Perth Voice Interactive

MAYLANDS Labor MP Lisa Baker is “very disappointed” to have missed out on a post in Mark McGowan’s reshuffled shadow ministry.

In her first four-year term the former chief of peak welfare body WACOSS cemented herself as a strong local MP, helping stop Coles from opening a liquor barn in Maylands, highlighting congestion on the Midlands line and drafting an animal welfare policy.

On March 9 she lost just 1.2 per cent of Labor’s primary vote, with the bulk of the Liberals’ 8.7 per cent primary swing coming from the Greens.

The United Voice union sub-group of Labor’s Left faction was allotted five spots and all but one—Sue Ellery—went to men. The union’s membership has many more female than male members.

“Where is the renewal and the gender equity?” Ms Baker asks. “I’m very disappointed but I will regroup and focus on serving my electorate, which I believe I have done well in my first term.

“Lots of things can change in four years.”

Notre Dame political lecturer Martin Drum says Ms Baker is justified in feeling hard done by.

“Lisa Baker’s omission should indeed disappoint her, as a number of other second-term MPs such as Rita Saffioti and Chris Tallentire were promoted and she was not.

“She came from a high-profile role before she entered parliament and was regarded as ministerial material when she was pre-selected.”

Mr McGowan’s 19-strong shadow cabinet has six women and five new faces.

Premier Colin Barnett’s 17-strong ministry has just two women in it.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

Clarification
VINCENT mayor Alannah MacTiernan says the Voice has painted her as having a gripe with her beloved Labor party over its treatment of women (“Where are the women?” Voice, Saturday March 23, 2013) when it’s not the case.
The former planning minister says her comments about “the party machine” discriminating against women weren’t a criticism of Labor as much as a critique of politics as a whole. She says, for example, when she first won a seat in WA’s upper house (before later moving downstairs) she was gobsmacked at the behaviour and language both sides of parliament got away with in the chamber.

 

[Spacemarket] estimates at least 40 buildings in Perth are dormant

PERTH lord mayor Lisa Scaffidi is concerned a smartphone app to marry up disused properties with clients could degenerate into a public “name and shame” exercise.

Spacemarket will launch its Why so empty? app today, Saturday April 13, enabling users to tag onto an interactive map disused buildings which they believe could be occupied.

Since 2011, Spacemarket has been pairing up disused buildings with artists and businesses in Perth.

Advisor Reece Harley says based on Perth city council’s Forgotten Spaces Report he estimates at least 40 buildings in Perth are dormant, including The Savoy Hotel, The McNess Memorial Arcade and the Hotel and Theatre Metropole.

He claims building code red tape is getting in the way of premises being utilised, including finicky regulations relating to the thickness of window panes, the height of balustrades and the pitch of staircases.

Ms Scaffidi says the council has to be very careful not to encourage unreal expectations from people who have literally no idea of planning laws and zones.

“We would be concerned that this app could be seen more of a “name & shame” sort of exercise,” she said.

“There are some very good and proactive owners out there and it is more often than not a case of market cycles and banking finance requirements that limits the development phases and or cycles and the possibilities rather than suggesting it be the owners themselves and their lack of imagination or realisation of potential.

“The ‘red-tape’ mentioned is sometimes necessary to ensure buildings provide a safe and easily accessible place for all people.”

Ms Scaffidi adds the PCC was instrumental in the development of Spacemarket and was keen to see the activation of upper floors which attract business, creative industries and residents.

“The city has developed a number of programs to incentivise (not to fully fund) the activation of empty spaces,” she says.

“It has its heritage program that provides cash incentives to owners of heritage properties.”

A matched funding grant has supplied $350,000 to date in “activation-like projects”.

App-mad Greens WA senator Scott Ludlam is backing Why so empty?, which is adapted from the Bike Blackspot app that he developed.

Mr Harley says user comments and photos can be added to an interactive map, viewed from April 13 at http://www.spacemarket.com.au/whysoempty.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

BAYSWATER city council has banked $22.35 million after selling 40.5 hectares in Brabham.

Around 30 attended the auction last week with Cedar Woods Properties lodging the winning bid. The council’s reserve was $20m.

Councillors had been split over whether to sell the land, with some arguing they could make more by waiting for prices to improve.

But with council amalgamations looming, most voted to cash in their chips.

The land had cost the council around $50,000 a year in rates payments to Swan council.

Mayor Terry Kenyon hinted some of the windfall may go towards a Bayswater community centre and retirement home.

“Council is considering the best use of those funds, including the city’s reserve accounts and future infrastructure development,” he told the Voice. “The city is undertaking a masterplan for the redevelopment of the Les Hansman Centre and the Mertome Village upgrade.”

