Perth Voice Interactive

IT’S been a rough week for lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi but followers and the bookies are backing her to win this weekend.

Supporters dismiss the media tsunami as “tall poppy syndrome”.

The corruption and crime commission found Ms Scaffidi had failed in her duties by not declaring travel contributions and other freebies from BHP Billiton and Hawaiian Group (companies which had looming decisions before the council).

The ball’s now in the court of the WA local government department and it is figuring whether any disciplinary action is warranted.

As the Voice reported last weekend seven of the eight councillors (Reece Harley being the exception) threw their support behind the lord mayor, but just hours later the Sunday Times revealed deputy mayor Rob Butler had himself taken a trip to Malaysia that he hadn’t declared.

Council CEO Gary Stevenson said he wasn’t sure if Cr Butler actually had to declare it since it was paid for by a government.

Following that report, Mr Stevenson announced he’d requested an internal review to identify other cases of undeclared travel over the past four years. He forwarded the results to the CCC in August and he’s now waiting on direction from it.

Meanwhile Ms Scaffidi had said she would release documents showing she hadn’t deliberately hid the Beijing Olympics trip but then reneged on the commitment, citing CCC rules. CCC commissioner John McKechnie told her she was free to release any evidence.

On Tuesday premier Colin Barnett—who’d earlier stopped short of calling for Ms Scaffidi to step down—said there was nothing stopping her from releasing her evidence “if these documents exist”.

Tuesday also saw WA local government minister Tony Simpson humiliate the capital’s chief by removing her from the WA local government standards panel, which hears cases of misconduct levelled against councillors.

He told the WA parliament “in light of the serious findings of the CCC, I’ve determined it’s not appropriate for the lord mayor to continue on the standards panel”.

Social media retains a strong pro-Scaffidi presence, with many “Team Lisa” profile pictures piping up in her defence, arguing the whole thing’s a case of “Tall Poppy Syndrone”.

Scaffidi supporter Howard Sattler — the sacked talkback shock jock — claims the release of the findings is suspicious, coming out just 12 days before the lord mayoral election. Other online debaters described it as laughable that a 28-year-old (rival Cr Harley) would be able to wield influence over the CCC with the timing of its reports.

While the Voice’s coverage of the filthy state of the grand central backpackers (a building Ms Scaffidi co-owns) resulted in calls from her supporters, we haven’t had many positive calls backing her in the wake of the CCC misconduct findings.

A couple of readers have mentioned wishing they could change the vote they’d just posted while East Perth resident Paul Griffin reckons the Perth election should be delayed since the CCC report only came out late in the piece. Deputy electoral commissioner Chris Avent says there’s no provision under the law for either to happen.

by DAVID BELL