Perth Voice Interactive

PORT HEDLAND council is planning to follow Vincent’s lead in instituting a relationships declaration register, where any couple (straight, gay or elsewise) can declare their relationship.

Port Hedland mayor Kelly Howlett got the idea when visiting Vincent last week and her council’s now asking the public what they think about the idea. It’d be the first regional council in WA to bring in the register.

More than 100 couples have registered in Vincent, and mayor John Carey says it’s an important symbolic measure to show same-sex couples they’re supported. When he first proposed the idea he said it was in part because the federal government wasn’t doing anything—a position firmly entrenched this week with the Abbott government announcing it wouldn’t allow its MPs a conscience vote on same-sex marriage, effectively dooming it. It also has some practical purposes as it can be used as evidence to establish a relationship for legal purposes.

However the immigration and border protection department told the city it does not recognise the register as a legal document for an Australian visa.

by DAVID BELL

VINCENT mayor John Carey says he’s been getting the cold shoulder from other mayors after asking their councils to adopt transparency reforms at last week’s WA local government association conference.

Mr Carey labelled it “The Day of Shame” when delegates from WA councils overwhelmingly rejected his proposals, 172 to 46, and says his peers haven’t been too kind since he stirred up the hornets’ nest.

He’d wanted WALGA to lobby for more accountability and transparency by pushing for changes to the local government act, to include:

• recording of council member contact with developers;

• a ban on developers donating to councillors and staff;

• reporting of travel by councillors and staff;

• rules to tighten CEO hiring procedures (some councillors vote on CEO contracts without ever seeing the document).

Stirling councillor David Michael spoke in support of the motion, but neither Perth city council’s Rob Butler nor Bayswater’s Terry Kenyon backed him. Mr Carey says he’ll happily publicly debate either to see if they can argue their stance that changes aren’t needed.

Mr Carey says excuses for voting against the motion were ridiculous: one person complained the font on the screen was too small. Someone else muttered it was too late in the day (5.30pm). Another took issue with “the negative tone of the motion”.

When Mr Carey was running out of time for his speech he asked to go longer: “someone said ‘no, we want to get food and drinks’.”

“Other local governments are scrambling for excuses,” he says.

Mr Carey says after he put up the motion, “I was given the cold shoulder, I was shouted at, it has made people very uncomfortable because you’re shining a light on the sector.

“People clapped when it lost. There was significant clapping when it lost, as if that’s a victory.

“I just find it extraordinary. Here’s Bayswater saying we don’t need any more changes — they don’t even record their meetings, and they’re lecturing us saying there are no changes needed.”

We asked Cr Butler his thoughts on the motion but didn’t hear back. Perth lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi likewise dodged the question.

Mr Carey says he won’t let it rest and he’ll be meeting with councils that did support the motion, like Bassendean, Fremantle and Victoria Park to see where to go from here.

by DAVID BELL

VINCENT is living up to its reputation as WA’s funkiest council with a new mural cum public art work.

The city has affixed eight lightboxes to a mural by artist Drew Stalker in the laneway beside St Michael’s restaurant on Beaufort Street.

Every three months a new artist will be allowed to display their works in the illuminated boxes. Kicking off the series is artist Martin E Wills, renowned for painting spindly aliens with bouffants: “The paintings were originally inspired by research into the new age philosophy of the Heaven’s Gate cult,” he says.

“For instance, I thought there was great irony in the cult’s ritual suicide which began with a ‘cleansing’ citrus drink, which was then followed by vodka and phenobarbital.

“The series became a wry nod to the middle-income decadence of day spas and ‘beauty therapy’.

“The idea of the pinnacle of intergalactic life being a franchised day spa experience is intended to be a humorous exploration of current day concerns about commercialism, the environment and beauty ideals.”

Unlike his coiffured aliens, Wills says his own hairstyle is distinctly ad hoc.

“My own hair is as functional as it comes, but I do own a weirdly high amount of wigs,” he says.

“I’m really curious about the universe…I guess to me painting half-dissected aliens with gravity-defying pompadours is a pretty natural way of expressing those interests.”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

MORE late night food options are needed for Perth to fight its reputation as an asleep-by-nine city, Perth councillor James Limnios says.

This week the council approved continuing the food truck trial until next May to keep testing it out.

Right now the trucks must shut at 10pm in most places, and in only one spot in Northbridge can they stay open until 2am.

Cr Limnios says they ought to be open for the late night crowd that spills out of bars and clubs. Some bars close at 2am and clubs close at 4am so by the time patrons stumble out the food trucks are long-gone.

