Perth coffee Australia's most expensive

NO SURPRISE: Perth has been named as the most expensive capital city for a coffee.  Picture: Kerris Berrington Source: PerthNow

IT'S official. Perth has the most expensive coffee in Australia.

While Sydney may be Australia's most expensive city, with steepling house prices, at least the coffee's cheap.
Well, cheaper than other Australian capital cities, anyway.

A takeaway cappuccino in Sydney costs $3.22 on average, about 15 cents less than it would cost in Melbourne and 20 cents less than in Brisbane.

Perth, in a recent national survey by coffee machine company Gilkatho, was the most expensive capital, with the average cappuccino costing $3.89, with some cafes selling a mug for as much as $7.25.

Just last month a story on Perthnow, about Perth's most expensive coffee -- at $7.25 for a mug of flat white or a cappuccino -- went viral and sparked hundreds of comments which raged about the price of coffee in the West.

The research also showed a fall in coffee bean prices had not made a morning coffee any cheaper for consumers.

``What's clear, however, is the fact that what people pay for a coffee has nothing to do with the cost of coffee (beans),'' Gilkatho managing director Wayne Fowler said.

``The selling price continues to increase in spite of coffee prices decreasing. This is a pretty good indication that the price of coffee beans tends not to be passed on to the consumer.''

Gilkatho surveyed more than 1100 coffee venues across capital cities to compile its Cappuccino Price Index.

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Mum may have fallen asleep: inquest

Miranda Hebble outside the Perth Coroners Court this week. Picture: Richard Polden Source: PerthNow

THE mother of two young boys who died when she left them in the shower for 10 hours could have been so exhausted she fell asleep, a neurologist has told an inquest.

The West Australian coroner is examining the deaths of Lochlan James Stevens, aged two, and Malachi Isaac Stevens, 10 months, who died in November 2008.

Their mother Miranda Hebble, then aged 22, put them in the shower after Lochlan smeared faeces from his nappy on floors and walls, and closed the bathroom door.

She fell asleep or passed out and woke up about 10 hours later to find the shower flooded and both boys dead.

Neurologist Graeme Hankey told the inquest on Wednesday that based on medical reports, there was no definitive conclusion about how or why Ms Hebble might have passed out or fallen asleep for so long.

Dr Hankey said a CAT scan did not suggest Ms Hebble had lost consciousness or suffered a seizure.

He said further tests, such as an MRI, could have been done but he did not expect they would have produced results that would help draw a conclusion.

Dr Hankey said there were no indications that Ms Hebble suffered from epilepsy or a structural abnormality in her brain like a tumour.

If she had had a seizure in 2008, she would still be prone to similar episodes now, he said.

Although a toxicology report showed no sign of drugs, Dr Hankey said it was possible she had taken something that had left her system by the time the test was done 24 hours later.

He said he struggled to find anything neurological in Ms Hebble to explain the "10-hour gap'', but believed it was plausible she fell asleep.

"I think if you're that tired, you can sleep for 10 hours,'' he said.

Ms Hebble, who is anaemic, is yet to testify, but the inquest has heard she saw white speckles before passing out.

The inquest continues.

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Squalor among WA's 'dirtiest secrets'

Minutes from the mining boom: South Hedland, WA's indigenous community still waiitng for housing Source: The Australian

A 20-MINUTE drive from where real estate agents are touting a "new breed of luxury modernist apartments" to cashed-up employees of Port Hedland's mining boom, members of Joanne Polly's indigenous community sleep in the fields.

In South Hedland, as the Sunday Times recently discovered on a tour of the region, residents are dying of kidney and liver failure, and their children are inhaling petrol and aerosols.

While boomtown Port Hedland boasts $1 million bungalows and apartment blocks with "green credentials" and "specially designed to best capture solar access", communities like South Hedland have all the solar access they want.

They have been waiting for up to a decade for public housing.

Living in squalor on the doorstep of Western Australia's multi-billion-dollar resources rush where "fly-in fly-out" workers earn six-figure salaries is nothing new for these fringe dwellers.

What's new is their lives are under the spotlight in a film, Utopia, due for international release by controversial expatriate Australian John Pilger.

