Perth Voice Interactive

SIX O’CLOCK council meetings and twin babies don’t mix, says Cr Julia Wilcox, who is standing down from Vincent council in October.

Cr Wilcox recently had another child and she says juggling three children under three years old and a tea-time meeting became impossible: “The council meetings are at six o’clock which is a terrible time for a family,” she says.

“Between 5 and 6.45 is battle stations—dinner, bath and bed.

“Having the meetings at seven would make it much easier for parents with young children.

“Imagine how my husband feels when I leave him at a quarter-to-six with three babies!”

She says she never asked for meeting times to change and believes in general the council is family-friendly: mayor John Carey had shown understanding when she said she was having twins and granted her three months’ leave.

Cr Wilcox says a highlight of her single term was helping successfully fight mergers and keeping Vincent intact.

Neighbouring councils Stirling and Bayswater both hold council meetings at 7pm, but Cr Stephanie Coates—who has three children under 10—says that can be problematic too.

“It’s a bit of a catch-22 because as children get older they start to do their homework at that time,” she says. “But there is no doubting that six is a bad time for parents with younger kids, and for me seven works well. I can still have dinner with my family and then go off to council.”

Mayor Carey says he’s open to a change in time but notes it’ll push the finish to an hour later.

“Meetings could finish very late into the night,” he says. “In other councils the public have to register to ask a question, but not at ours, which means question time can be quite lengthy sometimes.”

Cr Wilcox’s departure follows on the heels of WA police and women’s interests minister Liza Harvey calling on more women to run for local government: “A lot of people complain about the decisions of local government, well, guess why: they don’t have the diversity they need to make good decisions,” she says.

Ms Harvey urged women to “have a look at contributing back to your community and help raise the standard of local government”.

Half of Vincent’s elected members are female.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK