Perth Voice Interactive

VIOLINIST Emily Leung will bring Mozart’s Violin Concerto No 3 to life in two concerts June 25 and 26 with Fremantle Chamber Orchestra. 

Leung made her soloist debut with FCO at 15 and has since performed to great acclaim. 

When she was 11, Emily attended master classes with visiting Dutch violinist Rudolf Koelman who identified her prodigious talent.

Leung was a Wells Scholarship recipient and winner of the Tingleman Award in the 2018 Melbourne International Violin Competition, while showing she’s got a few extra strings to her bow she’s currently studying medicine at UWA.

The concerts are Saturday June 25 at Government House Ballroom on St Georges Terrace and Sunday June 26 at the Fremantle Town Hall, both at 3pm. 

For tickets call 0438 933 250 or purchase them at the door

FORMER WA premier Peter Dowding says the “disgraceful” secret trials of a whistleblowing Australian spy and his lawyer need to be examined by a royal commission or federal corruption watchdog. 

Known as Witness K, the former Australian Secret Intelligence Service officer and his lawyer Bernard Collaery were charged in 2018 with conspiring to reveal classified information over their alleged roles in exposing Australia’s bugging of its friendly and impoverished neighbour Timor-Leste during 2004 negotiations to divide the resource-abundant Timor Sea. 

In an ongoing four-year saga the federal Department of Public Prosecutions has pursued a “secret trial” against the pair, on the basis the charges were too sensitive to Australia’s security to be revealed.

“They wouldn’t give [Mr Collaery] or his lawyers documents,” Mr Dowding said.

“After two years of repeated applications the department showed him some of the material which was the basis of prosecution but his team had to fly to special offices in Sydney to read it and they were only shown selected material.”

Last month Mr Collaery had his latest application for access to more information knocked back; he’d argued the documents could have shown the spying against Timor-Leste was unlawful which would undermine the charges against him. The ACT supreme court disagreed, saying the Federal government’s actions were irrelevant to his case.

But Mr Dowding, formerly a barrister himself and a self-described “civil libertarian”, says the possibility ministers or public servants were breaking the law underlined the importance of Australia having a federal corruption watchdog, currently a hot election topic given the Morrison government promised one before the last election but failed to deliver it.

Mr Dowding believes the bugging breached international covenants which Australia was obliged to follow.

“The covenant would be that you have no right to bug private discussions of another government,” Mr Dowding said.

“But there was also the conspiracy … effectively to defraud East Timor … and in international law there is an offence in relation to that.”

Mr Dowding also criticised former attorney general Michaelia Cash for continuing the prosecution which was signed off by her predecessor Christian Porter before his fall from grace.

Senator Cash maintained she was simply following due process and any intervention would amount to political interference – a claim dismissed by Dowding as “bulldust”. 

Mr Dowding is not alone in his views, with prominent ACT lawyer Greg Stretton last year criticising the “shameful apathy” of the Australian legal community in regards to the trial. Alongside Mr Stretton is former Victorian Labor premier Steve Bracks, who likewise labelled the prosecution “political”.

Mr Dowding says the issue of security is a furphy: “If there are matters of high security, surely they can be kept to one side,” he said.  

The Morrison government spent $3.7m in legal fees prosecuting Witness K and Bernard Collaery and trying to defend its right to have secret hearings. About three months ago, still not knowing what charges he faced, Witness K, now aged in his late 70s, gave up.  

“He’d had enough, he was in a depression, he was old, he couldn’t manage it,” Mr Dowding said.

“He just said ‘whatever it is, I plead guilty’. He got a six month suspended sentence. That was it. Like a really bad traffic offence. After all of that hoo-ha.

Mr Dowding said there were other examples of the Howard government’s “perfidy” during East Timor’s fight for independence and subsequent negotiations with Australia that have never been explained.

“In its negotiations for the treaty with Timor, which was a lengthy document, there was one tiny change,” Mr Dowding said. 

