BAD START FOR SHOP LOCAL LIBERAL CAMPAIGN

 

 

Let’s start the week with a bit of fun and the flyers Liberal hopeful for the state seat of Fremantle, Miquela Riley has been distributing.

It is laudable that Riley  supports local jobs and local shopping, although that would have been a better campaign when standing for local government, but anyway, our local traders deserve all the support they can get.

But is Miquela Riley walking the walk and talking the talk when she urges everyone to shop local? As always it is important to read the fine print and we find out the flyers were printed at………….

There are printers in Fremantle who could have done the job, but let’s give the wannabee politician the benefit of the doubt. Maybe Ms Riley is not aware of the electoral boundaries?

Roel Loopers

IS PREFERENTIAL COUNCIL VOTING THE FUTURE?

 

Local Government Minister David Templeman has received 65 recommendations on how to improve local councils, from an expert panel, and some of the suggestions are very interesting.

One of them is that the entire councils will be up for re-election every four years, in between state elections. I think that is a pretty good idea. At present half of the councils get elected every two years, which is a waste of money when one considers the low voting participation.

The recommendation of changing local council elections from first past the post to preferential voting would change the political landscape in Fremantle and many other councils. Some of those on councils now would not have won the election under a preferential voting system, which I believe is the fairer  and more democratic option of the two.

The next council elections are in October next year, so if Minister Templeman agrees we could have a very different election campaign in 2020 and probably a drastically changed council.

Roel Loopers

GREENS WANT LIBERTY FOR FREMANTLE

 

 

Labor Member for Fremantle Minister Simone McGurk MLA will have to contest the state seat for Freo at the March election against the just announced Greens candidate. University educator Liberty Cramer of White Gum Valley has been endorsed by the party.

“I’m your Greens candidate for Fremantle because I don’t want to go ‘back to normal’, but because I believe that we can build a better normal while protecting the most vulnerable people in our society. If we can remake our society to protect us from a virus, then we can remake it to look after people and our environment. We need to tackle this economic crisis as well as the jobs, inequality and climate crises so we can set everyone up to live a good life.

“Now is the time to make the right decisions that will create hundreds of thousands of good jobs in WA and Fremantle, ensure everyone has an income they can live on, set young people up for the future and transition to a clean energy economy.

COMMUNITY CABINET DEMOCRACY IN THE BURBS

 

 

It was full house at the East Fremantle Football Club on Sunday afternoon for the state Community Cabinet meeting with Premier Mark McGowan and all but two cabinet ministers.

The Premier told the crowd that he had launched the WA Covid Recovery Plan earlier in the day, and it is available on line, and that WA is the first state to do so. McGowan said that Covid-19 had been the main concern for the last five months and that when it started the National Cabinet had been told that many thousands of Australians could die, so closing the WA borders had been very successful.

The premier said there was a more rapid recovery now in WA with the government trying to get the society and economy back up again and getting confidence back across all sections of the community.

The Covid Recovery Plan would put solar panels on social housing and schools, and schools would become solar plants that would put energy back in the grid during school holidays and on weekends.

But the whole idea of the Community Cabinet is that people can ask questions, so that was done by those attending and through a live Facebook streaming.

The first question came from a very nervous high school student, but anyone who has done their first public speaking knows how nerve wracking that can be. The young lady lamented that the gym at the Melville Senior High School gets full of puddles when it rains, because the roof leaks, and pointed out Melville is one of only two schools with a dedicated netball program, which has produced many talents and professional players.

Education Minister Sue Ellery did not commit to repairing the roof, but pointed out the investments already made and future school projects, so I suppose the students and netball players can only hope that the planned new solar panels will keep the rain out of the gym.

A question about an Aboriginal cultural centre also received a non-committal response from Minister David Templeman, who said that the new Perth Museum would be outstanding and would have a significant indigenous display that will be embedded there, but there were a number of ideas explored for WA to be a world centre for indigenous culture. That would be great. Can we have it in Fremantle please!

We also learned, well, I did, that Exmouth is the first place in the world that runs totally on renewable energy, with a gas back up if it fails. “WA does renewable energy, not just talks about it.”

Minister Alannah MacTiernan said that hydrogen is the future and that significant innovative projects would start in the next five years.

Homelessness is a huge challenge, Minister Simone McGurk admitted but the new Common Ground project in Perth was a good start and a second one would be announced soon when the location was decided on. Social housing needs proper support for people to help them cope and outreach people were contacting people on the street to see what it is they need.

The Premier also mentioned that a lot of Lotterywest funding that would normally have gone to community groups and programs has to be diverted to the Covid Recovery Program.

It was an interesting and relaxed afternoon, with many familiar faces in the crowd. I quickly presented the Premier with the COVIDMAN T-shirt I had made for him by Freo T-Shirts and thanked him for keeping the WA borders closed and saving lives.

