PM

This time tomorrow polling booths will be coming towards a close in Western Australia. If the opinion polls are right the Premier Colin Barnett's more than eight years in power will come to an end. Mr Barnett has defended his record, saying he's delivered good government. The Labor leader Mark McGowan says he's ready to govern.

Yesterday on this program former opposition leader Kim Beazley said he believed Colin Barnett's days were numbered. David Johnston is a former Liberal Senator from Western Australia and former Defence Minister in the Abbott government. I asked him if Kim Beazley was right to call this an 'It's Time' election, one which would throw out the long serving incumbents.

Bill Leak seldom did anything by halves. The cartoonist, raconteur, portrait painter, writer and controversial free speech absolutist, died of a heart attack today aged 61. In the last few years his work had been furiously, often deliberately divisive, and the subject of accusations of racism which he always strongly denied. But Bill Leak had always lived life at high speed, and seldom took a step back from anything.

Representatives from the Jehovah's Witnesses have testified that biblical texts are preventing them from implementing further measures to support victims of child sexual abuse. A senior member of the Uniting Church has also apologised to victims, saying the Church did not adhere to its core values for those children.

A Federal parliamentary committee has failed to reach a consensus on how widespread a ban on political donations should be. There's bipartisan support for the banning of foreign individuals and companies donating to Australian political parties. But the political parties are at odds over whether that should also affect environmental and activist groups.

Judges unanimously upheld Park Geun-Hye's impeachment today. It's the first time it's happened since South Korea swung from dictatorship to democracy in the late 1980s. Stripped of presidential immunity, President Park faces prosecution over bribery and corruption charges. A new president must now be elected within 60 days.

Despite attempts by the banking watchdog APRA to cap loans to investors, official data shows an acceleration in lending to investors. PM understands more and more first home buyers now priced out of the owner-occupier market are buying much lower-priced investment properties in order to at least get a foot in the door of the market. Economists say these latest figures will likely send a chill up the spines of senior figures at both the Reserve Bank and APRA.

A big Christian charity will cease its aid operations in India next week, ending support for 147,000 impoverished children. Compassion international, which includes the Australian arm Compassion Australia, says the Indian Government's refusal to let it accept foreign donations has left it with no other choice. India says two of Compassion affiliates had been trying to convert children. It's refused pleas from US diplomats and the organisation itself, to reconsider.

In the Northern Territory, the youth justice system has been making headlines but local lawyers say conditions for women in prison also need scrutiny. A recent review of NT prisons found women's cells were overcrowded and inappropriately located within male prisons. It also found rehabilitation, education and work programs offered to men weren't available for women. The head of the NT's criminal lawyers' association says the conditions remain appalling.

Songs from around the world will echo across Adelaide's Botanic Park this weekend for the 25th WOMADelaide festival. Artists from dozens of countries will join local talent for the four-day event, bringing everything from soul to gospel and beat-boxing to the WOMAD faithful. Last year 95,000 people streamed through the gates, with organisers hoping to equal if not better crowd numbers this time around.