Perth Voice Interactive

A DEVELOPER has been allowed to demolish an historic Mount Lawley shop despite a development assessment panel originally using its retention as a justification to approve the project.

The 1912 Poles building at 760 was once home to Golman’s mustard and starch, but is making way for a small bar, shop, office and apartments which was approved by the north metro DAP in 2014.

Stirling council recommended Dolten Pty Ltd’s application be knocked back because of a parking shortfall, but the DAP approved it instead, partly because it was “considered an innovative approach to the site, which respected and recognised the heritage value of the retained building”.

During demolition Dolten went back to Stirling council, claiming the old storefront couldn’t be retained and was unsafe.

The council agreed to the shop’s demolition on the proviso bricks were recycled into the new development in some way.

Mount Lawley Society president Paul Collins says the the new construction shouldn’t have been allowed to encroach so far on the 1912 building: “The DAPs are the greatest threat to heritage,” he says, with the DAP allowing them to just keep a mere facade of the old place. “What happened was inevitable in our experience… now there’s no heritage left.”

by DAVID BELL

PERTH Liberal MP Eleni Evangel has slammed Vincent council for “political propaganda” after it recommended seniors complain to the Barnett government about changes to rates concessions.

For years the state government has paid half of pensioners’ rates, but this year has capped its contribution to $750, leaving anyone with rates over $1500 out of pocket.

When Vincent sent out its rates notices recently it sent pensioners a separate letter alerting them to the change, but went a step further by telling them where to complain.

“If you wish to lodge a complaint regarding the capping of the pensioner rebate you will need to contact your local member of parliament”.

The letter then names Ms Evangel along with her office address, contact number and email.

The issue is further tangled by Vincent mayor John Carey being Labor’s candidate against Ms Evangel in the Perth electorate, but Vincent CEO Len Kosova says it was an operational issue and neither he nor the mayor had any input in the letter.

Ms Evangel says she was alerted to the issue by elderly constituents “disappointed to see their rates being used in this manner, especially as they weren’t even affected in any way”.

Ms Evangel discovered 2286 letters were sent out costing $1.13 each, a total of about $2,583.

Mr Kosova says the Office of State Revenue suggested the council tell pensioners where to complain; it certainly wasn’t keen on hearing their gripes: “Please do not direct your ratepayer to contact the OSR or department of finance,” it told the council.

Mr Kosova says the notice was sent out “with the sole intent of giving pensioner ratepayers advance notice of the capping of the rebate”.

Only 586 properties will actually affected by the cap, leaving Ms Evangel wondering why so many letters were mailed out.

“The fact this negative piece of mail was not only sent to the affected households (586) but also those who are not affected (1700) demonstrates poor judgment, and a use of ratepayer funds on their political propaganda,” Ms Evangel says.

“You would think that with Vincent being in a financial situation that is requiring the urgent sale of local community assets, our money would be used better and more wisely. As a ratepayer, I am not keen on funding my opponent’s campaign.”

In March Ms Evangel called for Mr Carey to resign as mayor once he’d been preselected by Labor to avoid any conflicts of interest.

Mr Carey said at the time he intended to stay on until the election.

by DAVID BELL

IN the last week of the election the Chook takes a look at the federal candidates for Perth, presented in the order they appear on the ballot:

MILD-mannered Liberal candidate Jeremy Quinn has had a run unmarked by controversy, a far cry from Darryl Moore’s attempt in 2013. The engineering consultant has done a lot of on-the-ground campaigning and his run for Perth has seen cash pledges for local groups, from helping the Street Roller Hockey Kids get a sound wall to pledging $750,000 for the more traditional Liberal voter base at the Bayswater tennis club. While the bookies are placing a win for Labor in Perth, Mr Quinn’s promises have the advantage of a likely Turnbull win actually giving him government power to get those grants through.

GREENS man Tim Clifford is an ex-Army reservist infantryman and worked 10 years as a FIFO, and with experience in the mining industry he’s big on managing the effects of the post-mining boom climate, wanting to move to a clean energy economy (and the jobs that go with it). He also wants to make sure we keep housing affordable. Mr Clifford grew up with a single mum looking after four kids in the country and says without safety nets the family would’ve fallen into poverty and missed out on education and jobs. The Greens had a bit of a dip in the seat of Perth at the last election and he’ll be hoping to build on their 10 per cent primary vote.

LABOR’S Tim Hammond is odds-on favourite to take the election (a $1 bet on him only gets you $1.03 for a win), pegged to take over from outgoing Alannah MacTiernan. Formerly a barrister representing asbestos victims, he’s now a roaming lawyer who’s been travelling the Kimberley helping Aboriginal road trauma victims with legal mediation like he’s starring in some kind of ABC2 series. Despite being a federal candidate his campaign’s also had a lot of nitty-gritty focus, from small issues like the horrid Beaufort/Walcott intersection to transport troubles like the state Liberal government’s Max light rail falling in a heap.

ONLINE Direct Democracy is putting up Andrew David Chambers, who says “who I am or what I’ve done is really of no significance” because his party’s platform is a huge departure from usual politics: Rather than represent what he reckons his constituents (or party) wants, Online Direct Democracy will allow people to vote online on every single bill, and then he’ll “vote according to the direction of the online clear majority”.

THE libertarian-ish Liberal Democrats stand for less government, lower taxes, an end to “unnecessary” defence spending, and have scattered their signs around Perth calling for an end to the nanny state. Their man in the west is Mark Robert Walmsley who served in the RAAF for 20 years as a test pilot on the Wedgetail AEWC project and now works at Rio Tinto.