Perth Voice Interactive

FOR the first time in its history Vincent council has more female than male councillors.

Joanne Fotakis and Alex Castle were elected with a strong showing at the council elections on Saturday, tipping the female-male councillor balance to 5-4.

Both were backed by mayor Emma Cole and Ms Fotakis got 1,791 votes and Ms Castle got 2,053. Ryan Dawson came third with 993 and Aaron Olszewski fourth with 853.

During the campaign, Ms Cole said she’d like to see more women on council as local governments are traditionally male-heavy.

The issue is two-fold at Vincent, as all the directors and the CEO are gents.

It was a close race for the two spots in south ward, with just a few hundred votes between first and last place and both incumbents returned.

Josh Topelberg won a third term with 1,548 votes, and after being on council for only eight months after his by-election win, Jonathan Hallett is back for a full term with just two fewer votes (1,546).

Mai Nguyen once again just missed out on a spot (1,457 votes), having fallen slightly short at the by-election earlier this year, and former Vincent planner Joshua O’Keefe had 1,285.

It wasn’t a huge turnout for what’s usually a politically switched-on area, with a turnout rate of 28.79 per cent in north ward and 26.69 per cent in south.

STORIES by DAVID BELL

DAN BULL has been elected the new mayor of Bayswater after only two years on council.

At Baysy the mayor is voted in by councillors after an election, and at Monday’s special council meeting Cr Bull was unanimously elected as mayor, and Chris Cornish was voted in as deputy.

Out of the sitting councillors, former mayor Barry McKenna was the only one to hold onto his seat with Michelle Sutherland and Terry Kenyon both losing.

It was a pretty big turnout for Bayswater this year, with 31.8 per cent voter participation, compared to 25.4 per cent in 2015.

NORTH WARD

Michelle Sutherland lost her seat in North Ward after one term, garnering 1292 votes, and Mike Anderton’s comeback was unsuccessful with 979.

Newcomers Filomena Piffaretti (1566 votes) and Stephanie Gray (1447) were both elected, while Ben Reale-Cornel got 943 votes and Mark Whitehouse got 518.

WEST WARD

Terry Kenyon lost his spot in West Ward, with Lorna Clarke (1760 votes) and Giorgia Johnson (1583) winning the two seats up for grabs, closely followed by candidate Ben Dellar, who missed out by just 22 votes.

Greg Smith came fourth with 1407 votes, then it was a fair gap to Mr Kenyon (947 votes) and former councillor Martin Toldo (281).

Mr Kenyon’s election campaign had been hindered by an ongoing appeal against a bankruptcy finding stemming from fees he owes Lavan Legal.

That bankruptcy finding meant he couldn’t attend meetings or act as a councillor while the ten-month appeal dragged on.

At a candidate’s forum in the lead up to the election, Mr Kenyon had assured voters his legal troubles would be resolved and he’d be eligible to be reelected.

He was right: on Friday October 20, the Federal Circuit Court overturned that bankruptcy finding, meaning Mr Kenyon was eligible to resume duties for only a single day before being voted out.

SOUTH WARD

President of the Maylands Residents and Ratepayers Association Elli Petersen-Pik won the seat with 1242 votes (though he’ll now stand down as president), Kate Thomson got 1052 and Robyn Walsh 545.

CENTRAL WARD

Newcomer Steven Ostaszewskyj got a pretty good turnout with 1604 votes against long term incumbent (and mayor during the election) Barry McKenna, who won out with 1828 votes.

STORIES by DAVID BELL

SATURDAY’S local government election saw two of lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi’s allies voted out of office, with Judy McEvoy defeated after 20 years on Perth council and Keith Yong gone after one term.

Newcomer Steve Hasluck topped the field of 16 with 2209 votes, and Reece Harley (the pair had endorsed each other in their candidate statements) was second with 2056. James Limnios is returned for a third term with 2009 votes, and his endorsed candidate Lexi Barton was elected with 1989 votes.

It’s a stark contrast to the 2013 election, where all four candidates endorsed by the lord mayor were elected.

Ms Scaffidi has just two remaining allies on council—Jim Adamos and Janet Davidson—along with Lily Chen who usually votes the same way.

Following the result, WA premier Mark McGowan urged Ms Scaffidi to stand down.

“I think the electors have sent another message that she should stand down,” he said.

But Ms Scaffidi’s announced she won’t back down.

She told 6PR on Monday morning that the election result was part of a “deliberate campaign” by several Labor party elements to de-seat her.

Political influence

“The premier is really acting only under instruction from [local government minister David] Templeman and [Perth MP John] Carey and the ‘union left’ as it’s known, who I’m told control the current premier’s every move and they all want me gone,” she said on 6PR.

“I know your listeners might not believe a lot of what I have to say because my name has been muddied through this process, but certainly the wider public and more sadly the City of Perth stakeholders do not appreciate the political influence that is currently at play.

“There has been a very deliberate campaign afoot against me for three to four years and it has been driven by the one who wants the position of lord mayor the most, and that person’s political connections have certainly swung in strongly behind him.

“The wrecking ball that I’m accused of swinging has actually swung by one and then by two who will duel it out for the deputy lord mayoral position tomorrow evening.”

Mr Templeman described that as a “conspiracy theory” that wasn’t helping the council get back on track.

PR professional Dianne Bain came fifth, getting 1710 votes but missing out on a seat, then it was a long drop to the next nearest candidate Natasha Tang (1283) and former deputy mayor Michael Sutherland (1267).

The voter turnout was up a smidgeon at 37.08 per cent, compared to 36.67 in 2015.

In the latest twist in Perth council’s bitter power struggle, Jemma Green has become acting lord mayor.

On Tuesday night she was unanimously elected by fellow councillors as deputy lord mayor, but with Lisa Scaffidi still standing down from her duties pending her appeal, Ms Green becomes acting mayor.

Councillors took almost three hours to choose a deputy mayor on Tuesday night.

Reece Harley and James Limnios nominated for deputy and got four votes each.

According to the Local Government Act there can be a second vote, but if that’s tied then ballots are drawn to pick a winner, so councillors decide to adjourn the meeting to negotiate and avoid a lucky dip.

Councillors Limnios and Harley then withdraw their nominations.

Earlier in the day it had been murmured that Lily Chen might be a potential candidate, but councillors elected Cr Green.

Two years into her first term, she’s a former London banker, a researcher in disruptive innovation at Curtin, and is one of the founders of “PowerLedger,” a digital energy marketplace for peer- to-peer electricity trading.

She’s clashed with Ms Scaffidi and her allies in the past, when trying to get the city to support the Historic Heart of Perth project, and when trying to scrap the old policy that prevented councillors from speaking to the media.

A few months after being elected she revealed the lord mayor had refused to meet with her despite several attempts at setting up a meeting, and said Ms Scaffidi had called on her allies to “freeze out” the new councillor.

After being elected deputy lord mayor, Cr Green said ratepayers, stakeholders and the broader community were looking for stability and leadership.

“In the coming weeks and months in office I intend to bring just that,” she said.

“Our community deserves it.

“Stability comes from a willingness to build relationships with all stakeholders, including those from different sides of the political spectrum, and those who have new and different ideas.”

She’ll be acting mayor until the court agrees with Ms Scaffidi’s appeal and overturns her disqualification from office, or if that appeal fails there’ll likely be a by-election to vote in a new lord mayor.

THE VAST majority of Stirling voters want a say in who gets to be their mayor, with 71.6 per cent saying the people should decide rather than councillors.

Most WA councils have a popularly elected mayor who everyone votes on, but Stirling and Bayswater let the councillors decide after the election, meaning a huge role comes down to just a few votes.

Or in some cases it’s come down to a coin toss, or a name pulled out of a hat, which was used to elect Glenn Dewhurst as Gosnells mayor on Tuesday night, when there was a three-way tie in chambers.

On the same night, Mark Irwin was elected Stirling mayor, topping a busy list that included incumbent mayor Giovanni Italiano, and Elizabeth Re and Keith Sargeant.

David Lagan was elected deputy mayor, winning a ballot draw when two nominees tied.

In one surprise result, Stirling’s longest-serving councillor Terry Tyzack was defeated in a tight battle for Inglewood ward, with newcomer and urban planner Bianca Sandri, winning 2,958 votes to 2,817.

Most other Stirling incumbents had strong showings this election: in Balga ward David Boothman was returned having won more than half the total vote, Karen Caddy’s back with a whopping 72.13 per cent in her ward, and despite butting heads with other councillors over the years Elizabeth Re remains unstoppable, elected with 53.8 per cent of the vote in a three-candidate field.

In the crowded Hamersley Ward (which had nine candidates for two seats), Andrew Guilfoyle was comfortably returned and he’s joined by new councillor Karlo Perkov.

In Lawley Ward it was an extremely close contest between winner Suzanne Migdale (1736 votes) and former councillor Paul Collins (1671), with the next nearest contender more than 600 votes behind.

Adam Spagnolo was the clear winner in the Osborne Ward, and has had three previous stints as mayor.

by DAVID BELL

THE public is invited inside the Perth Mosque for an open day this Saturday (October 28), as part of a national day to break down common misconceptions about Islam.

Organiser Ali Chaudhry, from Muslim Youth WA, says it’s a chance for non-Muslims to ask any questions they might have about Islam, and is hopeful the open day will counteract Islamophobia and mutual misconceptions between Muslims and non-Muslims.

They’ll have an open Q&A session, teach people about ritual ablution, how Muslim services work, and a bit about the history of the William Street mosque: it’s the second oldest mosque in Australia, built around 1905 on a site that had been used for decades by Afghan cameliers, who’d pray west towards Mecca.

Mohammed Shakeeb, Perth mosque’s friendly and good-humoured imam, says there’s a few questions that typically get asked by non-Muslims.

He says a lot of them stem from people wrongly attributing cultural practices to Islam: “They might be genuinely curious about why women dress in in that manner”.

He says the Quran only requires that both men and women dress modestly, but it’s interpreted differently around the world, from Saudi Arabian culture that requires only the eyes be left uncovered, to the hair-covering jilbab of Indonesia, or some women who wear no special covering.

He says people also ask about child brides, which is not a rule of Islam but was a practice in many parts of the world throughout history (including in the western world where royal marriages would involve very young girls).

Another topic is female genital mutilation: it too is a cultural practice, being most common in parts of Africa (and practiced by a number of religions including Christianity and Islam, and was even done in a few rare cases in Europe and the United States through the 1800s to combat “female hysteria”).

“The majority of Australian society doesn’t really interact with Muslims,” Mr Chaudhry says, and it’s a chance to come along and see how normal they are.  Muslims make up about 2.6 per cent of Australia’s population and he says for some people attending “it’ll be their first time interacting with Muslims”.

They also aim to make it a fun, kid-friendly event, with face-painting, henna tattoos, and a sausage sizzle.

The imam says you don’t need to wear a special outfit, just dress as if you were going to a traditional church.

The mosque is at 427 William Street and the open day runs 10am to 4pm, with tours starting every hour, and there’s a prayer demonstration at 1pm.

by DAVID BELL

YOUNG inventors at Perth College Junior School have come up with a device to help kids play safely in the sun.

Year five students Bronte Fong, Violet Horgan, Rachel Lee and Olivia Henry were tasked with identifying a problem in their community and coming up with a solution.

They invented a device that detects UV rays and warns when it’s too toasty for kids at Marjorie Mann Day Centre to play.

Centre director Shelley Carlin said “we brainstormed ideas with the Perth College staff and students about the issues we faced as a local community organisation, and came up with a device so we could always be aware of the UV levels and not have to rely on Googling it whilst out in the playground”.

Sun safety

“The final product exceeded my expectations and the device has already been very useful for knowing the current UV levels and also helping teach the children in our care about sun safety.”

The device was built with an Arduino board, a programmable circuit board, and it reads UV levels and then lights up different coloured bulbs depending on how high the UV is: blue light mean there’s little chance of sunburn, a green light means children and staff should wear a hat and sunscreen, and a red light means UV levels are too high

When Ms Carlin finally saw the device she said she was astonished.

“They talked me through how they programmed the device, what they know about UV, and the technologies they used,” she says.

“I could see their enjoyment and pride as they explained how they device was used and how they made it work”.

The year 5 inventors are part of Perth College’s STEaM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) programme, and director Jessi Ussi says the project needed a good understanding of UV light. “The engineering design process, and a great deal of mathematics…what is even more important is they now understand how they can adopt these to solve real-world problems in the community,” she says.

Still a largely male-dominated realm, there’s been a push in recent years to get more females involved in STEaM.

Last year the federal government invested $8 million, under the National Innovation and Science Agenda, in a variety of projects, including getting WA school girls along to Murdoch Uni to encourage them to study science, and a local initiative from Subsea Energy Australia to get more women into the subsea engineering sector.