Perth Voice Interactive

PERTH’S Safe Night Space for women finally reopened on Monday evening, ending a month-long stand-off between the City of Perth and the Cook government.

The SNS is now based in Ruah’s James Street “engagement hub” and will be open 7pm to 7am each night.

One a social media post, Ruah described the reopening as “a pivotal moment” for its female clients and sector colleagues.

“We are so grateful to welcome clients into a safe space once again and provide the Ruah singled out planning minister John Carey, his Cabinet colleague Amber-Jade Sanderson and the Department of Communities for their efforts getting the centre re-opened, as well as thanking its team and service leaders and the “entire community and sector who supported us”.

A glaring omission was anyone from the City of Perth, which had forced the closure of the first SNS at the Rod Evans Community Centre after deciding not to extend its funding to cover the service because it said the community wanted the building for other purposes.

That triggered a war of words between lord mayor Basil Zempilas and the Cook government.

The letter offered $3.1 million to keep the service running, but the council knocked it back because the centre had already been committed to other groups. It suggested Uniting WA could take over the service but that was rejected by the state.

That left only Ruah, which applied to use the James Street hub, but the council imposed conditions such as posting a security guard outside the building every night which the service said were too onerous.

When it appealed the conditions Mr Carey decided to call the decision in, but handed to his colleague Ms Sanderson to avoid any suggestions of a conflict of interest.

Late last week she sided with Ruah and removed the need for the security guard, while sidelining the council from having much of a say in how the centre runs – it can only advise her if it’s unhappy, but she gets the final say.

Despite the snub from Ruah and Mr Sanderson’s decision, Mr Zempilas told the council meeting on Tuesday the City was pleased to finally see the service up and running.

He had another dig at the government over the 118 days it took to reopen, saying it was a long time to sit on a decision to move a security guard.

“The City of Perth supports the Safe Night Space and despite the 118 days that have elapsed since this council voted unanimously for its reopening, we are very pleased to see the service has begun operating again,” he said.

by STEVE GRANT