Perth Voice Interactive

PENSIONER Catherine Caporn says her hot water bills have soared by $200 every eight weeks because of new two-storey developments next door.

The 88-year-old says it’s because the new buildings put her solar panels in shade several hours a day over autumn and winter.

The Dianella resident says Stirling council didn’t pay enough attention to the impact the three buildings would have on her panels, and she says she wasn’t contacted before building was approved in 2013.

“I just feel like no-one cares,” Ms Caporn says. “I want them to recognise what they’ve done because it’s unfair and wrong. But there are no apologies—no nothing.

“I have been living on this property for 58 years and the frustration I have had with the ‘bad luck, nothing we can do about it’ from the City of Stirling is causing me much stress.”

In a statement the council told the Voice the development complies with overshadowing provisions in residential design codes.

Approvals manager Greg Bowering says the council therefore has no obligation to assist Ms Caporn.

The bigger picture

TOWN planning consultant Greg Smith says the rubber-stamping of high-rise may be a ”potential landmine of an issue” for residents with solar panels.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it causes fights between neighbours,” the former council executive says.

“Sustainability can go completely ignored.”

Mr Smith’s colleague at Curtin University, Professor Peter Newman, suggests there should be guidelines for developers, steering them in the right direction in terms of sustainability.

He says solar access should be a factor when considering a development application, “but not the sole factor”. “Solar can often be shifted on the roof,” he notes, suggesting that developers likely to shade a neighbour’s property should be asked to pay the costs of relocating panels.

by EMMIE DOWLING

KYLE BARTLETT says he’ll run out of fingers if he tries to count how many people close to him have suicided.

Having lost another family member just recently, he’s asking the artists behind the December 5 Raise the Roof gig to devote the night to suicide awareness.

An indigenous hip-hop artist and promoter, he says many people in his community and circle of friends just don’t talk about suicide and depression, and that makes it a lonely place for people who are dealing with it.

“The main problem is people not having support, and other people not understanding what they’re going through.”

He’s hoping that getting it out in the open will make it easier for people to raise their troubles and for others to listen. “It’s a good thing to show everybody that it all comes down to unity: If we all stand together and show support in that way I think people will be more receptive.”

A support worker for a men’s hall, where he works with newly released prisoners to get back into the community, he says “just recently I’ve done a suicide prevention workshop, and they said to speak up about it and don’t keep it inside:.

Suicide prevention agency One Life is on board and has donated pamphlets and cards to give out on the night to anyone who needs a hand, and health service Derbarl Yerrigan and Noongar Radio are also backing him.

Mr Bartlett notes a lot of local hip-hop doesn’t follow the materialistic, violent and misogynistic tropes of popular US gangsta rap: “I think the local and Indigenous artists have more concentration on spreading the good messages: the music is uplifting, they want to help and create confidence.”

Musos on board are Vanessa Hopes, Jamahl Ryder, Traditional MC, DJ Brainchiold, DJ Edub and there’s a dance off and freestyle cypher comp. It’s at the Civic Hotel Inglewood on December 5 from 8pm, $10 on the door.

by DAVID BELL

FORMER Perth city council CEO Frank Edwards is asking his old employer to reimburse him the $2860 he spent on lawyers, when appearing before the WA corruption and crime commission.

He’d been interviewed during the CCC’s investigation into lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi not disclosing travel gifts by companies that also had dealings with the council.

City policy says where members or staff “become involved in legal proceedings because of their official functions,” it “may assist the individual in meeting reasonable expenses”.

A confidential item says staff recommend the council approves the reimbursement for Mr Edwards.

Trusted implicitly

The former CEO was cited in the CCC report as “a most experienced CEO and person on whom Mrs Scaffidi relied for advice and assistance especially in her early days as lord mayor. She said she trusted him implicitly.”

When BHP Billiton invited Ms Scaffidi to attend the Beijing Olympics on February 20 2008, she’d sought Mr Edwards’ advice, and her “recollection was that Mr Edwards told her it would be okay to go” because the council didn’t have any decisions regarding BHP likely to be coming up.

However, two months prior a BHP contractor had made early inquiries about setting up an Olympic Games live feed site in Forrest Place, and the CCC reckons, “this information would have been available to Mrs Scaffidi or Mr Edwards on reasonable enquiry by them in February 2008. No such enquiry appears to have been made”.

When BHP’s request for more than $20,000 in sponsorship turned up at a council meeting Ms Scaffidi had the choice of withdrawing from the Olympics trip or declaring an impartiality because of the gift.

