Perth Voice Interactive

CROSSING Charles Street can be like a deadly game of Frogger, so Perth MP John Carey is holding a public forum to improve pedestrian safety there.

During last year’s election Mr Carey pledged $250,000 towards a permanent crossing or other safety improvements on Charles Street near Kyilla primary school, but he says he wants to hear from locals what they think is best.

He says road safety is one of the biggest issues people raise with him.

“I get regular contact from residents who are concerned about pedestrian safety across the inner city area, but I have had an increased number about Charles Street, particularly the northern part…because of Kyilla primary school and the farmer’s market.”

Mr Carey says he wants to see a pedestrian crossing there, but there are complications because of
the nearby school.

Barrelling

Charles Street is a straight road with a 60kmh speed limit, and he’s concerned that installing a crossing without other traffic treatments could lead to motorists barreling through.

“There is a concern that motorists will drive through that on such a busy corridor,” Mr Carey says.

“A child may think ‘green light, I can cross’, without making an assessment if the cars are actually slowing down.”

Currently there are only two lollipop attendants to help kids cross the busy street on the way to and from school.

Other options include having more islands to break up the crossing, but that’ll need road widening, and a pedestrian bridge, but it’s expensive and residents usually aren’t keen on having one in front of their house.

If you have ideas or want to have your say, the forum’s at Kyilla Primary School August 15 at 6pm, RSVP john.carey@mp.wa.gov.au or telephone his office on 9227 8040.

by DAVID BELL

STATE-appointed commissioners in charge of Perth council want a further clampdown on councillors’ allowances and expenses.

Under a draft policy the three commissioners have released for consultation, councillors would get a phone and IT allowance, and childcare expenses up to $25 per hour while attending authorised functions.

They would only be allow to travel business class if a flight was more than three hours long.

Cash for clothes, dry cleaning and personal presentation would be dumped.

Up until last year councillors could be reimbursed up to $13,360 a year for clothes, shoes and appearance-related services.

Councillors Reece Harley, Steve Hasluck and Jemma Green thought that out of line with public expectations and wanted it scrapped, but their colleagues would only accept a compromise limit set at $3000.

You can have your say at engage.perth.wa.gov.au until 5pm on Friday August 17.

by DAVID BELL

LABOR’S Patrick Gorman won the federal seat of Perth on Saturday with just under 40 per cent of the primary vote as apathetic voters failed to get enthused about a Liberal-free election.

The Greens’ Caroline Perks came second with 18.76 per cent of the primary vote and independent Paul Collins was third with 9.53 per cent. Postal votes were still to be counted.

Honoured

Mr Gorman said he was truly honoured to win, but now it was time to get to work.

Ms Perks announced on Monday she’d be contesting the next federal election.

“Large parts of the electorate voted for the Greens and it’s clear from the low turnout that people are sick of politics as usual, so I’ll be here for the federal election to keep offering a different voice that is truly for people and planet – not corporate profit.”

The next election has to be held before May 18, 2019.

Mr Collins, a Liberal party member who decided to run when the Blues didn’t field a candidate, said “to finish third in a field of 15 was a very, very pleasing result for the limited time and resources available to me”.

He said “it does give confidence to those candidates who have a community connection… it’s a vote of confidence in a strong community candidate”.

Mr Collins, president of the Mt Lawley Society, did have an outright win on home ground: amassing 235 primary votes to Labor’s 205 at the polling booth at St Paul’s Primary School.

Liberal Democrats’ Wesley Du Preez got 6.69 per cent of the primary vote. The libertarian-esque party also did well in Fremantle with 14 per cent;

Another Perth contender, Ian Britza, has already announced he’d contest the next federal election, changing the name of his campaign Facebook page from “Ian Britza for Perth” to “Ian Britza – Senate for Western Australia”.

It was a record low turnout this year with only 64 per cent of 100,737 potential electors voting.

There was also a massive number of “informal votes”, with 6,421 people either ballsing up their ballot or drawing a willy on it.

That’s 10 per cent of all votes going in the bin; compared to an informal vote rate of 3.77 per cent at the last federal election in 2016.

by DAVID BELL

IN the wake of a dismal turn-out for the Perth and Fremantle by-elections, the by-election to replace retiring Bayswater councillor Brent Fleeton will be held on September 14 – and voting is not even compulsory.

The North Ward election will be a postal vote and cost the council between $35,000-$70,000.  It’s a tight window for nominations, opening August 1 and closing a week later, but we might see a couple of familiar faces on the ballot.

The two nearest challengers at the August 17 election were former councillors Mike Anderton and Michelle Sutherland, and they have not ruled out running again.

Mr Anderton says several ratepayers and a couple of councillors want him to throw his hat in the ring, but he’s “a bit undecided…I’m going to make up my mind on Friday”.

