WALYALUP ABORIGINAL CULTURAL CENTRE CELEBRATES 10th ANNIVERSARY
The City of Fremantle Walyalup Aboriginal Cultural Centre celebrated its 10th anniversary on Manjaree/Arthur’s Head today.
It was as always one of those relaxed multicultural gatherings, that shows we have come a long way on our reconciliation journey here in Freo.
I well remember the opening of the centre by then Mayor Brad Pettitt a decade ago, and we still have a long way to go. Mutual respect will achieve that.
Roel Loopers
FREMANTLE COUNCILLOR VUJCIC BREACHED LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT
The Complaints Register Local Government Act 1995 s5.121 has found that Fremantle Councillor Marija Vujcic committed a minor breach of the Local Government Act.
She will have to publicly apologise to former Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt and Councillor Rachel Pemberton at the next Ordinary Council meeting, in regard to Cr Vujcic naming Pettit and Pemberton as persons who gave permission for the Tent City in Pioneeer Park. Cr Vujcic will have to apologise with following wording:
“I advise this meeting that: A complaint was made to the Local Government Standards Panel, in which it was alleged that I contravened the Local Government (Rules of Conduct) Regulations 2007 (WA) when I publicly named then Mayor Pettit and Councillor Pemberton as the parties who gave permission for an event for homeless persons that led to the formation of “Tent City” in Pioneer Park.
The Panel found that I breached regulation 7(1)(b) of the said Regulations as I did not have a reasonable basis for such assertion and the comment was made to detriment Dr Pettit and Cr Pemberton.
I accept that I should not have made such accusation in public prior to an investigation being undertaken.
I now apologise to Dr Pettit, Councillor Pemberton, my fellow Councillors, the City and the public.”
Roel Loopers
THE LEGACY OF MAYOR BRAD PETTITT
Now that Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt has moved up the political ladder to the Upper House of WA Parliament it will be interesting to contemplate his legacy in the port city.
Pettitt’s reign was controversial and probably mainly because of the fact that he is a member of the Greens and that many on the other side of politics do not like Fremantle Council to be left-leaning.
It is hard to forget politics and only consider facts, but I’ll try any way and I don’t pretend that my memory and recollection is perfect and maybe even a bit biased at times.
Arguably the most controversial decision Council made under Pettitt’s leadership was to sign up with Sirona Capital for the Kings Square Redevelopment Project. Those who criticise it claim the $ 45 million investment in the new Walyalup Civic Centre is wasteful and that the building will be a white elephant monstrosity. They also say the City of Fremantle sold off Council property, such as the Spicers site carpark and the former cinema building, far too cheap.
Brad Pettitt and the Councils he chaired believed that the Kings Square project would revitalise the CBD and that it would encourage developers to invest in Fremantle, hence a new Planning Scheme Amendment 49 for 13 sites allowed for more height in the inner city. That was rewarded with an unprecedented boom in new residential, office, retail and hotel development. If all those buildings, completed, under construction and in the pipeline will achieve CBD revitalisation will probably take another five years to judge.
Some of the criticism directed at Pettitt and his Councils are that they concentrated too much on big picture stuff instead of roads, rubbish and rates. I believe that is a fair assessment because Fremantle looks very tired and neglected in many parts of our beautiful city. A new Mayor and new Council from October need to reassess that and listen more to what the community wants and needs.
Community consultation needs to be genuine and transparent. I absolutely support that in consideration for our indigenous people Fremantle Council decided to no longer celebrate Australia Day, but there should have been good community discussion about this, and not just with Aboriginal people. The One Day in Fremantle celebrations of Freo’s multiculturalism suddenly turned into an Aboriginal festival and I don’t believe that is the right direction for reconciliation.
