Perth Voice Interactive

MT LAWLEY’S Liberal candidate in next Saturday’s state election, Michelle Sutherland, says her political views were shaped by a formative holiday in Eastern Europe after completing her tertiary studies.

Witnessed firsthand the effects of socialism, she says the comparison to a free economy were stark.

“When you travel over there, there’s sort of no choice. You go to the shops, or that sort of thing, and there’s not the choice, because everything’s organised by the government.

“And I always think—people always want to get out of there; they never want to go live there.”

It’s perhaps not the political journey her family might have expected.

“I grew up in a Labor family, but as I got older, just thinking about what I saw crystallised my thinking. You know what it’s like when you travel when you’re young—you have more of a good time. But it’s when you get older that you start thinking about things.”

Ms Sutherland criticised WA Labor government’s handling of finances post-Covid, arguing that despite “rivers of gold” from mining and record GST revenue, the cost of living continued to climb. 

“Water has gone through the roof, car registration, all those sorts of things. Would it have been better to keep those costs down? We do get power rebates, but that’s an acknowledgment from federal and state governments that power is high.”

She also took aim at electricity price hikes. “The electricity fixed daily supply charge rose from 48 cents to 94.9 cents. And so that resulted in a 10 per cent increase in power bills.”

Ms Sutherland backed her party’s commitment to reducing the charge to 46.3 cents a day.

Locally, Ms Sutherland has weighed in on the future of the Edith Cowan University site.

“Obviously, there’s got to be some diversity in housing, but what is annoying is that we won’t know what’s going to happen till after the election. 

“And the bit that people are worried about is they don’t want too many high-rise and huge density, like what’s happening in other parts of Perth.”

She suggested incorporating more recreational spaces. “Maybe more parks, facilities like basketball, a youth-centric centre. 

“It would be great to have more things like maybe a skate park, basketball, that sort of thing. Volleyball, where it’s all there and the young ones can go. It’s a good location for that, because you’ve got eyes on the street.”

Ms Sutherland has opposed measures to impose regulations on tree retention on private property while a Bayswater councillor.

“Because I think private property is your property, and I don’t agree that the reach of the government should go into people’s private property,” she said, despite concerns subdivisions are contributing to a loss of tree canopy.

She’s got a different approach to protecting the canopy: “The Water Corp owns all the water sumps and put big fences around them, because obviously they don’t want accidents to happen. 

“But if we want to increase our tree canopy, why can’t they get rid of those and put nice trees and make it like a park?”

Ms Sutherland supports plans to redevelop Beaufort Street to increase the housing diversity.

“I think people are realising that we’ve got to all share the load, but I think the biggest issue is not to take away the historical value of the place.”

She also feels Wanneroo Road and Main Street have escaped attention and could probably take more development. 

Ms Sutherland says a full rebuild of Royal Perth Hospital, pledged by Liberal leader Libby Mettam would be a “game changer. For some treatments, you now have to go to Sir Charles Gairdner or Fiona Stanley hospitals. A world-class new hospital in the city would make a huge difference.”

by STEVE GRANT