Perth Voice Interactive

IT would be easy to write off Hollywood flick Machine Gun Preacher as hype, but Sam Childers’ fight to save hundreds of Sudanese children from a life of unspeakable brutality is as real and as confronting as it gets.

He’s in Perth next Friday (September 1) to talk about his work and his hopes for the future.

“To motivate and inspire people to get up and do something on your own,” he tells the Voice.

The former biker and drug addict found God before heading to Sudan as a missionary to help repair huts damaged during the second Sudanese civil war in 1998.

Coming across the body of a child torn apart by a land mine, he pledged to make a difference.

The Lord’s Resistance Army rebel militia kidnapped 30,000 children and raped, tortured and murdered hundreds of thousands of villagers.

Undeterred by stories of the threat of the LRA’s brutal reign of terror he sold his US construction business and set up the first of three orphanages, surrounded by high wire fences to protect the kids.

Many are former child soldiers forced to kill or be killed, and to take part in the atrocities the LRA inflicted on the country.

One rescued child was told to kill his mother or be killed himself, and then his mother would be slain, and the rest of his family.

Resilience

With little choice, and his mother nodding for him to do it, the boy took up a cudgel and did as he was instructed.

Visiting psychologists are surprised at the resilience of these damaged kids: “The first thing they say is what program do you have your children on, they are just amazing,” he says.
“God showed me years ago they need to just be loved.

“Hurt by war, their lives destroyed by war we educate them and allow them to be children again.”

Most third world orphanages turf the kids out at 15, and 70 per cent end up in prostitution, unlike his organisation which ensure they have a trade before they leave, Mr Childers says.

“We educate our children to the age of 26.”

Happy to talk about his work, and God, the Machine Gun Preacher won’t be drawn on his his gun toting image.

“Nowhere in 21 years has anyone got me to talk about violence.

“Violence does not glorify Jesus Christ, I won’t talk about it.

“Many years ago I was young, wild and violent, now I rescue children.”

Mr Childers has grand kids in the US and as much as he loves them says: “Children in the western world have all they need…the children I rescue have no other chances but what we can give them.”

Despite working in a perilous part of the world the 55-year-old has successors lined up: “There are many people on board, and if anything happens to me most of my estate money is to be used for the work here.”

You can catch the real Machine Gun Preacher at the Fly By Night in Fremantle on, Friday September 1, bar open 6.30pm doors 7.30pm. Tickets flybynight.org/machinegunpreacher

by JENNY D’ANGER

PERTH deputy lord mayor James Limnios says he’s getting “daily complaints” that steep parking prices are chasing customers away from the city.

Earlier this year he tried to push through a 12-month trial of free 30-minute parking in Royal, Lake, James and Hay streets, but with only councillors Reece Harley and Gemma Green supporting the plan, it was “enthusiastically slammed down” by the rest of the council.

With the state in an economic downturn he says they’ve got to lower parking prices. He says some business owners tell him their trade is down 20 to 30 per cent and are in “pure survival mode”.

“We need people to choose us first when shopping, dining, or thinking about entertainment. It’s all about cost and convenience for the customer.

“I don’t know what it will take for council to act on such a pressing issue,” he says. “More ‘For Lease’ signs and vacancies in the city?”

He says he’ll keep plugging away in an attempt to get a free period and also wants free weekend parking in city-controlled carparks.

“I receive daily complaints about the parking fines people receive [and] the cost of parking from both retailers and visitors, to the point where some people visit neighbouring councils to shop or have a coffee where the first hour is free rather than coming to the city for a meeting if they can avoid it. For me this rings alarm bells and it has to stop.”

One big contributor to city parking prices is the Perth Parking Levy. It’s a fee that councils have to pay for every parking bay in the inner city, and it currently sits at $1150 per bay after skyrocketing up 100% in the past five years. The funds are held by the state government and are meant to be spent on public transport projects.

In April lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi urged the state government not to increase the levy this year and Vincent council made a similar plea.

This week the Property Council of WA issued a media release likewise calling for a freeze on the levy, saying “the high price of parking has discouraged shoppers from coming into the CBD, exacerbating the issues faced by the city’s retail industry including low foot traffic and a dwindling economy”.

”The State Government must do everything it can to increase the number of people shopping in the Perth CBD and should commit to not increasing the

Perth Parking Levy in the upcoming State Budget,” PCWA executive director Lino Iacomella said.

“The city centre is facing significant economic challenges following the decline of the investment boom with CBD office vacancies now at 21 per cent. The decline in the number of people working in the CBD has led to a jump in retail vacancies to 16 per cent.

“If less people now work in the CBD, we must look at ways to attract people in from the suburbs. The Perth Parking Levy has driven up the cost of parking, making the city not competitive, compared to the suburban shopping centre that all offer free parking.”

He says “the parking levy is highly inequitable as it only captures a small portion of the cars that contribute to Perth’s congestion issues.”

by DAVID BELL

AFTER months of preparation and three mini-meetings, the Perth City Summit organised by Perth Labor MP John Carey was packed out on Saturday.

The 350 delegates (there were more on a waiting list) voted on ideas to improve the city from a list of 35 that were brought up during precinct meetings in East Perth, West Perth and Northbridge/CBD, and from 1000 online survey responses.

The number one idea was to better emphasise Perth’s Indigenous culture and history.

Other top-rated ideas were to establish Perth as the “canopy city” with a tree-planting program to encourage more walking and protect pedestrians from the searing sun, and to create a new group called “Renew Perth” to fill vacant properties with pop up businesses and events.

Another of the ideas floated was to have a “night mayor,” an idea that came out of Amsterdam to have a position in charge of livening up the city’s nightlife and bridge the gap between entertainment providers and club owners and the suits at city hall.

“The summit has proved that there is incredible interest, energy and desire to change in our city, and make it more vibrant and liveable,” Mr Carey said.

“Obviously state and local governments have a role to deliver some of these outcomes but it is up to the local communities, residents, business owners and property owners, to take ownership of the recommendations and make them happen in their own areas.”

Another outcome of the lead up to the summit was that two new precinct groups have been established—West Perth Local and Northbridge Common—to get residents and businesses together at the grassroots level.

It’s a model that’s worked well at Vincent council, with groups like Leederville Connect and Beaufort Street Network organising festivals and events in their areas and organising to lobby councils and government.

Perth council’s recent Share to Shape community engagement got 1945 participants, with 1689 being online surveys. Of the 256 face-to-face engagements spread across 14 events, 61 were council staff. CEO Martin Mileham won’t say how much was spent on the campaign with his media staff saying it was mentioned “at a council meeting recently”.

by DAVID BELL

THE multinational owner of Plaza Arcade in Perth’s CBD has offered to compensate small businesses suffering from a construction-related trade slump, but won’t say how much unless they sign confidentiality agreements.

The traders, who revealed their frustration with Singapore-based Starhill Global and its local agents Colliers International in the Perth Voice recently (“Fair trade blocked,” Voice, August 12, 2017) say they won’t be signing up to what is effectively a gag order.

Some shops are suffering an 80 per cent cut in trade while the plaza is revamped to make way for Japanese fashion retailer Uniqlo.

Perth MP John Carey met with Colliers this week to call for a fair deal for the shop owners. He described the attempt to silence them as “appalling” and backs their plan not to sign.

“It is appalling; I think it shows a complete lack of judgement by the company,” Mr Carey said. “It’s a complete lack of respect.

“They’re not big franchises, these are small, independent businesses whose families rely on this. They’re doing it tough, they’re clearly being hurt.”

He accused Starhill of being more worried about its reputation than the lives of the small business owners.

“This is a disgrace. I absolutely condemn it.”

Business owners, Keeta Dufall’s trade has dropped so much rent relief isn’t worth it as he’s losing money just keeping his doors open. Before construction he’d do $800 trade on a Sunday; now that’s down to just $100.

“Everyone’s in agreement that it’s not a good a good thing for us,” he says of Starhill’s current offer.

The company seems reluctant to let anyone out of their leases because it’s unlikely to find a replacement with the arcade being so barren lately.

But Colliers says the renovations will deliver big benefits to the existing businesses and works were designed to create as little disruption as possible.

But the arcade is empty even during the lunch hour, and the southern access way they’ve provided is a damp, uninviting, leaky construction passage.

Mr Carey is advising all the owners to contact the Small Business Development Corporation about how to claim compensation from the landlord for lost earnings.

by DAVID BELL

ABOUT 350 people turned up to a snap rally on Saturday in support of marriage equality.

One in a series of rallies hosted by Equal Love WA urging people to vote “yes” in the lead-up to the national plebiscite on marriage equality, the event caused some controversy when police ordered a gigantic blow-up penis to be deflated.

The penis was being carried by gay activists The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and featured Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s name in large letters.

“The good sisters tried to make a run for it but we were stopped by six uniformed policemen and told that there had been a complaint about our placard and they were going to [confiscate] it if it was not deflated,” said Mother Gretta, decked out in the order’s usual nun’s outfit.

“So much for freedom of speech.”

Ros Weatherall from police media confirms “police asked two people to deflate the object, due to the multiple complaints they received”.

“It will be interesting to see what placards the No campaign are allowed to have when they hold a rally,” Mother Gretta pondered.

While the Voice hasn’t spotted any egregious campaign material locally, posters have popped up in Melbourne urging “Stop the fags” and citing made-up statistics about the ill-fate of children raised by same sex couples.

Equal Love WA is planning a series of rallies before the vote leading up to their big “Yes Festival” on October 7 at Russell Square at 1pm.

by DAVID BELL

NEW Mt Lawley MP Simon Millman’s come through on the election commitment to deliver $10,000 funding to the Mount Lawley Society to help preserve historical documents.

Mr Millman says; “Mt Lawley is a beautiful part of our city and it’s important that we respect, recognise and preserve its heritage. The Mount Lawley Society does a fantastic job.” Society president Paul Collins says over the years they’ve accrued a lot of valuable historical documents and photographs but they’d been sitting in their small, leaky basement storage room.

Mr Millman pledged the funding after hearing of the storage woes and the grant will go towards the gear they need to scan and digitise the artefacts. He’s photographed here with society president Paul Collins, committee member Christina Gustavson, patron Barrie Baker and secretary Sheila Robinson.

A VINNIE’S drop-in centre for young homeless people will relocate to 143 Edwards Street after being approved by Vincent council.

St Vincent de Paul’s Passages drop-in centre has outgrown its site on Palmerston Street where it’s been running since 1999, offering homeless people aged 12 to 25 daytime services like a free kitchen and bathroom facilities.

Nearby neighbours sent in 91 submissions about the centre, with 86 objecting to the relocation.

Residents were concerned the centre would attract more homeless people to the area and increase antisocial behaviour. There’s also two brothels nearby prompting questions about whether this was the right spot for vulnerable young people.

At Tuesday’s council meeting several residents relayed stories about how they’d already had bad experiences with homeless people in the area, with one woman saying she’d needed a police escort because people were sleeping out on her porch.

Another said they had to deal with homeless leaving rubbish, human waste and discarded syringes around their properties.

Vinnies invited concerned residents to an information night on July 20 in an attempt to allay their worries but almost none of the objectors showed up, with only one property owner and one resident attending.

Vincent mayor Emma Cole said she took the neighbours’ concerns seriously but voted to approve it because “this is a service that has been running for 18 years and when we have gone to the City of Perth and fact checked on complaints… we’ve seen there were two complaints in 2016. Whenever there is a complaint they have acted and resolved the complaint.

“The people that are accessing the service are young people that are not necessarily grappling with severe drug issues, but are those who are wanting to get on the right path and start to job seek and start to try to turn their lives around.

“Vinnies in moving into this area is seeking to be part of the solution… they’re seeking to deal with homelessness, not increase homelessness.”

St Vincent de Paul’s state manager for homeless services Gayle Mitchell told Tuesday’s meeting: “I understand the fear of the unknown, and it doesn’t help with the sensationalised representation in the media of the youth in our community, or the already negative experiences this community has had with homeless people.”

But she said Passages’ clients “are young people who want support, and who want the opportunity and the chance to change their circumstances.

“I was on the floor at Passages today, something I get the pleasure to do when we’re short-staffed, and the young people I supported today were not creating havoc or chaos at the service or in the wider community.

“I worked with eight young people, who were basically trying to access Centrelink, have breakfast and showers, and told me they were job hunting—but obviously as teenagers they were probably on Facebook.

“There are moments when our young people do have tantrums and are angry at the world, and they have very good reason to be, but we have a team of astonishing youth workers and the clients have respect for the service.

“They want to be a positive part of the community and they would not want to risk the service being shut down due to their behaviours.”

Ms Mitchell said the rate of homelessness in Perth was growing at an alarming rate.

As councillors voted unanimously to approve the relocation, the eight or so residents and staff from a planning firm they hired shuffled out, one describing the decision as “disappointing”.

The centre will run Monday to Friday, 8am to 4.30pm, provide showers, laundry, food, clothes, computers and a mail service, alcohol and drug counselling and medical services

It’ll have a maximum of 20 clients and seven staff at any one time.

by DAVID BELL