Back To The Past With Michael Sutherland

Perth City Council candidate (and rejected former Mt Lawley MLA) Michael Sutherland wants to take the City of Perth back to the 1990s, when it paraded the slogan "Your car is as welcome as you are".

I truly thought we had got past this sort of idiocy long ago, with inner cities focussing on walking, cycling and public transport, instead of creating yet more traffic congestion by encouraging people to drive to the central city.

Sure, no one likes to pay for parking - witness the number of Perth city commuters who park on my street every day and walk or get a cheap (2-section fare) bus into the city.

But what we have to realise is that car use is not costless (to the driver (self-evident), to other drivers or to the community) and nor is parking.

In peak periods in Perth, every additional driver on the roads imposes congestion costs on other drivers that are even greater than that driver's cost of using the car. On top of that, there are the costs of air pollution, climate change and social impacts - such as community severance by heavy traffic, with which inner urban residents like me are are only too familiar.

Nor is car parking costless, especially in central cities where land costs are very high. Where parking is free to the user (such as at suburban shopping centres), the cost is paid for by businesses (through council rates and/or lease rentals) and ultimately is factored into the prices paid by consumers. The critical difference, where car parkers don't pay directly, is that everyone pays, whether they get there by car and use the parking provided or not.

Public transport to Perth city has never been better - and current proposals for its development will make it even more so - so why, oh why, would we want to turn back the clock 20 years or more and turn the city into a traffic sewer once again.

More on coat of arms

I noticed, in passing today, that Eleni Evangel's billboard on Beaufort Street has had the state coat of arms covered over by a piece of blue plastic (which is nevertheless in danger of blowing off).

I don't know when the WA Today photograph (see my previous post http://ianrker-vincent.blogspot.com.au/2017/03/illegal-political-advertising-misuse-of.html) was taken (although it is presumably recent for the story to benewsworthy), but covering up the coat of arms on the Beaufort Street billboard is tacit acknowledgment that its use was, at best, inappropriate.

I questioned the legality with the Electoral Commission, which replied (very quickly - perhaps indicating that I was not the first to raise the issue):

Use of ‘common badging’ and the State Coat of Arms during the caretaker period is a matter for the Department of Premier and Cabinet under Caretaker Conventions.The Electoral Act 1907 does not address the use of such images during campaign periods. 

The Caretaker Conventions do not specifically mention election advertising, but do state:

This would appear to exclude use of the State coat of arms for any other purpose, including election advertising.

Illegal(?) Political Advertising - misuse of WA coat of arms

First, a disclaimer. Although a long-term resident of the City of Vincent (since 1985), the recent changes to electoral boundaries has shifted me from Perth into Mt Lawley. Clearly, the electoral commission has the same lack of appreciation of 'community of interest' as the Local Government Advisory Board - Mt Lawley south of Walcott Street is very different from Mt Lawley north of it.

Nevertheless, I retain a close interest in the state seat of Perth - and the main candidates clearly support me in this, as I keep getting literature from both Eleni Evangel and John Carey - as well as, correctly, from Simon Millman and Michael Sutherland, candidates for Mt Lawley.

It has previously been reported that Eleni Evangel, member/candidate for Perth, has chosen not to use the Liberal brand in her billboard advertising - although her fliers do have the Liberal brand prominent.

What I do not recall seeing mentioned, however, is that she IS using the WA Government brand/cost of arms (see pic). Is this legal?

http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/second-proliberal-billboard-adorns-lisa-scaffidi-building-20170303-guq0mz.html

And while on the subject of political advertising, can we reduce visual pollution by restricting candidate-specific advertising to the candidate's own electorate. The billboards above are in the Perth electorate and Michael Sutherland should not inflict himself on all and sundry.