“Perth is seen as a place where if you haven’t ordered your food by 8.30pm, see you later, the kitchen shuts at 10pm.”

“Two am is too early to pack up and go,” he says, and he wants more flexibility.

Cr Rob Butler says the food truck trial has received “overwhelmingly positive feedback” and the only downside is the four-month first trial hasn’t been long enough to iron out all the wrinkles.

City staff say they’ve received “isolated grievances” from four business owners concerned about competition with the trucks, which must park at least 50m from established food or beverage shops.

by DAVID BELL

A MEN’S SHED in Bayswater is a step closer with the council identifying a preferred site at the corner of Kings Street and Raymond Avenue.

The council has earmarked an existing 1000sqm shed, behind the Rangers HQ, used to store old furniture.

Under the mooted plan, the men’s shed association would have access to half the shed, with the other half kept for council junk.

“Having a building to move into means that if it all goes to plan we could be up and running in around six months,” says Tony Green, a member of the men’s shed steering committee.

“There is great enthusiasm for this project and at our first public meeting we had around 50 people turn up.

“We have formed a steering committee and plan to put out an expression of interest for those interested in joining.”

Other sites shortlisted include ground behind the Noranda Shopping Centre and at Bedford bowling club, but neither have existing infrastructure and would require building a shed.

“After waiting so long to get things going, we want to get something up and running quickly,” says Mr Green.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

AROUND 100 Bayswater locals attended a meeting last week to brainstorm how to rejuvenate their city centre.

The council wants to tszuj-up the area in and around King William Street and was pleased to see a healthy swathe of residents of all ages and backgrounds attend.

Ideas included a farmers market, open air movies, better shops and events that will attract more people at night.

Two of the earliest supporters of the civic renaissance are Geoff and Emma Hodder, who a year ago opened the Little Cheese Shop at the corner of Whatley Crescent and King William.

Mr Hodder says opening the boutique shop on the tired-looking street was a bit of a risk and done long before the idea of a trendy make-over was floated.

“We have lived in the area for seven years and felt that it would benefit from an intimate-style shop,” he says.

“We’ve had a good first year and locals have responded well to a shop that sells artisan quality goods.

“We have just been granted a BYO and are looking at different ways we can attract people down at night for tastings, etc.”

Cr Stephanie Coates, who is spearheading the makeover, says the couple’s shop is the archetype for the kind of unique business she wants to attract.

She adds locals want more night-time activities.

“Historically the city centre has been a bit of ghost town after five,” she says. “The recent introduction of food trucks at the nearby Bert Wright Park has really energised the area. It proves that people will make the effort to come down if there are interesting things to do.”

Following the meeting, a community group was created which will progress ideas.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

NORTH PERTH photographer Alex Cearns’ adorable dog photos have seen her selected for the “Day of the Dog” exhibit in Los Angeles.

Other tourists looked at her strangely when she waited outside the Taj Mahal to frame the perfect shot of a couple of street dogs playing near the landmark.

“They were playing and chasing and tumbling, they were oblivious to the humans and the Taj Mahal,” she says.

“I sat there for 20 minutes to half-an-hour to get the shot, they kept tumbling and running off… a local person came in and tried to shoo them away, thinking they were getting in the way of my Taj Mahal shot!”

An American tourist also observed with disbelief, “she’s at the Taj Mahal… and she’s photographing dogs.”

People always ask her how she gets the animals to sit still. She doesn’t: she just lets them do their thing and takes the photo when the moment is right, occasionally directing fuzzy snouts with a snack.

Her other photo selected was of Gizmo the papillon and Buzz the whippet, two dogs a client brought into her Houndstooth Studio in North Perth. It’s the perfect example of why an animal photographer has to be ready at just the right moment, as she snapped the pic with Gizmo giving Buzz a big lick.

“That’s not something I could ever set up, that happens organically. They’re really good mates those two, but there were no other moments in the shoot where I could get that.”

Cearns got into photography in 2006 when digital cameras were becoming widespread. “I was looking for my thing: maybe I’m a writer, maybe I’m a soccer player. Turns out I’m neither.”

But photography seemed to work for her, and she noticed that in any shoot her lens would gravitate towards animals.

Since then her photography has taken her across the world, from snapping elephants and tigers and a rare African hedgehog in Cambodia to photographing a rare kangaroo in Queensland, whose unique genetic strain made him the last of his kind.

