Perth Voice Interactive

“PERTH’S a ‘yes’,” Labor’s federal MP for Perth Patrick Gorman says after having doorknocked local suburbs to drum up support for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

While most national polls have shown the Yes vote dipping below 50 per cent over the past year, Mr Gorman says he’s confident local sentiment is firmly in favour of the Voice.

“More people are saying ‘yes’ than ‘no’, and that’s really encouraging,” Mr Gorman told the Voice.

“More people are saying that they think it is a very sensible proposal.”

Mr Gorman’s hopeful that as the date draws nearer the Yes sentiment will see an upwards swing. 

Since the October 14 date was announced a little over a week ago there’s been a notable surge in people volunteering for the local Yes campaign, which now has 506 volunteers out knocking on doors. They’ve hit 8740 doors between them so far.

Pauline Hanson’s No event in Perth filled the seats in Leederville in July (“Protest voices,” Voice, July 29, 2023), and the local No campaign had a sizeable launch last month: The ABC reported more than 1,000 people attended the Liberal party-backed No campaign launch at Ascot Racecourse, where the prevailing argument was that the change would be “divisive”.

While that event got big numbers, Mr Gorman says he doesn’t see the No campaigners out on the ground.

He said while doorknocking “one thing I found quite funny is a couple of people have said ‘I’ll wait til the No campaign knocks on my door’,” before making up their minds.

“Well, I think you could be waiting a while, mate. I call it the No-Show No Campaign.

“They’re just completely absent… the No campaign is just nowhere to be seen, the only place they seem to exist is on Facebook.”

Not every issue gets a federal MP out doorknocking, but Mr Gorman says he’s been out twice a week on this issue because, “I know that we can get better results if we do things by listening to First Nations peoples.”

by DAVID BELL

“DEEPLY disappointing” – the group pushing for cats to be kept at home are dismayed after Bayswater council deleted its new cat containment law under threat of being held in contempt of WA Parliament.

Bayswater council, like many others, is trying to bring in laws to contain cats on owners’ properties to protect wildlife.

But the state’s Joint Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation, which ensures council rules don’t contradict any state rules, declared Bayswater had no power to make that rule under the WA Cat Act 2011 and ordered it to remove the clause from a new cat policy (“Bayswater backs down over kitty contempt risk,” Voice, September 2, 2023). 

That’s despite the JSCDL having previously allowed near-identical laws in Northam.

Responsible Cat Ownership Stirling is a group of residents which formed in hopes of encouraging Stirling council to bring in rules preventing cats from roaming in order to protect prey animals and keep them safe at home.

But Stirling council isn’t looking at any cat law changes until at least 2024.

The RCOS had pinned their hopes on Bayswater council standing firm against the JSCDL’s request to delete the law, hoping it’d encourage other councils to step up and control the kitties.

Optomistic

Following the decision, the group provided the Voice with this statement: “RCOS were pleased to be afforded time to give a deputation to the City of Bayswater, and optimistic in seeing that several councillors were willing to listen to not just our, but all deputations, asking CoB to keep clause 2.2 in their local cat law,” referring to the clause keeping cats on their owners properties.

“That the City voted to uphold the undertaking to the JSCDL and remove Clause 2.2 is deeply disappointing. 

“Whilst several councillors acted bravely, and in accordance with their residents’ wishes, the ultimate outcome has been a big blow to our domestic and native animals’ wellbeing. 

“The City of Bayswater have given in to the unreasonable, unexplained, and contradictory demands of the JSCDL and now the CoB have lost the faith of many of their residents and interested groups looking to the CoB for leadership.”

Only two councillors, Giorgia Johnson and Elli Petersen-Pik, wanted to test the JSCDL’s resolve and keep the clause. But the majority felt they were stuck in a tough spot, having already given an undertaking to the JSCDL last year to remove the clause from the cat law, meaning they could be held in contempt if they kept it.