The council bought the land 30 years ago for sand mining.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

TWO attempts to increase freedom of speech for Vincent city councillors failed at Tuesday’s meeting and a third was stalled.

Currently councillors are banned from “adversely reflecting on a council decision” and are not permitted to state their position about plans or policies out for community consultation if it could be seen as biased.

Cr Dudley Maier wants to scrap both rules.

He says councillors should be free to speak their mind on decisions. Currently they cautiously state, “the reason I voted against this decision was ABC,” and councillors can be in hot water if they label a decision “bad”.

Cr Matt Buckels was the only councillor to support Cr Maier.

“I do believe in freedom of speech by councillors but I am also concerned about removing this and then developing a culture of adversarial politics,” Cr John Carey—a former journalist—said.

The other rule prevents elected members from, “expressing a personal opinion which is biased or may be perceived as biased” when it comes to issues out for public consultation.

“Surely [councillors] should be allowed to get out there and sell what they’re passionate about to the community,” Cr Maier said.

Cr Buckels said the rules led to weird situations where councillors weren’t even allowed to talk up their own policies.

He noted they resort to saying things like “we’re doing this policy because it’s really great. Or bad.

“We’re building this great building… it’s pretty terrible, maybe.”

CEO John Giorgi says the rule stems from a situation eight years ago when a councillor commented about an item before it was voted on. The powerful but unelected state administrative tribunal ruled the councillor, “in forming a preconceived opinion, did not give full consideration to the matter”.

Mayor Alannah MacTiernan moved to defer the item, wanting to narrow the rule down to just apply to development applications so councillors can still make their opinion known on policies and council projects.

Cr Maier also lost a bid to permit councillors to call each other by their first names.

In meetings elected members must refer to each other as “Councillor Surname” but Cr Maier says it’s too stuffy.

He says parliamentarians gets caught up in “pomp and circumstance” and he thinks councils should be more informal.

But apart from Cr Carey everyone voted to keep using titles. Cr Josh Topelberg says when making decisions on big projects a bit of formality is suitable.

by DAVID BELL

A BAN on recording council meetings will continue at Vincent city council.

Currently minutes are recorded by the council’s in-house microphone system and CD copies are available (if you’re prepared to wait a few days), but there’s a long-standing ban on people using their own personal recording devices.

Cr Dudley Maier wants to allow journalists to record meetings “to ensure accuracy”.

Cr John Carey, a former journo, backed the plan, but the rest of the council was shy.

Cr Ros Harley says it’s best to keep just one audio record of the meeting so the mysterious vagaries of iPhone recorders don’t cause mistakes.

She was also concerned that as the press table is very close to the main desk, media recorders may pick up inadvertent asides whispered between councillors.

Mayor Alannah MacTiernan says the fee is reasonable.

“I’m sure even the Voice would be prepared to pay $16,” Ms MacTiernan said.

The Ed says: No, we’re not. It’s a stupid ban and a ridiculous charge for a 10c bit of hardware. The council actually charges $31 for a recording of the meeting ($16 is just for the minutes).

by DAVID BELL

MAYLANDS horticulturalist Nick Bell says if you have a square foot of space you have room for a garden, and he wants to teach Perth locals how to do it.

The concept of square foot gardens—growing lots of vegies and herbs in tiny spaces—has been kicking around in America since the ‘80s after retired soldier Mel Bartholomew put his army-engineering mind to gardening.

He invented the concept of dividing an area just over a metre into 12 squares (vaguely reminiscent of his days in military mess hall meals where peas and mash are divided by the tray).

Mr Bell says the method is extremely efficient: Dividing it into sectors lets you keep track of what’s been planted where, and which bits need fresh soil at which times.

“[Bartholomew’s] goal was to help people in poor countries improve their food production.”

A 12-box garden can grow 100 plants with three harvests a year. A square might have one big cauliflower in it, or nine beetroot, or 16 radishes.

The tech-savvy 76-year-old took an online course in square-foot gardening to learn the methods.

“You have to do a skype course with the organiser in Ohio,” he says.

“So I sat up at my computer at three in the morning and did four successive nights. There were people from Venezuela and Hawaii sitting in on this class and asking questions and sending in homework.”

Mr Bell’s teaching square-foot gardening at Garden Week, April 18 to 22 at Perry Lakes Reserve.

by DAVID BELL

‘Really damning’

THE $59,800 Chinese sculpture Vincent city council will buy instead of a local work is one of a series of eight, despite a council policy that it not buy a “mass-produced nor ‘off-the-shelf’ piece”.

Mayor Alannah MacTiernan says a series of eight doesn’t count: “Many great Nolan works of art come in a series,” she says.

