Perth Voice Interactive

AFTER delays and canned plans there’s a new proposal to knock down and replace the weathered Stirling Towers.

Since 2014 at least three rounds of plans to redevelop the Smith Street site have come and gone, with the long-empty towers the playground of urban explorers and graffiti artists ever since; residents were moved out above five years ago. 

Once a Homeswest tower, the new plan is to outsource construction and rental management to a community  housing provider.

WA Labor’s housing minister John Carey said he’s committed to making sure the latest plan goes ahead.

 “We all know it is an eyesore in our local community,” he said.

Housing challenges

“It is a prime example of the challenges we face in terms of social housing in Western Australia: It is one of a number of ageing assets that are no longer fit for purpose and not designed to maximise great amenity or living.”

Mr Carey said the replacement will be “a modern, mixed-tenure residential development offering social, affordable and market-price rental apartments”. 

The state will lease out the site to a community housing provider for up to 49 years, and the CHP will pay for construction costs and manage renting out the units.

The pre-tender advice says “the state will consider upfront capital contributions to assist with the financial viability of the project”. 

A proper invitation for expressions of interest will go out in March 2022.

MAYLANDS Labor MP Lisa Baker has welcomed the creation of a new state Animal Welfare Advisory Committee established to improve standards on care, use and treatment of animals.

A longtime animal welfare advocate, Ms Baker says “the committee will help ensure WA’s animal welfare system meets modern community and scientific expectations.

“They will provide advice on animal welfare policy, legislation, regulations 

and standards, community education, training standards for animal welfare inspectors and research.”

TWO Perth cinephiles have beaten the pandemic odds and are expanding their highly popular WA film festival.

Despite launching under the pall of Covid in 2020, the annual WA Made Film Festival has gone from strength-to-strength and is now in its third year.

Co-founder Matt Eeles says this year’s festival will be the biggest yet with 67 local films, three world premiere feature films, a world premiere web series, a live musical performance, more than 55 short films, a filmmaking workshop and the return of WA’s only smartphone filmmaking competition.

“Not only was our submission record broken for the third year running, it was absolutely smashed,” Eeles says.

To accommodate demand, the festival has been extended from three to four days.

So how did Eeles and his film producer chum Jasmine Leivers nurture a hit festival in such unpredictable times?

“We know no different,” Eeles says.

“[The festival] was literally born into Covid with the first ever festival opening in 2020 on the weekend the entire planet was being locked down.

“Thankfully there is a strong appetite out there for local art, whether that’s screen art or art in general.

“People love to see their hometowns, suburbs they grew up in and characters they recognise on the big screen.

“The WA Made Film Festival showcases all of those things and I think that’s why it has been such a success. It’s a reprieve from another painfully ordinary Marvel or Disney film.”

This year’s festival kicks off with a special screening of Renée Webster’s How to Please a Woman.

Shot in Fremantle, it’s a funny and heart-warming tale of liberation for women who have been afraid to ask for what they want – at home, at work and in the bedroom!

Another highlight is the doco Harmony: The Missing 8th.

Filmed over three years, it follows the WA Symphony Orchestra as they prepare to travel to Beijing and Shanghai to perform in 2016. Fraught with red tape and logistical headaches, the doco is an entertaining look at the challenges of a western orchestra playing in China.

The festival will also screen the world premiere of Christopher Mark Peters’ thriller Moorehouse Road, which follows young newlyweds Sunni and Flynn as they travel across WA to start a new life.

Along the way they stay at a guest house with an eccentric landlady, and it all gets a bit terrifying from there on in.

For the first time, this year’s programme also includes Left of Centre, a series of experimental/horror shorts.

“Our jaws hit the floor when we watched these films during the programming process,” says Eeles, founder of Cinema Australia. 

“Some are eye-opening descents into pure madness, others transport you directly into the dreams of the filmmakers behind them, and some are so violent that they’re guaranteed to whet the appetite of any gore hound.”

Held at Palace Cinemas Raine Square in Perth from Thursday March 10 to Sunday March 13, many screenings include networking events and Q&As.