There was one win for the cat containment crew out of the whole affair: The council’s original cat policy would have banned cats from nine specific sites, mainly vulnerable wetlands.

While Bayswater’s policy can’t keep cats contained altogether, after consulting with community groups the list of cat-prohibited sites has grown to 42. 

On the list of protected sites are parks like McPherson Bushland, Hillcrest Living Stream, Tranby Reserve and Peninsula Farm.

Rangers will be hard-pressed to police so many sites so they’ll be starting by putting their limited number of traps down in the most sensitive environments.

by DAVID BELL

A NEW festival in Bayswater is on the horizon, with 65 events planned for the two-month Flourish Community Arts Festival.

Bayswater council’s organised the festival around its annual community art exhibition, bringing in  local artist Leo Flavel as curator; he has two decades in the local creative scene.

Mayor Filomena Piffaretti says the festival will cover “art, dance, music, theatre, literature and culture.”

It will also “highlight the work of the talented creators, artisans and makers in our very own backyard”. 

The festival has stemmed from the council’s Cultural Plan to try to build up an environment where artists, community groups and creative businesses can thrive.

Flourish runs October 1 to November 30, and bayswater.wa.gov.au/flourish has a full lineup of events. 

VINCENT council’s push to be a billboard-free zone has been upheld by the State Administrative Tribunal, which has refused to grant permanent approval to one of the few remaining billboards in the town’s boundaries.

The decision comes as the state government has grown increasingly reluctant to even allow councils to have blanket ad bans in recent years.

Vincent council’s had a longstanding policy against filling its domain with ads, and third-party advertising like billboards are banned save for a few rare exceptions.

One is the time-limited approval given to property owner Graham Cerini to put up billboards on his block at the corner of Loftus and Newcastle Streets.

Corner block

Because the awkward corner block on busy streets is so hard to develop, the council cut a deal with Mr Cerini in 2003 to temporarily put billboards there if he kept the block as a nice garden, preferring that to a vacant block.

Mr Cerini currently has approval to keep the billboards until 2029, but he’s sought the security of a permanent approval to secure an income in his retirement. 

Last year the council refused to grant him perpetual approval, as that’d likely deter anyone from even trying to develop on it one day if there was a solid source of billboard income. 

Mr Cerini challenged the decision in the SAT, arguing the billboard rule in Vincent’s Local Planning Scheme is missing details and definitions of what counts as ‘third party advertising’.

His lawyers also argued that state governments had become increasingly reluctant to allow councils to have a blanket billboard ban: Belmont’s recent attempt to institute a blanket ban was rebuffed.

That means that even if Vincent tried to amend its LPS to be firmer and clearer about what is  and isn’t allowed, the planning minister might not even allow it to have an anti-billboard rule and order it removed. 

SAT member Charmian Barton said the uncertainty over whether a planning minister would approve a blanket billboard ban had “are not matters that I can afford substantial weight in these proceedings”.

She said for now the signs didn’t meet the current rules in Vincent’s signage policy. Taking into account the council’s plans to firm up those rules and their vision for the block to be developed in the future, Ms Barton affirmed the council’s decision to grant only temporary approvals.

by DAVID BELL

AFTER a quiet kick-off to Bayswater’s first ever popular mayoral campaign, a contender has stepped up to take on incumbent mayor Filomina Piffaretti.

Until now Bayswater’s mayor has been appointed by councillors who vote in a colleague via a secret ballot after the election.

State government reforms are pushing all major metro councils to allow the public to vote for the mayor directly.

When Stirling had its first popular mayoral vote in 2019 it was a packed race with six candidates stepping up for the top job.

But it’s been crickets at Bayswater. Former mayor Dan Bull has decided not to run for mayor and will just re-run for his west ward seat, and other whispered names haven’t eventuated.

Stepping up

With nominations closing on September 7 we’ve only heard of one other candidate stepping up: Bedford resident Georgina Ker, who decided to stand after it appeared no one else would contest the mayoral seat.

