Perth Voice Interactive

THE campaign manager for a national pro-vaping lobby group is confident vaping nicotine legally will become a reality in the near future.

Legalise Vaping Australia campaign manager Brian Marlow and fellow supporters took to the streets of Fremantle this week for a flash mob protest against “convoluted” laws they say are increasingly at odds with the rest of the world.

“It will happen, it’s just a question of how,” Mr Marlow said of their push.

He is also in WA to give evidence at a “nanny state” inquiry being chaired by Liberal Democrat MLC Aaron Stonehouse, which is investigating whether Sandgropers are being over-governed.

It is looking into vaping, bicycle helmet laws and car modifications.

Mr Marlow says vaping is twice as effective in helping smokers quit compared to patches and gum, and even more so when used in combination with them.

He acknowledges vaping nicotine is still addictive, but says there’s very little evidence of people using it as a gateway into smoking; those who did were from a demographic likely to smoke anyway.

But he says health authorities seem blinded by the threat to this small group and can’t see the benefits to the 92 per cent of smokers who’ve admitted they’d like to kick the habit.

Mr Marlow says Australians are getting around state laws by importing vaping products from unregulated overseas markets, potentially putting themselves at risk.

He believes this was behind the death of a Victorian toddler last month, as it drank nicotine from a vaping bottle he doubts had a child safety cap.

Part of the problem comes down to a clash between federal and state laws; it’s not illegal to import three months’ worth of nicotine for personal use under national Therapeutic Goods Administration rules, meaning Border Force officials wave it through. But once it reaches the recipient, they’ll be breaching state laws. In the ACT that can mean up to two years in prison, or in Western Australia a $45,000 fine.

Mr Marlow says his campaign takes no donations from big tobacco companies, which have been increasingly trying to move into the vaping area. He believes their motives are anathema to local users and their products are almost impossible to find in Aussie vaping shops.

His group’s campaign has gained some support, with both the state and federal Liberal parties backing vaping, though Mr Marlow says they’ve not been able to turn around federal health minister Greg Hunt.

The minister is a staunch opponent, replying to questions about legalised vaping with the response “Not on my watch”, but under pressure from his party colleagues has agreed to commission research into potential health benefits.

by SALLY MATHWIN
and STEVE GRANT

NORANDA town centre has a new funky outdoor community area.

Picnic furniture, lighting and an outdoor ping-pong table with colourful artwork have been installed under the shady trees between Hawaiian’s Noranda shopping centre and the Morley Noranda recreation club.

Bayswater mayor Dan Bull said the space would create a better connection between the shopping and sporting precincts.

“What was an unused patch of grass is now a lively community space that gives people more reason to spend time in the town centre, which can only be a good thing for local businesses,” he said.

“It’s the perfect spot to relax with a book from the little library, play a game of table tennis or just enjoy spending time outdoors.

“The Noranda community told us they want to see public space in the town centre used more effectively, which is exactly what this project has achieved.”

The project is a partnership between Bayswater council, Hawaiian and the Noranda Vibes community group.

A FORMER assistant police commissioner is among the victims of a series of bizarre bird bath thefts in North Perth.

Retired ex-copper Bob Kucera told the Voice his bird bath was stolen on Monday night (March 25), his neighbour had theirs pinched, and thieves also attempted to nick garden ornaments from a third property, but were interrupted and flew the coop

Grumpy galahs.

Mr Kucera says the thieves had been operating around Charles Street and London Street across three nights this week.

“It’s a very heavy case, I can tell you,” Mr Kucera says.

“We encourage the birds to come to the house every morning and night. It’s really fantastic. We feed them and give them water and everything. It really is a great shame…we’ve got some very grumpy galahs.”

Mr Kucera, a former Gallop government minister and assistant WA police commissioner, suspects the thieves may have been casing streets during the recent hard rubbish collection.

“It’s obviously somebody who’s come prepared; they’re so heavy you’d need a vehicle to take them away,” he says.

Mr Kucera says he’s reported the theft to police and will be keeping tabs on Gumtree to see if anyone’s trying to sell the stolen ornaments.

“I’ll keep a bird’s eye view out,” he says.

by DAVID BELL

DODGY door-to-door tradies are targeting residents throughout Perth, with scammers sighted in Inglewood and North Perth this week.

This week the Voice heard of two very pushy blokes offering tree lopping services in Inglewood, and roof repair scammers targeting the elderly in North Perth.

Consumer Protection WA reports that in a recent case, two men told a Cannington homeowner his roof needed repairs. One of them went up on the roof and returned with a broken tile. The homeowner suspected the repairman had broken the tile himself, and declined their services.

A senior couple in Fremantle also lodged a report about being approached by roof repairers.

But in some good news, the Voice’s sister paper, the Fremantle Herald, helped to foil the dodgy roofers this week.

They’d preyed on a 60-something retiree and were part-way through what a pretty dodgy repair job when she received her copy of the Herald and saw a story warning about their suspicious behaviour.

She waved the story under their noses and they fled; fortunately she’d only parted with half the money they had demanded and she immediately called the police.

In their haste to scamper, the scammers left some bibs and bobs on the roof that police hope will prove incriminating.

Like the northern suburbs conmen, the scammers were reported to have Irish accents.

Uninvited

WA Consumer Protection commissioner Lanie Chopping issued a warning this week telling people to be wary of tradies who show up uninvited.

She said “under the Australian Consumer Law a cooling off period applies to unsolicited sales and means no money can change hands and no work be carried out for ten business days; in which time the consumer can cancel the contract without penalty.

“Even if you have invited a tradesperson to your home to only provide a quote, the cooling off period still applies.

“We recommend that consumers get more than one quote for work around the home and check the credentials of the business before signing any contracts or handing over any money. Ask for references, inspect previous work and carry out an internet search of the business name to see if positive or negative comments arise.

“Conmen often operate door-to-door and can charge exorbitant rates for sub-standard work, if any work is carried out at all.

“Itinerant workmen use clever sales pitches to get consumers to agree to have their roofs repaired at a supposedly low cost. The initial pitch will usually be friendly and helpful pointing out how lucky it is that they spotted some issues.

“In reality, the price is often more than the dodgy job is worth.

“It’s also difficult for consumers to track down these traders for a refund, or to make a warranty claim, if they are not satisfied.”

If you need a legitimate tradie, check the Voice’s Trades & Services section.

If workers knock on your door unsolicited, or want immediate payment or to carry out work straight away, report the details to Consumer Protection on 1300 30 40 54.

by DAVID BELL

AFTER nearly four decades of mystery, a Facebook post has revealed it was a Highgate woman who made her friend’s 30th birthday cake out of buffalo poo.

It was up in the Northern Territory in 1981 when Marilyn Herd, now living in New Zealand, was having her 30th birthday.

Her friends gathered to celebrate, but just after cutting into her pavlova birthday cake she realised something was wrong; it had been made from a buffalo poo, coated in whipped cream and disguised to look like a pavlova.

Whipped cream

Ms Herd never knew who did it, until International Women’s Day earlier this month, when the culprit was revealed to be her close friend Narelle Taylor, now 68 and living in Highgate.

Ms Taylor’s daughter Paige, a highly awarded journalist, had aimed to post a tribute to her mum on Facebook after her sister Bree Furness dug up a decades old picture of the prank in progress.

“On International Women’s Day we say thanks for Narelle Taylor. Here she is circa 1981 sourcing an NT buffalo poo in the wild for one of her practical jokes,” she wrote.

“She disguised it under whipped cream, decorated it as a pavlova and presented it to one of her mates (yes) as a birthday cake.”

In a show of the interconnectivity of social media, it so happened the poo prank victim saw the post.

“Ummm I didn’t know it was you Narelle Taylor that was the instigator,” Ms Herd replied.

We got in touch with Ms Herd in NZ, and she recalled that night: “I thought it was so nice they remembered my birthday and made me a cake.

A bit crunchy

“I blew out the candles, and I thought, oh, that’s a bit crunchy.”

The smell had faded enough and was well disguised by the cream, so she didn’t initially notice.

“I didn’t want to be impolite, so I pulled a little piece out, and tasted it a little bit. Then I realised.”

But she wasn’t angry: “I’m still laughing about it, it’s so funny”. In all the merriment, she didn’t get to interrogate the guests to find out who exactly was behind it.

She said finding out the culprit after 38 years “just made my day, I’m still smiling, still can’t believe it was [Ms Taylor].”

Ms Taylor told us she got the idea when she saw the shape of the buffalo poo which already resembled a cake. “It was just begging to be decorated. And she fell for it!” Ms Taylor laughs.

Ms Taylor says she wasn’t sure how her friend would react, but was “worried enough not to tell her that I had done it”.

Ms Herd says the prank kept the group suspicious for a time: She recalls her husband’s birthday later that year, and when presented with his cake he feared something might be amiss and took preemptive action.

“He karate chopped it,” Ms Herd says, but it turned out to be a genuine cake. “There were all these kids standing around with cake hanging off their face.”

