Channel 7 stars have arrived at Perth Airport ahead of this weekend's 26-hour Telethon fundraising marathon. Fans gave a warm welcome to television personalities, athletes and performers at the gates. AFL commentator and former Hawthorn premiership player Campbell Brown, who grew up in Western Australia, led the group through the terminal. Pop star Morgan Evans and The Chase Australia's Mara Lejins, known to viewers as The Smiling Assassin, also arrived. Limited tickets for the opening and closing shows at RAC are available.
Receivers for the collapsed Cue Clothing and Veronika Maine retail brands will close 26 more stores as they prepare a possible sale. A small shortlist of potential buyers has made non-binding offers, but the closures will go ahead regardless. Stores in New South Wales will be hit hardest, while Perth loses a Cue store in Cannington and a Veronika Maine shop in Claremont Quarter. Receivers said closures start immediately, with timing varying by store. Staff will be moved into remaining stores where possible.
Western Australia has the most poorly rated airports in the country, with seven of the ten lowest-rated passenger airports. Travellers complained about slow security checks, limited facilities and baggage delays. Newman Airport in the Pilbara ranked worst, averaging 3.10 stars from 295 reviews. Perth Airport ranked eighth and was the lowest-rated capital city airport. Port Lincoln Airport in South Australia was rated highest, averaging 4.62 stars from 131 reviews.
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Perth Airport’s Aviation Rescue and Firefighting team will attempt a 24-hour treadmill relay at the Telethon Family Festival. Around 20 firefighters will walk continuously while wearing heavy uniforms and breathing apparatus. The event will take place at RAC Arena’s Challenge Yourself Hub on October 17 and 18, allowing the public to witness the crew’s endurance test. The team aims to raise funds for Telethon, inspired by the resilience of sick children they support.
A popular bowling alley in Perth's north has closed indefinitely after a fire broke out on Monday evening. Rosemount Bowl on Fitzgerald Street in North Perth was evacuated, along with the nearby Pot Black and Bloodlines venues. The business said at about 10pm that everyone had left safely and no one was hurt. The fire is not believed to be suspicious and is being managed by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services. A witness claims the blaze started in the kitchen, but this has not been officially confirmed.
A Western Australian country town is giving 16 per cent of its annual rates income to keep a local doctor. The Shire of Narembeen pays the local medical practice $370,000 a year and also provides a building, a car and a house. Shire President Holly Cusack says the arrangement is financially unsustainable but that losing the GP would mean a 120-kilometre round trip to the nearest doctor. In Kalbarri, a community group crowdfunded more than $70,000 to set up a not-for-profit, bulk-billing clinic after the town's only GP closed in June.
WA police will use a new drone program to gather real-time intelligence before officers reach emergencies. Drones will launch from docking stations in Kwinana, Rockingham and Baldivis and can operate beyond line of sight. They will be dispatched from a command centre in Perth. Police Minister Reece Whitby says the program is an Australian first. Targeted uses include family and domestic violence matters, missing persons, crimes in progress and stolen vehicles.
WA Police is expanding an automated drone program that sends unmanned aircraft from Perth's CBD to emergency scenes within seconds. Police say the drones help catch criminals and protect officers. Civil liberties advocates warn the rollout is moving faster than laws protecting individual privacy. Drones will first operate in the southern Perth suburbs of Baldivis, Kwinana and Rockingham. State privacy laws are largely untested on drone filming of private property, and the rules around how footage is kept remain unclear.
Porsche Cars Australia is recalling 77 of its 911 and 718 sports cars made in 2023 and 2024. A manufacturing defect in the centre-lock wheel nuts may cause a wheel to loosen and detach while driving. The recall covers several 911 and 718 models from the 992 and 982 generations. Porsche will contact owners and ask them to book a free repair at an authorised Porsche Centre. The 911 was previously recalled in March 2025 over a seatbelt issue.
Complaints about the Australian Taxation Office have risen sharply as the agency ramps up debt collection. The Tax Ombudsman received 2376 complaints in the six months to September, up 74 per cent on the same period last year. The office said it received 1358 complaints over that period, because the ombudsman's figures also included matters not involving the tax office. The ombudsman found the tax office acted reasonably in 63 per cent of debt collection complaints it investigated. Outstanding tax debt stood at $54.2 billion in 2024/25, with $35.9 billion owed by small businesses.
