Perth Voice Interactive

A PLAN to record Perth council committee meetings and make them publicly available has been shot down by lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi and her allies.

Council meetings are uploaded, but anyone wanting to hear what happens at the committee meetings, held around 4pm, has to attend in person.

Cr Jemma Green said that in line with the city’s push for more transparency they should put committee meetings online.

She says the afternoon kick-off is inconvenient for people at work and useless for those overseas or who have a disability.

“This way we can offer more universal access,” she said, adding that council CEO Martin Mileham advised there’d be no extra cost because they already had the equipment set up and it would take staff minutes to upload the recordings.

Fleshed out

Councillors James Limnios and Reece Harley agreed.

“Committees are where the interesting debate happens and where the ideas are really fleshed out,” Cr Harley said.

Mrs Scaffidi has frequently told the public gallery that council meetings have so little debate because councillors have already held detailed discussions at the specialised committee meetings.

But Mrs Scaffidi, Keith Yong, Lily Chen and Judy McEvoy don’t want those meetings recorded.

Cr McEvoy said “I’m not in favour of this, it’s not because of transparency or anything like that, I think we’ve become over-transparent … anybody that wants to come along to these meetings can come along.”

Mrs Scaffidi said “I am tired of hearing this constant talk of transparency, as if the suggestion is that we’re not. The meetings are open to the public.The fact is we do need some opportunity to have some discussion with the people who are making representations, and for them to feel very comfortable that at that committee level they are able to freely discuss everything they need to.”

by DAVID BELL

A COALITION of support agencies and advocate groups that work in prisons has backed corrective services minister Fran Logan’s idea of releasing low-risk prisoners.

Social Reinvestment WA says keeping fine defaulters in prison at a cost of $772 a day is economic mismanagement, when they can be put on community work orders for just $24 a day. At the same time the community benefits from their environmental rehabilitation, cleaning and farming.

SRWA says the system also discriminates against struggling mums. According to the WA Law Society, women only make up 15 per cent of the total prison population, but 22 per cent of fine defaulters are women.

Nearly three-quarters are unemployed and struggle to pay fines, and 64 per cent are Aboriginal; many from WA’s most disadvantaged communities.

Torn apart

SRWA says this often separates mothers from their children, who can end up in costly state care, while elderly people who relied on the women are put at risk.

“Fine defaulters are not the only people locked up in Western Australian prisons, at an extreme cost to the community, despite posing no threat to other people,” says co-chair Daniel Morrison.

“Who else is WA paying through the nose to lock up?

“Which families have been needlessly torn apart, when some non-violent offenders could instead be on community corrections orders.”

SRWA says keeping people out of prisons also stops them being exposed to hardened crims who might teach them a few nasty habits.

But One Nation’s Charles Smith, a former WA police officer and incoming East Metro MLC, says Mr Logan’s plan was a “slap in the face” to victims of crime and says all three branches of WA government need to toughen up.

“We know magistrates have continuously failed to meet community expectations on many levels, be it in weak sentencing or granting bail to repeat and dangerous offenders, but we now have a Labor Government that’s weak on law and order joining in wanting to place criminals back into the community,” he says

“That is wholly unacceptable. If you break the law, there needs to be a consequence.”

by STEVE GRANT

LORD mayor Lisa Scaffidi has demanded the state government put a freeze on a parking tax it imposes on her council.

Inner-city councils have to pay the state government an ever-rising amount for parking bays located in large sections of Perth, West Perth, East Perth and Northbridge.

The money is meant to be used to fund public transport like CAT busses, but councils are often unhappy about how the cash is spent.

Mrs Scaffidi tabled the item as ”urgent business” at Tuesday’s council meeting, demanding the state government not increase the levy amount this year.

By law, “urgent business” items can only be brought up if the council will suffer some negative effect if it doesn’t get dealt with right away.

Power

Given the bad publicity following the lord mayor lately, Cr Reece Harley told the meeting: “I do think this is a bait and switch strategy from the lord mayor to distract from other issues she’s dealing with.

“This is an issue that happens annually, it’s not a surprise”.

Cr Jemma Green went further, calling it an “abuse of power” to raise the issue as an urgent item when it came up at the same time each year.

“To me this looks like a political stunt.”

Mrs Scaffidi was unfazed, merely telling Cr Green: “Well, you can vote against it then”.