“It takes a lot of time and effort, and if I’m going to be up against certain people throwing big wads of money at it – is it even worth it?”

Ms Sutherland was a maybe, but didn’t sound keen about having to face another election in October next year, when Mr Fleeton’s term would have expired.

Another contender in the 2017 election, Ben Reale-Cornel, told us he wasn’t likely to run, but “I will be throwing all my support behind Michelle Sutherland if she runs”.

Unlike the mandatory voting in federal elections, voting in WA council elections is optional.

by DAVID BELL and MOLLY SCHMIDT

A TREASURE trove of artefacts found under the floorboards of the old Perth Girls’ Orphanage on Adelaide Street will provide a rare insight into the life of the young city’s underprivileged children, says the WA Museum.

On Tuesday the artefacts were handed over to the museum by the department of communities’ housing authority which occupies the building.

Orphanage

Authority IT expert Richard Barry used to be one of the public servants beavering away in the heritage-listed building, and says growing maintenance issues reached a critical level when a couple fell through rotting floorboards.

Experts were brought in to assess the damage, and when they reported back about seeing interesting things under the floorboards, the department decided to call in archaeologists Archae-aus for a proper dig.

Archaeologist Caroline Bird said a small orphanage was constructed on the site by the Anglican church in 1868. That was in response to a Catholic orphanage being set up in Leederville to cater for the growing number of children who were being taken off the streets and put in the city’s workhouses.

Initially seven girls were taken, then boys, and numbers grew gradually until in 1871 the church convinced the government of the day it needed room to expand and the boys were moved to a new orphanage in Middle Swan.

Dr Bird says the gold rush of the late 1800s sent demand for places soaring and the current two-storey building was constructed in 1904.

She says the artefacts were a mix of small objects such as pins and buttons that may have fallen between the floorboards, while others were deliberately put there; a small metal money box with the initials “LJ” scratched on its side was probably stored for safe keeping.

She said finds such as the money box immediately set the mind to thinking about the story of the person who’d once owned it.

WA Museum collections and research director Diana Jones said children were under-represented in the museum’s collections, so she was excited to be accepting the artefacts.

Other finds included in the gift to the museum include toys, hairbrushes, animal bones and medicines.

Haunted

There’s long been rumours that the orphanage is haunted (you can find its listing on theparanormalguide.com) by one or more of its previous occupants, but Mr Barry says while he’s aware of staff who’ve refused to work there or visit at night, during his many nocturnal shifts updating department software he found the orphanage to be one of the most peaceful and quiet places to work.

by STEVE GRANT

JUST one month after the state government banned single-use plastic bags, Coles has announced they’ll give away reusable ones instead.

Perth MP John Carey spent years advocating for a plastic bag ban and says the Coles giveaway undermines the intention of the law.

“I’m calling on Coles to change their position. It is high farce and poor leadership by them.”

He says continuing to give away bags gives people no incentive to get their own reusable ones and stop chucking away plastic.

Coles released a statement saying they decided to give away reusable bags after feedback from angry customers who got to the till and found out they had to pay for bags.

Mr Carey says they’re underestimating the community and highlights the work done by environmental group Transition Town Vincent.

Even before the bag ban they stocked the Mezz shopping centre with free reusable ones for people to borrow if they forgot their own.

Transition Town’s Carolyn Groves says the “boomerang bags” project has been a roaring success.

“It’s been overly popular!” she laughs, asking us to remind readers who might’ve borrowed bags to return them when they can. People around the Mezz and Mount Hawthorn and the city of Vincent are doing their best with boomerang bags, and we like to make it easy for people to transition,” she says.

On the weekend, Transition Town were at the Mezz showing people how to make a bin liner out of folded newspaper.

“There’s a lot of people thinking they’ll not have anything to line their bins without the disposable plastic bags, and this was showing them that there is an alternative,” she says.

“Even just grab your community newspaper after you’ve read it and use that!”

by DAVID BELL

PERTH council has lowered parking fees at Point Fraser car park by one dollar, acknowledging the $4 per hour charge was deterring customers.

But Anne Bontempo, a one-time contender for lord mayor in 2011, wants the lower parking fees extended throughout the city.

“If the decision is made to reduce parking fees at this location to ease the burden, will the city consider doing so across the whole local government area?” asked Ms Bontempo, a spokesperson for the King Street Precinct, during council’s public question time.

Parking fees

Perth chair commissioner Eric Lumsden said the former suspended council had a “broad based policy, which is what I’d call a one-size fits all approach” and they needed to look at it precinct by precinct.

“Very clearly, Point Fraser is not a CBD site, and is totally different to other sites in East Perth.”

When restaurant Ku De Ta went into administration last month the owners said the high parking fees at Point Fraser were partly to blame.

The city says fees there were set fairly high – $4 an hour during the day, a flat rate of $12 from 6pm to 6am – at the request of “On The Point”, a privately-run hospitality precinct which wanted a high turnover of customers.

