ANEW fun fair at Yagan Square means you’ll no longer need to drag the kids screaming and shouting into the city.
The fair is crammed with all your favourite rides and sideshow games, and of course there’s stalls selling candy floss and doughnuts.
Traditionalists will enjoy the dodgems, the mini-ferris wheel and the cups and saucers, while those wanting an adrenaline rush will head for the x-coaster, the runaway train roller coaster and the storm, which pulls multiple G’s.
• There’ll be heaps to do for everyone at Yagan Square this Christmas.
There’s loads more rides and games including the dream swinger, laughing clowns, taxi jets, mini twister helicopters and a jurassic temple bouncy castle.
The Yagan Square fun fair, on the corner of Roe and William Streets, is on until the end of December noon-9pm, excluding Christmas Day.
You’ve shamed every mother
I WAS absolutely appalled by The Speaker’s Corner “Mental health is in the mouths of babes” in last week’s Voice. How could you publish such inflammatory material? Accusing parents who bottle feed their babies of contributing to “a pandemic of mental health problems” and then further linking that to domestic violence and mass shootings is outrageous and is not going to warm anyone to the author’s view that breast is best.
The author’s mini bio at the beginning of the article seems intent on giving her credibility for having such strong opinions. This is clearly only one women’s opinion though, not backed by science. An article from 2017, that described the same author spouting her views, at least balanced it with a position statement from the Australian Medical Association who wrote; “There must be a balance between promoting breastfeeding and supporting mothers who cannot or choose not to breastfeed”. The author appears happy to lean on science when it supports her views (breastfeeding benefits) but not when it is a contradiction (co-sleeping recommendations).
This article instead shames probably every mother in some way or another. On top of formula feeding, she has demonised caesarians, epidurals, induced births, working mothers and even those who simply follow sudden infant death syndrome guidelines and avoid co-sleeping. One sentence even refers to ‘families that break down’ and ‘bottle feed their babies’ in the same sentence as if they are related.
For context, I have exclusively breastfed two children until 12 months. My parenting journey has encountered no major dramas but it is still a really tough gig and I hate to think of people in a more fragile state reading this article and feeling shame and guilt when they are trying to do the best for their children. The fact that this article was not only published but spread across two pages disturbs me and I urge you to apply more scrutiny to such provocative and accusatory opinion pieces in the future. Carly Hobbs Perth
He’s a real bright spark
AMAZING; I read that ScoMo dreamed up a new tax for electric vehicles before they even hit the road.
Was it on the grounds they will not be paying fuel tax?
The rest of the world is subsidising EVs on the basis that we will all benefit from clean, breathable air, plus billions of dollars saved in health costs.
But wait, Sco Mo’s right – how can we replace the lost revenue for his precious surplus.
Easy, according to the International Monetary Fund which found global subsidies for fossil rose to $5.2 trillion dollars in 2017.
Subsidies in Australia are around $30 billion and increasing annually.
Green energy subsidies are less than half that – around $14 billion.
Get the feeling your being lied to?
The IMF report found that if fossil fuels had been priced appropriately, global carbon emissions would be reduced by 28 per cent. Significantly, effective fossil fuel pricing would also lead to a decrease in air pollution. Guess you could say we’re paying them to poison us, and they keep putting up the cost.
So it seems logical that by reducing the subsidies for fossil fuel plus the obvious health savings maybe even ScoMo could start a program to install EV infrastructure for cleaner, healthier Australian cities. John Paterson White Gum Valley
Big is…?
The front page article “Developers Dream” (Perth Voice, December 14, 2019) underscores a discussion we need to have about whether or not we want a greater population locally, statewide or nationally.
The issues of having a greater population are not static with merely creating a better ambience within a defined area.
Sustainable Population Australia, a think tank on examining such issues, has recently produced a report called population growth and infrastructure in Australia.
This report highlights some important myths about rapidly growing a population.
Foremost is the fact that we will never be able to simply build our way out of the road congestion, lack of healthcare space, lack of green space and the like. We would always be playing catch-up.
Then there is the issue of whether or not we should be reinforcing our regional centres.
The lack of infrastructure within regional centres too, would become a problem, but the rush away from the country into the city over one single generation has left the regional centres with no ambience as well.
Some might say the city is selfish to think it could absorb whole swathes of people with no thought for growing our regional centres.
Increasing housing density also has the parallel problem of growing elitist vs not-so-well-off residential areas. One day only the wealthy will have large backyards and the “poor” will be circumvented into pokey apartments that ultimately turn into ghettos. Care needs to be taken or another problem grows out of historical policy.
It’s good to have the discussion, but we should not rush headlong into the myth that increased population will solve all our problems.