Pilger, an award-winning television journalist who has lived in Britain since 1962, is a long time critic of Australia's "racist" treatment of the Aboriginal population.

In this latest film Pilger says that "more than any other colonial society, Australia consigns its dirtiest secrets, past and present, to willful ignorance or indifference".

While acknowledging that Australia "has changed" since he left the country, 73-year-old Pilger quotes from a history text he studied at school which described Aborigines as  "completely amoral" and which said "we are civilised  and they are not".

To film Utopia he flew to Western Australia to compare the living conditions of Aboriginal communities with the riches of the mining boom, commenting that "barely a fraction of mining, oil and gas revenue has benefited Aboriginal communities, whose poverty is an enduring shock".

Pilger says mining companies waged a propaganda campaign in cahoots with media "mates" to defeat former prime minister Kevin Rudd's mining tax, and he ridicules claims that the boom has benefited black Australians.

Accompanied by elders of Perth's Nyoongar community, he travelled to Rottnest Island, WA's "premier tourist destination" where the "first Australians" endured "starving, torture, humiliation and murder".

Rottnest was an Aboriginal prison between 1838 and 1931, but Pilger insists "Rotto is not the past" and quotes recent incarceration rates of indigenous children in WA.

Pilger's spotlight on our international "shame" over Aboriginal welfare coincides with controversy in Western Australia over indigenous incarceration.

Last week, WA's corrective services commissioner, Ian Johnson, resigned in the wake of a decision to place 140 children in an adult prison, following a riot in the young inmates' juvenile detention centre in January.

On Friday, the Perth Supreme Court will hand down a decision over a legal challenge to the children's transfer to the Hakea facility, made by Sydney human rights lawyer, George Newhouse.

In a piece written for The Guardian Pilger quotes a former prisons official's claim that Australia is "racking and stacking" black Australians, whose incarceration rate is "five times that of black people in apartheid South Africa".

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), "indigenous young people aged 10-17 years old  were 31 times more likely than non-Indigenous young people to be in detention, up from 27 times since June 2008".

AIHW Child Welfare and Prisoner Health Unit executive, Tim Beard, said that while the rate was stable, it "is extremely high and the message is that the over-representation of indigenous incarceration is consistent across every state and territory in Australia".

Statistically in WA, one in every 14 indigenous men will spend tonight in police or prison custody.

In NSW, according to Attorney General, Greg Smith, indigenous male offenders currently account for 23 per cent of male inmates, while Aboriginal women make up 29 per cent of the female population in custody.

In juvenile detention, 48 per cent of young people in detention in NSW are of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people comprise around 2.2 per cent of the total NSW population.

Pilger also claims poor indigenous health care is turning children blind and deaf.

Australia is also the only remaining first world country where the eye disease trachoma - easily preventable with access to clean running water - still exists. It does so in remote Aboriginal communities.

The ear disease otitis media is also a risk factor in indigenous communities, particularly in Western Australia.

In the Pilbara community, local Smith Family counsellor, Nia Hadenfeldt, who sleeps in her office because rents are too high, said she wanted a youth curfew because alcohol, drugs and aerosol sniffing were "destroying" Hedland's youth, according to the article in the Sunday Times.

Western Pilbara Mobile Children's Services supervisor, Sharon Thompson, also told the Sunday Times that scabies, school sores and gum disease were rife among Aboriginal children.

Bob Neville, chairman of the Pilbara Association of Non-Government Organisations, said in the article WA was "in the middle of the biggest resources boom we've ever seen, and locals have nothing to show for it".

He called for an inquiry, saying, "every night they're sleeping in the dirt on Gina Rinehart's doorstep. They're dying from alcohol, drugs, poor nutrition and suicide".

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Charges over police station fire attack

The remains of a burning package found outside a Wanneroo police station. Picture: Nine News Source: PerthNow

A WOMAN has been charged over an alleged arson attack at a police station in Wanneroo this morning.

Police allege a burning parcel was left on the doorstep of the Wanneroo Police Station on Friars Drive about 7.30 this morning.

It started a small fire but "minimal damage" to the building and there were no injuries.