Freo is becoming more and more of an entertainment centre with many new hospitality venues opening over the last few years and we now have seven locations for live open air music concerts at the Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle Park, Fremantle Prison, the Esplanade, Bathers Beach, South Beach, Port Beach and Leighton Beach. That needs to be managed really well because while inner city residents should be tolerant to inner city activities and noise, they can not be expected to welcome live concerts every summer weekend and just put up with, often excessive, noise.
Fremantle Council under Brad Pettitt has achieved major milestones, I believe, but there have also been a few too many feel-good decisions that riled the community that just wants basic things done.
In the inner city footpath paving looks terrible in many spots. Cracked, dirty, broken kerbs are not ok, and neither is the neglect of historic Arthur’s Head that now finally is getting some essential stabilisation work done. Why did it take ten years to get there?
It is unfair to blame Fremantle Council for vacant shops and for antisocial behaviour, but there is no doubt it impacts on people visiting. Obnoxious loud and aggressive people are intimidating for many shoppers who stay away from the area near Target and are reluctant to use public transport in that area. Fremantle Council will need to keep pushing and even attacking the State Government for not doing enough and not having enough police presence on Freo’s streets. There also needs to be stronger punishment for ignoring the responsible service of alcohol by some of our hospitality venues, where drunks literally fall out of the premises at night.
The WA State election have not only maimed the Liberal party but also the Greens and Brad Pettitt will be the only Greens in the Upper House, that also needs to send a message to Fremantle’s Elected Members that we want you to look better after the needs of the community and prioritise local issues, instead of signing all kinds of well-meaning but slightly patronising statements from the heart.
I don’t agree that local government is only about roads, rubbish and rates, but that needs to be a priority for all councils. That was not the case in our city over the last decade and together with the amazingly positive building boom that will be a legacy of Pettitt’s reign in Fremantle.
Fremantle is not perfect, our Council and administration are not perfect, the community is not perfect and neither was Brad Pettitt’s reign of our city, but any one who gives ten years of their life to their community deserves deep gratitude and respect and Fremantle owes Brad Pettitt a big Thank You!
Roel Loopers
FREO MAYOR MOVES TO UPPER HOUSE
According to ABC’s election guru Anthony Green Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt has won a seat in the Upper House of the WA Parliament for the Greens.
It will be a hard slog for Pettitt to have any influence in parliament as the only Greens, but he has always found ways of collaboration with the 12 other elected members at Fremantle Council, so I hope it will not be a waste of time as a back bencher.
No matter what the knockers say about Brad Pettitt I believe that he has been part of significant and good change for Fremantle over the last decade. The fact that developers and hotel operators want to build in our city shows that there is more confidence in Fremantle’s future from those sections than there is in some parts of our community.
Pettitt’s legacy and the Councils he lead can be seen in new buildings, either completed or in progress, all over the CBD and we should be grateful for that.
But the State Government really needs to do something about the way people vote for the Upper House. The fact that a man from the Daylight Saving party will have a seat with just 100 votes, the Greens getting only one seat for 80,000 votes, while the Nationals get three seats for 40,000 votes and the Legalise Canabis party gets two seats with a mere 26,000 votes. Was that what voters wanted? I doubt it. The system is broke and urgently needs to be fixed!
Roel Loopers
PETTITT STILL IN THE RUN
ABC’s election expert Anthony Green still projects that Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt will win the South Metropolitan seat in the WA Upper House, so my post yesterday about Pettitt being unsuccessful was premature.
Roel Loopers
PETTITT’S STATE RUN UNSUCCESSFUL
Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt will remain in his position on Fremantle Council until the October Local Government election, after his attempt to join the Upper House as the member for South Metro was unsuccessful. He was narrowly beaten by the Labor candidate.
What will Pettitt’s future be? It is probably unlikely that he would nominate again for the mayoral position on council and I wonder if Curtin University kept the job warm for him he had there, since all universities are trying to reduce costs because of the Covid-19 impact.
Roel Loopers
Update: Brad Pettitt believes there is still a small chance for him and that the end result will only be known next week, so there is ambiguity in the entry on the Electoral Commission’s website this morning that deleted Brad Pettitt.
