HEAVY-handed enforcement of Covid-19 regulations may risk entrenching anti-vaccination views according to research involving vaccine-hesitant people. In the eastern states police actions have been a focal point for anti-mandate protestors who’ve complained of violent police crackdowns on protests. And when NSW police handing out $349 fines to people using their phones while their cars were…

KEEP state government interference out of the local domain, Vincent councillor Ron Alexander says. Cr Alexander has extensive experience in the state public sector having been director general of the WA department of sport and recreation for 18 years from 1999 to 2017. In 2019 he was made a member of the Order of Australia…

COULD a livestreamed council meeting lead to murder? It’s a risk, according to Belmont council’s top brass who want to keep cameras out of the chamber. Vincent council was the first to livestream meetings back in 2017, and now state government reforms propose making it mandatory for bigger band 1 and 2 councils (which includes…

WATER testing is underway at Hyde Park after sick birds had to be rescued last week. Vincent council’s urged people (and pets) to stay out of the lakes after  WA Seabird Rescue took in Eurasian coots who were struggling with weakness consistent with botulism. Stirling council’s also put out a plea for people to stop…

‘Too much corruption’ AFTER elections marred by stolen votes and forged signatures, a veteran Stirling councillor says it’s time to bin postal ballots and bring on in-person voting. Cr Elizabeth Re, serving since 2005, says “it has been recognised that ballots have gone missing, or people have been found guilty of taking them out of letterboxes”.…

INGLEWOOD’S Julius Caesar Re has been awarded an OAM for his lifetime’s work popularising soccer in Australia. Mr Re is considered a “visionary” by the Football Hall of Fame WA for seeing a game with potential and helping professionalise the sport.  involvement in soccer dates back to when Mr Re’s oldest brother Frank was one…

A WRENCH has been thrown into Aldi’s expansion plans with Bayswater council voting against letting the supermarket set up in the Guildford Road industrial area. Aldi sought a change to the council’s planning scheme to allow a shop in the industrial zoned site at 508 Guildford Road, currently a Reece’s Hire (“New Aldi sparks fear…

RESIDENTS living around Peninsula Farm in Maylands are worried it’ll turn into a party zone as it becomes more commercialised. The National Trust owns the site and for 10 years has mainly hosted a few annual community events like an Anzac Day sunset service, Christmas Carols and an Easter Family Day.  Corporate The outdoor space has…

WHILE the Winter Olympics will open to great fanfare in China this weekend, a group of local protestors were planning to rally outside East Perth’s Chinese consulate on Thursday to raise some uncomfortable questions for the communist superpower about its human rights record. A coalition of Uyghur, Hong Kong, Tibetan, Taiwanese and Chinese human rights…

WA will get the rare opportunity to showcase its writing talent – and its patchy public health record – during an online writing festival today (Saturday February 5). WA author Michelle Johnston’s book Dustfall will be the focus of the local stage of LitFestBergen when it kicks off at 9pm. Published in 2018, the novel…