WA news LIVE: Chinese Premier in Perth amid heavy police presence

Bilateral relations between Australia and China will take centre stage in Perth today as China’s Premier Li Qiang, meets with WA politicians and business leaders.

Trade, tourism, lobster tariffs and more direct flights between Perth and China are expected to be the key focus as China’s second-in-command tours a lithium refinery, hydrogen research facility and hosts a business roundtable.

Rolling roadblocks are in place throughout the city to accommodate Li’s motorcade during the last day of his four-day visit to Australia.

Li’s exact itinerary has been shrouded in secrecy, with a significant security operation accompanying the leader.

9 News Perth reporter Connor McGoverne said up to 70 police officers were outside Li’s CBD hotel this morning, with peaceful protests from pro-Beijing supporters already underway this morning.

Here’s what’s making news this morning:

• Canberra and Beijing have agreed to set up new forms of military communication to prevent Australian Defence personnel from being put at risk in dangerous encounters with China’s People’s Liberation Army. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hailed the improvement in ties with Australia’s biggest trading partner as he hosted Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Canberra yesterday for the first such visit in seven years. The pair will be in Perth today.

• Average incomes in some of Australia’s best-paid suburbs soared as the nation emerged from the pandemic and a record number of landlords turned a profit due to the collapse in interest rates through COVID-19, according to new Australian Taxation Office data released yesterday.

• The Australian Defence Force is seeking to gut an independent inquiry’s ability to investigate the cause of a fatal Taipan helicopter crash that killed four army personnel last year. Defence has made a submission requesting that a “shopping list” of topics relating to the tragedy be excluded from the inquiry until the organisation has completed its own underpowered probe.

• In business news, the Australian sharemarket is set for a bright start this morning after US stocks continued to rise toward more records overnight partly thanks to a 2.7 per cent rise for Apple and 5.9 per cent jump for Tesla.

• In international news, before 12 New Yorkers branded Donald Trump a felon, a very different kind of jury – one assembled at the sumptuous Pierre hotel on Fifth Avenue – had reached a verdict of its own.

Good morning readers, and thanks for returning to our live blog.

This morning, Rebecca Peppiatt covers a secretive sect’s plans for a fifth Perth Hills church, a members-only shopping centre and a childcare centre, and the community’s determination to stop those plans.

Jesinta Burton brings you an exclusive report on what the staff at Perth’s Parliament House really think of their workplace and, in particular, their managers. It’s not what you’d hope.

And after last week’s revelations on the plight of Nicheliving clients awaiting home builds in vain, years after signing contracts, our Radio 6PR colleague Gary Adshead has written an opinion piece for us detailing the role the WA government played in the current construction crisis by rolling out stimulation payments in 2020 as COVID-19 spread.

And Max Veenhuyzen has the goss on a pop-up that will keep the old Propeller site in North Freo warm this winter.

Stay with me today for more news as it happens.