Police have examined the fire remains for evidence and believe the parcel contained a mixture of sticks, paper and food.

Initial reports suggested that a Molotov cocktail had been thrown at the building but police have now ruled that out.

This afternoon, a 32-year-old Wanneroo woman was charged with criminal damage by fire. She is due to appear in the Joondalup Magistrates Court tomorrow.

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Perth man on terror trial in Saudi Arabia

An Australian man faces terror charges in Saudi Arabia. Picture: Thinkstock

AUSTRALIA must do all it can to help two West Australian brothers in Saudi Arabia, one behind bars and the other in hiding and facing arrest, Greens Senator Scott Ludlam says.

Senator Ludlam says he understands Shayden Thorne, 25, is in custody facing allegations of terrorism.

His brother Junaid, 23, is wanted by authorities after having previously been detained for taking part in a protest against the Saudi government's treatment of political prisoners.

"Saudi Arabia is not renowned for due process, rule of law or fair treatment of suspects. It is essential that the federal government makes the maximum effort to protect the human rights of Junaid and Shayden Thorne," Senator Ludlum said in a statement on Wednesday night.

He said Shayden Thorne had allegedly been tortured.

"The Australian government must investigate these claims as vigorously as possible. It is essential that Foreign Minister (Bob) Carr does all he can to ensure the fair treatment of these two Australians."

A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman confirmed a 25-year-old West Australian man was on trial for alleged terrorism-related offences and was being detained in a prison outside the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

"Consular officials from the Australian Embassy in Riyadh have been providing consular assistance to the man since his arrest in November 2011. Consular staff in Canberra are in regular contact with the man's family in Australia," he said.

The spokesman said the embassy was also assisting a 23-year-old WA man whose Australian passport was currently held by Saudi authorities.

"The man is not detained. Efforts are under way to clarify his legal situation," he said.

Junaid Thorne said his brother, Shayden, had not told him whether authorities had beaten him.

"I have seen a few bruises on his body, but he never wanted to tell me that he was being tortured," Junaid told ABC Television on Wednesday.

"When he managed to see his lawyer he told him he had been beaten very bad, lashed with cables."

Junaid said he had been in hiding for two months.

"So I have been unable to visit or speak to him," he said.

He said the terrorism charges against his brother had no basis.

"My lawyer has attended two of his trials in Riyadh and they have not provided any proof whatsoever," Junaid said.

The 23-year-old said he would leave Saudi Arabia "tomorrow" if he had the opportunity.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says the 25-year-old man from Perth was arrested in November 2011.

A spokesman said he was on trial for alleged terrorism-related offences and was detained in a prison outside the Saudi capital Riyadh.

''Consular officials from the Australian Embassy in Riyadh have been providing consular assistance to the man since his arrest in November 2011,'' he said.

''Consular staff in Canberra are in regular contact with the man's family in Australia.''

The spokesman said the Australian embassy in Riyadh was also assisting a 23-year-old man from Western Australia whose Australian passport was being held by Saudi authorities. He said this man was not being detained and efforts were under way to clarify his legal situation.

Consular staff in Canberra are in regular contact with the man's family in Australia.

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Mum 'passed out' as sons died in shower

An inquest has heard two little boys died in a bathroom while their exhausted mother was unconcious or asleep for 10 hours.

INQUEST: Miranda Hebble, whose two sons drowned in a shower at her Ellenbrook home in 2008, outside Perth Coroner's Court today. Picture: Richard Polden Source: PerthNow

INQUEST: Miranda Hebble, whose two sons drowned in a shower at her Ellenbrook home in 2008, outside Perth Coroner's Court today. Picture: Richard Polden Source: PerthNow

AN exhausted Miranda Hebble put her two young sons in the shower and closed the bathroom door.

She fell asleep and woke up about 10 hours later to find water overflowing from the shower - and both boys dead.

The WA coroner is examining the deaths of Lochlan James Stevens, aged two, and Malachi Isaac Stevens, 10 months, who died in November 2008.

Ms Hebble, then aged 22, was caring for her sons alone in Perth while the boys' father, Christopher Stevens, then aged 23, was working on a fly-in fly-out basis.

