Perth Voice Interactive

VINCENT mayor John Carey confirmed this week he will run as Labor’s candidate for the seat of Perth at the next state election.

If elected — the seat is held by popular Liberal MP Eleni Evangel on a 2.8 per cent margin — a by-election will be held to replace him as mayor.

Despite weeks of speculation he was the hot pick for Labor, he says he only made up his mind over the past few days: in the end coming to the conclusion he could achieve more for the community at the state level.

“This is the toughest decision, but I say this genuinely: week in, week out there have been critical issues we’re facing that as mayor I could not address at the root of the cause. Traffic, rat-running, speeding, it all relates to too many cars on our road and we do not have a coherent plan for public transport in Perth.”

Mr Carey intends holding a blowtorch to the Barnett government’s belly over its failure to deliver the oft-promised MAX light rail down North Perth’s Fitzgerald Street.

“We need a plan for the next decade,” Mr Carey says.

“Are we getting light rail or not? People want a clear vision that we stick to.”

Formerly a Labor environmental policy adviser, Mr Carey has been in the ALP for 12 years. The-then Vincent councillor ran for mayor in 2013 when Alannah MacTiernan resigned to run for federal parliament. In October he was re-elected with more than 80 per cent of the vote.

Mr Carey pledges he will not be a party machine automaton, and will keep pushing for transparency in government, just as he has at the local government level.

“I’ll keep being a straight shooter and tell it like it is,” he says, adding he doesn’t care, “if I’m seen as a maverick”.

Ms Evangel defeated Labor’s John Hyde — another former Vincent mayor — to take Perth in 2013: the seat was long-regarded as a “jewel in the crown” for the ALP and it is keen to get it back.

Reclaiming Perth is regarded as vital if Mark McGowan is to have any chance of becoming premier at the next election.

by DAVID BELL