Perth Voice Interactive

ABOUT 2000 people marched through Perth on the weekend, calling for the federal government to expedite asylum and immigration applications from white farmers facing violent attacks in South Africa.

Speakers included Liberal MP Andrew Hastie and Liberal Democrat Aaron Stonehouse, who’ve been accused by Labor of joining “extreme right-wingers” for the march.

Persecuted group

But Mr Stonehouse said despite the taunts of racists, fear mongers and agents of division, the crowd were motivated by love.

“White farmers are being attacked in South Africa, their own government is fuelling the fire, and hardly any other government or organisation in the world are talking about it,” he told the crowd.

“I care about this issue because I am a Christian, a libertarian and a member of this extended family of nations that you’d call the West.”

Mr Stonehouse acknowledges he’s never marched for any other persecuted group, but says that’s only because he hasn’t been asked before.

“And here’s why I think that’s the case.

“One, there is a very large South African community within my electorate. They number somewhere around 10,000 if I’m not mistaken.

“So it’s completely normal for these people to reach out to me, as their elected representative, and ask me to lobby on their behalf.”

He says other persecuted groups are well represented by other lobby groups, particularly the Greens.

Waving crosses

Mr Stonehouse said that anyone who shared the Australian values of a liberal democracy were welcome.

“We’ve welcomed a large number of Syrian as a result of the civil war happening over there, so it isn’t out of the ordinary for our refugee program to pivot towards a particular context based on need.

“But broadly speaking, I think our refugee and immigration policy should be colour blind and we should assess applications based on their merit.”

But others are not convinced and are planning a counter-protest when a petition raised at the march is presented to deputy prime minister Julie Bishop on Friday.

Organisers Sammy James and Tante Sabine accused the marchers of “flashing Nazi salutes” and waving crosses to invoke white supremacist imagery.

“You can’t have it both ways. You can’t stand with white nationalists and their symbolism and expect not to be considered one of them,” they wrote on their event page.

“[Home Affairs Minister]Peter Dutton has provided a means for our most repellant extremists to recruit and assemble. This will not be tolerated.”

The counter-protest outside Ms Bishop’s office has the permission and support of traditional owners, they note.

by STEVE GRANT

EAST PERTH and Subiaco football clubs have been left reeling after being told they’ll each have to find an extra $46,000 a year to keep leasing Leederville Oval.

Vincent council recently reviewed the clubs’ 21-year leases and discovered it had been paying more than its share of turf maintenance, insurance, water and power as well as other outgoings.

The council has approved a waiver of 50 per cent of the outstanding fees for the last financial year, but the clubs have been told that from herein there’ll be no more subsidising.

Subiaco CEO Peter Capes says his club can’t wear the additional costs, which come on top of losing the oval’s major sponsor, Medibank, last year.

“The council clearly understands that, they understand the position we’re in, and they understand that we have to work as a group to try to drive those costs down and to do other things to generate more revenue onto the reserve,” Mr Capes told the Voice.

“But it’s slow and we’re going on a lot of trust and faith.

“No, we’re not happy but we are working toward a resolution of it all.”

East Perth CEO Dean Turner says it’s lucky his club had squirrelled away some money to soften the blow but also doubts they’ll be able to sustain it for the long term.

Aggrieved

“The issue for us, and probably Subiaco, is that the costs that we’re now inheriting here at Leederville Oval is almost double what Claremont, East Fremantle, Swans, Perth incur.

“Other clubs are paying half the amount Subiaco and East Perth are paying and they get a full oval.

“But if that was the lease arrangement, then that’s the lease arrangement.”

Mr Turner says the club is also aggrieved that in the last couple of years the council has stopped putting money into a reserve fund for ground maintenance.

“It’s not that we’re doing the wrong thing, it’s just that the council has stopped doing that.”

The council is currently working on a master plan for the oval, and both clubs are hoping it will help spruce up the ageing oval, generating income and helping with costs.

“I suppose we’re hanging our hats on that, waiting to see what comes from it,” Mr Turner said.

“The current facility is about 60 years old.

“They said Subiaco was too old and that was only about 40 years old they’re knocking that down.

“You can imagine that the maintenance is horrendous.

