WA news LIVE: ‘Get used to police with rifles in shopping centres’, WA’s top cop says

WA’s top cop says officers armed with high-powered rifles is a sight we need to get used to across the city.

WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said the new strategy was a measure of reassurance as our terror threat remains at probable.

The new, highly-visible approach, in response to the Bondi terror attack, has seen police armed with semi-automatic rifles patrolling shopping centres, markets and party precincts.

The rifles were added to the police force’s arsenal in 2019, but had been locked away until now.

“What we learnt from Bondi is that in six minutes, 15 people were murdered,” Blanch said.

“We want to make sure that if we’re training in a rifle and a weapon, that they’ve got it on their person.”

Blanch said he hoped in time the community would become more unified, and there would not be any need for the patrols.

Here’s what’s happening across the country and around the world:

• ASIO boss Mike Burgess has defended his organisation’s inability to prevent the worst terror attack in Australian history, saying an internal review commissioned after the Bondi massacre backed the spy agency’s 2019 view that shooter Naveed Akram did not pose a serious threat.
• An Albanese government-appointed official stripped politically explosive sections from a landmark corruption report, removing findings that Victoria’s Labor government turned a blind eye to CFMEU graft and organised crime on infrastructure projects, including federally funded sites, at a cost to taxpayers of $15 billion.
• The FBI has released video and images of a masked intruder appearing to tamper with a surveillance camera at Nancy Guthrie’s home early on the morning of her disappearance, providing significant new evidence in a mystery that has gripped the nation and the world.

Good morning readers, and welcome to our live news blog for Wednesday, February 11.

Making headlines today, Western Australia is leading the nation for soaring rents, with new research revealing prices have climbed by two-thirds over the space of five years, pulling the state’s housing affordability crisis into sharp focus.

There are fresh concerns for rental affordability as new Cotality data shows rents have outpaced wage growth in almost every Australian jurisdiction bar the ACT.

Meanwhile, hundreds of lecturers at Perth’s biggest university have pledged to stay off campus as semester one begins over claims of unsustainable workloads, unfair pay and “draconian limitations” on work-from-home opportunities.

And, in case you missed it, Fremantle gun Caleb Serong has refused to entertain Victorian rivals, signing a bumper seven-year deal to become the equal longest-contracted player in the AFL.

The Dockers on Tuesday locked in the three-time All-Australian midfielder until 2034.

Stay with us as we bring you the news of the day, as it happens.