Perth Voice Interactive

MAKING a new home in Australia can be a great challenge for immigrants, with new laws and cultural norms to take on board; and if you’re a member of the LGBTQI+ community there’ll be a few more levels of complexity to get your head around.

Many have come from countries where they faced marginalisation, discrimination, abuse – or even the death penalty – and knowing how their adopted family is going to react can be daunting.

Language barriers can also make it harder to connect with like-minded community members.

Now a new project, Rainbow Migrants, is being run by Umbrella Multicultural Community Care with the aim of providing LGBTQI+ newcomers support.

Umbrella’s communications manager Donna Gibson said they met with the Department of Home Affairs a few months ago to get a handle on the situation and found it quite an eye-opener.

“One of the interesting things we discovered is that partner visas… don’t discriminate,” Ms Gibson said.

“There might be a couple where it might be two men, or two women, or whatever the gender diversity, they don’t actually record that, they just keep them all together in one basket.

Visas

“It’s quite fascinating because you can see that the intention is wonderful, because it’s not to discriminate, but then it creates the other sort of issues in terms of ‘well, then, how do we approach and find these people and reach out to them and offer them services or support.”

It also exposes partners who experience domestic violence to a vicious trap; if they leave to escape the violence, they risk having their visas cancelled and being sent back to their home country.

“Home Affairs and a few other organisations are trying to raise awareness about that and saying that these people can come to the Department of Home Affairs, and can say ‘this is the situation’ and there are exceptions that can be made.”

Ms Gibson said the barriers have made it difficult for Rainbow Migrants to contact LGBTQI+ immigrants, and it’s been a “one-by-one word-of-mouth” process so far, but they are busy in the social media space where anonymity is afforded.

“Some are coming to Australia as students and their families back home have no knowledge they are queer.”

They’ve also been running information sessions on issues such as cyber bullying, vehicle licensing, tenancy and other bits of everyday life they might not necessarily know about on arrival.

She said they’ve only got one year’s funding from the WA government’s Office of Multicultural Interests, which runs out in January, but Home Affairs was impressed with their passion for the issue and is looking for ways to keep the funding going.

Ms Gibson said the project was branching out for Umbrella, which is known mainly for its aged care services.

Rainbow Migrants is headed by UWA academic Lukasz Krzyzowski.

“The more work we do in this space, the more we identify the gap in social support and networking opportunities for LGBTIQ+ migrants who now call Perth home,” Dr Krzyzowski said.

“I am grateful to Umbrella Inc for supporting this project.”

by STEVE GRANT

WITH Maylands foreshore facing a dire erosion crisis, federal environment and water minister Tanya Plibersek visited the river this week to announce a government commitment of $1.42 million. 

In the past few years Bayswater council has struggled to come up with enough cash to fight the ongoing erosion exacerbated by climate change, water levels and boat wake (“River cash crisis,” Voice, November 21, 2019).

The strip along Tranby House is particularly vulnerable, with footpaths and trees on a timer before they succumb to erosion.

The funding will be split between $950,000 for Tranby House foreshore, $450,000 for the often-sick and midge-ridden Maylands Lakes, and $20,000 for Bardon Park’s wetlands which are currently undergoing a community-led restoration effort.

Bayswater mayor Filomena Piffaretti told us via email: “This funding will enable the City to undertake riverbank restoration works at Tranby House foreshore, a much-loved historic precinct on the banks of the Swan River.

“It will address the water quality at Maylands Lakes and include revegetation works along the foreshore at Bardon Park.

“This funding ensures our community can continue to enjoy these beautiful natural areas we are so fortunate to have in our city.”

The cash comes from the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water, and is part of a $200m pool to try to stave off the ravages climate change is wreaking on rivers, wetlands, and the critters they host.

by DAVID BELL

“INUNDATED!” After raising concerns about the WACA’s lack of blokey urinals in the name of ‘inclusivity’, former councillor Paul Collins says he’s heard from a surge of cricket fans opposed to the controversial redevelopment.

Mr Collins is now planning to raise the issue as an agenda item at next week’s WACA board meeting. He’s a member-elected director of the WACA board, but emphasised that he was speaking in his personal capacity, and said, “I have been inundated with praise and support from men and women since your story was published last week” (“Slash on the off side,” Voice, August 26, 2023).

The story was quickly snaffled up by the state daily paper and then spread to national media, and a flood of letters have called for a redesign to include urinals. There was also discomfort with a plan to have a shared sink area in the members’ facilities, wedged between male and female cubicles on either side.

Mr Collins said the concerns came from varied demographics.

“On the women side, it is Gen Z who have been most vocal against gender-shared wash basins and mirrors in licensed premises. Perhaps it is the fact they are an age group where they are regularly attending licensed premises,” Mr Collins said.

“I’ve requested an agenda item on the matter for next week’s board meeting.

“I will be working to ensure there are sufficient urinals for the venue’s capacity and remove gender shared wash basins and mirrors for the public and members.”

The WACA board has had a few internal stoushes over the past couple of years, with a divide between appointed directors and member-elected directors leading to a slew of resignations in 2022.

