Perth Voice Interactive

IN defiance of Perth city council’s extreme level of secrecy, councillor Reece Harley will publicly release statements to show how much ratepayers’ money he’s claiming for expenses.

Councillors are entitled to reimbursement of up to $13,360 a year on expenses like travel to council events, cost of phone and internet, training, clothing, and things like haircuts and moustache wax.

They are required to lodge statements to support their claims, but the council has outright refused to allow public access to them.

“In the interests of transparency and accountability, from today onward, I will be regularly uploading my ‘reimbursement of expenses’ statements to my website,” Cr Harley says.

“Each city of Perth councillor is entitled to claim up to $13,369 p.a. for reimbursement of expenses incurred in carrying out their role.

“I keep my claims to an absolute minimum in the interests of conserving ratepayers’ money.”

We asked all other councillors and lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi if they would follow suit but received no reply.

Cr Harley’s most recently uploaded document runs from July 1, 2015 to February 2016 and shows he was reimbursed $491.93 of the maximum allowable $13,360. It covered costs for his landline at Council House ($12.01) and his council-issued mobile phone ($59.99 a month).

Cr Harley’s long opposed spending ratepayers’ money on clothing: during his unsuccessful tilt for lord mayor he announced he’d like to ban that allowance all together. The stance put him at odds with fellow councillors but won support from premier Colin Barnett and WA local government minister Tony Simpson who said the allowance was out of step.

Last year Cr Harley revealed that shortly after he was elected, another councillor encouraged him to buy a “few new suits” at council expense. Another described his own outlook on freebies as, “if there’s a dollar on the table, I’ll take it”.

Cr Harley said at the time: “More recently a City of Perth media minder questioned why I’d spent so little of my expenses, and advised me that I should spend more, for fear that my frugality was making others look bad by comparison”.

by DAVID BELL