I’m all for a vibrant city centre, but simple solutions rarely work and more discussion and analysis needs to take place before embarking on a population growth inspired remedy. Colin Scott Deague Ct, North Perth
Shocked
I WAS shocked to read Ann McRae’s Speaker’s Corner article “Mental health is in the mouth of babes” (Voice, December 14, 2019). Within the first two paragraphs, Ms McRae has referred to domestic violence as “episodes” and depression as “plain”, before curiously connecting Australia’s drought to breastfeeding. Whilst I don’t doubt Ms McRae’s breastfeeding experience, both personally and professionally, her perspective insults legitimate mental health illnesses and bizarrely blames Australia’s ‘mental health problem’ on women. Her argument only serves to further isolate women, rather than offering support and compassion that new mothers so desperately need. This article fails to consider wider psychosocial contexts that influence a woman’s ability, and choice, to breastfeed. What we need in the world right now is empathy and this piece was entirely devoid of it. Ashleigh Hilton
DON’T worry, you won’t find a dry meat pie, soggy bread roll or limp vegemite sarnie at the Tuck Shop Cafe in Perth.
Instead there’s a comprehensive breakfast/brunch menu and a mouth-watering range of pies.
Finding a chunk of string in the watery filling of a pie in the school canteen put me off them for years.
The industrial margarine in the rolls was equally nauseating, so for the rest of my school years I had an ice cream fudge bar for lunch.
(Back then it was considered uncool to ride a bike to school, so I burned off the ice cream by walking the two kilometres to school everyday – rain, hail or shine). Thankfully this Tuck Shop is famous for its pies, so I ordered a moroccan spiced version ($13.95).
The devil on my shoulder was shouting “chips with that”, but the angel on the other side won and I ordered a salad ($5.50).
I was rewarded with a terrific medley of mixed leaves, roast pumpkin, crisp capsicum slices and pear barley.
Drizzled with a well-balanced oil and vinegar dressing, itcomplemented the spicy bean filling. The service was spot on, but having seen the dessert special on my way in, I impatiently rushed up to the counter to order.
The mango sorbet ($7) was picture-perfect and dotted with dainty fresh pansies.
Infused with fresh lime juice, the mango was refreshing and sharp, and the coconut cream reduction was rich and tangy.
It was so good I was tempted to order another, but unfortunately the parking meter was about to run out.
The Tuck Shop Cafe is still serving up great food and for those who want something a bit more adventurous, the menu includes dishes like chicken nasi goreng, Moroccan meatballs and bruschetta with goats curd and crispy bacon.
by JENNY D’ANGER
Tuck Shop Cafe Pie-house 180 Newcastle Street, Perth open 7 days 7am-3.30pm
The much-loved Nannup Music Festival is back for 2020, with an incredible line up of amazing music acts, set in the stunning bushland backdrop of the south west. To be held on the weekend of 28 February-2 March 2020, the eclectic program highlights the best in new, emerging and indigenous music over free and ticketed venues.
Street Shot, David Bailey
With a wide array of activities including street performers, workshops, talks, poetry, camping, delicious food, artisan markets and free activities for little people, the whole family can join in the fun. The festival has a long tradition of supporting up and coming artists and each year offers an Emerging Artists Award and a Busking Competition.
William Crighton, David Bailey
Some of the many acts performing in 2020 are: Archie Roach, Nancie Schipper, Caravana Sun, The Bambuseae Rhythm Section, The East Pointers, Bill Chambers, MissGenius, The Weeping Willows, Kallidad and so much more! With over 100 different performers – there really will be something for everyone.
This Way North, David Bailey
Celebrating its 31st year in 2020, the festival is an inclusive community-spirited event, run by a passionate and dedicated team from the non-profit Nannup Music Club Inc.
For tickets and more info visit: nannupmusicfestival.org
TWO exhibitions showing alongside each other – one by award-winning children’s author Shaun Tan – at the Fremantle Arts Centre provoke some interesting reflections on the state of modern society.
Tan’s Tales from the Inner City primarily explores the relationship between humans and animals.
The paintings, sculptures and sketches were the raw material from his picture book by the same name, Tan taking an urban landscape and displacing an animal within it.
Among elements of catastrophe, the works raise questions about what happens to the animal kingdom when natural habitats are overtaken by humans. They also delve into territory often covered by Tan, including technology, migration, displacement and loneliness.
• Big Tiger Pass from Shaun Tan’s Tales from the Inner City (above) and a viewer reacts to Prepper’s cataclysmic vision (below). Photos supplied
Environmental collapse, disruptive technologies and modern society’s epidemic of anxiety are similarly themes explored within the Preppers exhibition showing alongside Tan’s.