Roel Loopers

 

LOCAL COUNCILS NEED TO IMPROVE GREATLY

 

The findings of the investigation into the City of Perth council are disturbing and raise questions about how good Western Australia’s other councils are.

Already we have had retiring Liberal politician Mike Nahan calling for an investigation into Fremantle council, and of course relentless council critic and Liberal party supported John Dowson has jumped onto that bandwagon.

But councils should not be about party political issues. In my perfect, utopian and totally unrealistic world local government should be A-political, neither far to the left, nor far too the right. Fremantle Council is not going to be better by just replacing all the left leaning Councillors with right leaning Councillors. Good government is about balance.

It is a fallacy of course to believe that Liberal governments, be that at local, state or federal level, are better at financial management, as the biggest debt in WA’s history left by the Colin Barnett government shows, but Fremantle’s financial management has not exactly been something to write home about either.

Councillors are human beings, who have likes and dislikes, political, economic,  environmental and personal preferences and interests, and like all of us they are not perfect, and neither are the administrations of our local governments, so who is keeping an eye on it all?

The yearly audit of local councils appears to just be a financial one, CEO’s get judged on their performance by Councillors they work with, and often the relationship between the administration and elected members is just a bit too comfortable, and that could create problems when assessing the CEO and administration.

It is too costly to believe the WA state government could or should investigate every council to check if they could perform better and more efficiently and professionally, but the standards somehow need to be raised and there need to be more checks in place to make sure that everything is above board.

As someone who has observed and scrutinised Fremantle Council for well over a decade  I have no fear that anything untoward has happened here, but there are many things that could be improved.

For some planting 50,000 trees is more important than preserving historic and neglected Arthur’s Head and the Roundhouse, for others creating more bike paths is a priority over repairing grumbling footpaths and doing essential maintenance.

The solution lies somewhere in the middle, but that means leaving ideological blinkers at home and be a good elected administrator of council business, instead of a party pushed politician.

Unfortunately it is well known that all political parties want to push for more political power at local governments, so things will get worse, until we wake up and call the whole lot of them out at the ballot box and vote more and more for independents.

What happened at the City of Perth needs to be a wake up call for all local governments and there should be a real desire to improve greatly.

Roel Loopers

 

 

GREENS PRE-SELECT FREO MAYOR FOR UPPER HOUSE

 

The GREENS  have pre-selected Fremantle Mayor Dr Brad Pettitt to be their candidate for the Upper House for the South Metro region of WA.

The state election is next year, so it is highly likely that Brad Pettitt will resign from Fremantle Council well before the October 2021 local government elections, and that could mean an expensive by-election, or Deputy Mayor Andrew Sullivan filling in and be in that role for at least half a year.

Roel Loopers

NO PUBLIC FREMANTLE COUNCIL MEETINGS

 

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced Fremantle Council to scrap committee meetings and ban the public from attending Ordinary Council meetings, which will still be held twice a month on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month.

In April the meetings are on the 15th and 19th of this month.

People can still makes statements and ask questions at meetings, but they will have to be submitted in writing and will be read out at the Council meetings. This can be done here: AgendasMinutes@fremantle.wa.gov.au

Agendas and Minutes of the Council meetings are still available on the fremantle website, so we can all see what decisions have been made and what items are on the agenda.

Stay well, Freo!

Roel Loopers

LIVE STREAM COUNCIL MEETINGS DURING SOCIAL ISOLATION

 

Live streaming of Fremantle Council meetings was suggested at the annual Electors Meeting a couple of weeks ago, and the present coronavirus pandemic crisis makes a good point of introducing that sooner rather than later.

Social distancing and social isolation common sense means that most of us won’t attend council meetings any more, including this keen blogger.

Premier Mark McGowan said this morning he expects the regulations to be in place for at least six months, which is quite staggering, and will kill many businesses, and it will demand a dramatic change in how we socialise.

I would have liked to go to this Wednesday’s Council meeting and even address the elected members to express my support for the Woolstores hotel development by Silverleaf Investments, but it would be unwise to do so, as at 71 years of age I am in the high risk category and that not only means at a high risk of getting Covid-19, but should I have it, of spreading it.

We all need to adapt and local councils need to remain accountable and transparent and give the community a change to observe proceedings, so how fast can we get live streaming of council meetings?

Roel Loopers

FREO ELECTORS MEETING TONIGHT!

 

The City of Fremantle annual Electors Meeting is on this evening, March 9, in the Townhall at 6pm, so come and ask questions and make suggestions. Democracy only works when we actively and positively participate in it.

Roel Loopers

FREO ANNUAL ELECTORS MEETING ON MONDAY

 

The Annual Electors meeting is for the Fremantle community. It is our chance to put motions forward, ask questions and express concerns, so turn up this Monday March 9 at 6pm at the Fremantle Townhall.

Bring proof that you live in Fremantle as you will not be allowed to vote if you live outside the Freo city boundaries.

Roel Loopers