The city dropped the fees to $3 an hour or $10 overnight.

“The competitors of our businesses are the adjoining local government areas such as the town of Victoria Park with the Albany Highway strip, Oxford Street in Leederville…so it’s important that the city takes a competitive stance with its parking,” said Perth city commissioner Andrew Hammond.

by DAVID BELL

AFTER three years, a 52-page Corruption and Crime Commission report, 45 alleged breaches and an 18-month tussle with the State Administrative Tribunal, how did lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi end up with a punishment a colleague describes as a “joke”?

Ms Scaffidi said she’s very pleased the SAT “rejected the state’s case that I should be disqualified from holding office.”

The SAT reduced her penalty from an 18-month disqualification to a seven-month suspension, which means she won’t be out of a job, as the entire council is suspended during a state government inquiry into the city. Previous inquiries at other councils have taken up to 18 months.

Ms Scaffidi’s arch rival on council, Reece Harley, posted on Facebook that the suspension was “a joke”.

“For 19 serious breaches of the local government act the lord mayor has won herself an extended seven month holiday with pay. Sweet deal. ‘Justice’ apparently.”

The essentially meaningless punishment was explained by SAT deputy president Tim Sharp in his written finding.

The punishment was always likely to be lower. The SAT initially found Ms Scaffidi had breached the local government act 45 times by not properly disclosing gifts or travel.

She appealed that, and the supreme court knocked out 26 of those breaches.

With 19 left, Judge Sharp wrote that “none of the 19 serious breaches is in the upper range of seriousness. Each of them is low to mid-range”.

He wrote that they weren’t as bad as failing to put in an annual return entirely, and it was not as though the lord mayor got any “financial benefit as a consequence of her failing to disclose the relevant ‘gifts’ and ‘contributions to travel’ in her annual returns”.

He wrote that “similarly, it is not alleged that the city or anyone else suffered any financial detriment as a result of these failures.

“Importantly, the applicant does not contend that the respondent’s failings were anything other than carelessness”.

“The finding reads “the tribunal is satisfied that the respondent has shown insight into and remorse for her conduct.

“Further, the tribunal is not persuaded that the respondent is at risk of committing further serious breaches of the disclosure requirements of the LG Act”.

The ruling:

The SAT’s revised Scaffidi ruling:

• One month’s suspension for putting in her annual return late;

• Three months for each of the five failures to disclose gifts, served concurrently;

• Three months for the 13 failures to disclose travel, served concurrently.

The final score for her penalty: seven months’ suspension, starting July 27.

by David Bell

A REFUGEE rights group has staged a touching tribute to Fazel Chegeni Nejad on the first day of an inquest into his tragic death on Christmas Island in 2015.

The Kurd asylum seeker had been detained on the island for four years but was facing a lifetime in detention after being involved in a minor brawl; the conviction resulting in him failing a character test and any chance of getting an Australian VISA.

In desperation Mr Chegeni, 34, escaped from the centre and his body was found in bushland two days later.

Lawyer George Newhouse says the Australian government ignored warnings that Mr Chegeni’s mental health was deteriorating.

Tortured

“Our government knows that victims of torture should not be locked up like animals, but they ignored the warnings and poor Fazel’s desperate pleas for mental health support.”

Mr Chegeni had said he was seeking asylum after being repeatedly tortured and raped in Iran.

The Refugee Rights Action Network gathered outside the WA coroner’s court in Perth on Monday with dozens of paper birds in memory of Mr Chegeni, who had spent countless hours making them to give to people in hospital.

RRAN member Michelle Bui says the best way to stop deaths in custody is to end mandatory detention.

“Fazel was not the first, nor the last person to die under the system of mandatory detention,” she says.

“We hope the coroner will carefully examine the systematic issues involved in his case.”

The inquest runs until August 10.

by MOLLY SCHMIDT

PROTESTORS were planning a big demonstration alongside the Eliza statue in Crawley yesterday (Friday August 3) to highlight risks to internationally important Aboriginal rock art on the Burrup Peninsula.

This time around Eliza’s sculptors Tony and Ben Jones are driving the demonstration and dress-up, which coincides with a forum on the Burrup that will bring in international experts looking at how to speed up world heritage listing.

The 50,000-year-old hieroglyphs, which contain the earliest depiction of the human face on the planet, are being increasingly crowded by industrial plants, including a fertiliser factory and liquid natural gas refinery.

Experts have warned that acidic emissions from the industry are damaging the irreplaceable art, but the WA government is planning to allow three more industrial projects to go ahead.

Mr Jones has recently worked on an unrelated protest with former federal Fremantle MP Melissa Parke, who suggested he take up the Burrup cause this time around as she’s patron of a scientific organisation that’s taken an interest.