“I think having that competition, that race, is really important for democracy,” Ms Ker told the Voice.

“When Stirling first went to direct mayoral elections they had half a dozen candidates. I’ve talked with a few councillors about their intentions and it seemed nobody was going to put their hand up.”

Ms Ker hasn’t run for council before. She has the option of contesting a ward seat as well, as a backup in case the mayoral campaign is unsuccessful, but she’s decided not to run.

She lives in west ward, and while candidates can run in any ward, Ms Ker said, “I’m not a believer in running in a ward where I don’t live.

“I believe that [ward] is really well represented by Dan Bull, who’s standing again, and I don’t want to run against Dan, I think he’s doing a great job.”

Ms Ker works in university admission, has studied business administration, and local government was a big part of her life growing up: Her dad Ian Ker was on Vincent council for 14 years and is still active in Fremantle’s public life.

Ms Ker said she was keen on prioritising active transport (at age 11 she wrote a school assignment “is Perth too dependent on cars?”), doing more for young people, and “urgent corrective action” to improve the city’s tree canopy.

She says a majority of council has voted to weaken tree protection in the past two years, including switching verge tree planting to an ‘opt-in’ basis instead of the previous ‘opt-out’ basis.

“Since the last election two years ago, there’s been a really clear factional divide, which I think is a bit of a worry since a lot of people don’t even know it’s going on,” Ms Ker said.

Divides

She said a fresh face as mayor might help put those divides in the past.

Ms Ker drew a distinction between supporting Cr Bull and being in a ‘faction’ though, saying the difference was she’d be happy to vote against him when opinions differed. 

We contacted Cr Piffaretti to get her take on the factionalism issue, but didn’t hear back ahead of deadline. She’s previously said that in her view there was a fair amount of variance in votes, and sharply contested a suggestions the council was “divided” (“Fame and favourites,” Voice, May 27, 2023).

Cr Piffaretti, in her pitch to become the city’s first full term popularly-elected mayor, says she’s got a strong record getting “common-sense decisions” through council and brought in record levels of state and federal funding commitments. 

Cr Piffaretti’s candidate statement says she has big plans for the next four years including safer suburbs, more support for seniors and better maintenance of public assets.

by DAVID BELL

WITH more than 80,000 beehives stranded in NSW because of an outbreak of the deadly varroa mite, local beekeeper Mark Woodcock says it’s a timely reminder not to buy hives off online marketplaces without checking that the seller knows what they’re doing.

Although the mite hasn’t been found in Western Australia, the bacteria that causes American foulbrood is found locally and can wipe out a hive.

It’s getting into spring and bees are starting to swarm, and Mr Woodcock says some dodgy operators will collect a swarm from someone’s bakyard, then whack it straight up on Facebook.

Swarms

He says that risks spreading foulbrood into previously clear areas.

He keeps any swarms separate from his own hives for several months, and also breeds a new queen from his own stock to ensure the hive will carry her good characteristics, such as being mellow and growing a healthy brood.

“There’s lots of reasons bees swarm, but those bees will suck up honey out of the hive when they leave, because that’s their food source and it’s also what they’re going to use to build wax, and feed young and all those things,” Mr Woodcock said.

“When they get to a new place, unless it’s already an old abandoned hive, then they start from the ground up and you need honey. 

“Without the honey, they couldn’t have the energy to keep building up the wax. 

“But the honey is a carrier of foul brood.”

Apiarists need to be certified by the Department of Primary Industry and Regional Development, which issues them a “brand” which can be used to track and alert beekeepers in the areaif an outbreak has been detected.

Mr Woodcock also recommends people join the WA Apiarists’ Society, which holds regular information sessions with experts in the field who can keep them updated with the latest news and techniques to keep their hives healthy and clean.

He’s recently found a use for abandoned election corflutes, which usually end up in landfill; instead a bit of framing helps turn them into ‘nukes’, described as an apiarist’s “secret weapon” where they create a new colony.

by STEVE GRANT