But a national artists’ advocacy group has slammed the purchase. National Association for the Visual Arts executive director Tamara Winikoff describes the process surrounding the purchase as, “a case of mismanagement”.

The council had originally commissioned local artist Matt McVeigh to create a $30,000 abstract sculpture for Bulwer Street that reflected the multicultural area.

After receiving a $5000 advance Mr McVeigh discovered his concept was not sturdy enough. The council didn’t like redesigns he submitted, with Ms MacTiernan describing the piece as, “a very stock standard piece of municipal art and we’re trying to do something a bit better”.

The council then bought Games by Chinese artist Chen Wen Ling on the recommendation of Ms MacTiernan and Cr John Carey, after they’d seen it displayed at the Cottesloe Sculpture by the Sea exhibition.

“Not only do they seem to be breaking their contract with [McVeigh], but [Games] doesn’t meet their own guidelines,” Ms Winikoff told the Voice.

“It goes back to the basic principle of ‘what’s the purpose of public art’.

“This is an acquisition on behalf of the community and in that regard what you would expect is it would be a piece that would have some meaning and some significance to that place.”

Ms MacTiernan says the council did nothing wrong and it had been “very disappointed” when Mr McVeigh said he couldn’t build the piece he’d designed.

“He came back and said ‘no I can’t do that work, I have to make this’, what was ultimately a completely different piece of work. What he has come back with has only the most tangential similarity to the piece commissioned.

“It’s not our intention to pursue him for breach of contract but it’s quite possible that it would be open to us.”

She says the city’s Australian-Chinese population gives the Chen piece relevance.

Ms Winikoff says losing a contract—and having work publicly described as “a very stock standard piece of municipal art”—damages an artist’s reputation: “That’s a really damning public statement to make about any artist.”

by DAVID BELL

‘I’m a bit concerned about taking down the fence which exposes the kids to the street’

TWO Dianella families are celebrating after Stirling city council backflipped to allow four kids to keep their play space.

The council had wanted to tear down the play space built on the vacant lot beside the Terranova family house because of rules over unauthorised structures. The landlord had given his blessing for the families to use it.

The play space is used by Ms Terranova’s young children Sophia and Sam and young neighbours Daniel and Anthony Donatelli.

A neighbour’s noise complaint in March last year had initially sparked the council’s interest.

Gina Terranova fought to keep the cubby house, swings and sand pit by appealing the council’s edict to the powerful but unelected state administrative tribunal.

After the SAT asked the council to reconsider, it voted to approve the play park subject to conditions including the removal of the front fence, repositioning of a sail shade and reapplying for approval every 12 months.

“I’m a bit concerned about taking down the fence which exposes the kids to the street, but on the whole I’m okay with the conditions of approval,” Ms Terranova says.

“We just wanted our two kids, and our neighbours’ kids, to get out and play rather than sitting in front of a TV.

“The owner of the vacant lot says we can use it for around three years and the neighbour who initially complained retracted the objection after we explained we weren’t running a day care centre.

“Before we built the play space there was kids on the lot at 2am, people dumping rubbish and loiterers—it was a total mess.”

Council staff noted a 2012 inspection had found builders’ materials, including sea containers and a large skip bin, on the lot.

They were subsequently removed.

There are three local parks within 400 metres of the Bencubbin Crescent block.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK

KIDS these days are so removed from risk they grow up lacking resilience to deal with real life, reckons Vincent mayor Alannah MacTiernan.

She wants to introduce more nature playgrounds around the city where kids play in shallow creeks, build stuff with sticks, climb trees and take a few minor risks.

With most padded-floor playgrounds built by paranoid designers terrified of personal injury lawsuits, the lack of scraped knees doesn’t set kids up well to cope with the struggles of life, Ms MacTiernan says.

“We have sanitised our playgrounds and taken all the risk and excitement out,” she sighs.

“These kids then just do not have enough robustness, the spirit to cope with school… to stake their own place when they do have to leave their parents.

“They come into a school environment and they just lack resilience, and you can’t be in cotton wool the whole time.”

Based on an idea the sport and recreation department’s been kicking around the past couple of years, the mayor wants to look at having a natural playground in places like Britannia, Banks and Jack Marks Reserves.

Many studies compiled by local business Nature Play Solutions show natural play areas that give kids a challenge help them their intellectual development and problem-solving.

