This Government Doesn't Do Its Homework

ABC, 30th April 2015

Those of us who have been intimately involved in the debacle of this government's local government so-called reform process know only too well that Barnett and Co don't do their homework before deciding what they're going to do - and as a result find themselves continually having to change both the what and the how - and ultimately have to abandon it entirely.

The latest example is the belated apparent acknowledgment that the $630,000 a year the City of Nedlands receives in rates from the Hollywood Private Hospital is crucial to the sustainability of that local government.

But it is still sticking to the myth, aided and abetted by the University of WA itself, that a capital city needs a university campus and a major hospital within its boundaries (why then is it downgrading Royal Perth Hospital?) - without putting forward a shred of evidence to support it. Sounds horribly like the 'economies of scale' myth of sand that was the 'foundation' of local government so-called reform.

There might be a valid argument that a major institution campus should be within one local government, but this doesn't have to be the City of Perth. And certainly it doesn't apply where the institution is split between more than one site, as UWA is. I very much doubt, for example, that anyone would argue that the Curtin University Postgraduate Business School in the City of Perth should come under the Town of Victoria Park, as the main campus does.

In fact, given the spatial separation from the rest of the City of Perth and the fact that UWA and QEII are bounded by residential areas that bear the brunt of access and parking demands generated by them (as Nedlands Mayor, Max Hipkins, rightly points out), the case is surely stronger for those institutions to be part of the local government(s) that have responsibility for the neighbouring areas.

One of the key criteria for local government, according to the Local Government Act, is 'community of interest'. In this case, that requires the institutions and the surrounding communities to be able to work together to manage conflicting as well as shared interests.

Celebration Time

As the Post observed, the less significant of two events in Subiaco on Sunday 19th April 2015 was the western derby at Subiaco Oval.

The war might not be over - there are still battles to be fought over Barnett's proposed City of Perth Act' - but the rescission of Governors Orders on 13th March (unreported on this blog, as I was overseas at the time) clearly required celebration. Many thanks to the City of Subiaco for organising this.

It was good to catch up with many of those who had driven community campaigns so effectively, to hear their stories - and to see their genuine opposition to what Barnett is proposing to inflict on Subiaco, Nedlands and Kings Park.

History Is A Product Of Multiple Causes: Differing Views

It is a cliche to say that history is written by the victors, but sometimes those who appear to have 'won' (at least for the time being) disagree on how and why they did so.

Malcolm Mummery, who was an early activist when he started the Dadour Group, argues that it's all due to the politicians, while others, including myself, say that most politicians, including the Opposition, only became interested when the extent of the community outrage became apparent.

There is some truth in both points of view - this is a classic case of an outcome being achieved as a result of multiple inputs, none of which can be described as the sole or determining cause. Indeed, remove any one of the inputs, including some of the unbelievably stupid things that Barnett and Simpson did, and the outcome might well have been very different.