Cr James Limnios was also unhappy with the last-minute motion, pointing out the lord mayor had recently wrongly allowed an item to be raised as urgent business (that was the no-confidence motion in Cr Limnios) only to be told off by the Local Government Standards Panel for wrongly applying the rules.

The item passed 6/2. with Crs Green and Limnios against.

by DAVID BELL

STIRLING Cr David Lagan wants to stop elected members travelling to international conferences in the last six months of their term.

“My concern was that this travel, so late on in an elected member’s term, has a lack of benefit for ratepayers,” he says.

Cr Lagan withdrew his motion after city officers recommended an amendment that council had to approve any overseas and interstate travel by councillors in the last six months of their term.

“I wasn’t 100 per cent comfortable with the amended motion and I want any changes to the policy to have a positive impact for ratepayers,” Cr Lagan said.

With five months left in his term, Cr Rod Willox will jet off to England for a sustainable development and planning conference in June.

Cr Andrew Guilfoyle will attend a constructed environment conference in Poland this May, with six months of his term left.

A Stirling council spokesperson said as a check and balance, councillors had to present a report on their conference to the council for endorsement.

Cr Lagan says he will look into the details of the alternative recommendation before tabling another motion.

by CHARLIE SMITH

THE supreme court has probably put the final nail in the coffin for an attempt by a community group to get the full raft of stops for the old bus route 15 from Perth CBD to Glendalough reinstated.

It was a long fight and local Tad Krysiak gave them a run for their money, forming the Seniors and Disables Bus Action Group to take the fight through the courts when stops were cut from the route in 2015.

The PTA reckoned the route was under-used but Mr Krysiac claimed discrimination because it left a lot of disabled people without transport.

“I haven’t had a chance to look at the judgment but apparently it didn’t go very well, we came a cropper,” he said after the hearing on April 13.

He has a couple more cards up his sleeve: “I’ve just sent off final submissions for our complaint to the Human Rights Commission, which is federal, plus we’ll be working with the new Labor government to hopefully get some compromise.”

BAYSWATER council should focus on local services and not donate $5000 to help feed starving people in South Sudan, says Cr Brent Fleeton.

Cr Sally Palmer is proposing the city make the UNICEF donation after years of war with the north, inflation and a recent drought led to famine in the nascent country.

Cr Palmer told the Voice she penned the motion after she saw footage on TV of infants suffering from serious malnutrition. She says $5000 spread across the population of Bayswater works out to about seven cents a head and believes ratepayers expect councils to show leadership in times of crisis. “I feel our citizens are happy with doing that, I feel that everyone’s got a heart.”

“I’m not worried about losing brownie points with a councillor when people’s lives are at stake. I’m happy to put my reputation on the line if we can help South Sudan.”

The council has previously donated money to help overseas disasters, including the Haiti Earthquake appeal, Pakistan floods and the Abruzzo Earthquake.

But Cr Fleeton says Bayswater should be prioritising essentials like rubbish disposal and road and park maintenance.

“At best this is an issue for the federal government to grapple with,” he says.

“How can councillors vote to spend local money on an international issue this council has nothing to do with?

“If you think your local council should be donating to UNICEF, where should we draw the line? Do we say yes to the South Sudan food crisis but no to the Mosul Children’s emergency fund?”

by DAVID BELL

HUNDREDS of kayakers paddled out into Claisebrook Cove on April 9 for the annual “Unite on the Swan” Guinness record attempt to form the largest raft of kayaks and canoes ever.

With a count of 263 craft, they’re still 2,887 short of the world record, but it sure looked pretty, and organisers say this year’s attempt gave them the basis to mount a more serious challenge in 2018.

Plus, we at least beat the rival event in South Australia, which only just managed to get 200 boats on the water due to rough weather (also the registration price raised money for breast cancer).

MORE parking bays and an extra 2500 dwellings could be on the cards for Osborne Park after Stirling council approved a development plan for the precinct.

Stirling is hoping to meet the state government target of 60,400 additional dwellings in the city by 2050.

The Osborne Park precinct surrounds King Edward Road and borders Westfield Innaloo.

One submission suggested the council should allow showrooms and warehouses in the precinct.

“If showrooms and warehouses were permitted then the area would lose the ability to accommodate these new residential dwellings,” said Stirling city planning manager Fraser Henderson.

The first development scheduled is the sub-precinct around Sarich Court, dependent on road upgrades.

by CHARLIE SMITH