Perth Voice Interactive

THE City of Perth has declared its Rod Evans Community Centre out of bounds for a public meeting about Palestine featuring Indian intellectual Vijay Prashad.

This follows on the heels of the University of WA forcing the meeting off campus last week (“Students claim UWA tried to block speaker,” Voice, October 26, 2024).

Australian-Palestinian UWA student Ahmad Alqaisi told the Voice the centre’s management contacted him on Friday, October 25, to inform him the venue would no longer be available for “political events”.

Confirmed

The call came less than 24 hours after a phone call and email he believed confirmed a booking had been secured.

“They told me that the centre is only to be used for community events,” Mr Alqaisi said.

“I asked, ‘Aren’t I part of your community’.”

The council’s media office told the Voice there had been no booking because the requisite form had not been received. The City had also invoked a clause allowing it to refuse a booking at its discretion. 

While the policy states that could be for events likely to incite violence or bad behaviour, it also gives staff room to make arbitrary decisions on any event.

Mr Alqaisi said the only reason he didn’t submit the form was because the City denied him the venue.

He’d also considered the form a mere formality after receiving the email, cited by the Voice, which told him the City was “able to accommodate you” at Rod Evans.

“If there was never a booking, why did they phone me to cancel,” Mr Alqaisi asked.

“And I wonder how they even found out about the nature of the event when the topic and the speaker had never been mentioned to them.”

Mr Alqaisi said the event was an “academic talk” unlikely to incite protests or violence, while the Palestinian Cultural Society he heads had gone no further than to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Mr Alqaisi said he and his peers viewed the venue rejections as targeted silencing.

He believes they reflect a discriminatory stance against the Palestinian community’s right to engage in academic and cultural discussions. 

“If we were not Palestinian, neither the university nor the City of Perth would be clamping down on our right to free speech and academic freedom,” he said.

“Every day, we watch in horror as our own family members appear on the news in Gaza; why must we then struggle just for the right to call for an end to our suffering?”

The Palestinian Cultural Society finally found a safe haven for Dr Prashad at the Boorloo Activist Centre, 15/5 Aberdeen Street, Perth, just near McIver Station. The event will be on Wednesday November 6 at 1pm.

by BARRY HEALY

A RELENTLESS anti-Covid vaccine protester is opposing Perth council’s rules requiring a permit to hold a sign or play amplified sound in public.

Stuart Chapman says he wants the right to publicly play a recorded message from a dying teenage cancer patient who refused the Covid vaccine.

Mr Chapman is a regular sight on Perth streets opposing Covid vaccines and lockdown measures, and he’s planning another protest “against media and government” in city malls on November 2, according to his permit application. 

Perth council laws prohibit people displaying signs without a permit, which requires a $99 application fee.

Mr Chapman and his supporters have also come up against rules restricting the use of amplified sound: For protests of one or two people, those local laws are administered by the City of Perth, but for more than two people the decision is made by WA Police.

The WA Police usually allow protesters to use an amplifier if the number of attendees is large enough that speakers would need a loudhailer so everyone involved can hear. 

They’re less inclined to issue permits for a small number of protesters to blast uninvolved passers-by with their message. 

Mr Chapman said the restrictions on amplified sound make it impossible for him to play a recording of a now-deceased teenage cancer patient Dazelle Peters.

Dazelle became a cause celebre for anti-Covid vaccine activists following media reports that she had been denied a lung transplant at a Sydney hospital because she was unvaccinated, and the hospital deemed vaccinations were necessary given the risk of infections due to lowered immunity post-transplant. 

She died in June 2024.

At the October 29 council meeting Mr Chapman said he wanted Perth council to change its policy advice to WA Police so he could play his message.

Begging

He told councillors he’d spent a half hour on the phone to a City of Perth customer service staffer “trying to convince him of the situation, and I was practically begging him to meet me on site and to work out a compromise, but was told no, the city has this policy position in place”. 

He said: “So in essence the City’s position was the voice of a girl who was literally in ICU, who was literally at death’s door, should be silenced at a rally in Perth in her support.”

“How can we share Dazelle Peters’ story with her own voice through a recorded message without using an amplifier?”

Lord mayor Bazil Zempilas expressed his condolences for Ms Peters’ family. But the city stayed firm on its rules requiring a permit, and that any amplifiers at protests of more than two people would have to get approval from WA Police.

The council’s restrictions against displaying a sign without a permit have previously been used against anti-fracking protesters in 2012, and in 2016 we reported on rangers using the rule to confiscate signs from homeless people begging around Perth train station.

Mr Zempilas recently said on radio that it made sense to keep the permit system for signs.

“I doubt our team is going to use or enforce this every single time there is a sign,” Mr Zempilas told 6PR’s Stuart Mills, citing the Prosh students selling funny papers for charity as an example that’s unlikely to be draw scrutiny.

“But should they have it within their powers to be able to, if required? Yes, I think they should, I think our community would expect that the local authority could make a decision if somebody’s doing something in an offensive or in a repetitive manner, and the team has that in their kitbag.”

After asking a series of questions Mr Chapman said: “Guarantee you’ll see me again, lord mayor.”

“We look forward to it and we welcome it,” Mr Zempilas responded.

“As I proudly say, the local government is the tier of government where members of the community can walk in and speak directly to their elected members. We’re very proud of that.”

by DAVID BELL

A MILESTONE in the redevelopment of Warndoolier/Banks Reserve has been marked with the opening of a space to “rest and reflect” on the area’s long cultural history.