“That was the definition of oil and gas. The definition included ‘inert gases’ and the Australian government removed the reference to it. As a result of that, no Australians get a benefit from the helium, an American company gets the benefit.” 

Mr Dowding says the motives and full implications of the tweak to the document are not clear, but that “it was clearly part of a really major plot which has never been properly revealed”. 

Mr Dowding says the Howard government under former foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer appeared to have acted in the interest of private enterprise instead of the Australian public and needed to be held to account.

Australia’s new attorney general Mark Dreyfus has said he’s already been briefed on the issue and there are “levers” at his disposal, he stopped short of outling what action he could take or directly addressing the substance of the case against Mr Collaery. 

But in Opposition he had spoken out strongly in support of the lawyer, saying he’d seen no evidence on how pursuing him had been in the public interest.

THE East Fremantle Football Club weren’t just kicking goals to get top of the ladder when they ran out for their first home game at the WACA last month.

Apart from demolishing Subi 90 – 46, the Sharks helped raise awareness and topped up the coffers of a foundation supporting people with a rare genetic condition.

Joining the women’s team’s run out onto the field was seven-year-old Ariella Italiano, who suffers from the TBC1D24 Mutation; it’s so rare only 120 or so people are diagnosed globally each year.

According to the TBC1D24 Foundation, mutations in the gene can cause epilepsy, deafness, shortened nails, fingers, and toes. 

It may also cause low muscle tone and developmental delays in babies and toddlers. 

The foundation has only been running a little over two years, but fundraising efforts are starting to pick up; it’s almost hit the $50,000 mark just months after clicking over $20,000.

A good part of that was the $9000 the Sharks added to the tally.

Ariella’s mum Brooke Italiano was thrilled by the support from the footy club.

Perth set for 1.1% rise

A HEFTY 7.6 per cent rate increase is proposed in Vincent as the council grapples with ageing assets, rising staff costs, and sizeable debts to pay off.

At the June 7 meeting Mayor Emma Cole said of the draft budget: “There’s no glamour projects … it’s all very much a focus on renewal, a focus on delivery of our programs and services, and projects that our community has come to expect.”

Ms Cole acknowledged 7.6 per cent was a bit of a headline-grabbing figure but she pointed out Vincent historically had a low base rate compared to other councils: “All local governments are very different. When you look at the City of Vincent, because we have been a low-rating council what [the 7.6 per cent increase] actually equates to is … $2 a week” per property.

Underground power contributes 2.1 per cent of the increase, with the council gathering a fund to start paying for underground power that’ll be rolled out to about one third of properties in the first wave (“Power in the pipeline,” Voice, June 4, 2022). 

The council will also start spending more on assets to keep them in serviceable nick.

Councillor Dan Loden described it as the most challenging budget he’d worked on.

“If it was a popularity contest we’d probably be losing it, I suspect. But it’s also probably the best budget I’ve been involved in because it’s actually generally a reforming budget: It’s finally dealing with this issue of asset sustainability.”

There’s also been a freeze on staff wages during the tough Covid times. 

That’s led to some good staff leaving so an extra $1.8m will go towards a pay increase and superannuation.

Staff wages

Ms Cole said: “Just today I learned of another staff member who’s leaving due to salary… I see this happening and I know it to be a genuine, real issue that we are losing good people.”

The rate increase could’ve been higher but instead the council’s proposing to halve the first hour free parking period in Vincent carparks to just 30 minutes in hopes of make back some revenue from parking fees instead of rates.

“Vincent has had one hour free parking in our car parks for 11 years, with many car parks in high demand, especially during peak periods,” Ms Cole said in a statement.

“The revenue from reducing the free parking period is equivalent to a 2.8 per cent rate increase and shifts the cost of providing parking services to users, for example, the 83 per cent of consumers in Leederville who are non-residents.” 

Councillors unanimously endorsed the draft differential rating strategy.

