City of Perth Western Residents Inc secretary Jane Boxall and president Anna Vanderbom. Photo by David Bell.

FROM a crowded field, City of Perth Western Residents has endorsed one lord mayoral contender and four for council.

President Anna Vanderbom says they chose independent candidates who weren’t part of a faction or voting bloc as that had led to a lot of trouble under the old regime, and “we want them free from conflicts of interest”.

CoPWR covers parts of Crawley and Nedlands taken over by Perth council in 2016. 

The group’s been satisfied with improvements made at the city by recently outgoing CEO Murray Jorgensen, but they don’t want to risk another period without elected members hence their caution around potential conflicts of interest, eligibility and factionalism. 

CoPWR secretary Jane Boxall says they wanted to make sure their preferred candidates were “people who want to give back” and who’ll work with the neighbourhood communities and aren’t in it for ego.

For the lord mayoral spot they’ve endorsed Spacecubed founder Brodie McCulloch.

“He’s the only person we can see standing as a lord mayoral candidate with real leadership experience, and he has a track record of building a team,” Ms Vanderbom says.

For council they’ve endorsed Aimee Smith, Liam Gobbert, Reece Harley and Terresa Lynes.

“They’re all community service people, they want to give to the community and not just take,” Ms Boxall says.

While a lot of the committee’s criteria were city-wide, locally they’re focused on protecting Kings Park and Matilda Bay, and they’re satisfied all candidates chosen fit the bill on that front.

They like Ms Smith, a climate change policy adviser, for her environmental credentials as the group’s concerned about the heat island effect in the city, the way waste is disposed of, and protecting King’s Park and Matilda Bay.

Mr Gobbert got their endorsement in part because of his previous local government experience as deputy mayor of Joondalup, and his planning and transport expertise.

They’ve dealt with Mr Harley in his previous time on council and Ms Vanderbom says he was a “great conduit between us and the administration”.

Ms Vanderbom says they chose Ms Lynes because she has “very good experience, [she was] a deputy mayor, she has a qualification in local government administration, she knows how things work in council meetings”. 

CoPWR plans to drop flyers to the neighbourhoods advising locals of their recommendations, and they say it’s an area with pretty high voter turnout. The top-scoring candidate at the last election, Steve Hasluck, had their endorsement in 2017. 

by DAVID BELL