Another side to Council Spin
Only around 16% of those eligible to vote have done so in the election called to replace former councillor Lindsay Holland. Five candidates running – three of which appeared on Radio 107.3 HFM this morning. Questions asked included how much did they know about upcoming local government reform legislation and what should the City of […]
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How the appointment of yet another Chief Executive Officer at Canning plays out is important to its community, but it could be of interest to all councils. One of the last reforms made to the local government act, under former Minister David Templeman, related to CEO recruitment processes. Mr Geoff Blades, of legendary recruitment agency […]
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If the Mayor of the City of Canning, Patrick Hall, doesn’t want a fat increase in his clothing allowance – a perk discontinued by many councils – he was far from convincing about it on radio 6PR today. In fact, in one year, Mr Hall has become the most expensive mayor to maintain of Canning’s […]
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Announced Today: The Town of Cambridge has smashed it on showing the Minister for Local Govt, David Templeman, had no basis upon which to require its Council “show cause” as to why it shouldn’t be suspended. “The Court agreed the Town was justified in seeking to prohibit the Minister from suspending the Council and requiring […]
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What the Hell is wrong at Canning? A few weeks ago it boasted it would “jointly lead” an “innovative hub” on coronavirus responses, but by yesterday it appeared incapable of working out how to reopen its two pools and four libraries. And the Minister for Local Government was not amused at the thought councils might […]
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Otherwise known as: How Canning may get the state to pay for one of its more expensive employees, while other councils have to let staff go Can you follow the logic below? The City of Canning, and new Mayor Patrick Hall, claims it has been highly innovative when it comes to management of the coronavirus. […]
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Update: Deputy Mayor Christine Cunningham readies to leave as concerns about Canning’s management, five years on from investigations, grows. Apparently, she’s happy to go in to politics. On 15 August 2019 Canning’s Council was asked to pass a VERY overdue budget. Suddenly things began to go south – and 6PR kicked Canning’s ass (again). Audio […]
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Peter Tinley wasn’t the Premier’s first choice for Minister of Housing when Labor swept to power in 2017, but he wasted no time jumping on board with the belief “it is essential for the government to partner with private industry to offer a diverse range of housing options”. Two years on this ethos is panning out […]
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Update: This post has the highest Facebook share rate in blog’s history On 9 April 2019 the Salaries & Allowances Tribunal gave councillors the right to award local government Chief Executive Officers an additional 1% in total salary package. That’s not worth much to the average Joe, but it will add thousands to Arthur Kyron, […]
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Did CEO Arthur Kyron pull a swifty, as relates women in power at the City of Canning, following his appointment? In slashing the number of directors, including the only high level female executive, he then appeared to give that director’s duties to another woman for less pay and/or prestige. Director became Executive Manager, in other words. […]
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The State Govt is considering requiring anyone wanting to run for council declare political party memberships as part of their election campaign. Perhaps it anticipates more people wanting to use local govt as a stepping stone to politics. Financially it has never been more attractive. Three years ago WA councillors received large rises in sitting fees. Level […]
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TODAY Minister for Housing, Peter Tinley, “goes to market” on Dept of Communities (Housing) properties Connect Joondalup and Bentley 360. The only problem with that is thus far Mr Tinley has focussed more on the Joondalup project – and given the impression the 360 site was in Victoria Park. This sort of imbalance and inaccuracy […]
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I hope that look on Minister for Housing, Peter Tinley’s face above isn’t about winging it at today’s media conference to launch “Bentley 360”, the City of Canning’s premium new precinct. Under tough media questioning he’s just announced there will be “no net loss of public housing” in the largest remodelled infill project in Perth! […]
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UPDATE: Highest viewed post in 2018. Nobody wants to see scarce resources wasted like this. Bentley Community Garden The shabby vista in the photo above, taken two weeks ago, appears to have cost taxpayers and ratepayers, one way or another, circa $100,000/yr in benefits and may have gone on as long as 10 years*, while […]
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THANK YOU to Canning Times for publishing info that gives an idea of how concerning things have become at the much-investigated City of Canning – this time, and once again, in relation to the near-billion dollar Bentley Regeneration project. One land plot, all-income affordable housing, 12 parks, buses running through centre – density done best… […]
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In the last five years the City of Canning has been through: Four councils (including two sets of Commissioners) Three CEOs High staff turnover Near complete loss of governance experience And it was due to be ceased as a local govt on 30 June 2017 Near total wipe-out, in other words. Not a good look, […]
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Updates: Disability/mobility access at Optus Stadium New bus to help get you to Stadium (if you live City of Canning through to Town of Vic Park) MYTHS busted! Transperth answers your Qs about Optus Stadium Yep, if you use the Armadale train line to get to big events at Optus Stadium, you’ve got it easy…. […]
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This opinion piece seems not to have appeared online*. Regardless of your view on Lisa Scaffidi, its implications matter. Click to enlarge (two sizes available) *Opinion Piece as appeared in paper form and via subscription, but not found online at https://thewest.com.au/ by CanningAccountability (reporter notified by email). Published by The West Australian, 6 December 2017.