Artists Tiyan Baker, Loren Kronemyer, Guy Louden, Dan McCabe and Thomas Yeomans were inspired by the doomsday prepping subculture, where people prepare for the destruction of the world by building bunkers, and storing food and weapons.
It includes sculpture, video, installation and hanging works. Preppers delves into internet and consumer culture and the actual experience within prepping communities.
While both exhibitions are explorations of a very different facet of modern life, they possess some strong similarities and will make for a very thought-provoking day at the Fremantle Arts Centre.
Tales From The Inner City: Original Paintings and Preppers run from November 16 – January 27 from 10.00am-5.00pm at the Fremantle Arts Centre.
IN 2006 The Maltings development in Perth won a second national award for successfully blending heritage and modern living.
Fast forward to 2019 and the complex still looks stunning, with modern apartments, communal open spaces, gorgeous gardens, a pool and gym.
The circa 1903 heritage buildings were originally a brewery, but in 1928 the owners stopped making booze and began supplying the Swan Brewery with brewer’s malt instead.
Apartment 15 is located on top of one of the original malthouses.
The three-bedroom abode is modern and sleek, with massive iron and timber beams supporting the lofted ceiling in the open plan.
Lovely blackbutt floors are found throughout the three-levels.
Two of the bedrooms are on the ground floor, including the main which has built-in-robes and an ensuite. There’s also bathrooms and a laundry-in-a-cupboard on this level.
The middle level is a generous open-plan kitchen/dining/living space.
Windows either side ensure plenty of natural light, and there’s stunning views of the city from the kitchen.
This well-equipped space has soaring ceilings and a heap of drawers and cupboards, including a walk-in pantry.
For alfresco dining there’s a pleasant and very private balcony on the northern side of the living space.
For larger gatherings there’s a communal entertainment area downstairs.
The top level of this apartment is a guest room or office, tucked under a cathedral ceiling.
Situated on Palmerston Street, the apartment is within walking distance of Northbridge and the CBD, not to mention Russell Square.
Get in quick and you could be walking to some brilliant shows at Fringe World next month.
by JENNY D’ANGER
15/65 Palmerston Street,Perth from $699,000 Carlos Lehn 0478 927 017 Acton Mt Lawley 9272 2488
• Orange is the current projected CBD population, but commissioners want to add the “aspirational” yellow on.
Perth to aim for 90,000 residents
PERTH’S inner city population would triple to 90,000 by 2050 under a new Strategic Community Plan released by the city’s commissioners.
The new plan calls for an inner-city population on par with Melbourne by 2035 and Sydney by 2050, well beyond the currently projected 58,000 residents.
Chair commissioner Andrew Hammond, who now gets to add his own introductory message and mug shot to the city’s over-riding strategic plan, said it would outline how the city addressed challenges such as creating thriving neighbourhoods, a diverse cultural identity, safety and strategic economic growth.
“To help achieve this, we have set accelerated density aspirations of 90,000 people by 2050 from our current base of just 29,627,” Cmmr Hammond said.
An earlier version of the plan adopted in May after wide consultation did not contain an aspirational population target, while the new document also includes hopes for a new university.
Perth state Labor MP John Carey backs the commissioners’ vision.
“I strongly and absolutely support this, because at the end of the day while I like Elizabeth Quay and Yagan Square, there is one key missing link for our city that we must champion, drive and facilitate, and that is more people living in the city,” he told the Voice. “This is the critical challenge for Perth.
“It is this simple proposition: More people living in the city make it more vibrant at day and night, they support small businesses, and they make it safer.”
Part of the plan to boost the CBD population is to set policies for better and more affordable apartment designs (including sustainable design standards so the increased mass of humanity has a lighter footprint), and addressing antisocial behaviour in the city.
• Voluntary assisted dying supporters gathered on parliament’s final sitting day this year to congratulate Labor ministers Amber-Jade Sanderson and Roger Cook, and premier Mark McGowan for helping it pass into law.
“JUST move it, please,” Maylands Labor MP Lisa Baker called from the speaker’s chair as the 11th of 55 amendments to WA’s voluntary assisted dying bill was read out in parliament.
The bill was passed into law just before 6pm on the final sitting day of the year, December 10.
In his closing remarks premier Mark McGowan said “this is something that has been talked about and attempted for decades; success was never guaranteed or assured.
“In fact, I believed there was a good chance of failure.
“At various times over the last two and a half years, I thought that we may fail.
“We had to summon the courage to match that of the public, to meet them along the way.
“There is often cynicism that Australian politics cannot do difficult things anymore and our parliaments are paralysed despite what people would like to see happen.
“Today we showed that at least in Western Australia we can do big things.”