The couple have since separated.

Counsel assisting the inquest, Kate Ellson, said Ms Hebble had no history of mental illness or drug and alcohol abuse.

She was a quiet person and had been struggling with sleep because of Malachi's restlessness.

Constable Daniel William Herbert O'Rourke testified that in February 2008 he was called to an incident in which Malachi had been left in a car while Ms Hebble returned a DVD to a store.

The baby, then five weeks old, was hot, crying, sweaty and red in the face when he was pulled from the car, he said.

Ms Ellson said in her opening address that on November 7, Lochlan had smeared faeces from his nappy on floors, walls and Malachi's cot, so their mother took the boys into the shower.

She left to fetch something but passed out or fell asleep, the court heard.

When she woke up 10 hours later, she found Malachi floating in the shower on his side, with bruises on his cheek.

Lochlan was lying on the bathroom floor with blood coming from his mouth and had a scratch on his forehead and a mark on his stomach, Ms Ellson said.

In a call to emergency services, Ms Hebble said: "I passed out and the plug in the shower got plugged up ... and the shower filled up ... and they're not breathing. They're dead.''

The boys were pronounced dead at 2am the following morning.

A post mortem examination could not reach a definitive conclusion, but indicated drowning may have caused Malachi's death, while Lochlan may have suffered exhaustion, hunger and possibly hypothermia, Ms Ellson said.

Drowning might also have contributed to his death, the court heard.

Ms Hebble was comforted by family members as she sat quietly in court for some of the proceedings.

Outside court, Mr Stevens told reporters he was hoping to get an "end to the story'' to help everyone move on.

Mr Stevens said he now had a wife and daughter but still missed his boys.

He described Lochlan as a "terror'', causing "chaos'' like many children his age and said Malachi had "iron lungs that could scream the house down''.

Mr Stevens said he wanted to know how and why they died.

"Give me an answer that I can actually use,'' he said.

The inquest continues.

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Star's wife lives in 'chook shed'

Miriam Ashley at One Mile Dam community. Picture: Daniel Hartley-Allen

MIRIAM Ashley sits on the floor using a brush to do a traditional painting.

The "chook shed" she squats in is at One Mile Dam.

It is so close to the city Dustin Fletcher could hit the Eureka apartments with a drop punt from her house.

Ms Ashley, 55, has no electricity or running water. No toilet. Her home is made of tin and has a concrete floor.

Miriam Ashley at One Mile Dam community. Picture: Daniel Hartley-Allen Source: No Source

The story of One Mile Dam has been told many times before. Hers is one of two houses that have had the electricity cut off for more than a year.

She has no furniture except an old bed and mattress in the centre of the room she sleeps in.

Ms Ashley is living with her daughter at the moment and her husband, David Gulpilil, is out bush working on a new film.

One Mile Dam leader David Timber sees it as a case of discrimination and a deliberate attempt to move all residents, something governments in the past have wanted to do.

Life in one of Darwin's worst addresses, Kurringal Flats

Mr Timber said the electricity line to the back two houses went off on March 30 last year and he suspects it was deliberately cut off.

"This is discrimination for starters. David Geddes from Power and Water gave me two figures, two conflicting figures to fix it, $100,000 and $50,000," he said.

"I think it's because the Government wants that part of land."

Miriam Ashley at One Mile Dam community. Picture: Daniel Hartley-Allen Source: No Source

In the past Ms Ashley has lived with friends and spent time in the long grass after moving in from Arnhem Land.

"But I've been here in Darwin for 10 years, round and round in the long grass before with David," she said.

"Now they give me and David this One Mile Dam place to stay in.

"But there's no light, no power and water."

Power and Water's responsibility ends at the gate.

Yilli Rreung Aboriginal Corporation looks after the houses on behalf of the absent landlord, the Aboriginal Development Foundation.

But chief executive officer Colin Tidswell said in a letter to the Planning Action Network the houses were in such poor condition they were decommissioned last year but people have been still living in them.

"We do not have the funding to bring these dwellings up to an acceptable level," he said.