Mr Collins said in this instance, “one of the benefits of an organisation like the WACA in having member-elected directors is that the members have an avenue to express their needs and wants.

“In my case, as a member for nearly 40 years, I have the history and connection with the membership and general patrons that is a big help on the current issue, for example.”

Construction’s due to start in September so the push for a redesign is on a timer.

Mr Collins said: “If you’ve ever done a bathroom renovation then the cost of retrofitting would be enormous.

“It is a work in progress but I am hopeful of a good outcome.”

A WA Cricket spokesperson told us via email: “The WACA Board and Project Team carefully consider all aspects of the WACA Ground Improvement Project, including the design of the bathrooms.

“The WACA Board meets next Tuesday, September 5, and this matter will be discussed then.”

by DAVID BELL

OUTSPOKEN Stirling councillor Elizabeth Re has announced she’ll take on incumbent mayor Mark Irwin in a re-run of their 2019 rivalry.

Cr Re previously ran for mayor against Mr Irwin in 2019, and has often found herself at odds with the majority of fellow councillors. She has sometimes extensively argued her corner to the audible frustration of Mr Irwin who chairs the council meetings. 

In the past term they’ve been at loggerheads over the oft-debated trackless tram project, which won federal funding to start a trial along Scarborough Beach Road in October. Mr Irwin’s been a key supporter of the idea – and this week he pointed out that Cr Re had previously supported trackless trams. But Cr Re says her main objection with the project is that local government can’t afford to be taking the lead on public transport infrastructure and it should be paid for by higher levels of government.

Cr Re says another main driver for her run is to get more support for local clubs. She was the only councillor to vote against this year’s budget, mainly on the grounds that it slashed maintenance funds for the council’s ageing community buildings which host sports teams and social clubs.

“We don’t seem to be putting the community first,” Cr Re said.

She says in the past month four clubs have hit serious maintenance issues in their council-owned facilities and faced delays when reporting them to Stirling, from drains at Wembley Downs failing during storms to a Balcatta sports team finding their toilets were broken on game day. 

“Celebration Park, which hosts the women’s soccer team the Redbacks, haven’t had their hot water system working since June,” Cr Re said. She put up a motion this week to try to get more timely responses to emergency maintenance issues, with a review due by November.

The incumbent Mr Irwin had a comfortable win in the 2019 mayoral election where he got a hefty 39 per cent of the vote in a six-way race, and Cr Re held second place with 23 per cent.

This time round optional preferential voting will be in play, but that’ll only be relevant if more than two candidates run, and so far only Mr Irwin and Cr Re have announced a tilt.

by DAVID BELL

FORMER state MP Alison Xamon has jumped into the race to be the new Vincent mayor.

Ms Xamon was a Greens upper house MP for two separate terms from 2009 to 2013 and then 2017 to 2021, but says she’s running for mayor as an independent.

Ms Xamon, a lawyer who’s worked in refugee and mental health advocacy, is a long-time Vincent resident and says since leaving Parliament she’d had been encouraged to run for mayor. But she wasn’t interested at the time as she supported current mayor Emma Cole, who has since announced she’d retire at October’s election.

Ms Xamon is the third candidate to announce a run for mayor, after sitting councillors Ron Alexander and Suzanne Worner announced in early August. Both Cr Alexander and Cr Worner have been on council for two years each, and so far none of the other longer-term councillors look likely to nominate.

“I’ve got the skills to be able to do it,” Ms Xamon says.

“[I] have experience of working within systems of governance, and particularly working across the tiers of government.

“And also, frankly, I’m hardworking and I’m competent, and I love this area.”

The Vincent mayoral role has often been a seat warmed by politicians on their way to and from parliament – Jack Marx, John Hyde, Alannah MacTiernan, John Carey. 

But Ms Xamon says she has no intention of going back to parliament, but did enjoy “representing people” and is keen to get back to that as Vincent mayor.

Ms Xamon was broadly supportive of Vincent council’s current progressive direction, but nominated a few areas as in need of change. She called out the dire state of many footpaths and other pedestrian infrastructure, an issue we’ve heard brought up repeatedly by readers.

Her son is blind and she says every crack in the footpath, every uneven paver sticking out, and every enduring Telstra pothole stands in the way of simply getting around town.

“I want us to be the best-practice council around issues of accessibility,” Ms Xamon said, which would help more than just those with disabilities.

“The things that make it safer for older people to walk around the streets are the same things that make it safer for people who are in wheelchairs, which is the same thing that makes it easier for people to meet with friends, and the same thing that helps people like my son, who’s blind.”

So far every mayor in the history of Vincent from Jack Marx to Emma Cole has been a Labor party member. Ms Xamon doesn’t see party membership as holding much relevance as she says there’s no direction from party HQ to local councillors.

“I’m not running as a Green, I’m not representing the party,” Ms Xamon said.

“People know what my values are, and they know what my politics are, but I think it’s really critical that mayors are politically independent.”

by DAVID BELL