Nearly four decades on, Ms Taylor says she still enjoys the odd prank. “Of course I do, I love them…It’s very difficult in a wheelchair, but I haven’t lost the appetite for jokes.”

But there’s one main difficulty in recreating this prank: “There’s not many buffalo in Highgate,” she says. “I haven’t shovelled any buffalo poo for years.”

by DAVID BELL

AFTER being shut for nearly a month the North Perth Post Office reopened on Tuesday (March 26) with no explanation.

The radio silence infuriated Perth MP John Carey and many locals who are now demanding more transparency from Australia Post.

The Fitzgerald Street post office was run privately under a licence to Australia Post, but the operator pulled down the shutters without any notice on March 1.

Parcels were left locked inside the store, bigger packages were redirected to Osborne Park, and PO box letters had to be collected at Mt Lawley Post Office.

Up until last week customers were still turning up for passport interviews and other services that were booked online because the location hadn’t been removed from the internet.

Australia Post still hasn’t explained the abrupt closure and would only say an “acting manager” was reinstating the services for now.

People whose mail was being directed to Mt Lawley will be able to get their mail from the North Perth post office again, and they’ll get three months’ off their annual fee as compensation.

Perth MP John Carey reports says he’s been inundated with questions from locals about the post office, and is furious with the lack of information from Australia Post.

After several failed attempts to get a response from the company, he only found out about the re-opening when a hand-written sign was put on the post office this week.

“I’m deeply disappointed by the lack of respect shown by Australia Post to the local community,” he says.

“Post offices are still really important community assets, and it’s actually important to North Perth; it brings people there.

“The community deserves better. We still don’t know why it happened”.

He said “after repeated requests for updates and individual customer complaints,” he wrote them a letter of complaint “to express my disappointment in the lack of communication to customers and locals left in limbo”.

The letter said “a number of small businesses have been severely affected by the abrupt nature of the closure, and their inability to access packages held in the building for their customers”.

The Voice asked Australia Post about Mr Carey’s letter and why it was so hard to get answers, but like many people we didn’t get an answer.

by DAVID BELL

BUDDHA’S birthday will be celebrated April 13 and 14 in the Supreme Court Gardens.

The two-day multicultural festival aims to promote “respect and tolerance, faith and legacy” and “harmonious coexistence amongst people”.

The festival will be hosted by Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple, Buddha’s Light International Association WA and the Nan Tien institute.

There’ll be ceremonies, rituals, vegetarian food, a multi-faith blessing ceremony and the story of Shakyamuni Buddha.

The event is smoke- and alcohol-free, so bring your inner peace and happiness instead.

Full details and times are at http://www.buddhasbirthdayperth.org.au

RAISED garden beds made by Stirling Men’s Shed have given dementia sufferers at the Nollamara Day Club a new lease of life.

The day centre caters for about 75 people from six groups and about half of those attending have dementia.

Members have taken a sense of ownership by going to the shops to buy seedlings and tending to their budding crops.

The day club now grows a mix of produce for members to enjoy including chilis, spring onions, beetroot and strawberries.

Tending to the vegetables and herbs is a form of sensory stimulation, which can be beneficial for dementia sufferers as it triggers discussions and memories.

Stirling mayor Mark Irwin recently visited the day club to meet members and take a first-hand look at the gardens.

“The garden beds took shape as many of the members had indicated to staff that they found value and purpose in gardening, but accessibility was an issue,” he said.

“That’s where members of the city’s Men’s Shed came in – they put together five nifty garden beds that have provided a productive outlet for day club members ever since.”

As well as gardening, the day club hosts weekly visits from four-legged friends, and a monthly visit by youngsters from a local playgroup.

A COMMUNITY safety service in Perth has helped reunite an elderly women with her husband.

At about 1.30pm on Saturday (March 16), a worried Melville local rang their council’s safety team to report an elderly woman had gone missing from a local senior citizens centre.

After advising the caller to contact police to report the disappearance, the CSS dispatched two cars to the centre to find out more and see how they could help locate the woman.

Less than 10 minutes later, two officers were onsite and after briefly speaking to the senior citizen centre staff, were soon back on the road patrolling the nearby shops and area to see if they could find the woman, who had now been missing for more than an hour.

An hour later, after not having any luck, the CSS contacted the woman’s husband to let him know they were patrolling the area and to call the police if he hadn’t already done so.

The police arrived shortly after, speaking to the husband and also the CSS to share information, and both left to continue the search.

Shortly after, the CSS returned to the house of the husband and was informed that the woman had been found safe and unharmed nearby by police.

The husband expressed his thanks to the CSS for their swift response and for their help in the search for his missing wife, who thankfully was okay and on her way home.