One of a series of “River Journey interpretation nodes” telling the story of the Whadjuk Aboriginal connection the Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River), this latest spot is emblazoned with artwork by Whadjuk man Vaughan McGuire.

His work is sandblasted into the path and engraved on the interpretation panels, representing the inland lakes connecting to the river through the brook, and the connection between the Noongar people and the Waugal: the river snake said to lay her eggs in the reeds of the brook and then return to lead the hatchlings out to the river.

The work is the latest step in the ongoing Vincent council’s Banks Reserve Master Plan, and the next milestone is a footbridge over Walters Brook that is due to be finished shortly.

AFTER 10 mature trees were cut down for a state government housing project in Mount Lawley, Vincent mayor Alison Xamon is furious at the way locals and councillors were left out of the loop by the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage.

The block at the corner of East Parade and Guildford Road is being cleared of 10 of its 35 trees to make way for state housing (“Residents lament lost trees,” Voice, October 19, 2024).

An initial arborists’ report provided to Vincent council in June said that there were no major issues that would require tree removal.

Ms Xamon is particularly concerned about a phantom “second arborist’s report”. She says the DPLH told residents and media that an alleged “second arborist’s report” that supposedly justified the tree removal had been provided to Vincent council. 

But the first report saying the trees were fine was “to this date, the only arborist’s report that has ever been received by the City of Vincent,” Ms Xamon said at the October 22 council meeting.

“Not only is it devastating that these large trees have been removed, but the way in which they were removed and the way in which everybody was treated with such contempt, is absolutely unacceptable,” Ms Xamon said.

Ms Xamon said she supported the housing project and it was a good site for it, but said the state should’ve still heard out the council and consulted with locals to find a way to design that’d retain the trees.

Contempt

“I’m extremely disappointed that DPLH effectively decided to ignore that opportunity to work with Vincent to see if they could come up with a really excellent design for that site.

“Instead we were told that the trees needed to be removed because of underlying issues around asbestos. 

“Now, I have no doubt that there was asbestos on the site. We have asbestos right throughout the City of Vincent… we are an old area and that means that there are a lot of these sites that require remediation of asbestos. 

“But what we also know is that there are ways to actually engage in asbestos removal around existing trees; it is not the case that you automatically have to remove them.

“We kept getting told that there was a second arborist’s report that made it clear that the trees had to be removed because of this asbestos, and what I’m extremely disappointed about is that the head of DPLH also told members of the community that that second arborist’s report had been received by the City of Vincent when I’d been making it very clear that no such report had been received… we were not aware, we had not seen the evidence that these trees needed to be removed because of the asbestos.”

We contacted the DPLH to ask about their role in the rumour of a second arborist’s report (and also asked to see any such report if it existed) but did not hear back before deadline.

Ms Xamon closed her public address saying: “I hope that we’re not ever going to see a sort of repeat of the contempt that we were subject to in the last week.”

by DAVID BELL

POPPIES made by hundreds of loving hands will be displayed outside Vincent council’s admin building for Remembrance Day.

Vincent put the call out in August for community members to contribute to the Poppy Project and more than 1000 flowers have been pouring in since from schools, clubs, playgroups, community groups and individuals.       

The Poppy Project installation will be assembled on Friday November 8 and be displayed until November 12, the first such installation by Vincent.

Each poppy is a reminder of those who served in conflicts and peacekeeping operations. Purple poppies will also be included to recognise the animals who served alongside our Australian Armed Forces.

“Remembrance Day is an opportunity to honour the sacrifices of those who served for our country during wars and conflicts, and to reflect on the tragic cost of war,” mayor Alison Xamon said.

“Support for the Poppy Project has been heartwarming. Our community have embraced the opportunity to commemorate Remembrance Day in their own creative way.

“Through these lovely, handcrafted pieces, we hope to create a space for our community to stop, reflect and remember the 61,513 lives that were lost in battle.”

PERTH has a new councillor, with Steve Wellard winning the October 18 extraordinary election.

A vacancy was left by former councillor Brent Fleeton who retired one year early to pursue a government advisory job in Dubai.

It’s the second time Mr Fleeton has cut short a council appointment, having previously left his role as a Bayswater councillor partway through his appointment.

Cr Wellard was ahead at the start of the five way race with 23.56 per cent of first preference votes. After preferences were distributed he ended up with 1644 votes, winning out over nearest contender Shirley Vine’s 1276.

Perth council also has a new deputy lord mayor, with Cr Bruce Reynolds winning the votes of his colleagues this week.

Shortly after the era of lord mayor Basil Zempilas started in 2020, councillors agreed among themselves to take one-year turns as deputy. 

Accordingly Cr Clyde Bevan gave up his deputy role this month after a year as 2IC, and Cr Reynolds and Catherine Lezer nominated themselves. 

With nine councillors voting in a secret ballot there should’ve been a clean majority, but someone lodged an informal vote, so they were evenly split 4/4.

With one person out of nine managing to make an informal vote, that makes for a far higher proportion of screwy ballots than the general public who voted in the election, where only 34 informal votes were cast out of 3765 total. 

After an adjournment and a private meeting between councillors behind closed doors, a second meeting was called and there was now a third candidate on the ballot, with Cr Reynolds nominating Liam Gobbert.

This time Cr Reynolds held a majority of votes and won the role (which comes with a deputy lord mayoral allowance of $34,317 per annum).

by DAVID BELL