She turned to Mr Edwards who helped “camouflage””— his word — the actual nature of the impartiality so the lord mayor’s rivals on council would not know she was going to the Olympics, and they could not therefore inform the public via the media.

The CCC concluded a “reasonable person in the position of Mrs Scaffidi or in the position of Mr Edwards, who at least on this matter had assumed an advisory role, would have undertaken inquiries to see whether BHPB was intending to undertake an activity involving a local government discretion”.

The CCC report added, “although Ms Scaffidi relied on Mr Edwards, and was entitled to do so, the ultimate responsibility, as she acknowledged in examination, was hers alone”.

And while Mr Edwards had helped craft a camouflaging declaration of interest, it was still up to the lord mayor to disclose the gift in her annual return, which she didn’t do.

Ms Scaffidi was returned as lord mayor at the October 2015 elections.

by DAVID BELL

STIRLING mayor Giovanni Italiano says his new Mercedes cost no more than his old Holden Caprice.

“This car did not cost any more than the previous Holden that I drove for two years,” he told ABC News during the week, having refused an earlier interview with the Voice, which broke the story (November 14, 2015). The sticker price for the mayor’s Merc is $75,000 but the council told the ABC it beat Benz down to $65,000, the same price as the old Holden.

The Voice called the Australian HQ of Mercedes Benz to ask whether its status as a luxury marque was therefore misplaced. Laughter filled the receiver, “of course, Mercedes is more special!”

WA premier Colin Barnett — no stranger to criticisms of publicly funded extravagance — says council officials have no place behind the wheel of a ratepayer-funded Benz.

“That is not appropriate at a local government level, state or federal level,” the premier told the ABC. “I don’t know the details of the vehicles that they’re driving, but the prime minister of Australia doesn’t drive around in a Mercedes.”

Cr Italiano and Stirling CEO Stuart Jardine are driving a C250 and CLA250 respectively. The council says they are within guidelines and meet or beat various ratings for emissions and safety. The pair was seen driving the cars soon after last month’s council elections.

by EMMIE DOWLING

HE was sacked from his job—then the rest of Steve Harvey’s life started crumbling.

Being jobless and relatively alone in Perth had a cascading effect on the 29-year-old man’s ability to pay his rent and stay mentally well.

Nine weeks after losing his well-paid fly-in, fly-out gig with a high-profile mining company he was homeless.

“It happened that easily and quickly,” Mr Harvey says.

“I just couldn’t get a job and I had applied for at least a hundred jobs. It’s very disheartening, hey?”

He was on the streets but was determined to keep moving forward.

Packing just two sets of clothes and bare essentials—all 40kg of it—he started walking the 4700km from Perth to Sydney — to raise money to buy swags for homeless people.

Mr Harvey returned to Perth late last month, $22,000 heavier, and is hosting a fundraising event this Sunday at North Perth’s Rosemount Hotel in the hope of collecting another $3000 for the kitty.

He told the Voice about life on the streets.

“I’ve met a few homeless people on the trip,” he says. “Most in the country areas are hard to talk to because they have some sort of mental issue. I reached Melbourne and had a chat with a couple of blokes. I reckon after six months, that’s when it begins to get really hard to get out of a rut. It’s almost like you start giving up.”

The Mandurah man is now renting a granny flat and is still searching for a job.

He advises not to give homeless people money because, “if they won’t take your food, and ask for money, they’re just after drugs”.

The Rosemount Hotel event on November 22 has two stages.

The family-friendly event — with face painting and a V8 Supercars display—runs 1-5pm and requires a gold coin donation.

The night event, from 6–10pm, is $10 and features live music.

Money goes to Swags for Homeless, a not-for-profit organisation that provides emergency relief for people turned away from increasingly-packed shelters.

Visit the Support Coast to Coast Facebook page for more details.

by EMMIE DOWLING

WINSTON CHURCHILL labelled his depression a “black dog” that followed him around.

Olympic diver Matthew Mitcham personifies his as, “an unconvincing drag queen”.

The gold-medallist, Australia’s only openly gay athlete at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, brings his autobiographical stage show Twists and Turns to Perth to open the Pride parade eve this Friday, November 20.

“[The show] goes through my childhood, which is quite unusual,” he tells us. “I grew up a single child with a nut-job mum who was a single parent who made it very interesting.”

He says addressing his history of mental illness (and using an avatar of an unconvincing drag queen) “makes it much easier to listen to”. While well-known for diving he’s long been interested in the stage: “I’m gay so show business is in my blood,” he jokes, saying he “slid out of the womb with jazz hands”.