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Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi could resume mayoral duties after winning appeal. Key extracts: Court of Appeal dismissed 26 of 45 breaches of LG Act The State will pay full costs of Ms Scaffidi’s costs for the successful breaches appeal and half the costs for her penalty appeal Previous 18 month disqualification set aside State […]
Read MoreJUST ANNOUNCED (press on Heading for link): State Government launches inquiry into City of Melville It comes at an interesting time for City of Canning – as what has to be said is a gutless and gutted motion from its new Deputy Mayor, Christine Cunningham goes to Council querying if the City has fully implemented […]
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Class distinction raised its ugly head in 2014, courtesy of a woman now running for Canning Council, as the City faced being ceased as a local govt entity. Ms Caroline Dunsire felt her ward should go to Melville, as opposed to Gosnells. Here’s why. CanningAccountability thought it was looking at an article whereby Melville Mayor […]
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Pls note: Reissued Post (2015). Most links within no longer functional (dropped out when City of Canning adopted new website – but critical info already extracted and included below) We impact the City’s Budget Cost Impact Analysis! We offer approximated knowledge and hope it gives food for thought! One of the most powerful heads of council in Perth remarked […]
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With One Nation now re-established in WA it shouldn’t surprise anyone the party may seek to develop its future MPs through local govt councils. After all, that is what political parties do. Word is One Nation members could bid for council at the Cities of Canning, Gosnells and Perth. Canning’s Mayor (and WA’s first Asian […]
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Yesterday’s Ch 7 news report on Canning’s CBD makeover dropped off affiliate The West Aust’s site quickly. It is a little hard to believe. All this for $70m and in just 10yrs? Press image to view Are there devils in the lack of detail? Its likely. Increasingly there is the sense WE need YOU more than you […]
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If the McGowan Govt wants reasons to legislate the dismissal of poorly performing individual local govt reps, it need look no further than the City of Canning. Within an entirely newly elected council already compromised by vested interests (20mths on from investigations and suspension), there is one councillor that stands out more, ironically, for doing bugger all: Cr Ayse Martli. Seemingly incredibly lazy and entirely unaccountable to […]
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When WA Business News announced* in 2015 that a Chinese developer had won a big infill job in Canning, no-one imagined the developer, Sunlong Corporation, would go on to win BIG TIME. In a Council area almost entirely built out but with a huge infill quota to meet, a crucial 25h site became available courtesy of the Housing […]
Read MoreIn case you missed it – Paul Murray, the former longest serving Editor of any major Australian newspaper, got stuck in to the bullshit inundating Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi (below). If Ms Scaffidi gets her butt kicked by State Administrative Tribunal over travel issues so be it, but then its time to move on. It […]
Read MoreWith the Canning area now boasting Australia’s first Aboriginal Treasurer, MP Ben Wyatt, WA’s first Asian Mayor, Paul Ng, and one of the largest, imminent infill areas this close to the CBD, its time to stop portraying it as some kind of “multicultural poor town”. Former Premier Colin Barnett, when promoting the then-promised MAX light […]
Read MoreUpdate: apparently uttered as part of 6PR’s election night commentary “… McGowan not a fan of Bill [Johnston] or Kate [Doust]”…? I personally find Bill Johnston, the architect of the failed campaign by the former (Carpenter) WA Labor govt to win a third term in 2008, one of the most unpleasant, self-pitying, argumentative politicians around. Apparently I’m not […]
Read MoreThe situation at Canning is becoming diabolical and it should be the first council to come under scrutiny of the Auditor General, in moves planned by the State. Minister for Local Govt, Paul Miles, could be indicating this may happen in an article out today in Canning Times: “Local Govt Minister reminds Canning Mayor to act in best interests […]
Read MoreBehold! A rough depiction* of City of Canning’s staff’s light rail plan…. It seems the Councillors of Canning were taken by surprise when news of route popped out at a recent Agenda Briefing. The Barnett Govt’s vision for Perth’s future transport network, Transport @ 3.5 million, doesn’t mention a light rail for Cannington, in fact the City’s response notes “…. it […]