For full program go to www.wamadefilmfestival.com.au

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

THE RSL might have to engage Indigenous people during Anzac Day this year to access $10,000 in bonus event funding from Perth city council.

Perth council is already planning to hand the Returned and Services League $100,000 funding for Anzac Day events but its sponsorship report points to a $10,000 sweetener “conditional upon the delivery of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion considerations including engagement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples”.

Inclusion

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion factors have been part of the council’s event sponsorship assessment criteria for a few years now, but the RSL traditionally hasn’t flown Aboriginal flags or allowed a Welcome to Country at Anzac Day events.

At this week’s council briefing lord mayor Basil Zempilas said: “I remember what happened last year and there was a blowup, if you like, around the flying of the Aboriginal Flag and also the Welcome to Country.

“I think there was a position from the RSL” against having those, he said, and “that position was later changed, but then of course there was no Anzac service because of the Covid conditions.”

He quizzed council staff on exactly what the RSL would have to do to get the bonus cash.

The council’s communities manager Kylie Johnson said: “We want to work in partnership – once the decision by council is made – to look at all types of opportunities, whether that’s a Welcome to Country or or any other arrangements that demonstrate inclusion and diversity.”

She said RSLWA’s application for funding “demonstrated minimal consideration for the level of funding requested in this particular regard, so that was the reason for putting the $10,000 separately, with the aim to work with the group”.

State RSLs and the federal body have been grappling with the issue of Aboriginal engagement for years. The federal RSL’s had a longstanding protocol that only national flags are flown, and in 2020 the league put out policy saying they wouldn’t hold Welcome to Countries at their events.

Sparked by Fremantle council holding a Welcome to Country and having a Noongar reading of the Ode of Remembrance, the RSL’s policy said “while having utmost respect for the traditional owners of land upon which such sites and memorials are located, RSLWA does not view it appropriate that a Welcome to Country is used at sites that were specifically established to pay homage to those who died and who came from a wide range of cultural backgrounds”. 

Softened

That stance softened a bit in 2021 and RSLWA started encouraging an “Acknowledgement of Country” at commemorations, a statement acknowledging traditional owners that’s usually briefer than a full Welcome to Country. They recommend an Indigenous veteran perform the acknowledgement, but unlike a Welcome it can be done by anyone. 

The RSL’s total cost to run the city events is about $650,000, covering the Dawn Service at Kings Park, the gunfire breakfast at Governors House, the parade and the commemorative service at Perth Concert Hall.

Councillors vote on February 22 whether to set in stone the $10,000 diversity bonus, and Mr Zempilas said hopefully the RSL would understand what was required for the full funding.

By DAVID BELL

PROGRAMMABLE light shows are emerging as all the rage in public art with two new pieces going up in Vincent’s town centres.

Light-up orb The Globe will hover over the corner of William and Brisbane Streets and a wavy Nuanced Encounters by Cruikshank Design Studio will run overhead down part of Newcastle Street in Leederville.

The art’s funded by Vincent council’s percent for arts program which requires developers put aside 1 per cent of their overall project cost for any building worth over $1 million, and the globe got $215,000 funding and the waves got $80,000.

Each have programmable light shows, in hopes they’ll make both areas feel more lively at night.

Vincent mayor Emma Cole says: “The winning designs both incorporate lighting, so while they will encourage a connection with the space in the daytime, when the sun goes down the works will really come to life”.

The Globe was designed by artist Marcus Canning along with TAG Architects and William Street’s art supply store The Butcher Shop.

The shows are intended to tell various stories, including one about the rising and receding of seasonal wetlands before they were drained and filled by colonists.

Canning said that similar to his Fremantle ‘Containerbow’, “The Globe strives to be instantly iconic”. He said the location with its rich tapestry of businesses and diverse cultural histories helped inspire the work.

“The Globe will hopefully serve to stamp the site as centre and be a source of inspiration for the neighbourhood to continue to dream big and aspire large.

“Hovering high in the air at the site, The Globe is a big, bling beacon that will draw people in, make them think about their place in the world, and how the world is reflected in the neighbourhood around the globe.”

