Perth Voice Interactive

THE organisation that feeds homeless people in Weld Square has bought a food truck to keep its volunteers safe from druggies.

Manna Inc’s volunteers currently serve food from fold-out tables, leaving them exposed.

“It is a difficult time of year and a small percentage of disadvantaged people that Manna Inc provide meals to turn to different substances to get through the winter months,” a Vincent council report states, diplomatically.

“This has made it unsafe for volunteers in the park in some evenings and their safety is compromised.”

“We’d love to live in Pollyanna’s world, but in Pollyanna’s world there’d be no one living hungry…”

It was recommended the council donate $1250 to a food truck fundraiser.

Police reported “a minor increase in anti-social incidents” in the park and they were conducting patrols.

When the Voice dropped by this week it was pretty tame: The most noise was from a muso.

Long-term the council hopes to find Manna Inc an indoor space to operate from.

Manna Inc started in 1996 and now gives out hundreds of hot meals six days a week in Weld Square. It also provides breakfasts and uniforms for schoolchildren.

Manna Inc founder Bev Lowe says they’ve sorted out the problems. “We’d love to live in Pollyanna’s world, but in Pollyanna’s world there’d be no one living hungry either and no on living in cars,” Ms Lowe said.

by DAVID BELL

HE’S only been in Perth two months, but Bushy reckons he’s already racked up 35 move-on notices.

“They know me by my first name down at the watchhouse,” he chuckles.

After leaving Darwin he initially planned to just pass through Perth but legal troubles have him stuck here a while longer. He says the Perth winter doesn’t bother him and he’s able to make a few bucks as a busker: “I sing, I tell stories,” he says, often about his other life in Indonesia and how he can’t wait to be reunited with his Indonesian/Chinese wife.

Despite the mild winter, Bushy says he’s not fond of Perth and can’t wait to leave as soon as his court dates are sorted.

by DAVID BELL

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HOMELESS Connect was handed $77,000 from the PCC for its November 12 event to touch base with the homeless and provide free services. Last year 800 homeless people showed up to Russell Square and were given 3000 support items, including meals, haircuts, showers, dental treatment, glasses, swags, toiletries and legal assistance.

WOOLWORTHS is withholding a key report from the public that purports to support its plan to build a 990sqm Dan Murphy’s in Maylands, says the McCusker centre for action on alcohol and youth.

The $3.5 million Peninsula Tavern redevelopment will include a family-friendly bistro, which locals are happy with, but many oppose the giant bottleshop that comes with it.

Woolworths’ ALH Group is applying for a liquor licence and cites a 2010 report that measured the impact of Dan Murphy’s liquor stores on alcohol-related harm in WA.

Conclusions are summarised in ALH’s public interest assessment as “the impact of the Dan Murphy’s stores was too small to be detected”.

McCusker CEO Julia Stafford wants to see the full report, not just the summary, but ALH has denied her requests.

“We’re very concerned that a company which seeks to open yet another liquor barn is not prepared to open their evidence to public scrutiny,” she says.

“It raises serious questions about why they’re not prepared to make this report public, and those questions remain unanswered.

“The only conclusion to draw is that the report they cite is flawed: the liquor commission should refuse to consider a report that is not open to public scrutiny.

“The opportunity for community responses to this liquor barn application has been and gone, and despite multiple requests for the report, we’re still left in the dark.”

Maylands is home to a number of agencies that mop up alcohol-related problems, including Shopfront, Autumn Centre and 55 Central.

In 2010 Maylands Labor MP Lisa Baker spearheaded a campaign that stopped Coles building a 1250sqm booze barn on Guildford Road.

“How can residents give a full response to this application, when they were only ever given partial knowledge of documentation for these plans?” she asks, backing up McCusker’s bid for full disclosure.

Neither ALH nor WA racing, gaming, and liquor got back to the Voice.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

THE new $11.2 million Mt Lawley primary school is on budget and on target for completion in November.

The 100-year-old school was burnt down in July 2012 and its teenage arsonists sentenced to eight months’ gaol.