Local parents, teachers, and anyone else interested in the idea can come along to the mayor’s nature play forum this Saturday April 13, 2pm at the Vincent admin centre, RSVP 9273 6557.

by DAVID BELL

Willis wears me out
WHENEVER I reach Voice Mail I almost always find another unnecessary letter from Ron Willis. I didn’t need to know that Ron’s daughters play April Fool’s Day tricks, as I did this week, nor that a meeting he thought would happen didn’t. Non-news equals no interest!
There really are meaningful subjects Mr Willis could tackle: the continuing lack of traffic improvements at the Beaufort-Walcott junction; rat-runners increasingly taking to the back streets; SUV-toting parents speeding in quiet streets around Perth College; long-distance commuters parking on our streets for free, and bussing it to town; retail rent-gouging in East Perth, destroying any chance of creating a vibrant community there; and so on. So Ron, have a go at something meaningful or take a break, for all our sakes.
If you don’t receive any other letters worth publishing, dear Editor, please compose your own, under pseudonyms if necessary, and limit the airtime Ron enjoys in your paper.
Peter Hopwood
Mount Lawley

Against the grain
WHILE the sheer courage of Julia Gillard is inspirational for all women, our federal government urging us to do anything rubs against my grain.
Fair goes, though: so does much of our state government’s manoeuvrings. You’ve guessed: I’m a floating voter with shades of green.
Perth and “surrounding areas” to switch come Tuesday (April 16), from analogue to digital TV pushes today’s pen. My only switching on the day will be from sleep to wakefulness and vice versa. Come July, my Achilles heel, Ashes cricket from the UK, just might prompt a switch—or twitch. Meanwhile, for those of us, including any Alices, who choose to go against the stream, a wonderland awaits next week: life without commercial TV’s relentless and ruthless persuasion machine.
My childhood and beyond spent on isolated farms beheld the wonderland. TV was a vague mystery, perhaps on Mars or Venus, until our Queen’s coronation in black and white—watched on the only TV in the neighbourhood. Steam radio was youth’s thing. Nowadays ABC Radio’s Classic FM; groovy, even steamy, yet so cool for our brain’s grain, welcomes all of us.
Without even a mobile, yours truly,
Ron Willis
First Ave, Mt Lawley

Cops’ call
IT was a former police commissioner who told prostitutes they could operate on Stirling Street, which they began to do all the way from the Sunday Times building to Harold Street.
The most popular spot has always been around the phone box near Bulwer Street. Even to this day that is where you will find hookers.
If they see a cop car they will soon duck for cover or simply start walking, only to return when the fuzz goes away.
Because they smoke drink and take drugs these women want at least a hundred. Some are such scoundrels they will take the money and flee—offering nothing in return. Drug suppliers are always close by and will even drive them to their next destination.
The commissioner of the day had it all contained in one area. Then he ordered his troops to quickly move in and charge them with offences. We never heard of any blokes being charged. Not much has changed. Occasionally the sheilas move a little to the north, south, east or west of this cosy location—always making themselves obvious to would-be clients.
Seriously, if the police, government, local government wanted to end it all once and for good why don’t they? Because there are always corrupt officials. People on the take. Right where the phone box is on Stirling Street the police could set up a command post, just like they do with booze buses.
There could be a string of police cars. Coppers on bike, on foot,uniformed, plain clothes—it could be one hell of a police operation. Every bloke could be thrown into the clink as well as all the sheilas. All the officials can mouth off, neighbours complain and nothing of consequence occurs.
What about an Elliott Ness and the Untouchables demonstration of how to deal with unwanted lawlessness? Like I said it has a lot to do with police corruption and so called containment policies. That commissioner was a flop and so is this latest bloke.
Raymond N Conder
Central Ave, Inglewood

Broken cameras
IT is not often Perth can claim to be first in showing one of the 2013 Oscar-nominated documentary films.
We hear a lot about the problems in the Middle-East and in this violent world it is refreshing to see a film that shows how non-violent resistance can work captured by the camera.
A wonderful opportunity therefore to see here in Perth 5 Broken Cameras by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi, in which a Palestinian farmer watches from behind the lens and records a first-hand account of non-violent resistance in a West Bank village.
Showing at 6.30pm on Thursday April 18 at the Fox Lecture Theatre, UWA, Nedlands.
Marta Szedlak
Ewing Ave, Bull Creek  

Karmacera
WHAT irony. With Mothballed (Voice Mail, April 6, 2013) Patricia Meydam, bless her, succeeded only in delighting Michael Sutherland by quoting him; and irritating Bob Kucera. Such is life.
Aloysius Pepper
Queens Cres, Mt Lawley

Dark boxes
CANBERRA tells us that come Tuesday (April 16) we shall see nothing on our goggle boxes unless we have switched to digital-only.
Yippee! What a splendid chance to sample life pre-TV. Bring it on.
Alvar Scrope
St Georges Tce, Perth