Perth Voice Interactive

It’s sending us broke carpark.

CITY businesses are calling for the McGowan government to hold off collecting the annual Perth Parking Levy. 

Activate Perth chair Di Bain says the city’s retail sector has been hammered during the Covid-19 shutdown, and 30 to 40 per cent of business are unlikely to reopen unless last year’s levy is refunded to help them pull through. 

The state government collects about $1170 per bay for commercial carparks in the CBD’s free transit zone, and the bills are due any day. 

Even tiny businesses with just one bay in a shared carpark have to pay. 

The cash is meant to go towards public transport, but successive state governments been criticised for hoarding it and the pool now sits at $130 million.

Lynda Storer from West Perth business Alt Vision says the levy is an enormous impost on small businesses. 

She’s run the numbers since it was introduced at $70 in 1999, and says if it had followed CPI it’d be a manageable $117 per bay today. Instead she has to fork out more than $1000.

“The parking levy is now half of our strata fee,” Ms Storer says. 

“How can my car bay levy be more than my office rates?”

She says West Perth has had a lot of vacancies since the mining boom quietened, and the parking levy is putting off new businesses from moving in.

“We’re right up at the border of West Perth and Subiaco, and Subiaco don’t have to pay the fee. What incentive is there for small business to remain here at the moment?”

Activate Perth has penned an open letter to the state government co-signed by East Perth Community Group and West Perth Local.

It had hoped to rope in Perth council, but chair commissioner Andrew Hammond’s response was non-committal, saying only that they were monitoring the Covid-19 impact.

Ms Bain says the big reserve should be spent on retaining businesses and getting Perth tourism-ready once the coronavirus crisis is over.

By DAVID BELL

MOUNT LAWLEY primary school is among 80 institutions selected for coronavirus testing.

The WA government and Telethon Kids Institute will carry out the voluntary tests, which involve a throat and a nasal swab.

Education minister Sue Ellery says there’s been no Covid-19 transmissions in WA schools.

“However, this study will play an important role in establishing whether asymptomatic transmission may occur and which groups may be at greater risk,” Ms Ellery said.

Staff can opt in and parents’ permission is required for kids. 

If an infection is detected, contact tracing will be more rigorous than usual, with close contacts undergoing tests at two-week intervals while in quarantine.

It’s currently thought children are less likely to spread the virus compared to coughing, sneezing adults.

The program will run for three months, or longer depending on the number of cases detected.

Information will be going out to parents shortly. The study will also survey students, parents and staff on their mental wellbeing to see if more support is needed.

MANY Aussies are missing the pub right now, but few long for their local like Lego-smith Sonia Hills.

The North Perth resident’s blocky recreation of the Rosemount Hotel has won first place in the grown-up category of a boredom-busting Lego competition run by state Perth MP John Carey.

With the Rosie closed, Ms Hills recreated the good times of “friends meeting up for a meal or a beer, playing pool, and enjoying the tunes DJ Holly Doll is spinning”. 

Everything’s in the right spot, from a frantic chef pumping out pizzas in the kitchen, to the DJ’s nook overseeing the alfresco. 

“I’ve spent a lot of time at that pub,” Ms Hills says of her uncanny recall.

She used to play with Lego as a youngster and dug out her kids’ collection for the comp.

“My kids were watching over my shoulder and said ‘the pool table doesn’t quite go there!’ and I said ‘we’re taking a bit of artistic licence with this one’.

“I got a bit engrossed in it. It was going to be a bit smaller than that but I got a bit obsessed with it. My son found me hunched over it at midnight and said ‘go to bed!’

“I’ve still got it made, I can’t bring myself to take it apart.”

To pad out the crowd, a few unorthodox figures had to be used like a spaceman and a mummy.

“And there’s an elf in there,” but Ms Hills says it’s not too farfetched. “Any given Saturday at the Rosie you can see some pretty interesting types.”

While the Rosie caught our bar-starved imagination, the main show was the three kids’ categories.

One of the youngest entries caught the Covid zeitgest, with seven-year-old Grace winning her category for “Shopping for Toilet Paper,” with the little figures observing social distancing outside a store while watching a shopper haul away a wheelbarrow full of rolls. 

Mr Carey says his office has focused on reaching out to isolated seniors during the pandemic, so the competition was intended to give kids something to do while stuck at home.

“We got over 200 entries, and a lot of parents thanking me for keeping the kids occupied,” Mr Carey says.

By DAVID BELL

VINCENT’S public art reserve is being opened up to support artists suffering through the Covid-19 shutdown.

The reserve’s been built up over years by contributions from developers, who have to set aside one per cent of their budget for public art, and the council’s now given the ok to use the entire $500,000 for an artist relief project.

Grants of up to $10,000 are available and works can be any artform as long as it’s free to the public to access.

Mayor Emma Cole says Vincent’s arts community makes the city unique, inspiring and connected.

“Artists have been significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, with physical distancing leading to event and project cancellations, loss of income and loss of job security,” Ms Cole said.

“We are in the fortunate position of having a reserve arts budget to draw on to provide some relief for our local artists during this really tough time.

“We’re keen for artists to consider the social impact of the pandemic through the theme ‘individual and community experiences of Covid-19’.

“The pieces that are produced will provide artistic reflection for the wider community while documenting this time of Covid-19 for years to come.”

Selections will be made by a working group of councillors and city staff.

At the March special council meeting Highgate resident Dudley Maier queried why there were no community members with relevant expertise on the group.

He was told his question would be considered.

Expressions of interest via http://www.vincent.wa.gov.au/murals-art-map

By DAVID BELL

THE North Perth Post Office has closed again.

On April 30 the doors were closed and a sign put up saying the store had “ceased trading” but expected parcels could be picked up from a temporary counter Australia Post had set up down the road.

For other post office services, the sign directed people to Mt Lawley, Mt Hawthorn or Leederville.

It’s a bad time for the store to vanish as other inner city post offices are temporarily shuttered due to coronavirus impacts, including the Northbridge office on Francis Street, the CBD’s Cloisters Square office, and West Perth’s Hay Street office. 

The North Perth store’s operators did a similar disappearing act in March 2019 when the franchisee quit. Australia Post got in a new operator but details are scarce on what happened with them and AP isn’t feeling chatty.

Federal MP for Perth Patrick Gorman is fuming about the sudden shutdown and lack of communication.

He’s penned a letter to Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate about the situation.

“I understand that there have been a number of issues between Australia Post and the licensee, however the timing of the post office closure amid the current Covid-19 pandemic will cause the North Perth community much confusion and distress,” he wrote.

As with last year’s mystery closing, we weren’t able to get much more out of AP. 

A spokesperson says AP “can’t comment extensively” on what went down at the North Perth store but that they’d work to restore services. They did say express packages could still be lodged at the temporary counter. 

Mr Gorman’s letter seeks an assurance North Perth will have a permanent post office presence in future (that doesn’t shut down mysteriously and annually).

By DAVID BELL

BOTTLENOSE dolphins could benefit from the reduced number of boats in the Swan River during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Marine mammal scientist Chandra Salgado Kent has been studying bottlenose dolphins in the river for more than a decade, and says a noisy river full of boats can make it difficult for the animals to communicate with each other and locate prey.

Other studies reveal that scuba divers can get stressed by underwater noise and experience health issues, and it’s likely dolphins react similarly.

Dr Salgado Kent says the river has been quiet since access to Rottnest was cut off and restrictions imposed on public gatherings.

Injuries

“It may be that with less boat traffic, they would be able to use a broader area and communicate over longer distances due to less boat noise,” she says.

Dr Ben Fitzpatrick of Oceanwise Australia said less boat traffic means less animals are harmed. 

“Boats disturb wildlife, seabirds, marine mammals and others,” he says. 

“This can result in direct injuries to animals, separation of mother calf pairs and interruption of critical processes like breeding, feeding and nursing.” 

Last year, five dolphins died in the Swan River from the naturally occurring cetacean morbillivirus.

“While morbillivirus has been an issue,” Dr Salgado Kent said, “reducing stress on dolphins will improve their overall health, and carefully disposing of plastics such as fishing line is critical to reducing entanglement-related mortalities we see in the river.”

Dr Salgado Kent says there are about 20 dolphins in the Swan and Canning river park and she’s able to identify them by the unique nicks and notches in their dorsal fins.

“We are able to identify individuals and track them. Some dolphins are over 20 years old.” 

Dr Salgado Kent, an associate professor at Edith Cowan University, is collaborating with Murdoch and Curtin universities, and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.

Her research includes a citizen science dolphin research program called Dolphin Watch. 

It’s partly funded by Fremantle Ports and Dr Salgado Kent can sometimes be seen observing dolphins herd fish against the harbour walls, before diving in for a big feed.

by DEANNA CORRIERI

Lake clears

THE worst of Hyde Park’s botulism outbreak seems over.

WA Seabird Rescue reports cooler weather and heavier rains will hopefully see the end of the toxic bloom which killed scores of ducks and one ibis. WASR volunteers have saved more than 30 ducks and most of them have already been released. 

In the week leading up to the early May rains only a few sick ducks had to be saved.

CORONAVIRUS has been blamed for another delay in the release of the City of Perth inquiry report.

The WA government-initiated inquiry was meant to be out April 30 and the Voice heard even key witnesses only heard of the new delay through the media.

Local government minister David Templeman, who’d already approved two earlier extensions, says inquirer Tony Power’s disruptions were “unavoidable”.

A council watcher who’s kept a close eye on proceedings said it’s frustrating the gap between the report and October’s election had narrowed further.

Asking to remain anonymous given Perth’s fiery politics, they said a longer breather would give people time to assess candidates and vote for the best council.

“We in the electorate have been without an elected council for two years. It’s almost impossible to get in touch with any of the commissioners about anything. 

“We’re not that far away from an election and I think it’s incumbent on Templeman to have this out there long before the election so we know where we’re at.

“You’ve got people going for the election that are subject to the inquiry, and we’ve got to know the outcome,” they said, with early postal voting further narrowing the time voters can mull over candidates.

by DAVID BELL