But she says dogs are still her favourite: “Dogs are fairly easy because they’re quite engaged with what’s going on, and because they’re agreeable and want to please.”

She’s soon to fly out to the Day of the Dog exhibit on August 26, and while there hopes to visit LA’s animal service shelters, which are a beneficiary of the exhibition.

by DAVID BELL

BAYSWATER charges the lowest average rates in the metropolitan area, but the local ratepayers’ association says the figures don’t tell the full story.

Peppermint Grove topped the rates list with a whopping average bill of $4161 (rubbish included) while Baysy was the cheapest at $1063.72, with a rates rise of 3.75 per cent.

The second cheapest council was Kwinana with an average bill of $1158.

Tony Green (below, right), president of the Bayswater City Residents’ Association, says while the city’s rates rise was “fairly moderate” the process in setting rates needed more transparency.

“If you look across all local governments in the metropolitan area, there are huge fluctuations in rates rises,” he says.

“To use CPI as a benchmark is wrong, we need to look at the local government price index, which is more indicative of what councils spend money on.”

Huge rates rises well over the rate of CPI — East Fremantle 6.25 per cent, Victoria Park 8 per cent — have drawn criticism from premier Colin Barnett who has backed investigating rates capping.

East Fremantle CEO Gary Clark says rate caps are politically attractive to voters, but damaging to communities in the long term.

“Many local governments are starting to see the consequences of keeping rates low,” he says.

“For instance, rate-capping is very popular, but they’ve had it in NSW for years, and their local infrastructure is some of the worst in the country.”

New WA local government association President Lynne Craigie also disapproved of rate capping.

“Establishing whether rate levels are reasonable requires a conversation between individual councils and their community,” she says.

“The outcome of rate capping in other jurisdictions has merely been the deterioration of infrastructure as funding shifted away from asset replacement and maintenance to underwrite operating costs.

“In Western Australia, rates represent approximately 42 per cent of council income.”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

A FORMER ally of Sylvan Albert is backing the Bayswater mayor’s opponent at the October council elections.

Sonia Turkington has authorised campaign material for Catherine Ehrhardt, who is going head-to-head with Cr Albert for the sole south ward seat.

Ms Turkington was a close south ward ally of Cr Albert’s before stepping down from council two years ago.

“I’m still friends with Sylvan, but I think we need more women on Bayswater council and in local government in general,” she says.

“I approached Catherine when I planned to step down in 2012, but at that point she was too busy to run.

“I didn’t speak to Sylvan before I authorised Catherine’s material, but we’re still friends and this isn’t a personal thing.”

Cr Albert was magnanimous about the authorisation and said he and Cr Turkington were more “colleagues at council” rather than friends.

“It didn’t really bother me,” he says.

“Australia is a democracy so people are free to back whoever they like.

“I will definitely contest the south ward. I like a challenge—it keeps you on your toes.”

Ms Ehrhardt, who is behind the popular Maylands and Mt Hawthorn markets, says asking Ms Turkington to authorise her campaign material was not designed to irk Cr Albert.

“She actually approached me to run around two years ago,” Ms Ehrhardt says.

“There’s no agenda behind it.”

Two of Bayswater’s 11 councillors are women: Michelle Sutherland and Stephanie Coates.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

EDITH COWAN UNIVERSITY will splash $5 million on a new communications and arts hub at its Mount Lawley campus.

New facilities, including design, visual art, fashion and animation, will be built over the next two years at a cost of $4m.

The complex will include a new art gallery where students can showcase their works and gain experience in exhibiting.

“This approach is essential to equip our graduates with the skills needed to contribute to the growing creative industries in Australia and internationally,” says Professor Clive Barstow, head of school of communications and arts.

“From 2016 the new hub will give ECU students the opportunity to work closely with other students and researchers across a broad range of technical disciplines.”

Professor Barstow adds $1m will be invested in new technologies and software.

Mount Lawley MP Michael Sutherland says through the university’s close association with WAAPA, and the practical nature of the courses, arts graduates have a better chance of securing the small number of jobs available.

“Animation is a burgeoning industry and I think creating a new facility dedicated to that field is very forward-thinking,” he says.

“The university has a wide range of courses, including costume and set design, ensuring graduates have employment opportunities in a wide range of sectors.

“I think this investment will take the Mt Lawley campus to the next level.”

To complement the new facilities, ECU will also offer redesigned bachelor degrees in arts, design, media and communications and contemporary arts from 2016.

The new courses will have an emphasis on employment opportunities for students.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK