Perth Voice Interactive

PERTH city councillors are finally allowed to speak to the media after abolishing the old restrictive rule at their meeting on Tuesday July 4, but councillors can expect a close eye to be kept on their social media accounts to make sure they’re not breaking the rules.

Cr Reece Harley’s been pushing for the right for councillors to speak their minds, and the new policy will let them publicly comment on council issues (provided they don’t purport to represent the city’s official views—only the mayor or CEO can do that).

They just have to make sure they aren’t derogatory about fellow councillors or trash council decisions.

Cr Harley thinks it’s a “great step forward for the City of Perth” as it was important for councillors to be able to explain why they voted a certain way.

Councillors Janet Davidson, Judy McEvoy and lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi all said the old policy being referred to as a “gag” was incorrect.

Ms Scaffidi said at the meeting “there’s been a lot of speculation and discussion about this ‘gag’… there’s been no gag. Many councillors make it quite a habit of speaking off the record to the media as well as on the record, and speak quite freely, and that’s their right, and certainly as an individual who can hold their own in a debate I don’t fear that at any time.”

She said the old policy was just to make sure ratepayers had clarity about the official city position. “It is an evolution of a policy, there never was any ‘gag’.”

Cr Harley disagreed: “I think there certainly was a gag at the City of Perth. I know that because I’ve received numerous letters from the former CEO contending that I’d breached the media policy by speaking to the media.”

The policy had been delayed by one meeting while they included clauses to cover social media too.

Ms Scaffidi said some councillors after losing a vote go on social media and give their opinion “and be almost derogatory at times in how they’re putting the story out there, and I think that will be monitored very closely from now on”.

Stirling remains the only council in our coverage zone that won’t let councillors publicly give their opinions, with Cr Elizabeth Re recently getting a letter from city lawyers telling her to stay hush after she put out a media release relating to a Local Government Standards Panel finding.

Meanwhile, after Perth MP John Carey described Lisa Scaffidi’s allies on council as a Liberal protection racket, Ms Scaffidi has said there’s no “clique” in the PCC chamber.

At the Tuesday July 4 council meeting she didn’t refer to Mr Carey’s speech directly but said “to have suggested that I control some of you around the table, they don’t know you very well, particularly the five that is suggested [to be part of] ‘Scaffidi’s Clique,’ that I control you, what an insult to you all as your own thinking beings.

“Certainly there are alliances, that doesn’t mean a faction, and an aligned thinking shows common purpose, care, and passion for the city.”

by DAVID BELL

AS shadow minister she slammed the Barnett government for “mean-spirited” cutbacks to childcare and neighbourhood centres, but now she’s the responsible minister Simone McGurk is refusing to reverse the decision.

Late last year the Liberals ordered the Department of Local Government and Communities to stop rental assistance to centres across the state, causing a number of them to fear for their futures.

“These centres…are fantastic local assets that are facing the axe because the Liberal government has ruined the state’s finances,” Ms McGurk steamed.

“The funding needed to keep the centres open is small compared to the bill taxpayers are having to foot for the Liberals’ waste and mismanagement.”

But following Linkwest’s recent call for the decision to be reversed and a restructure of the sector to be delayed, Ms McGurk says there’s little she can do.

“The only way to reverse that decision would be to take money from other local projects, which we’re not prepared to do,” Ms McGurk told the Voice this week.

“We do recognise this has been stressful for some centres and we’re working closely with them to support the transfer of ownership and leases and give them as much certainty as we can.

“What I am doing is ensuring that there are support measures in place to assist centres with their accommodation and the tendering process.”

The latter refers to a decision to merge several community programs into one $9.4 pool and put it out to tender for the first time.

Linkwest says that will disadvantage community centres who’ll have to complete against big, slick non-profit and private organisations, but Ms McGurk says it’s a plus for community groups.

“This gives those community groups, previously shut out of the process, the opportunity to be part of the program,” the minister said.

“An open tender process will provide fair and equitable access. Existing services remain eligible to apply for funding.”

The changes affect worry Jennifer Jones, who says her local neighbourhood centre saved her life.

“As an active centre participant the activities, social interaction and the acceptance of staff have enriched my life beyond recognition,” Ms Jones told the Voice.

by STEVE GRANT

WEST PERTH midwife Shani Adamson is aiming to raise $10,000 for a dangerous post-birth condition that leaves young African girls and women injured and shunned by their communities.

Ms Adamson found out about the condition “obstetric fistula” when she was studying midwifery.

The condition is almost unheard of in Australia because of our easy access to healthcare, but can happen during a prolonged obstructed birth.

The baby almost always dies, and the woman can be left with a hole (the fistula) forming between the vagina and the bladder or rectum.

Dignity

The co-founder of the first fistula hospital in Ethiopia Reg Hamlin, who died in 1993, described the condition: “mourning the stillbirth of their only child, incontinent of urine, ashamed of their offensiveness, often spurned by their husbands, homeless, unemployable except in the fields, they endure, they exist, without friends and without hope. They bear their sorrows in silent shame. Their miseries, untreated, are utter, lonely, and lifelong”.

Ms Adamson says “some of them live in isolation for years, some of them stay curled up in a ball and don’t move, thinking if they don’t move it will go away”.

The other co-founder of Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia is surgeon Catherine Hamlin, now 93 and still living there, having performed operations into her 80s.

Inspiration

Ms Adamson says Dr Hamlin has been a huge inspiration for her and she hopes to be able to meet her hero.

She’s self-funding her trip to Ethiopia in November but hopes to raise the $10,000 to donate to the hospital.

“I wanted to contribute towards changing the lives of these Ethiopian women, and I’d love to meet Dr Catherine Hamlin,” Adamson says.

“If I could have dinner with one person in the world, it would be her. What I love about Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia is they don’t just repair the fistulas, they’re trying to educate these girls so they’re put through numeracy and literacy education while they’re there.”

They’re also training up local midwives to recognise and prevent this condition and get local women access to caesarian sections when they have an obstruction.

Ms Adamson said this cause spoke to her because, “I’m a woman, I have a mother and a sister, and it could have been any of us. We’re lucky enough to be born in Australia where obstetric Fistula is a thing of the past”.

She was extremely affected by the documentary A Walk to Beautiful, about five young women suffering from obstetric fistula as they try to restore their dignity and repair their life after having lost their babies and being so badly injured.

“It’s heart wrenching,” Ms Adamson says. “As a woman, I really can’t think of anything worse than this.”

“One of the big problems for the women in Ethiopia and those countries, is the girls are very young, they get married off and fall pregnant very young so their pelvis isn’t fully developed so that contributes to the obstructed labour.”

Last year she volunteered as a midwife in Tanzania, where women give birth in stark conditions.

“If I had to describe the conditions in Tanzania as to the resources there, it would be horrific…a lot of women here don’t realise how lucky and privileged we are,” Ms Adamson says.

Women giving birth in Tanzania have to bring their own sheets, and only have access to a bucket beside the bed as a toilet.

“They’re exposed, in pain, with no pain relief. Women literally push out their baby, they’re sutured up if they have a tear, they have to bring their own bed linen and take it away with them and walk off to the post natal ward.”

Ms Adamson is organising a quiz night to help raise money on Friday August 11 at the Mount Hawthorn Community Centre. Tickets are $22 each with tables of eight.

Book through eventbrite.com.au (search “Hamlin Fistula”) or if you’re not so good at quizzes you can donate directly at http://www.adventure-2017.everydayhero.com/au/shani-adamson-hamlin-fistula-ethiopia

by DAVID BELL

A PLAN to demolish a 1930 steelworks in West Perth has been put on hold, with Perth councillor Jemma Green requesting city staff investigate if it has enough historic value to warrant heritage listing.

Landowner PFJ Investments want to knock over the Coolgardie Street building “to facilitate the sale of the land”, according to a Perth council report.

Refurbished

“The applicant has stated that the existing building is a significant under utilisation of the development potential of the site permitted under the city planning scheme and is no longer reflective of the changing character of the area.”

The applicant owns abutting lots and is keen to sell them as a land package, but because they don’t have a development application lodged for a building to replace the steelworks, the council’s refusing to let them knock it down.

The city only permits demolition if a feasible plan’s in place, avoiding empty “eyesore” blocks in Perth.

“I’m totally against this,” Cr Judy McEvoy said.

“I think we’ve learnt our lesson over the years in the city: I can take you to Bennett Street now and show you something that was bulldozed, at a guess, 19 years ago, and is still sitting there in its ugly state behind a wire fence”.

Cr Reece Harley said, “I’ve been inside the building myself, and like other warehouses in the district it seems structurally sound”.

He said a great outcome would be if the building could be kept for adaptive reuse or incorporated into the development of the site.

“There’s been other cities of similar sized that have been refurbished for other uses, like the Gordon Street Garage.”

In January 2014, the then-council approved the demolition of the 90-year-old Michelides Tobacco Factory, with Cr Harley being the only dissenting vote.

There was no development application in the pipeline to replace it, but owner Graham Hardie said the building was in poor shape and unsafe so it need to go.

Three years after the demolition, and there’s still an empty site sitting on the corner of Lake and Roe Street.

by DAVID BELL

FEDERAL Perth MP Tim Hammond is urging local groups to apply for grants under the Stronger Communities Program, with grants between $5,000 to $20,000 on offer for community groups, sports clubs and local governments.

He’s inviting interested groups to fill out an EOI via his website ahead of their full application to improve their chance of success.

“This will help to get the ball rolling on the application process as soon as possible and give groups every chance of presenting the best submission possible,” he says. “We have already seen great success with the Stronger Communities Programme in the federal Perth electorate with organisations including the Perth Soccer Club building two new female change rooms and the Bayswater Sea Scouts who now have the money to expanded their operation with more equipment and storage space.”

Mr Hammond said applicants must be able to match the grant dollar for dollar with cash or in kind contribution to be eligible.

“There are many ways an organisation can fundraise their share of the project and my office is more than happy to provide advice to organisations around the various fundraising options,” Mr Hammond said.

If you’re keen to give it a whack head to http://www.timhammondmp.com.