The strategy and the plan to halve the free parking hour is open for comment for 21 days via imagine.vincent.wa.gov.au before council votes on the final version on July 5.

Perth council’s also met to endorse the city’s draft budget, proposing a 1.1 per cent rise in rates this year.

by DAVID BELL

RARE old shoes, intact teetotaller bottles, and evidence of long-gone paperbark trees are among artefacts uncovered in an archaeological dig at Peninsula Farm in Maylands.

The Farm’s owner the National Trust hosted archaeology students from UWA for the second year to excavate the grounds, delving into an old well and digging out trenches across the grounds.

The well’s brought up a surprising number of intact bottles from around 1890 to 1920  – rare for being intact rather than smashed, and because there’s no alcohol bottles among them.

The Trust reports this gels with what’s known about the Hardey family who built the farm and lived there until 1913: They were strict Wesleyan Methodists, a denomination that was long opposed to alcohol.

The Trust brought in conservators Ian MacLeod and Rinske Car to draw up a plan to conserve the artifacts. 

Dr MacLeod also identified paperbark among the material dug up, evidence that the trees once grew in the historically swampy area.

The prize find was a pair of extremely rare waterlogged men’s leather shoes. They may have belonged to Richard Hardey or even the farm’s original owner, Joseph Hardey, given their formal style suggests they belonged to the landowner rather than a farm labourer. 

The Trust is now raising funds to conserve the shoes for future display at Peninsula Farm. It will cost about $3,000 to carry out a preservation process involving polyethylene glycol to remove the water and stabilise the leather. 

WA HOMELESSNESS minister John Carey has blasted Perth councillors for voting against a homeless drop-in centre moving to a new location in Northbridge.

Homelessness services provider Ruah runs the drop-in centre on Shenton Street opposite Russell Square, but that site’s soon to be redeveloped into a seven-storey shelter for women and children escaping domestic violence (Voice, June 4, 2022). 

Ruah found a new home for the drop-in centre 270m away at 249 James Street and asked Perth council to approve a change in planning use to “community or cultural centre” to let them operate a drop-in there.

After hearing more than 100 objections from James Street residents and business owners, councillors voted against the change on May 31 on the grounds the centre could wreck amenity and cause more anti-social behaviour.

Mr Carey put out a statement on the decision saying the vote “is deeply saddening, and in effect, may shut down one of only two critical drop in centres for our city.

Leadership

“I respect the right of councils to make decisions but does not mean they should not be publicly scrutinised, and held to account,” Mr Carey said.

“The decision by the City of Perth to vote against the relocation does not show good leadership from the elected members when tackling the complex issues that vulnerable people in our community face.”

Mr Carey referenced the Safe Night Space which Perth council set up last year as a stopgap in lieu of enough state government services. 

“Consistently spruiking City of Perth funding for a Safe Night Space for women in the city and advocating for extended outreach and drop in hours while simultaneously making decisions which block existing homelessness services simply does not cut it,” Mr Carey said.

“I am not dismissive of local concerns and as an inner city resident I understand the complexities and potential challenges of homelessness service hubs. The reality 

is the City of Perth elected council could have sought to navigate this difficult issue with leadership by gathering stakeholders, Ruah and City of Perth administration around the table to find a real solution.”

Perth lord mayor Basil Zempilas has said homelessness services should be decentralised so they’re not all in CBD, arguing the services are drawing people in. Ruah’s general manager of housing and homelessness Elsie Blay had contended that the people were already in the city and services set up in response.

Mr Carey said: “This decision confirms our worst fears about people’s attitudes to social housing and homelessness. 

“Everyone is happy to support social housing or homeless services, so long as it is not located close to their business or home. 

“For the record, I do practice what I preach, as I live around the corner from the state government-newly funded medical respite centre for homelessness people, with 20 beds.”

Ruah looked at about 120 locations before settling on the James Street building. While Ruah had a pretty good case to appeal the council’s decision to the State Administrative Tribunal, it’s instead looking for a new location.

by DAVID BELL