Perth Voice Interactive

Reece Harley will run for Perth city council.

Soon turning 27, if elected he’ll be the city’s second-youngest ever councillor (Chas Hopkins first won at 26 and later went on to become lord mayor).

With recent data showing almost half the city’s residents are aged 20–34, Mr Harley says the PCC needs youth in its chamber: “Councils need to be reflective of the community they’re representing,” he says.

He is a regular in the public gallery and was the city’s Youth Ambassador in 2011, travelling to Houston, Halifax and Washington to scout youth and arts hubs and bring back ideas for Perth.

The West Perth local is a founding member of Rotary Crawley where he drove the swags for the homeless program, and he leads tours around the city showing off the sights and challenging misconceptions about Perth.

He says he loves to bust myths about Perth being dead on weekends, or claims there’s nowhere to eat at night, or beliefs all the heritage has gone.

“I think Perth is a beautiful city and I hate when people talk it down,” he says.

Mr Harley has worked alongside Spacemarket to help fill dormant upper-storey buildings with tenants.

A heritage buff, he’s also a member of the Savoy Hotel Collaboration, a group looking to activate the dormant upper levels of the old Hay Street site which is now owned by a Singaporean group.

In 2010 he won the Premier’s Australia Day award for his youth ambassador work.

Mr Harley, whose mum Ros sits on neighbouring Vincent council, works for the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience, an organisation that aims to help indigenous kids complete high school at the same rate as other Australian children and help them on to uni.

by DAVID BELL