He says a pretty diverse group of people has come to previous shows and “it’s well received unanimously”.

“I’ve had grandmas, an old married couple coming together.

“You always get the teenage fangirls who love it, you get all the gays who love it, so it has wide appeal.

“The thing that transcends age and demographic is the whole mental health aspect, depression and addiction. Whether people have addictions to drugs or obsessive behaviours like eating or being obsessive about their looks, I think everybody has a moment in their life where they’re concerned their behaviour is getting out of hand.” While still doing 10 diving sessions a week he says, “this cabaret is a wonderful mental break from diving”.

The two shows are at 6pm and 8pm at Connections in Northbridge, with tickets via ticketbooth.com.au

by DAVID BELL

MORE than 30 parking bays along Bulwer Street will be removed so a barrier can be built between car and bike lanes.

Vincent council staff had been iffy about the plan, recommending instead that bike lanes be delineated by painted markings between William and Beaufort Streets, in part to preserve parking.

But cycling advocate Geraldine Box, who runs the Facebook page Bike Friendly Vincent and has sat on the council’s advisory group, implored councillors to approve the protected lanes option.

She pointed out there was “overwhelming support” from the public for protected bike lanes, which sent “a message that adults and children can feel safe about cycling”.

After 90 minutes’ debate, the council settled on protected lanes for most of the way, save a small stretch to preserve four car bays near some older folks’ houses close to Highgate primary school. Only Cr Ros Harley wanted full-on protection the entire way.

Ms Box described the compromise as a missed opportunity.

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MEANWHILE, up on Scarborough Beach Road where protected bike lanes are already installed, drivers complain about giving up a lane for cyclists and businesses are uphappy with the loss of parking.

The Voice has been hit with letters left and right from cyclists who love the lanes and motorists who hate them.  A common complaint is they’re under-utilised. The Voice cycles that route and is often the only rider.

Mayor John Carey points out the lanes aren’t complete so usage is bound to be low at this point, but he says “it’s the chicken and the egg argument”: uptake starts slow but “as demonstrated around the world [protected bike lanes] lift cycling rates”.

Scarborough Beach Road was chosen for protected lanes partly because that section of it, east of Oxford Street, is well under carriage capacity. That section’s also not the bottleneck: most of Scarborough Beach Road is already one lane running through Mount Hawthorn.

“If we don’t do it now, with the pace of development along major corridors, we’ll never be able to do it, and the indepedent auditor-general of WA clearly said we need to create cycling routes on major corridors,” Mr Carey says.

“This is not just about today, but for the next 50 to 100 years.”

by DAVID BELL

IT’S been 100 years since the building now known as Astor Theatre was raised on the corner of Beaufort and Walcott Street. The owners are celebrating the centenery by continuing its roots as a live performance space.

A landmark of Mount Lawley architecture, back in 1915 the place was designed in federation free classical style, built for a mix of vaudeville and lantern slide shows with retail stores out front. When film took off it started showing movies, and was rebranded the “Lyceum Theatre” in 1922.

The now-iconic art deco frontage didn’t come around until 1938 when the owners undertook vast inter-war renovations, renaming it the State Theatre in 1938 before settling on the Astor Theatre in 1941.

After the golden age of cinema, and with TVs widespread through the 1960s, custom declined.

A state heritage assessment states the Astor started showing pornographic films to stay afloat, causing a minor scandal back in the day with the headline Cloud over Astor Theatre hitting newspapers.

It would change hands a few times over the decades before photographer Bruno Zimmermann — who owns it still — bought the place in the 1990s.

Mr Zimmermann kept showing movies through through to 2008 but, “cinema was no longer an option,” he told the Voice. He says distributors favour the big multiplexes and massive screens. Sometimes he’d only be offered reels after they’d been showing at bigger places for a few months.

The closure of the Astor as a cinema would see it return to its roots in the live performance of music and comedy (it was recently packed out for a community meeting about the failed council mergers).

“What it was built for 100 years ago is still going strong,” Mr Zimmermann’s daughter, Tania says, and even on weeknights the performances draw healthy crowds.

On Saturdays it’s the heart of the revitalised neighbourhood, and keeps nearby bars and restaurants packed with punters waiting for the show to start.

For the centenary gig the Astor is continuing the live performance theme, with Regurgitator headlining, along with local acts Sugar Army, Boys Boys Boys and Day of the Dead. It’s December 18 and tickets and info at http://www.astortheatreperth.com

by DAVID BELL