FREMANTLE MAYOR BACK AT WORK
After a long break from Council for his Upper House election campaign Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt is back at work, because the seat for South Metro has not yet been decided. It can take a few more weeks until all the preference votes have been counted and even if Pettitt wins he is only required at Parliament House mid May.
According to ABC’s Anthony Green Pettitt is in the box seat to win South Metro and if that is correct Fremantle will need to elect a new Mayor at the October Local Government election in seven months. Who will put their hand up?
Roel Loopers
FREO MAYOR TO STAY IF HE DOES NOT WIN STATE ELECTION
Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt will take leave next week to concentrate on his election campaign for the WA Upper House for the Greens and Deputy Mayor Andrew Sullivan will have to fill that role until the March 13 election.
It does not mean however that Pettitt is saying goodbye to Fremantle Council, because he will stay on as Mayor until the October local government elections should he not win the SouthWest seat and not make it to the upper house, a source close to him told me on Friday.
In the meantime, those who are worried that the stand-in Mayor, if Pettit gets elected, would mean additional costs for the City can relax. Pettitt gets leave without pay, so if the flagged pay increase for the stand-in Mayor gets approved it will still be less that what the Mayor normally gets.
And for the record, because fake news is still being spread about it on social media, the initiative to consider increasing the pay for the stand-in Mayor was not instigated by Andrew Sullivan, but by council officers, without any input from Sullivan.
Roel Loopers
WHO WANTS TO BE FREO’S NEXT MAYOR?
Noticing Ra Stewart in the crowd that watched the screening of the Fremantle Ten Years documentary on Thursday evening made me wonder if she will nominate again for the mayoral position on Fremantle Council next year.
Of course Ra should have been the Mayor of our brilliant city, but chivalry is no longer common in our politicians, so instead of Brad Pettitt holding the doors of the Townhall open for Ra saying ladies first, he took his seat at the head of the council table himself three years ago.
We all understand how glamorous the job of the Fremantle Mayor is as the figurehead and spokesperson for our elected members and city. The Mayor gets paid about half of what the CEO does, but for that he gets most of the grieve, aggro and negativity. The CEO does not get calls or text messages at 3am to ask if he can silence the car or house alarms that are going off, and it is the Mayor who gets 3pm calls on Sundays to tell him the rubbish bins in the High Street mall are overflowing. But for all that trouble he gets ‘well compensated’ when his face appears on TV and in the newspapers regularly.
So who will make a good Mayor after Brad Pettitt’s departure next year? Suggestions have been made it could be Deputy Mayor Andrew Sullivan who has been on Council for many years, but I believe he probably carries too much of the baggage of the Pettitt decade to be electable.
Councillors Hannah Fitzhardinge and Frank Mofflin have also been mentioned. I like both of them because they are very balanced and intelligent people, and very likeable as well. They are relatively new on council and bring new ideas and a breath of fresh air in what sometimes has become a bit predictable over the last ten years. But Fitzhardinge is close to the State Labor government, so that could probably be an issue for some voters.
I believe Dylan Smith, the former CEO of the Fremantle Foundation and a former Dockers player would also be a good Mayor for Fremantle, but I have no idea whatsoever if Dylan is interested in Council politics.
No doubt the Fremantle Society and other groups will want to nominate a candidate who is right of centre in politics, to balance the left-leaning council. Would FS support Ra Stewart again if she nominated or someone else?
What we all need to be reminded off though is that those who argue that Brad Pettitt and Fremantle Council are acting against the best interest for our city is that Pettitt was elected three times and other elected members have also been re-elected, so that was the democratic vote.
No matter who will nominate for the October 2021 local government election people need to get off their lazy bottoms and vote! Voting is not only a privilege but a duty we should be grateful for. And may the best (wo)man win!
Roel Loopers
FREOVIEW - Fremantle's only daily 
leave a comment