Perth Voice Interactive

BAYSWATER councillors may soon have to publicly declare their political allegiances.

At Tuesday night’s (April 9) meeting, councillors agreed to amend the city’s code of conduct to create a “political interest register”, where they’d have to declare party membership or if they worked for a political party. The register would be posted on the council’s website.

City officers will now investigate whether the register is enforceable and doesn’t impinge on councillor’s privacy.

The motion was tabled by councillor Chris Cornish, who said he wants more political transparency in local government.

Networking

“I have no problems with councillors being members of a political party; it actually leads to beneficial outcomes in terms of networking and access to decision makers,” he says.

“It also doesn’t make you beholden to that party. But perhaps being paid courtesy of a political party does, so I definitely think it should be disclosed if someone is a political staffer.”

Cr Cornish says if councillors can’t be forced to disclose their political links, the city should have a voluntary register instead.

The majority of councillors voted for the political register, but weren’t keen on extending it to cover councillors who worked for sitting MPs or had family members in parliament.

We asked Bayswater’s councillors if they would have anything to declare under the proposed Political Interest Register. Only a few years ago asking councillors and candidates about their political allegiances would have been controversial, but no one kicked up a fuss this time around:

CHRIS CORNISH: Former member of the Liberal party. “I resigned from the Liberal party for two reasons,” he says. “The first is that I wanted to be free to criticise the state/federal governments when they, or their departments, made decisions which I believe were contrary to the best interests of Bayswater residents and ratepayers. (For instance, the failure of the WAPC over the Eric Singleton development or the SAT approval of the concrete batching plant.) “Second, as a financial conservative, I really struggled with the spend-happy ways of the previous state government. Any fool can spend money on things, but debt matters, and unlike the federal government, the state can’t just create more money.”

DAN BULL: Labor party member. He supported all motions, except the one requiring disclosure of family members’ loyalties.

LORNA CLARKE: Labor party member, vice president of Morley branch of the ALP, and previously employed by Labor MP Michelle Roberts.  “I’ve always been upfront about my ALP membership. I voted against the motion because it duplicates existing councillor disclosures, invades families’ privacy and risks politicising council. Instead, I think we should focus on fixing big community problems, such as recycling, homelessness and our town centres”.

CATHERINE EHRHARDT: Not a party member. She runs or assists 16 Facebook pages, solely running her own councillor page and the “Maylands Local” page. She co-runs the pages: Mingle in Maylands, Roxy Lane Community Garden, Maylands Business Association, Maylands Markets, Lace Incorporate, Maylands Street festival, Maylands Residents and Ratepayers Association, Roxy Lane Garden Members, Maylands Community Notices and Chat group, Perth College Leavers, Inglewood Primary Uniforms, Lace Members, Creative Maylands Members and Bakers Anonymous.

STEPHANIE GRAY: Member of the Labor party. She says she supports Cr Cornish’s motion in the interest of transparency. “If councillors are compelled to disclose these connections it puts to bed the rumours that sometimes circulate about affiliations to groups lobbying their own agendas”.

GIORGIA JOHNSON: Greens party member (declared at the meeting – we didn’t hear back from her this week).

BARRY MCKENNA: Labor party member. Has no social media accounts, and says he has no issue with Cr Cornish’s motion.

SALLY PALMER: Greens party member, and ran for them as a candidate in a couple of state elections. Is definitely not an admin of any Facebook pages. “Whatever it is, I haven’t got one. Is it free and/or is it contagious?”

FILOMENA PIFFARETTI: Labor party member, and an admin on the Noranda Vibes Facebook page.

MICHELLE SUTHERLAND: Liberal party member. Her husband Michael Sutherland was formerly the Liberal state member for Mount Lawley. But she says the disclosure of family members who are elected representatives is “a nonsense… nobody can be compelled to answer this question. It would, however, be common knowledge that a councillor’s spouse or partner holds political office”. She says of her own party membership: “I would have no hesitation answering”. She says employment details are already disclosed in a councillor’s annual returns, and membership of clubs and associations can already be handled via the existing declarations of interest system requiring councillors to disclose those associations before a relevant vote. Cr Sutherland has no objection to disclosing social media accounts which concern the City of Bayswater, “otherwise I do not see the point”.

ELLI PETERSEN-PIK: Not a member of any political party, and only the admin of one Facebook page (his own councillor page). He says “I am 100 per cent supportive of those initiatives as those registers are essential in ensuring that councillors are fully transparent. Our residents should have all that information available to be able to scrutinise every decision or statement being made by councillors. “I feel lucky to have been elected as an independent councillor. During my election, I could see how affiliation with political parties had the potential to affect both the election result and the decisions of party-backed councillors. For example, when a party organises a fundraiser for a specific candidate, they would be expected to stay loyal and avoid criticism of the party, especially when it is in power at state or federal levels. “On the disclosure of social media accounts: Facebook is a great tool, but I have seen how it can be used to manipulate people’s views. People should know if a councillor manages a specific community Facebook page, as it might be used for self-promotion or the promotion of others as a favour. Controlling a page can also be used to censor specific people or views, as administrators have the power to ban people or delete comments.

by DAVID BELL

BAYSWATER councillors will also have to declare membership of local clubs or associations under Cr Cornish’s transparency reforms.

