Perth Voice Interactive

LORD mayor Lisa Scaffidi’s strongest ally gagged any debate about transparency at Tuesday’s council meeting.

Scaffidi critic Reece Harley had moved a motion that could see the lord mayor prevented from chairing the council’s audit committee.

The committee, which Ms Scaffidi currently heads, is responsible for keeping a close eye on the city’s “corporate governance and ethical considerations”, along with “legislative obligations”.

In a highly unusual move, Janet Davidson asked for the motion to be voted on without discussion, known in standing orders as a “procedural motion”.

It went through unanimously, as did a bunch of others where debate was similarly gagged.

Cr Harley’s motion asks the CEO to review the audit committee’s terms of reference and membership.

It notes “all other capital cities of Australia have an externally appointed and suitably qualified member as chair of their audit committee”.

Other motions that went through without a peep included:

• Cr Harley’s move to record council meetings and make them available publicly within a day;

• James Limnios’ request for a report on “examples of best practice accountability measures” used by other councils; and,

• Jemma Green’s motion for an online travel register with the date and duration of council travel, including costs, locations and purpose.