Perth Voice Interactive

MAYLANDS Labor MP Lisa Baker has welcomed a new state Animal Welfare Advisory Committee to improve standards of 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.” 

Ms Baker is pictured with Mark Hayman, Chris Rafferty and Tofu the goat who won an RSPCA animal award for his recovery from a leg injury and going on to become an ambassador for Possum Valley Animal Sanctuary.

Police interrupt ‘sacred’ service

WA police have copped widespread criticism for interrupting a church service in Mount Hawthorn to enforce WA’s mask-wearing mandate.

On February 3 police entered St Bernadette’s Catholic Church during the evening, interrupting a service to check people were wearing masks. 

A police statement says they were responding to reports from the public that some worshippers weren’t wearing masks. Four unmasked people agreed to wear masks when directed and one showed an exemption.

The action’s prompted widespread critical commentary, and the Catholic archbishop of Perth Timothy Costelloe called it “highly regrettable that the police felt themselves obliged to intervene during a religious service – the celebration of the Eucharist is the central act of Catholic worship and is sacred to all Catholics”. 

In a statement he said the archdiocese was doing everything it could to promote compliance with Covid-19 requirements and said police “should not have been placed in this position”.  He hoped they’d find ways to deal with enforcement other than intervening mid-Eucharist. 

Former federal MP Paul Filing is a retired police officer and issued a strident statement against the action: “These are very sensitive times and undermining community support for mask wearing in this way is counter-productive,” Mr Filing said. 

Excess

“Commissioner Dawson has already moved towards making police the object of community opposition by using them a physical extension of the Covid response emergency powers that is well in excess of its traditional role.”

Mr Filing, who’s now running as a One Nation Senate candidate, said “the outrageous inspection of a church and worshippers during a religious service has all the hallmarks of the images of a police dtate as seen during the worst excesses of the 20th Century in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union”.

This week police arrested two owners of Topolinis Cafe in Warwick for Covid breaches on February 7. WA police commissioner Chris Dawson said on 6PR radio: “They refused to provide proof of vaccination or exemptions and what we’re alleging is after multiple requests, explanations and warnings, the persons were charged”.

By Tuesday the cafe had become a hub for anti-mandate protestors when it reopened as a takeaway only service, which doesn’t require customers to be vaccinated. 

Amid rowdy singing from a few dozen protesters police entered to confirm the staff working on Tuesday night were vaccinated.

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 parked in long testing queues, the backlash was so widespread police backed down and withdrew almost all the infringements.

UWA associate professor Katie Attwell is currently leading a research team interviewing looking into vaccine hesitancy.

“We’re interviewing vaccine-hesitant people right now about the experience of having mandates in their workplace or mandates in society, and seeing whether those things change their minds,” Dr Attwell says.

The research is in early stages, but anecdotally and from the interviews so far Dr Attwell says: “Resisting being told what to do and resisting heavy-handed policies does seem to be a powerful motivator for a minority, and probably reinforces views they [already] have in that direction”.

People who weren’t yet vaccinated when the mandates kicked in might have had a range of reasons, such as waiting for the new Novavax or waiting until the borders open; “I think the mandate can then become a factor that beds that person down into an oppositional position,” Dr Attwell says. 

“Then there is the social factor: They can become part of movements or groups where those views are reinforced, 

or they enter into conflicts,” getting into arguments with pro-vaccination people, potentially losing friends and falling further in with anti-vaccine movements.

Dr Attwell says “there are public health reasons for both vaccines and masks … both of them are part of our strategy for staying safe as individuals and safe as a state, and not massively overwhelming hospitals, and making sure people with cancer can go and get their treatment.

“I get the need for strong policy levers, but I think the people who are affected by these policies are feeling really isolated, and really alone, and enraged.” 

Dr Attwell says research shows mandates need an appropriate level of enforcement to be effective: Italy made a show of revamping its childhood vaccine mandates in 2017 after a resurgence of preventable diseases. Vaccinations were supposedly required to enrol in childcare and kindergarten and parents of older unvaccinated children could be fined. But it was so ineffective because the rules were so rarely enforced.

Intervention

Dr Attwell says police actions at Topolinis restaurant sound like a fair enough instance of 

a clearly laid out mandate that was breached and required intervention. But the situation at the church could’ve been handled in a way to keep more people onside: “Maybe the right thing to do would be to have cops out the front, or to wait until mass is over”, using this first instance as a caution or educational opportunity.

“The sheer amount of governing has increased. The scope of law enforcement to intervene has increased.

“How governments handle this more broadly will have impacts. Going back to the ways governments have handled terrorism and increased policed powers, that had an impact on public perceptions and trust in government. What’s happening now will reverberate for many years.”

Dr Attwell’s previous research, conducted in the pre-Covid era, found high levels of support for both vaccination and vaccine mandates like the “No Jab, No Pay” policy in Australia. 

But she is concerned Covid-specific vaccine hesitancy may spread to other childhood vaccinations.

“Some of the doubts people have around the Covid-19 vaccination – the kinds of misinformation associated with being a Covid-19 vaccine refuser, I think, can’t help but poison the well for other vaccines.”

by DAVID BELL

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 in 2019 for “for significant service to sport and recreation, and to public administration”.

But he wants the state to stay out of local business, and told the February 8 council meeting he was concerned about state government plans to force councils bring in a state-approved “independent person” to help them choose a CEO.

The proposal stemmed from the City of Perth inquiry where commissioner Tony Powers found that having just three councillors select a CEO candidate “contributed to a range of dysfunctional outcomes” (“Power: Reform CEO selection,” Voice, August 15 2020).

Mr Power recommended every council should have to bring in a recruitment expert appointed by the state government to “raise any probity concerns”.

Under the latest version of the proposal the state’s department of local government would establish a list of “approved panel members” that councils could choose from, to watch over them while they pick a CEO. 

Hiring a CEO is one of the biggest decisions a council makes, as it’s the main staffer they deal with and the CEO has power to hire all other council staff. 

Cr Alexander said “it just makes me uncomfortable when I see that a member of the [department of local government] needs to be on the CEO selection panel.

“I won’t make any derogatory comments about state government appointments, but I wouldn’t actually like to see that sort of interference come into local government.” 

Cr Ross Ioppolo joined Cr Alexander in voting against the state’s reforms plans, but the majority of Vincent councillors endorsed the proposal.  

The Local Government Elected Members Association, a startup group that sprang from councillors dissatisfied with increasing state government power creep, said having a state-approved member on the election panel was one of many ways the reforms were “disempowering” councillors. 

Submissions on the state’s changes are due by February 25. 

by DAVID BELL

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 almost all city councils).

Belmont CEO John Christie signed off on a report advising councillors to oppose the livestream mandate, saying “the City has concerns from a personal security and safety perspective for councillors and officers attending meetings.

“It is the CEO’s responsibility to ensure the safety of all officers at the city. It is considered that all officers, councillors, other members of the public, and the families of those in attendance at the meetings are at risk of increased violence and it poses personal safety concerns with regard to recent incidents involving public officers including those toward the premier of WA and the murder of a member of parliament in the United Kingdom. 

“Livestreaming meetings poses a direct risk to the safety of all attendees at the meetings.”

Belmont Resident and Ratepayer Action Group chair Lisa Hollands called that an “embarrassing comment” and called on councillors to delete it from Belmont’s submission on the reforms. 

At the December meeting she pointed out that citizens who speak at public question time are required to give their names and addresses, and posed “if there is such a risk of increased violence to members of the public, why does the city leave our names and addresses in the minutes?”.

Councillors voted down a move to livestreaming three votes to six, and are due to reconsider it this month when coming up with their response to the state’s overall reform package.

Vincent council brought in livestreaming in a bid to promote openness and make meetings more accessible to people who can’t show up in person. They’ve yet to see a security incident stemming from a stream. 

Belmont only recently started posting the audio recording of council meetings in late 2020, after a long tradition of requiring the public pay a $30 freedom of information fee to get ahold of them. 

by DAVID BELL

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 feeding birds human foods as it can make them sick or contribute to botulism if uneaten food rots.

If you see a bird struggling to hold its head up it might be botulism so call WASR on 6102 8464, as birds with botulism can be nursed to full recovery if their dose wasn’t too high.