Perth Voice Interactive

“IT’S not a merger, it’s a takeover” was the unhappy sentiment around Vincent HQ this week.

Until last week it was assumed that come July 2015 both Perth and Vincent would be dismissed and neutral commissioners take over until an election in October 2015.

Instead, WA local government minister Tony Simpson has announced he’d prefer a simple “boundary change” where he dismisses only Vincent and extends Perth’s boundaries.

That means the area once under Vincent will be ruled over by the existing Perth city council for four months until fresh elections for the bigger Perth council are held.

Culture

Vincent mayor John Carey is concerned about Perth’s formal, officious culture impacting on Vincent’s open, community-minded culture: He says it’s fairer for the new and bigger council to be represented only by elected members drawn from the new boundaries.

He says there are many things Vincent and Perth do differently, from parking policies and approaches to multiple dwellings to the open way Vincent handles public question time (anyone can speak) compared to Perth’s formal process where questions are submitted in writing for the CEO to read out.

“It is a clear takeover by the city of Perth,” he told an impromptu crisis meeting on Monday night, which attracted 50 concerned locals at short notice. We believe it should be an equal partnership.”

Perth Liberal MP Eleni Evangel—a former Perth councillor—attended the meeting to soothe fears about Perth councillors mucking things up in the interim.

“There’s no way they’re going to be able to plonk a 20-storey building in a local park,” she told the meeting.

She says Vincent’s CEO and staff will still be around to represent locals’ interests, and Perth councillors will be wanting to make a good impression on their new voters.

She said Vincent locals—particularly the mayor—had campaigned hard on going entirely into Perth and the minister had heeded their calls.

At Tuesday’s meeting Vincent councillors voted to express “strong opposition” to the minister’s plan, saying “it is undemocratic to leave City of Perth ratepayers without local elected representation for a period of four months”.

They’ll write to the minister, hold a town hall meeting, seek legal advice, and apply for a $50,000 grant from the state “to assist with the forced merger process”.

The Voice asked Perth lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi for comment but she said it was a little premature to weigh in given Perth’s preferred proposal only takes a smidgen of Vincent and the WA local government advisory panel is yet to say what’s happening. But in the event of a complete Perth/Vincent merger she said “we would remain as professional as we are and work to the needs of our whole community whatever that ultimately is”.

by DAVID BELL