WA News Live: Radicalised teen’s last text; Rents enter stratosphere

The final text from a radicalised teenager, who police shot on Saturday night after he stabbed a random stranger, has been published in a joint report by our deputy editor Heather McNeill and our colleague Michael Genovese at 9 News Perth.

Concerned members of the Muslim community called triple-0 after getting the text.

The message, seen by this masthead, read: “Brothers, please forgive me for any time I have wronged you, I am going in the path of Jihad tonight for the sake of Allal Azzawajal. I am a soldier of the Mujahideen of Al-qaeda and take responsibility for the actions that will in Sha Allah Ta’ala take place tonight.”

WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said the attack had the “hallmarks of terrorism” but he did not declare it a terrorist act, as he believed the boy was working alone, and was not part of a broader terror cell.

The boy’s school, Rossmoyne Senior High School, and the education department, had received complaints about the boy trying to convert other students into practising “extreme Islam”.

Premier Roger Cook has commented this morning on the boy’s participation for the past two years in a government-funded anti-radicalisation program, but also noted: “The law doesn’t prohibit people from having extreme thoughts”.

Scroll down to our earlier posts on Senator Jacqui Lambie’s criticisms of these programs.

Read the full report here.

Moving to Melbourne has never sounded better.

Perth’s had the strongest rental growth across the capitals in the past year, up 13.6 per cent to $669 per week, according to new data released on Monday.

CoreLogic’s rent report found Perth is now the third most expensive rental market in the country behind Sydney ($770) and Canberra ($674) – overtaking Melbourne, and only $5 off passing Canberra to take second place.

Serpentine-Jarrahdale had the largest annual rent growth across what the Australian Bureau of Statistics terms Australia’s “statistical area level 3” markets, at 19 per cent, followed by Belmont-Victoria Park at 17.8 per cent and Armadale and Mundaring at 17.2 per cent apiece.

Experts pointed to a few reasons for the staggering increase post-COVID, especially a lack of supply, as well as the move from share houses into smaller households with spare rooms used as home offices.

Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee said the market was “really stuck”.

“We’ve got construction problems, we’re lacking the money to get these homes built and governments are so indebted after COVID there are not many levers they can pull,” she said.

Here’s the data in all its horrifying glory:

Read the full report here – our property reporter Sarah Brookes has further consulted the CoreLogic head of research, AMP chief economist and the Property Council of Australia’s policy expert for perspectives on the causes of, and potential solutions to, the problem.

Tasmanian crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie has also spoken of her concerns about online radicalisation after the Willetton shooting.

Police shot the “radicalised” 16-year-old on Saturday night after he rushed an officer with a knife.

Lambie told Nine’s Today program she was “terribly concerned” about what happened, and the rise of social media radicalisation.

“I think it’s seriously [time] that we talked about putting fully qualified psychiatrists or psychologists in our schools and maybe looking at reducing the chaplains program, because I’m not sure that that is helpful either,” Lambie said this morning.

The senator said she also wanted de-radicalisation programs to happen in person, rather than run online.

“The older they are, the … more desensitised they’ve become because of social media platforms,” she said of young people at risk of radicalisation.

“You’ve got to have them in person out there. You cannot run a program to [de-radicalise] someone over the internet … it is never going to work with these kids.”

Here’s what’s making news this morning:

• Mexican authorities said thieves killed two Perth brothers and their American friend on a surfing trip – to steal their ute’s tyres.

The forecast for Monday is a maximum of 21C, but later this week we’re looking at maximums of 27C and 29C so it’s not going to stay cooler for long.

Good morning and thank you for joining us at the WAtoday live news blog. I’m producer, Emma Young.

No doubt you’ll have heard about the awful events in Willetton on Saturday night, with police shooting a 16-year-old youth dead after he stabbed a stranger in the back, and then advanced on them.

Yesterday we heard from Police Commissioner Col Blanch alongside Premier Roger Cook as they explained what had happened and how the boy had been on authorities’ radar since he was 14.

The Muslim community of Perth condemned the actions of the boy, who is thought to have been a convert to Islam who had become radicalised.

Rossmoyne Senior High School principal Kevin Brown wrote to parents to inform them and offer staff and students support.

Our team of reporters will stay on this case today as the victim of the stabbing recuperates in hospital.

In other news, Peter Milne brings us an exclusive report on the Cook Labor cabinet approving Alcoa’s mining in December despite its own experts warning this posed a high risk to Perth’s water supply and the state’s treasured jarrah forest.