WA’s currently struggling with price increases and delivery times of construction materials but the pieces are scheduled to be finished by late 2022. 

THREE hundred drones will take to the skies above Elizabeth Quay this Saturday February 19 to celebrate 60 years since astronaut John Glenn spotted our city from space.

Perth council’s been gearing up for the celebration as part of lord mayor Basil Zempilas push for Perth to take back its mantle of being known as the “City of Lights”. 

The $175,000 event will take place a day before the official February 20 date when Lt Col Glenn undertook his five-hour mission. 

At the time NASA didn’t know how well the human body would function in space and they wondered if his eyes would even be able to focus. But he reported to ground control: “Just to my right I can see a big pattern of lights, apparently right on the coast. I can see the outline of a town and a very bright light just to the south of it,” Perth and Rockingham.

Perth’s residents had turned on all the lights they could in hopes he’d catch a glimpse.

Mr Zempilas said “Light denotes action, safety, ideas, illumination of our landmarks, the whole shebang. 

“Perth has daylight in spades, as well as Skyworks, the Christmas Lights Trail and so much more. We are a city synonymous with light and no city lights up like Perth.”

The event’s free and there’s food trucks and roving entertainment around Elizabeth Quay from 5pm and the drones start glowing at 8pm.

COUNCILS may be forced to record confidential meetings and hand the tapes over to WA government archives.

The proposal by the state government has Perth council staff nervous, fearing recordings might be accessed by journalists and other snoops. 

Councils usually switch off livestreams to discuss items behind closed doors that include commercial secrets or personal affairs.

But the state government inquiry into Perth council’s disfunction found the mystery discussions at those meetings made it difficult to untangle what had gone wrong.

This included secret meetings about the heritage listing of a building owned by then-lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi, and an instance where a three-member CEO performance review committee met behind closed doors to plan his ousting.

Now the council reform package put out by WA Labor’s local government minister John Carey proposes that “recordings of all confidential items would also need to be submitted to the DLGSC for archiving”.

Perth council governance staff in charge of keeping operations kosher aren’t keen. 

“Such action could potentially create unnecessary risk, especially where recordings are inadvertently released or live-streamed,” they noted in a report to council.

They’re not just worried about hackers, either. The recommendation to councillors says “these recordings are also likely to be discoverable under the Freedom of Information Act 1992 which could impact future decision-making processes and free flowing discussion for local government meetings”.

The FOI act has been instrumental in media and citizens uncovering truths about various councils, including this paper’s coverage into concerns about the former regime’s governance (long before the state government showed an interest). 

Perth councillors are due to discuss the recommendation at their February 22 meeting, just in time to send their thoughts on reforms to the state for consideration by the February 25 closing date. 

CONCERNS about hackers swiping secrets from government databases isn’t such a far-fetched fear.

The Department of Local Government was successfully hacked twice in 2018, even after being warned some of its systems were vulnerable in 2015. 

Even federal systems are susceptible: Federal departments reported 34 data breaches in the first six months of 2021; those are the ones they noticed, which were serious enough to spark a mandatory report. 

An auditor general report from November 2021 found that most WA councils also had Swiss cheese firewalls.

The auditor general brought in ECU’s Security Research Institute to carry out “simulated cyber-attacks” known as ethical hacks, surreptitiously striking 15 councils including Perth. 

Nine councils were hacked and never noticed. 

Staff at eight councils fell for phoney “phishing” emails pretending to be from trusted sources, clicking dodgy links and handing over dozens of usernames and passwords. The ‘white hat’ hackers deleted them all after the trial, but it exposed how a hacker could easily gain access to ratepayer databases. 

The AG office said “none” of the councils could manage vulnerabilities adequately. 

The report didn’t identify the councils involved “so as not to expose those LG entities with weaknesses to cyber-criminals”. 

But Perth council was still struggling to patch some of the 65 security issues exposed by a 2019 cyber security review when the AG’s ethical hackers hit. 

The AG’s latest report recommended better training and said councils should stop using vulnerable, outdated software, with some running programs vulnerable to hacks that’d been around for 20 years. 

The risks of getting hacked have gotten even worse with Covid-era remote work arrangements.