But there was great controversy when he tried to extend that to their involvement in social media groups such as Facebook.

Cr Elli Petersen-Pik said Facebook was a great tool that could be used to reach a large number of ratepayers quickly, but he’d seen it used to manipulate views.

“People should know if a councillor manages a specific community Facebook page as it might be used for self-promotion or the promotion of others as a favour,” Cr Petersen-Pik said.

“Most of the time people are not even aware who really runs those pages.”

Cr Petersen-Pik suggested councillors shouldn’t run community groups’ social media pages, but this was met with a sprinkle of laughter in the chamber.

Cr Lorna Clarke was the strongest opponent of both the social media and political allegiances registers.

“This has gotten so ridiculous … we have gone down the rabbit hole,” she said, comparing the measures to McCarthyism.

Cr Clarke said elected members disclosed relevant interests at the start of meetings, and the city risked putting off potential councillors with extra red tape and risks.

Only Crs Cornish, Bull, Petersen-Pik and Sally Palmer supported the social media register.

THE new Woolworths at the old Bunnings site in Inglewood has been approved by the state government’s Development Assessment Panel.

Following Woolies’ public consultation, 79 per cent of respondents supported having a supermarket, cafe and bottleshop there.

But when Stirling council conducted its own consultation, only 35 per cent of people within 200 metres of the Beaufort Street site supported it.

Residents were concerned about traffic and parking, some didn’t want a liquor store there, and the building copped criticism for its ‘faux art deco’ design.

The Mount Lawley Society, which advocates for heritage in the area, put out a statement describing the decision as a “half-baked outcome,” as the attempted art deco style has only been applied to two of the four walls and the other two are “concrete tilt-up panels”.

“The Inglewood and surrounding communities will be getting a supermarket complex – which is good news – but the cost will be driving past or, for those living behind the complex, looking at two tilt-up concrete walls,” the society said in its statement.

“In our mind, the design is not art deco or even in keeping with art deco style and definitely not following the Beaufort Street Scheme Amendment that local community recently fought so hard for.”

The society is also concerned about the safety aspects: “Pedestrians, young and old, will need to cross 20 metres or more of continual crossover (carpark entry/exit, loading bay and laneway) – in our mind, a recipe for disaster.”

by DAVID BELL

POLICE were digging up the backyard of a Carr Street property in West Perth on Tuesday seeking “items of interest” in a decades-old suspected murder case.

Mother of two Lisa Brown  was last seen on Palmerston Street in Highgate on November 10, 1998, when she was 19 years old.

She was known to associate with people who lived in the Carr Street house at the time (they’ve long since moved out).

Hyde Park Lake was also dredged at the time in search of her body, and nearby apartments door-knocked, but to no avail.

In 2017 the state government announced a $250,000 reward for information, suspecting she had been murdered. A mobile police facility was set up on Brisbane Street near where she was last seen, and police reported a good response to their callout for information.

The house had been searched during the initial investigation.

WE killed another one.

A baby dolphin recently died after becoming entangled in a crab pot in the Swan River.

The dead calf was found in Claremont Bay on Monday.

The Department of Parks and Wildlife said: “the dead calf has since been freed from the crab pot, but remains in the water with the mother dolphin as she grieves.

“Dolphins are highly intelligent creatures and are known to stay with their young for a period of time following a death.

Fishing lines

“We will continue to monitor the pair and remove the calf when appropriate to do so. We ask the public to stay well away from the dolphin and her dead calf during this time.

“This is a timely reminder to safely dispose of all fishing lines and ropes and report any tangled wildlife immediately to the Wildcare Helpline on 9474 9055.”

The department had posted a happy photo of Moon and her playful newborn swimming in the Swan just weeks before on March 18.

In August last year, long-term Swan River resident dolphin Highnitch died after becoming entangled in fishing line. She had been tangled up for months before succumbing. Her baby Splash was found dead less than a week later, also entangled in fishing line and trailing a plastic bag.

by DAVID BELL

BURNING through the latest Noam Chomsky tome might lift your IQ a few points, but the harsh reality is that it’ll do diddly for your waistline.

But thanks to Stirling council, bookworms will now be able to catch up with their favourite authors while burning enough calories to keep them trim, taught and terrific.

Earlier this month, all six of the council’s libraries were fitted out with new exercise bikes that come with a table attached to the front.

Stirling mayor Mark Irwin tried one of the exercise bikes out while thumbing through a cycling magazine and was suitably impressed.

“It’s a creative way to bring more people into our libraries, and I’m all for that as libraries are such a great local resource,” Mr Irwin said.

Apparently in the first couple of weeks the bikes have been a big hit, with users of all ages keen for a spin while they flip.

The Chook did a few calculations (on the way burning about 50 calories an hour), and we reckon that three half-hourly Harry Potter sessions each week will have you looking more Dobby than Hagrid by the time you’ve churned through all 3407 pages of the young wizard’s adventures.