Perth Voice Interactive

THE Barnett government is pledging 650 new spots for the bustling Mt Lawley senior high school with $39 million on the table if re-elected.

The lack of school spots has been a growing issue for parents in the area, with the other major high school nearby, Churchlands SHS, full to bursting. The number of students at Churchlands is projected to increase from 2500 in 2016 to 4000 by 2025.

When we spoke to parents last year the favoured solution was a new school nearby. There are future plans from the Libs to build a college at City Beach but in the meantime the expansion of Mt Lawley is intended as a stopgap measure.

Struggle

Mt Lawley Liberal MP Michael Sutherland told the Voice via email Mt Lawley high is “an excellent school”.

“I have had many enquiries from parents who struggle to get their children into the school,” he says.

“This expansion should be welcomed within the suburbs surrounding the school.”

The $39m will pay for new facilities for science, visual arts, performing arts, food and textiles, design and technology and general learning classrooms. There’ll be space for 300 extra students within four years and 650 come 2022.

To deal with the student boom the Liberals had also previously committed $38.8m to expand Churchlands and $60m has been allocated for the City Beach College build.

by DAVID BELL

THE annual Pride Fairday scheduled for February has been cancelled.

Pride WA announced on January 26: ”It has been decided by the committee of management to change from the February timing of Fairday and as such Fairday will not be held in February 2017.

“Pride WA would like to convey to the community our apologies for the lateness of this news … we do regret any inconvenience caused as a result.”

They’ve yet to settle on a date for the next Fairday.

“We know everyone is anxiously waiting to hear when they can come together at Fairday and celebrate the diversity in our community,” Pride WA president Andrew Barker said in the announcement.

Fairday’s traditionally been the more family-friendly counterpart to the slightly-more-raunchy Pride parade. The response from attendees at a community forum last September showed “overwhelmingly” that “Fairday is the most important event hosted by Pride WA for the LGBTIQ community and it is imperative that the event continues”.

In recent years Pride’s leadership has been experimenting with different timing of the Pride events, first splitting the Fairday from November’s main shindig back in 2014 because of unpredictable spring weather.

Some Fairdays were rained out, but now the weather’s been spiting the February events with intense heat nearly cooking stallholders and patrons.

The Pride leadership also experimented with a daytime Pride parade in 2015, but scorching weather kept numbers low. It moved back to a nighttime event in 2016 and by all accounts the numbers were healthy once again.

by DAVID BELL

RENOWNED techno-biological performance artist Stelarc has chosen Maylands for his latest exhibition, again probing at the boundaries between human and machine.

The Cyprus-born artist’s previous projects exploring “contestable futures” have often involved blurring the lines between the body and robotics: He’s worn a robotic third hand, allowed people to remotely control his arms via the internet, and he’s widely known for having an unnervingly realistic ear surgically grafted to his left forearm (with plans to install a miniature microphone in it and broadcast everything it hears over the internet for anyone to listen in).

A distinguished research fellow at Curtin’s School of Design & Art, his latest project Stickman will see him strapped to a custom-framed robotic exoskeleton that will control his movement for five hours, robbing him of his free will to move. He says its’ “very different” from the experimental exoskeletons that militaries are currently experimenting with. Those giant suits read inputs from the “pilot” and magnify their strength, allowing the wearer to lift massive amounts. Instead, this robot will be controlling him, controlled by a computer algorithm that’ll be feeding unknown inputs to control the pneumatic pistons that send his limbs dancing.

The robot won’t be dancing to the music, but making it: The industrial sounds from the pistons will be amplified through the room to create a mechanical cacophony, with each movement having an accompanying sound.

The Stickman is a part of a collaboration with other Hellenic-Australian artists for Fringeworld’s The Daedalus Project.

Along with Stelarc’s robotic performance, the multi-venue symposium features Ioannis Michaloudis, the first artist to be chosen by NASA to have a human-made sculpture placed on the moon. Local artists Victoria Holessis, Chris Cobilis, Renee Doropoulos, Masonic, Steve Paraskos and Petros Vouris also contribute sculptures, sound installation, video, photography and textile works.

It’s on at four venues strewn through Maylands from February 3 to 17, and times are on the http://www.fringeworld.com.au website or the Facebook page The Daedalus Project.

by DAVID BELL

A HANDFUL of everyday heroes in Stirling were recognised at the annual citizen of the year awards on Australia Day.

Michael Playforth took home the big award for 30 years of full-time volunteering at St Vinnies in Osborne Park.

In the under-25 category, Wahida Samim won the award for her work representing multicultural youth issues, while Diane Watts was chosen as the senior citizen of the year for raising almost $200,000 for charity despite suffering partial blindness.

Robin Cohen and Warren Kotkis won the community group or event category for 24 years volunteering within Perth’s Jewish community, and George Anderson won the award for volunteer work within the broader community.

“The time and personal effort they devote goes above and beyond the usual community participation and I have the highest respect for them all,” said Stirling mayor Giovanni Italiano.

