Another side to Council Spin
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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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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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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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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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 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 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 […]
Read MoreFOLLOW THE STORY OF JESSE JACOBS DESPERATE ATTEMPTS TO AVOID COMMITTING TO A FULL FIRST TERM AS MAYOR OF CANNING HERE Canning is returning to democratic governance in one month. In 17 months it may lose its Mayor. The political party memberships/past parliamentary bids inclusive within Canning’s 11 mayoral candidates, and what this may mean for the […]
Read MoreA refresher article from our vault! Why did former Mayor Joe Delle Donne take his concerns about the administration of Canning, that kicked off the investigations, to the Minister for Local Govt? Just how many problems at the City of Canning were issues that came under the remit of the administration, rather than the responsibility of the Mayor and […]
Read MoreThe City of Canning is the 9th largest Council in the metropolitan area*…. yet it has just been revealed as having the third lowest amount of tree canopy in Perth. The only councils scoring more disastrously than us are Fremantle and Belmont. A lot of this decline is being related to infill development, of which Canning is […]
Read MoreUpdate: Mr Lanza’s speech for candidates’ forum did detail various employment of the past, but no mention of working for WA Labor pollies? In the interests of ferreting out ALL the political parties/members currently targeting City of Canning council elections, today we take a look at Frank Lanza, running for Mason Ward. Frank, otherwise known […]
Read MoreThe City of Fremantle’s council may have as many as five members of the Greens on board from October’s local govt elections. Several existing councillors have long associations with Curtin University’s Sustainability Policy Institute. Yet “green” and “sustainability” don’t mean much any more – balance, more importantly equitable outcomes, is hard to achieve, and depend upon bringing the public […]
Read MoreSurprised to see today one of Canning’s lovely river suburbs – Shelley – declared the second-worst rental suburb in Australia! At bottom: Two mayoral candidates express concern about infill. As reported today in Business News*: The riverside suburb of Shelley has been given the ignominious title of the second worst suburb for rental problems in Australia….research from rental […]
Read MoreKevin Rudd was eager to please WA when first he got in as Prime Minister – it is said Infrastructure Australia’s approval of the cash to sink the Fremantle line and create Perth City Link (to house 1000s and ultimately direct 16,000 users of the Link to the trains and bus station underneath each day) […]
Read MoreWe’re on fire at up to 1,000 views a week! Nope, doesn’t appear to be related to the “other” Canning, the by-election we’re told could be a “game changer” at the federal level. Our viewers are clicking on links that kick in only after the purpose of the article is made clear (at READ MORE)… and the number of […]
Read MoreWe’ve been surprised at the show of support for Roe 8 from our area of the world, most frequently in letters to The Canning Times. The City of Melville supports the extension of Roe Highway, and recently addressed the business community to explain its rationale, arguing “With the road network already in crisis and current truck levels on […]
Read MoreWell, we think that’s more or less what MP for Riverton, Mike Nahan, said this week. Nahan’s concern about the City of Canning, particularly the behaviour of the administration under CEO Lyn Russell, isn’t going away any time soon. Nor will the Premier’s threat: Local govt? On notice. Right now. And if the long-term view of William […]
Read MoreDIRTY POOL (noun) The noun DIRTY POOL has 1 sense: 1. conduct that is unfair or unethical or unsportsmanlike CHRISTINE CUNNINGHAM seems to want power. She’s run for elections at state and federal level; no doubt she will again. It’s the way she may be going about trying for the top position here in Canning we’re concerned with now. […]
Read More(In case you missed it) Whereas Minister for Local Govt, Tony Simpson, has been fairly moderate in his announcements about intentions to try to control rate rises, Premier Colin Barnett today was not: Local government? Yeah, they’re on notice. Right now. The rate increases householders faced, in my view, were excessive… many of these local govts are grossly […]
Read MoreThe City of Canning is not a council major media shows any interest in normally – but things have changed and for all the wrong reasons. Canning’s rate rises – those issued to cover its skyrocketing costs when democratically elected brakes were removed (Canning has been run by staff and Commissioners for years) – have us on lists everywhere: And […]
Read MoreUPDATE: Jesse Jacobs refusing to CATEGORICALLY RULE OUT NOW running for state or federal parliament in his FIRST TERM, if he becomes Mayor of Canning, as a sign of his commitment to the community in this campaign and to the stability of its first democratic council in three years. State Election is only 17 months […]
Read MoreChair of Canning Commissioners, Steven Cole, attached a statement to the usual highlights brochure produced at the adoption of the City’s 2015/16 budget . Mr Cole should be commended for putting Canning’s true financial position on the record, and especially as Canning’s first new council in years is due to be elected in October. CanningAccountability offers […]
Read MoreLocal paper Canning Examiner hits hard this week with its comparison of the City of Canning’s bloated wage and staff structure compared with the councils that were due to absorb it under local government reform:- City of Canning today is paying almost double the amount for employees it was in 2008-09 Employees earning over $100,000 near trebled […]
Read MoreUPDATE: Commissioner Steven Cole’s budget statement, as Canning’s true financial situation is put on record, HERE Chairman of Canning Commissioners, Steven Cole, issued a stern statement about Canning, its finances, and what a new council should do through the local papers yesterday. He also told entities who pose questions the City doesn’t like that “this must […]
Read MoreColin Barnett was interviewed at length about public transport projects, Perth Freight Link, toll roads, Uber etc in Ask The Premier today. As relates to extending the Thornlie Spur through Canning Vale to Mandurah rail line, he advised the following:- …we can really only undertake one or two big public transport projects at a […]
Read MoreThere appears to be a serious problem at the City of Canning, that cannot be blamed on the long gone Council anymore. According to Treasurer Mike Nahan, in Parliament today, the staff at Canning plan to hit ratepayers with a massive rate rise to fund their rampant spending, huge pay rises, care packages (before and […]
Read MoreCanning is moving closer to a new start after years under administration! Yes, Canning will be changed to a five ward, two councillor per ward local government area soon, although the Minister has yet to announce it (we just got the quiet word). It isn’t necessary, but its a small matter. We have other things to […]
Read MoreLet’s call it the $2. 1 million dollar question – after all, that’s what the two recent inquiries in to Canning have cost. Ready? A highly contentious ward boundary and councillor representation review has just been “concluded” at Canning. Why contentious? we had a relatively small problem to correct, but staff tried for more – before […]
Read MoreDemocracy continues to be a bit of a laugh at Canning. The City nearly consigned itself away under local government reform, when it ignored community preference and bid to merge with Gosnells instead… Then, oddly enough, staff costs increased significantly while the Council remained suspended…. Now *democracy* seems an outright contestable concept at Canning with the way a Ward and Councillor Representation Review […]
Read MoreUPDATE: As the Ward Boundary and Councillor Review closes, only one of the lower house reps for the Canning area, the Member for Riverton, publicly voiced concerns at the speed and appropriateness of staff and commissioners instigating attempts to get wide-spread changes to the governance model and ward boundaries through prior to the return of a democratically elected Council […]
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Canning Accountability 