Perth Voice Interactive

PERTH lord mayor Basil Zempilas has declared his council has succeeded where others have failed in bringing crowds to Elizabeth Quay.

At the December council meeting, an animated lord mayor could’ve been mistaken for Churchill declaring victory over the Axis powers: “The City of Perth, between now and Australia Day, has fireworks in the city every Saturday night. That in fact started last Saturday night, but continues now through all the way to January.

“What a city this is!”

He said inquiring minds might ask: “Have they always done that? When they all took over four years ago, was that the program they had,” he said in reference to elections where the current councillors replaced state-appointed commissioners.

“Well, no! They didn’t have this program, they had no program like this, in fact no one went to Elizabeth Quay! It was barely, or rarely, activated,” he said while praising councillors, staff and CEO Michelle Reynolds for building an event “from scratch”.

The speech comes as Mr Zempilas prepares to start his full time campaign as a Liberal state candidate for Churchlands in January.