AS Australia Day nears some councils are embracing it, some are avoiding it and some are just not saying the name. From 2017 to 2022 councils had been required by federal dictum that if they held a citizenship ceremony in January, then it had to be on Australia Day.  That’s made for an awkward celebration…

A MAYLANDS resident who has gone through a year of administrative hell is facing another three month delay before a laneway can be named to help ambulances find her home. Back in October 2022 resident Peta Illich beseeched Bayswater council to name the right of way her house sits on, which is between Crawford Road,…

LITIS stadium will finally get its federally-funded upgrades, more than five years since the truly strange circumstances surrounding $3million of grant money offered by the federal government in 2018.  Vincent council owns the property and the main lease is held by football club Floreat Athena. Back in August 2018, then-senator for One Nation Peter Georgiou…

IN reply to our article last week on the new design for the Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre, reader David Beetson reminds us there was another design for the PCEC that was kept “hidden” from the public. As recounted in our story “Farewell Comrade” (Voice, January 20, 2024) the current PCEC built in 2004 is…

CHANGE is slow, the thanks are few, and the enemies are vicious, but looking back on her time in parliament former Labor state MP for Perth Diana Warnock says there were far more ups than downs. In parliament from 1993 to 2001, Ms Warnock had gotten into politics because she’d experienced the sexism of the…

WIDELY regarded as one of the worst designed buildings in the CBD with “all the charm of a Soviet-era mausoleum”, the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre is in line for an extensive makeover.  This week the Cook government announced negotiations had started with PCEC leaseholders Wyllie and Brookfield, who have unveiled a concept plan to…

PAUL COLLINS is fighting to overturn his two-month suspension from the WA Cricket Association board. The ban was dished out on January 4 during a pivotal time for the governing body. Mr Collins is one of five board directors voted in by WACA members, along with five appointed directors, and there’s been a range of…

THE dreaded polyphagous shot-hole borer has been found in Kings Park, dangerously close to rare and endangered flora in the WA Botanic Garden collection.  The beetles ravage the insides of trees by boring a network of tunnels that they use to grow fungi for food. This can eventually kill the tree as the fungus blocks…

VINCENT council has become the first in the country to dangle a carrot of swifter assessment for new house plans if they’re more environmentally-considerate. It’s part of an effort to get more sustainable homes built and cut down on emissions, water waste and electricity use.  Lengthy waits to get development applications processed are a common…