Read MoreUPDATED CONTENT Just out: last of the National Stronger Regions Fund money for councils just announced. City of South Perth the big and only WA metro winner! Oh dear! The City of Canning’s new CBD plan will struggle immediately…. you see, it’s essentially based around putting a party face on Cecil Ave, the road otherwise dominated by […]
Read MoreVIDEO EXPIRED! (Jacobs’ pitch – for Parliament? Using Canning residents as fodder?) Last night on Today/Tonight increasingly irksome City of Canning councillor, and recently pre-selected Liberal candidate for the seat of Cannington, Jesse Jacobs, spoke to camera about “taking care of residents” over a tree issue that has gone on for a long time in Canning Vale. Transcript at bottom […]
Read MoreUpdate: the Council waved through, without any discussion, the motion to adopt the Canning City Centre Activity Centre Plan and authorised the commencement of projects a year before the WA Planning Commission is expected to do same. Presumably the Council thinks its going boldly in to the future and “just getting it done”, but I doubt any of them could […]
Read MoreThe image above repeatedly goes up on a Facebook now being used to post community event notifications on a new online initiative of the City of Canning: “What’s on in Canning?”. The event, an upcoming dinner run in part by Bentley Community Focus, isn’t the problem – the content that can be found on the Facebook (FB) used to upload it, which the owner invites […]
Read MoreUpon receiving a media release from Member for Cannington, Bill Johnston, that puts a particular emphasis on connecting Cannington with Curtin University, I wondered how realistic this call was, especially at a time when the Barnett Govt’s just released Transport Plan is described as aspirational at best and doesn’t indicate any light rail incorporating the City of […]
Read MoreUpdate: See full Ch 9 video at bottom (Ch 9’s FB post received second highest no. views at 45,000). Being asked to comment on City of Canning’s high rate rises happened fast – a phone call, crew arrived, Mike Nahan was door-stopped earlier, as was the Minister for Local Govt, yet by 3pm the City had still not made […]
Read MoreA member of the public, who also ran for the position of Mayor of Canning in Oct 2015, said to me of Paul Ng the other day, “You endorsed the idiot who is now our Mayor – now we all have to live with it.” Er, no – the problem emerging at Canning isn’t that of […]
Read MoreWarning! Story contains graphic images! Update: Cr. Cunningham advises she has never missed voting at any OCM she has been present at Cr. Margaret Hall chose to avoid answering if/why she may have chosen to leave chambers rather than vote There appears to be either an incontinence issue or an issue with continence within Canning’s new Council – they […]
Read MoreIf what I’ve heard is true, it hasn’t taken long for the City of Canning to demonstrate a return to behaviours the final $1.6m Inquiry recommended against. At bottom: What the Premier’s office responded with when advised of this. So what critical problems seem to be continuing at Canning? Firstly, once again some councillors are not turning up for important briefing sessions, or ensuring they […]
Read MoreIs this the latest cheap disposable sim card threat sent to someone asking questions about something in the City of Canning someone else doesn’t want asked? Just how much of this is out there? Canning Councillors received a text threat relating to the Willetton Basketball Association (WBA) stadium funding bid they were due to vote on […]
Read MoreHow many Perth councils may have hopes this coming financial year that the National Stronger Regions Fund (NSRF) will assist them in upcoming budgeted projects? The City of Canning had barely adopted its 2016/17 budget when local newspaper The Canning Times broke the news that the NSRF may not exist within 10 days – if the […]
Read MoreIn what is becoming an increasingly manipulative situation over just how necessary it is to fund the Willetton Basketball Association’s wish-list stadium expansion, this anonymous text message (believed to be from a pre-paid sim) was sent to a number of Canning Councillors today, as they consider adopting the 2016/17 budget tonight. This bullshit has to […]
Read MoreUpdate: Thank you to A/CEO Garry Adams for providing somewhat of a response to this post. Not all of it makes sense to me – when is an expensive newly created position not an expensive newly created position? Were other staff let go, etc? Mr Adams’ hasn’t yet responded to the main thrust of this post, being, why is the […]
Read MoreClarification on fourth councillor, Patrick Hall, Bannister Ward, not residing in representative area. Thank you to Patrick for immediately addressing concerns he lives [just] outside Bannister now, after years of residence within, a move which only occurred in 2014, the year before the election. The Hall family is on track to move back to Bannister Ward this […]