“For whatever reason our power bills have doubled, our water bills have doubled in the last 12 months.”

Mr Turner says at the same time, the council seemed to be falling behind with its maintenance, perhaps with the expectation that the facility was going to be demolished.

by STEVE GRANT and ALICE ANGELONI

THE demolition this week of a once-stately home overlooking Hyde Park has sparked concerns the floodgates have opened for the whole historic precinct to be surrounded by townhouses.

Museum of Perth chair Reece Harley has called on Vincent council to beef up its heritage protection, saying the line of old homes along Vincent Street provided a frame for the heritage-listed park and losing them would damage the area’s character.

“The whole street could go,” Mr Harley warned.

Neighbours were taken by surprise as the demolition crew moved in, which Mr Harley says is a problem created by a change to the planning laws in 2015 which mean developers don’t have to have new plans in place before demolishing.

The changes, introduced by the former Barnett government, forbid a council from knocking back a demolition request where there is no heritage protection in place.

“This means that there’s no public awareness before it gets demolished,” Mr Harley told the Voice.

“Before, when an application came before the council, neighbours or the local newspaper could pick it up, and it would allow a community to express its views on the matter and lobby their councillors.”

Vincent mayor Emma Cole called the demolition “incredibly sad”.

Demolishing

“I’ve recently met with residents of Vincent Street about trying to gain support for a character retention area around Hyde Park, starting with Vincent St,” she said.

“As well as lobbying the state government about bringing back ‘no demolition with development approval’.

“This is hurting us in Vincent.”

The house was once home to Perth city councillor J Farr, who represented the North Perth ward for more than 12 years, was patron of the local tennis club, president of Loton Park Bowls Club and a dog lover who was a regular contributor to the Society for the Protection of Animals.

by STEVE GRANT

THE Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority has apologised to people who missed buses and trains in Perth on Saturday night after it closed off parts of Yagan Square for a swanky private dinner.

People who use the square as a shortcut to Perth Busport and train station were met with detours signs funnelling them down streets after the MRA shut down a section of the square for Diner en Blanc, an exclusive “chic picnic”.

Frederick Subere-Albawy, a regular visitor of Yagan Square, says it was a “mismanagement” of the space.

He made his connecting bus despite the detour, but saw others that didn’t.

“On Saturday afternoon/night this public space and thoroughfare was, with no advance notice, blocked off for an exclusive event, delaying and inconveniencing the travelling public,” he wrote in a complaint to the MRA.

“As someone who was effected by this event, I would like to see more insight into the decision-making process that approved at such short notice such a disruptive event, in what was designed as a public space for the whole of Perth.”

An MRA spokesperson confirmed they had received a dozen complaints about public access to Yagan Square during Diner en Blanc.

“Detours were put in place for passengers accessing Perth Busport and train station which were communicated in advance,” they said.

“However, the MRA will take on board public feedback to improve signage and public communications for events.

“As with the Perth Cultural Centre and Elizabeth Quay, the MRA will continue to harness public feedback and lessons learned from events for future programming.

“The MRA apologises for any inconvenience caused.”

Diner en Blanc guests wait at meeting points across the metropolitan area, “conducting themselves with the greatest decorum, elegance, and etiquette”, before travelling by bus and train to a secret location to eat. The event is held in 70 cities worldwide and 2500 people dressed in white attended the Perth nosh-up at Yagan Square.

by ALICE ANGELONI

AFTER 23 years there isn’t a single dog-eared page to indicate it’s ever been wielded in anger, but Vincent council’s Nuclear Free Zone policy only just escaped the axe last week.

The policy was adopted under Vincent’s first mayor Jack Marks in 1995, with the fledgling municipality striving to establish its “progressive” cred after being hived off from Perth, but as current CEO Len Kosova noted at this month’s council meeting, it was was an unenforcible ornament.

The council’s admin wanted to do away with the policy as part of a broad review of its corporate services, arguing that the city’s nuclear-free status would survive courtesy of the 1995 resolution that ushered in the policy.

But councillor Ros Harley leapt to the policy’s defence.

“I know it would not be enforceable but the policy was bought in for a reason: because Vincent was new and progressive, and we still are,” Cr Harley argued.