Lotus Australia has issued a nationwide safety recall for 114 Lotus Elise sports cars made between 2014 and 2021. A manufacturing defect may deform the low-pressure fuel pump impeller, causing the fuel pump to fail and the engine to stall. The company warns that a sudden loss of power while driving may increase the risk of an accident causing injury or death. Owners will be contacted by their Lotus dealer to book a free repair appointment. The Elise was last recalled in 2020 over a fuel rail issue.
US stocks closed higher on Monday after two weeks of declines, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq lifted by optimism around AI companies. Anthropic disclosed steep losses and rapid revenue growth in its filing for a US initial public offering. Semiconductor firms helped drive the gains, while Meta plans to raise up to $US95 billion in equity to fund its AI expansion. Investors are watching the Federal Reserve's policy statement on Wednesday and a busy week of earnings reports.
The cost of abandoning Snowy 2.0, Australia's largest renewable energy project, is still unknown. Snowy Hydro chief executive Dennis Barnes told a Senate estimates committee that the cost of ending the project has not been modelled. The company estimates completion will now cost between $22.2 billion and $25 billion, up from $12 billion in 2023. Barnes said replacing the project with batteries was modelled at $80 billion. Innovation Minister Tim Ayres said abandoning the project would be immensely costly and that the government would see it through.
Outdated technology and weak digital safety skills are the biggest threats to national cybersecurity, according to the latest Cyber Threat Report from the Australian Signals Directorate. The public sector recorded nearly half of the 1500 incidents reported to the Australian Cyber Security Centre in the past financial year. Director-general Abigail Bradshaw warned that service outages will likely become normal and urged companies to put security ahead of access. Medium-sized businesses reported a 45 per cent rise in cybercrime losses, with an average cost of $141,300.
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has criticised the government for failing to support thousands of people who lost savings in the $1.1bn collapse of the Shield Master Fund and First Guardian. Joyce said he gave his ex-wife $400,000 as part of their divorce settlement, and that money is now gone. He urged the government to pay victims their super so they can retire, rather than a partial compensation payment. A Choice podcast investigation says about 11,000 Australians lost retirement savings, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has 14 ongoing court actions against 31 people.
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A Loch Ness Monster expert has written a guide on how to spot the creature. Adrian Shine, who founded the Loch Ness Project, says the monster exists and has explained how it can be seen in his new book. He believes Loch Ness lacks enough nutrients to support a large beast. He argues most sightings are wakes from large boats, which he links to the Caledonian Canal, built in the early nineteenth century. Broadcaster Robson Green said the expedition could neither prove nor disprove a creature's existence.
Paranormal investigator Colin Browen has described the most frightening moment of his 11-year ghost-hunting career. While inside the basement of a former asylum, he saw a woman's hand appear beside a pillar, then slowly withdraw and disappear behind it, prompting his team to leave quickly. Browen, who hosts the Murder In America podcast and The Paranormal Files on YouTube, said many spirits he has encountered are not hostile. He said some are cheerful, and that most seem to want acknowledgement or help with a task.
Jamie Lee Curtis says she is grieving privately over the deaths of her longtime friends Rob and Michele Reiner, who were killed at their Los Angeles home last December. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, she described a close bond stretching back decades, including Rob Reiner serving as best man at her 1984 wedding and being godfather to her daughter. Curtis said she paid tribute to the couple at the September Emmy Awards, a moment harder than she expected.
The Commonwealth Ombudsman has called for laws to be changed so assessors can override decisions made by an aged care algorithm. The watchdog found the system had produced unfair outcomes for residents and weakened public confidence. Ombudsman Iain Anderson said many outcomes were inappropriate and that the department did not fully understand the legal framework it created. The government says an independent review will be released in the first half of 2027. Opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston said the findings showed lessons from robodebt had been ignored.
Creative Australia has opened nominations for a new award named after the late Rhoda Roberts AO, a First Nations cultural leader, broadcaster and festival director. The Rhoda Roberts Trailblazer Award is valued at $80,000 and will be presented for the first time in 2027. It recognises leadership and lasting contribution to the First Nations arts and culture sector. Eligible nominees must identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, be at least 18, be based in Australia and have worked in the sector for at least 25 years. Nominations close on December 1 at 3pm AEDT.
Chery and its iCaur brand are working to improve towing and load-carrying capacity for two models planned for Australia. An iCaur product manager said the V27 SUV's towing capacity of about 1.6 tonnes is not enough and will be improved, though no revised figure or timing has been announced. Chery's Stockman ute is also being developed towards a one-tonne payload, currently a preliminary 765kg. The Stockman remains scheduled to arrive in Australia in February 2027.