Labor’s health minister Roger Cook acknowledged it had been a long and difficult process with more than 175 hours of debate, and paraphrased Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck: “If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either being made.”
On the final day of debate Darling Range Liberal MP Alyssa Hayden dismissed Labor’s claims the Opposition had unnecessarily hindered the process.
“The [health] minister, the premier, and the attorney general said that this bill was perfect and did not need any amendments, yet 55 amendments have come into place,” Ms Hayden noted.
Many were suggested by upper house Liberal MP Nick Goiran.
Glass of wine
One change was dubbed the “glass of wine” or “dinner party conversation” amendment and makes it clear that initial requests to use VAD have to be during a medical consultation.
“This is a critical amendment,” Cottesloe Liberal MP David Honey said.
“Someone would have been able to request access to this procedure using a mobile phone with FaceTime and simply ringing a medical practitioner and requesting that they participate.
“I know that many medical practitioners who have actually read the bill were extremely concerned that they could be engaged in this process in any setting, and not in the normal setting of a patient requesting a consultation.”
Opposition leader Liza Harvey, an opponent of VAD, was more forgiving than some of her Liberal colleagues, saying of the health minister: “I commend him for the way that he has treated the members of the legislative council with respect and taken on board the issues that they have raised with him and brought forward, and for agreeing to the numerous amendments that we have debated today.”
Perth MP John Carey said the day after the vote: “There’s overwhelming support in the local community and this is history in the making… it will mean so much to so many people in years to come, but also personally it was an honour to support and vote for this legislation in memory of my mum. My mum was my best friend, she endured terrible human suffering and I hope that others will now have the choice to not experience that suffering.”
There’s an 18-month implementation period for a panel to be formed to develop clinical guidance, medication protocols, and training and for health practitioners.
• Sadly the footpaths will be too hot for poochy pads, so Santa Paws had to be cancelled.
THE week-long Beaufort Street Christmas Festival wraps up today (Saturday December 14) with a pageant and twilight markets.
The strip’s had a bit of a bounceback in recent weeks: New business Greenhaus Yoga opened up at 580 Beaufort, the first to take advantage of Vincent council’s amnesty on “change of use” rules and convert offices in the old Beaufort Realty building into studio spaces.
Clarences also re-opened under new management, and Mack Daddy’s pizza expanded into the old Five Bar site, tripling its size.
The Beaufort Street Network was hoping to keep the momentum rolling with its week-long Christmas festival, but the heat’s made some events impossible.
“Santa Paws” dog photos with Father Christmas, planned for Thursday, has canned since the streets will be too hot to safely walk dogs (and Santa will be sweltering), and Saturday’s pop up fashion markets at Barlee Street carpark are also nixed.
“It’s going to be about 60 degrees at that carpark,” BSN chair Joshua O’Keefe says disappointedly.
The strip’s done it tough through rental vacancies and retail stagnation, but Mr O’Keefe says “our biggest enemy at the moment is weather”.
At this stage they’re still planning to go ahead with today’s pageant at 6pm and the twilight markets at St Alban’s Church.
“The venue around the church there is beautiful, covered in trees and grass, it’s a nice little spot to sit there.”
Keep an eye on the Beaufort Street Network Facebook page in case the temperature scorches those plans too. Mr O’Keefe says you’re still welcome in the pageant even if your costume has to make some concessions to the heat like board shorts or added ventilation.
CLEAR out your dashboard daily: Under a new Vincent council bylaw, drivers who leave old parking tickets on their dashes will now face a $70 fine.
The council’s rejigging its parking laws to bring the language up-to-date for mobile phone parking apps, but another amendment bans expired tickets “visible from outside the vehicle”.
Ticket hoarders force parking inspectors to check the lot in the hope of finding a valid ticket lurking among them.
There’s even online memes suggesting spiteful parkers do it deliberately, hoping the inspectors tire of poring over the pile and move on. One meme shows a ticket-ridden dashboard carrying the caption: “How to ruin a traffic warden’s day”.
Some jurisdictions already have rules preventing those shenanigans: The City of London’s parking bobbies have no time for spotting games and stick a fine on any car if they can see more than a single ticket.
London’s online parking FAQ addresses those claiming they were fined even though they had a valid ticket: “Perhaps other out-dated tickets were also visible through your windscreen,” it says, Englishly.
Vincent’s rule just bans “expired” tickets, along with the existing ban on displaying defaced, altered, or “obliterated” tickets.
You can still display multiple tickets if you bought them at the same time (if you accidentally buy one ticket but realise you need longer and buy a second ticket, rangers will continue to add the time of both of them together).
The new rules were advertised in August and September but no submissions were received, and it now goes off to be gazetted by the state government.
Perth Voice Interactive 