Children’s court president Judge Denis Reynolds says the duo—who admitted to being stoned and drunk when setting fire to plastic chairs—left the fires burning and were therefore criminally responsible for the $9 million destruction.

The new two-storey school includes 12 classrooms, a dental therapy unit, a refurbished library and hard courts.

Mt Lawley Liberal MP Michael Sutherland toured the soon-to-be-completed school with WA education minister Peter Collier last week.

“The new school will rise like the phoenix from the ashes.”

“The students, staff and parents will be very pleased with the new school: it has more space and facilities than the old school and modern technology embedded in the buildings,” he says.

“The fire that destroyed much of the original school was a disastrous event. The new school will rise like the phoenix from the ashes.”

The Mount Lawley Society and hundreds of locals successfully lobbied for the Second Avenue brick facade to be retained, a poke in the eye of bean-counters who’d said the most “cost-effective” option would be to raze it to the ground.

At this stage it should be business as usual from February 2015 for school.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

SYLVAN ALBERT fears local voice will suffer under new planning rules unveiled by the Barnett government this week.

The Bayswater mayor, a former state Liberal candidate, says the rules mean locals have even less say in the shape of their city and they may affect heritage.

Developers can now bypass elected councils if their projects are valued between $2 million and $10 million (the limits were previously $3m and $7m) and go straight to a development panel, whose members are mostly appointed by the government, and who often have no connection with the local area. Perth CBD applications are higher.

Projects valued at more than $10m must go to the panels: there’s no option for the local council to look at them.

“I have serious concerns with planning reforms that takes decision-making away from elected members, and possibly result in development that negatively impact the heritage, character and amenity of residential areas that are valued by their community,” Cr Albert says.

“We are currently reviewing the impact of the new planning reforms.”

WA planning minister John Day says homeowners will no longer need council approval to build home that comply with R-codes, and there’ll be an online service to track approvals, helping streamline the sector.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

BAYSWATER mayor Sylvan Albert normally prefers looking at the colour blue, but he is determined to make council a healthier shade of green.

The council is installing solar panels and LED lighting at the Bayswater civic centre, improving energy efficiency by 10 to 15 per cent and saving around $18,300 per year.

The panels will be installed this week and the council will begin replacing lights with LED next week.

Staff will also install timers on hot water systems.

An energy audit on the centre showed the building was “quiet efficient”, but further improvements could be made.

Cr Albert says it is the first step in making the building even more sustainable: “The 35kw solar system we are installing will operate for 25 years,” he says. “We expect to save $18,300 annually. The system will also reduce the energy usage by 56,200 kWh or 46.01 tonnes of carbon.”

A DEBATE on whether to fence off the haves from the have-nots in Mount Hawthorn has been sparked by an alleged spate of break-ins around Lynton Street.

A few complaints have been been made by residents claiming Lynton Street reserve and the street “are unsafe areas due to some persons accessing Lynton Street through the park” from houses on the other side of the street, many of which are public housing.

“It is claimed that a number of homes and vehicles have been broken into recently,” the Vincent council report says.

The council got together with the WA housing department and figured a fence with a lockable gate might stop miscreants getting through. Residents could have a key if they wanted to use the park. That upset residents on the other side of the proposed fence: “does the city intend to obstruct lawful land use?”

Beleaguered-looking councillors voted to hold a public meeting to discuss it, but they weren’t sounding fond of a barrier.

“I’m not a fan of fencing parks,” Cr Josh Topelberg says. “I will take a lot of convincing.”

Mayor John Carey says “I did raise it with the police and they said the crime stats aren’t there to back up the concerns”.

by DAVID BELL

THE scaffolding’s come down on the old Royal McNess Arcade, revealing its new paintjob.

The old peeling monochrome’s gone (along with some recent anachronistic additions described as a “strange metal framework” by historic building enthusiast Cheryl Fletcher) revealing its more traditional two-tone to highlight the details. The 1890s federation classical building had its arcade sealed in 1985 and was passed between owners. It’s now being restored by current owners St Martin’s Property group.

While the outside’s looking more presentable, long-term the holy grail for heritage buffs is to see the long-closed arcade reopened.