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Fugitive mum 'delighted' to return to Norway

Brozzi Lunetta, his daughter Reya and ex-wife Camilla Ellefsen Lunetta reunited in Sydney on April 26, 2013. Photo: James Ricketson. Source: Supplied

Camilla Ellefsen Lunetta in 2002. Photo: Supplied. Source: Supplied

Reya age-progressed to 10. She was allegedly abducted by her mother, Camilla Lunetta. Picture: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Source: Supplied

• Fugitive mum and abducted daughter found
• Father reunited with 11-year-old Reya
• Mother and child free to leave the country

A WOMAN who spent a decade on the run in Australia after abducting her daughter is now free to leave the country and plans to return to Norway.

Camilla Ellefsen Lunetta had been hiding Down Under since abducting her daughter Reya from the United States in 2002 amid a bitter custody dispute.

Reya's father Brozzi Lunetta returned to Australia this month after news.com.au revealed that his ex-wife and daughter were living in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

The fugitive mum's run then came to an end last week when the American father found the pair being sheltered at a home in Palm Beach, north of Sydney.

Ms Ellefsen Lunetta appeared in the Family Court this morning and is now free to leave Australia.

The proceedings in The Hague Convention matter were finalised after Mr Lunetta agreed to discharge the return order for his daughter.

News.com.au understands Reya and her mother have now been removed from the Airport Watch List and plan to return to Norway tomorrow using emergency passports which were issued to them on Friday.

This comes after Mr Lunetta, who returned to Norway at the weekend, helped his ex-wife and daughter evade authorities last week while they worked out how best to proceed.

Meanwhile, details of Ms Ellefsen Lunetta's life on the run are emerging.

Two weeks ago documentary filmmaker James Ricketson had offered Ms Ellefsen Lunetta and Reya - now known as Zia and Layla - a place to stay as a favour to a friend who said the pair was "in a crisis".

"I didn't know what their names were or anything about the drama they were involved in," he said.

"The following day I met the mother and child and ... was told enough of the story to be able to say 'come and stay at my house for a few days while we work out what needs to happen next'.

"In the meantime I got on the internet and found out a whole lot of stuff that I didn't know before about Brozzi's side of the story."

Brozzi Lunetta with daughter Reya before she was abducted. Picture: supplied. Source: Supplied

Ricketson then hatched a plan to bring about a resolution.

"It became apparent very early on that Zia was spending a lot of time on the telephone to Norway talking to lawyers, the Attorney-General's department and all sorts of people with a view to going back to Norway to try to sort out the problems that she had created as a result of her abduction of Layla," he said.

"Then through a fake email address I made contact with Brozzi because I was hoping - as I knew that he wanted them to go back to Norway and I knew that she wanted to go back to Norway - that maybe there was some possibility I could act as a sort of broker.

"Next thing I know there's a TV crew at the front door so then the whole plan was cemented."

Camilla Ellefsen Lunetta and Reya on April 24, 2013. Picture: Today Tonight. Source: Supplied

Ricketson said Ms Ellefsen Lunetta would have "loved this drama to have been over much earlier than it was".

"What happened was, regardless of who was right and who was wrong a decade ago, unfortunately once Zia made the decision to take off with Reya there was no way back," he said.

"She became a gypsy on the run. The battle-lines were drawn and she couldn't afford to go back because she had all of these charges hanging over her.

"If at some point eight years ago, once she realised she'd made a mistake, it had been possible for her to get on the telephone and say 'look, I've made a mistake can we please sort this out?' she would have. The only option she had was to remain on the run.

"I think she's absolutely delighted, in a way, that all this has happened and that now she can go back to Norway and pursue her musical career because she's a very talented musician."

Camilla Ellefsen Lunetta in 2002. Photo: Supplied Source: Supplied

Both Ms Ellefsen Lunetta and Mr Lunetta allegedly opened up to Ricketson.

"I've heard both sides of the story. Camilla said that Brozzi was never violent or abusive towards her ever. Brozzi is very open about this and says that 10 years ago he had a problem with alcohol and that he has a problem with his temper. Camilla also has a very short fuse," he said.

"Brozzi said that Camilla was suffering from postpartum depression at the time that all of his happened; she insists that she wasn't and I don't pretend to know the truth. Whatever led her to make the decision, once she made the decision there was no going back on it and she's been trapped."

Ricketson said Ms Ellefsen Lunetta was a "terrific" mother to Layla, who had no idea they had been on the run from authorities for most of her life.

"On the night that all of this happened I had them in my car for two hours and Zia was explaining to Layla why this was all happening, why there was a film crew there and who this person (Brozzi) was," he said.

"She had managed to maintain this illusory world to Layla for all of this time.

"Layla had no idea that she was on the run and anything other than an ordinary girl who had to be home schooled."

Brozzi's search for his daughter Reya brought him to the Sunshine Coast in 2010. Picture: Megan Slade Source: The Courier-Mail

Despite this, Layla quickly adjusted to her changed situation.

"(Thursday night) Layla said 'this has got to be the weirdest day of my whole life'," he said.

"It certainly freaked her out but by the next day she had adjusted to the new state of affairs and new reality.

"She's a girl who is very interested in establishing a relationship with her biological father. She's also delighted at the idea that she's got a younger brother now (Mr Lunetta has a 10-week-old child with his new wife).

"She's one of the best adjusted 11-year-old girls I've ever met."

Mr Lunetta said his ex-wife had told his daughter about him.

"When we were in the car driving from the house (at Palm Beach) into Sydney, Camilla tapped me on the shoulder and said 'I just want you to know that she knows about you'," he said.

"She said 'it's not true (that I told her you died in a car crash). That's just one of those lies that got out there and I couldn't contact you to correct that lie'."

Camilla Ellefsen Lunetta and Reya in 2002. Photo: Supplied Source: Supplied

The 40-year-old said his daughter had asked to now be known as Hira Lunetta. Hira, which means diamond in Hindi, was one of the alias names her mother gave her while they were on the run.

"My daughter is truly a special human being and Camilla deserves a lot of credit for doing such a great job of raising her under such difficult circumstances," he said.

"Any anger or resentment I might have towards Camilla serves no purpose. It's always been about our daughter and more love.

"This is truly all going to work out."

Ricketson said it was an "extraordinary" story.

"Who would have thought (last week) that this story could have had a happy ending? It's a story almost designed to have blood in the streets, blood in the gutters, AFP, FBI, Interpol, court cases, angst and so on," he said.

"That Brozzi, after his 10-year search, has given up all of his rights as a father makes him, in my mind, a hero. And he's a lovely man. I think that Camilla in her own way too is a lovely person who made a bad decision and she's had to live with the consequences of that ever since and now she wants to get back to living a normal life.

"It's a miracle that circumstances have played out the way they have and that it's possible for all three of them to get back to normal. It's almost a fairy-tale ending."

News.com.au understands Ms Ellefsen Lunetta is in talks with a television network which is attempting to secure exclusive access to her story.

Email kristin.shorten@news.com.au or follow @itsKShort on Twitter

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Gai v Singo: WTF is going on?

We'll assume he wasn't blowing up about her fashion sense Source: The Daily Telegraph

Businessman John Singleton has sacked trainer Gai Waterhouse following a clash on live television.

ON THE surface, the John Singleton/Gai Waterhouse bust-up is a story about racing. But it's actually about much more than that.

It is about friendship, family, integrity, trust and the fundamental problems with having an upstart 32-year-old bookmaker in every Australian lounge room.

If you've missed the finer points, here's a super quick five point summary, followed by five early lessons from this still unfolding yarn:

1. THE BLOW-UP
Colourful businessman and horse owner John Singleton splits acrimoniously on live television with his long-term trainer Gai Waterhouse. Gai is the mum of Tom Waterhouse, whose relentless self-promotion has made him one of Australia's most disliked public figures.

2. THE FAILURE
The split occurs because Singleton has a mare called More Joyous engaged in a big race called the All aged Stakes at Randwick. More Joyous is no Black Caviar, but it once won eight races in a row. On Saturday it runs second last.

3. THE ALLEGATIONS
Singo blows up after the race, not because his horse has lost, but because he says a friend heard from Tom Waterhouse that the horse had health issues and was "no chance" of winning. The inference is that Tom must have got that info from Gai. Tom Waterhouse denies the allegations and is considering legal action.

4. THE FOOTY STAR TIE-IN
It then emerges that Waterhouse tipped Channel Nine commentator Andrew Johns a different horse to More Joyous in a casual interaction during Friday Night Footy. On The Sunday Footy Show, Johns says Waterhouse said nothing negative about the horse's health. He also reveals that he himself backed More Joyous. Meanwhile, Waterhouse says he lost $300K on the race, thereby inferring that he wanted More Joyous to win, and believed it could win.

5. THE TENSE PHONE CALL
There is also reportedly a phone call between mother and son where Gai asks Tom if he has told anyone More Joyous was not well enough to win. Tom says 'no, Mum'. A more thorough inquest will take place next Monday, headed by NSW chief steward Ray Murrihy.

SO THERE'S YOUR SUMMARY. NOW HERE ARE FIVE THINGS WE'VE LEARNED SO FAR...

1. THE FAMILY DEFENCE DOESN'T CUT IT
The Waterhouses really have to stop defending each other in public. Three weeks ago, Gai Waterhouse said everyone should lay off her son because he was such a productive young Australian. Today Tom Waterhouse has defended his Mum saying "if anyone does not think Mum is out there trying to win every time, they don't know her". Gee, that settles it, then.

2. PEOPLE NOW LIKE TOM EVEN LESS
Tom Waterhouse is everywhere, bombarding people of all ages with his gambling information. The guy has a weird role on Nine's Friday Night Footy which is passed off as editorial content when  really he's just spruiking gambling odds. People don't like him for that. Now that he's embroiled in all this, they like him even less.

3. SOMETHING LIKE THIS WAS ALWAYS GOING TO HAPPEN
When you're hanging out with that many sports stars who enjoy a bet, and when you're a bookie whose Mum is a top horse trainer, there will always be people like John Singleton who question the information chain. The words "conflict of interest" come very strongly to mind.

4. THE WATERHOUSE NAME TAKES ANOTHER BATTERING
Tom's father Robbie and grandfather Bill were warned off Australian racecourses for being implicated in the Fine Cotton horse substitution scandal in the 1980s. Tom plays on his family's gambling knowledge in his ads, as though it's something people should respect. In truth, many people still haven't got over Fine Cotton.

5. RACING IS BACK TO NORMAL AFTER BLACK CAVIAR
Two weeks ago, racing was in the headlines for a fast horse which always tried its hardest and won every race it contested. Children loved the horse, and racing momentarily seemed like a happy, open, family kind of sport. How very quaint that suddenly seems.

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Australian tourist raped in Bali

An Australian woman has been raped while a knife was held to her throat during a violent robbery in Bali.

A PERTH woman has been raped while a knife was held to her throat during a violent robbery at the villa she was staying at with family in Bali.

The 28-year-old was attacked in the early hours of Saturday morning after being woken by an intruder who had entered her room at Villa Damais in Kerobokan.

Details of the horrific assault emerged today, with the woman telling police she was first forced to open a safe in her room, before being raped while a knife was held to her throat.

The attack occurred as seven other members of her family, including children, slept in adjacent rooms.

All have since returned to Perth.

"The victim was then threatened with a knife by the perpetrator,'' local police chief Reinhard Habonaran Nainggolan said.

"His right hand held the knife while his left hand held a flashlight.

"She was under threat of knife that she could not make a sound.''

The police chief said the woman was treated at a local hospital after the attack but had since been discharged and returned to Perth with her family yesterday.

He said she had given a description of the alleged attacker, who police suspect of carrying out previous rapes, with the hunt for the suspect ongoing.

The villa was usually watched by one security guard, but he had left his post that night.

"They entered the villa by jumping on to the wall,'' Mr Reinhard said.

Three iPads, two mobile phones and 1.5 million rupiah ($A150) were stolen.

The attack is the latest in a spate of incidents in the popular holiday destination.

In March, Mercedes Corby was bashed by a gang in Kuta as she returned home from a party.

The older sister of convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby needed minor surgery after suffering a broken nose and bleeding to the cornea during the assault.
 

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