WA news LIVE: Divers rescued from encounter with 4.5m shark off WA coast

Surf Lifesaving WA have released footage of the moment they saved two divers, who were being circled by a 4.5-metre long white shark off the South West coast.

The shark and divers were spotted by crew onboard the Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter around 10 metres off Cape Naturalist on Sunday morning.

They said the divers had been completely unaware of the danger.

“Our crew sounded the siren, alerting the divers who exited the water onto their jet ski and headed to safety,” SLSWA posted to their social media pages.

The SharkSmart website shows the shark was officially reported at 10.36am.

Slightly further up the coast, a 2.5-metre bronze whaler shark was also reported by the helicopter later on Sunday afternoon.

And a 3-metre tiger shark was sighted near Dunsborough.

Here’s what’s making headlines today:

• One of the nation’s biggest independent retailers has warned that nine out of every 10 cigarettes will be bought illegally by the end of the decade unless the federal government cuts tobacco excise, slashing the price of cigarettes by almost a third.

• A leading United States congressman says he has no doubt that a future US president will deliver on the pledge to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines, as he backs the idea of a new AUKUS visa to accelerate implementation of the three-nation pact.
• Mohammad al-Halabi says even Hamas believed the “lie” that he had siphoned off millions in aid money, insisting the Palestinian militant group launched its own inquiries into his terror trial because it thought he had stolen funds it never received.
• A large group of Australian Islamic State brides and their children left a Syrian camp late on Monday on their way back to Australia, but were turned around about 50 kilometres down the road and sent back to where they began.
• Oscar winner Robert Duvall, a versatile actor who made lasting impressions in a range of parts from starring to supporting roles like the napalm-loving colonel of Apocalypse Now or the spectral Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird, has died at age 95.

Good morning all and welcome to today’s live blog.

Making headlines today, authorities say they are deeply concerned after five women were seriously injured in domestic violence incidents in Western Australia’s north last week.

The incidents began on February 7 and include stabbings, and one woman being run over by a car.

Read more here.

And WA first home buyers can benefit by up to $97,000 on their purchase with the government’s expanded 5 per cent deposit scheme, latest research has found.

In place of the bank of mum and dad or gifting grandparents helping first-timers raise the 20 per cent deposit, a new report from consultancy firm KPMG showed that getting into the market sooner through the government scheme, alongside rent and insurance savings and capital gains, provided a windfall.

Find out more here.

Stay with us as more news breaks.