in electrical trades will be subsidised at 75 per cent.

“Often the barrier for GTOs and small businesses is the cost of having an apprentice for four years,” Training Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said.

Energy Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson says there has been a 174 per cent increase in fuel flowing from ports into the state, which would help restock independent suppliers at the end of the supply chain in areas including the Goldfields and Great Southern.

Fuel supply in regional areas had been a major headache for the Cook government as agricultural regions gear up for seeding and smaller mining companies fear fuel supply interruptions will impact operations.

“That extra volume will be prioritised to get out to those regional areas where we’ve seen that restocking issue, Kalgoorlie and the Goldfields as a priority, the Wheatbelt, Great Southern and the South West,” Sanderson said on Friday morning.

The WA government has the power to place caps on fuel prices, but Sanderson said this would not help households.

“I think this has been pretty well ventilated, the price cap would essentially, at this point, ensure that everyone raises their price to that cap, then you’d lose that competitive tension that the transparency of FuelWatch provides,” she said.

“We think the settings are right at this point, but nothing’s off the table, and we’re watching it very carefully.”