Read MoreGet ready Perth! City of Canning is back and OPEN FOR BUSINESS! In the news today is Johnny’s Burger’s 5-alarm, ring-ding, call-an-ambulance DEMON’S REVENGE BURGER. Comes with a legal waiver… 8,700 shares on FB from this article in WAToday alone! Mix 94.5 did it the hard way live to camera: Come on down to Canning Vale and […]
Read MoreAs Canning’s new and very green Mayor and Councillors move to vote tonight on putting an as yet unfunded $2.25m towards the expansion of a local basketball stadium, that somehow came to loom large as essential infrastructure during the local govt election, more evidence emerges the time is right for our City to work with the state and […]
Read More[Edited] Is it possible that tonight Canning’s first democratically elected Council in years may commit millions to just ONE sports group, Willetton Basketball Assoc (WBA), months ahead of its first budget, simply because many of its members were either so naïve, or so eager to get elected, they pledged support to one group over 118 others, in part because they believed the WBA could yield a […]
Read MoreThe City of Perth fired its CEO as it refreshed its council and took the CBD in a new direction. Quick, clean. Done. But not Canning….. Our first democratically elected council in years not only kept on a CEO appointed whilst Canning was under administration (Lyn Russell – responsible for many questionable decisions since), it rushed her on to the panel that will select her […]
Read MoreSo I was at Electrikhana 2016 on the weekend and heard the word a deal for $3 million in Tesla’s Model S electric vehicle (EV) was going through. That’s 20 cars of the future at $150k each, to power a new limousine service. But the real news was this year’s Australian Electric Vehicle Assoc’s car show was packed, from young […]
Read MoreOr the Barnett Govt, for that matter? The Premier clearly stated in July 2015 that connecting the Armadale and Mandurah rail lines, through Canning Vale, is the no. 1 short-term rail priority for his govt. Budget’s coming – where’s the commitment? Then along came WA Labor, with a rejigged METRONET that’s a plan, but has no prioritisation on which rail will occur when. Today, […]
Read MoreIt’s hard, as the community, to get the whole truth, all the implications, about anything at the City of Canning these days. So much spin… Take the Agenda Setting Briefings (ASBs) concept, for example. Former Commissioner Linton Reynolds hailed it as some sort of progressive way forward: the community was encouraged to ask their Qs there, instead of the […]
Read MoreAt bottom: Is the breakdown of the $1.6m Inquiry bill cost outrageous? In what will probably be viewed as a “sensation”, at the last council meeting held via our “under administration” status, the Commissioners overrode staff recommendations to continue negotiating on the $1.6m Inquiry in to City of Canning bill and told them to pay it. That money, it seems, will […]
Read MoreWe think former Mayor Joe Delle Donne makes some good points…. Clearly concerns about Canning continue… clearly the majority of our new Councillors and the Mayor will have little to no real experience in local govt…. clearly the staff who will advise them have been up to all sorts of things and frequently just didn’t do things […]
Read MoreThe above is from the info our website provides on whose looking at what, re this election… and look at what continues to show up. This is just one morning’s search terms, and only the latest in what we are seeing emerging in the effort the community is putting in to research before they vote in […]
Read MoreIs someone only now alerting media outlets about a threat incident between two Mason Ward candidates, that occurred weeks ago, because ballot papers have gone out? In what may seem a contentious Q, we consider it worth asking why, in what must have been a distressing time for all involved since the alleged incident occurred on 19 […]
Read MoreUPDATE: Blog analytics show a lot of interest in Ayse Martli from search engines, one request for Mr Lanza, none for Jesse Jacobs. The above came out today in The Weekend West – revelation of an issue between two candidates running for election as councillors in Mason Ward. This info is just going out now – the incident was two […]
Read MoreUPDATE: Reports of “red and green haired” group of young people doing letterbox drops for Lanza. Well… he’s getting on in years and not well known in Canning, so it just sounds like more WA Labor Party infiltration to us. Doesn’t seem to matter the candidate, just that the Party gets members on councils? We wondered how […]
Read MoreUPDATE: The new council, Canning’s first in three years, will meet only once between the date of being elected and the WBA’s deadline on a commitment to funding up to $3.5m for its expansion, that we presume the candidates who have sought WBA’s “endorsement” have agreed to work to. Overnight many council nominees showed what […]
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Canning Accountability 