Perth Voice Interactive

WHEN police don’t want lots of journalists trampling through murder scenes, or traumatising victims of crime, they’ll ask them to “pool footage”.

What this means is, one crew takes the footage and then shares it with journos from rival organisations.

On Tuesday night, journalists were informed just one crew — the ABC — would be permitted to film “pool footage” of the swearing in ceremony of the new Perth city council. Given the council is not short on space, and regularly entertains multiple crews, we can only guess as to the reasons why.

A promised 15-minute post-ceremony “doorstop” interview with lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi and the council was then cancelled, “due to a ceremony scheduling change”, stated council PR coordinator Jane Grljusich.

Ms Scaffidi has been turning down interviews since her win. In a written statement she said: “I am humbled to be re-elected for a third term as the lord mayor. The vote follows a tough campaign which focused on errors I have made. I accept full responsibility for those errors.”