BIBLIOPHILES can top-up on Vitamin D while lounging on a deckchair at Inglewood library’s new outdoor reading room.

Stirling is trialling the alfresco reading rooms at Inglewood and Scarborough libraries until the end of 2017, but they could be made permanent if successful.

Replete with sun-smart parasols, soft grass, and free wi-fi for downloading e-books, Inglewood’s open-air area is already a family favourite in the warm weather and a great addition to the Summerset Arts Festival.

“Who doesn’t love a good read and who doesn’t love a bit of the great outdoors,” wondered Stirling mayor Giovanni Italiano.

“Put them together and you have the Inglewood Library’s outdoor reading room. It is such a great idea and the outdoor lounges look very inviting.”

WA doctors, farmers, faith groups and unions have gathered together to call for immediate action on climate change from WA pollies in March’s election.

Renew WA is a new collective of 40 disparate organisations ranging from the Urban Bushland Council of WA to Catholic Earthcare to the Buddhist Council of WA.

They’re holding a forum at ECU Mt Lawley on February 9 and they’ve invited a bagfull of politicians along to answer questions. While Labor’s Bill Johnston, Chris Tallentire and Roger Cooke have said they’ll attend they’ve so far had no joy from the Liberals invited.

The 40 organisations have signed a climate consensus that says WA is “highly vulnerable to further climate change” and susceptible to extended heat-waves, increased bushfire risk, reduced rainfall and more frequent storms, including threats to our unique biodiversity, tourism and farmers.

They’re calling on candidates to support accelerating the transition to renewable energy that’ll see our grid reach 100 per cent renewables by 2030.

Phase-out

They want a phase-out of state subsidies, incentives and investment in the fossil fuel industry (which currently gets some pretty generous contributions from government) moving that over to renewables, along with a ban on onshore fracking operations and nuclear power.

Fiona Stanley is the keynote speaker at the forum and she says WA should be leading the charge given our economic and technical capacity and the abundance of wind, solar and wave resources: “We just need the political will do do so,” she says.

The forum’s on February 9 at ECU Mt Lawley at 6.30pm. Tickets are free but book through bit.ly/RenewWA

by DAVID BELL

DIANELLA resident Vanessa Vlajkovic has become the first deafblind Western Australian to enter university.

The 19-year-old, who was named WA’s 2016 young person of the year, has signed up to study journalism at Edith Cowan, but admits she’s not sure whether it’ll take off as a career.

Ms Vlajkovic says she’s got humble ambitions at heart; hoping for a “normal-ish life” and to be able to communicate better with her non-signing family.

She was born blind and her hearing deteriorated when she turned seven as a result of auditory nerve damage.

By 16, hearing aids were ineffective so she tossed them out and learned Tactile Auslan (sign language using touch), which made high school a confusing and lonely experience.

“Just the restrictions on freedom — having no friends, it was so lonely,” she recalls. “I almost moved schools to be with deaf students but people kept persuading me to stay where I was, so I battled it out.” Ms Vlajkovic says.

Life took a turn for the better after high school when she embraced being deafblind as part of her identity.

She communicates with a device that converts text and email into braille, and doesn’t think deafness will be a barrier.

“The hardest is not being able to communicate with my family, they don’t sign,” Ms Vlajkovic said.

“I don’t want a piece of metal on either side of my head when I have a beautiful, intimate language I can use instead…I feel as though it would be unnatural for me and I am unwilling to go through surgery and many months of adapting to new sounds because it just isn’t me.”

When she’s not staying up late procrastinating on assignments, Ms Vlajkovic tumbles at West Coast Fury as a cheerleader.

“I am the flyer in my group stunt, which means I get tossed around in the air and perform different tricks. It’s exhilarating and my worries go right out the window the second I cross the gym’s threshold.”

by TRILOKESH CHANMUGAM

STIRLING will hold a councillor workshop early next year to consider whether to swap to a popularly elected mayor.

The mayor is currently chosen through a vote of councillors.

Councillor David Boothman spearheaded the current motion, despite voting against popular elections when they were floated by Councillor Elizabeth Re during his mayoralty.

Cr Boothman said he voted “with the status quo” in 2011 because he couldn’t see a clear benefit of making the change, but now thinks mayoral responsibilities have increased because of the council’s long-term strategic work.

He says it’s important for a mayor to represent the whole city and not focus on one ward.

“The mayor has to take a more holistic view of the entire city,” Cr Boothman said. “Perhaps going forward, a mayor that’s elected will be answerable to the wider population … just as they’re elected by the community perhaps they can be unelected too.”

In November residents made their position clear, with two petitions of 280 and 115 signatures being table at the council meeting in support of the change.

Some of the reasons listed in the petition were:

• Most metropolitan councils have a popularly elected mayor;

• Mayors are now paid; and,

• It would make the mayor more independent and better able to serve the people who voted them in.

A final decision will be made by council before March, but a special majority of at least 11 of the 14 councillors will be required for it to pass.

by TRILOKESH CHANMUGAM