Guardian Express Weighs In

The current issue of the Guardian Express has some interesting items on local government so-called reform - aka forced amalgamations - except that Col Pot and Homer Simpson now deny that they are even amalgamations - they are 'boundary realignments'. 

The twin editorial comments ('Council shoots itself in the foot' and 'Residents need to focus on focus', 25th February) are timely and very much to the point. Perth MLA, Eleni Evangel, also gets the point about timing and the importance of experience ('Bad timing for change says MLA').

The seven elected members of Vincent Council who voted not to renew the CEO's contract (itself a quaint piece of terminology, avoiding the perjorative term 'sack') have an average of two years local government experience - a total of 14 years between them. Even combined, this is much less than the time Vincent has been in existence and John Giorgi been at the helm of the Administration.

The City of Perth has made it very clear that it does not want the whole of Vincent, just the most valuable assets - a stance reiterated in the same paper ('Mayor campaigns for change') so the majority of Vincent residents are not going to get a fair deal if the State Government insists on Vincent becoming one with the City of Perth.

But Lisa Scaffidi and the City of Perth clearly don't understand that the proposal to take over only a part of Vincent cannot proceed as it leaves the majority of Vincent unviable yet not subject to any other proposed change.

However, we should not lose sight of the fact that the City of Vincent does not have to disappear - even the Vincent Council has now come out and stated that its preferred outcome is for Vincent to remain as it is. The so-called reform process and the Government's proposals are so lacking in substance that the whole house of cards is highly vulnerable to court challenges.

All Vincent councillors who have been willing to communicate with me in the process (and that was a disturbingly small proportion of them) told me that their preferred position was for Vincent to remain as it was - but that they had 'been persuaded' by the then Mayor, Alannah MacTiernan, that there was no possibility of achieving that.

I was a lone voice arguing for Vincent to be retained at that time. At least Vincent Council has now stated that that is its preferred outcome, but it seems still to be trapped in its original negative mindset. The community meeting that will be held on 9th March is focussed on the importance of Vincent/Perth being a merger of equals. Yes, this is important, but not at the expense of foregoing the possibility, however, remote, of avoiding the City of Perth altogether.