GRAHAM DOUGLAS-MEYER spent much of his life keeping secrets: first that he was gay, and then later that he’d tested positive for HIV.

But personal secrets have to be pushed aside when writing your autobiography.

Now pastor at the gay-affirming church Open Arms Fellowship in North Perth, he says it’s time to lay it all on the table.

“It was time to get this out in the open so that then I don’t have to worry,” he says. “Once I told my parents I was gay, I didn’t give a damn who knew.”

Having withstood workplace bullying by colleagues who’d suspected he was gay, he says putting the information out disarms his critics.

His book You Shall Walk in the Dark Places tells the story of years wracked by guilt, as his homosexuality grappled with his deeply held Christian faith.

He’d contemplated at a young age going into the clergy, seeing priesthood as a way to escape his sexuality since he wouldn’t be having sex anyway. He quotes Jack Lemmon: “celibacy is celibacy, even if your thing is goats”.

But temptations proved strong. He found himself seeking anonymous gay sex at night, then stopping off for confession on the way home.

Douglas-Meyer also underwent “ex-gay” therapy, a now-discredited course designed to turn gay men straight.

Such courses—still popular throughout the US—are regarded by many as psychologically damaging. One organisation that used to employ the methods, Exodus International, has even issued an apology for “years of undue suffering and judgment”.

Douglas-Meyer was initially advised to keep his HIV+ status to himself but once his parents knew he wasn’t bothered about who else found out, and he ended up working as an advocate for people with the disease.

His struggles with organised religious have been altogether more challenging.

He used to attend Riverview Church and while the leadership was happy for him to sit in the pews, he was not allowed to become an active member, because he was gay. “I couldn’t even pass round the collection plate,” he says.

Not satisfied to sit on the sidelines, he started his own charismatic congregation just over a year ago at the North Perth town hall.

“I felt like I got a tap on the shoulder: ‘You’re the one to start it’. It’s just been right since the very beginning.”

Along with telling the pretty unique story of becoming an openly gay pastor, he hopes the book helps others in his situation who struggle to reconcile faith and sexuality.

“The whole intent has been to make sure that someone else doesn’t have to go through the same type of junk, or if they are going through it to know that someone else has gone through it and they aren’t alone.”

You Shall Walk in the Dark Places is available in print versions by contacting pastor@openarmsaustralia.org (for signed books) or print and Kindle versions on Amazon.

by DAVID BELL

IT’S Super Mario meets Dr John. Michael de Grussa—ex-Kill Devil Hills bassist and session pianist for Eskimo Joe—has opened a music school/retro gaming shop in North Perth.

Conscious that many teens end up tossing their violins in the bin, de Grussa wanted to inject fun into lessons by having retro games consoles to play while they wait and less emphasis on scale-based learning.

“I wanted music lessons to be fun and thought the addition of retro games would entice people to come back,” he says. “We still cover all the technical aspects of playing, but there’s more emphasis on learning songs and enjoying yourself. For whatever reason, all the musicians I know are into gaming as well.”

As well as offering piano, guitar and singing lessons from qualified teachers, de Grussa repairs and sells retro games consoles, Betamax tapes, laserdiscs and musical accessories.

Since opening Player 1 in Fitzgerald Street last month, de Grussa says he has been inundated with requests for retro games and equipment.

“As far as I know we might be the only retro games shop in Australia, definitely in Perth,” he says. “I’ve been getting calls from over east and all across Australia.”

Over the next few months, he plans to start selling full-size arcade machines and hosting kids’ birthday parties in a games room at the rear of the 170sqm building.

“I wanted to go fully retro and use an Amiga as a till and a dot matrix to print receipts, but it dawned on me that it might be a bit flaky and unreliable,” he laughs.

Player 1 is the 32-year-old’s debut business venture, but he is already a successful stand-up comic and musician.

“I’ve always been into collecting retro games and fixing them, as well as music, so I thought I would combine the two interests,” he says.

“I looked around my house one day and realised I had seven Sega Saturns.

“It was a bit overkill, unless six of them broke, so it was time to do something with them.”

You can check out Player 1 at http://www.facebook.com/player1australia.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK