City of Perth expansion plan seems abandonded
A bill to expand a Perth council to include some major neighbouring assets appears unlikely to go through.
Legislation to expand the City of Perth's boundaries will be debated this week.
The bill is designed to bring key assets including Kings Park, the University of Western Australia and the QEII Medical Centre site into the boundaries of the City of Perth.
But its passage is now uncertain, after Premier Colin Barnett indicated he does not support a set of amendments Labor wants in the City of Perth bill.
The Oppositions support is vital, as the Liberal’s have failed to secure the support of their partners, the Nationals.
Labor says it will only back the bill if all of its amendments are supported.
They want for the City of Perth to have a publicly-available gift and travel register, with details posted on its website every few weeks.
The move is designed to more easily spot the misconduct of councillors like Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi, who was found to have engaged in serious misconduct by the Corruption and Crime Commission for not declaring thousands of dollars worth of free travel.
Ms Scaffidi was elected as Perth Lord Mayor for a third term last weekend, though the Department of Local Government is still looking at the CCC report and has not determined whether any disciplinary action will be taken.
Mr Barnett has suggested it may not be appropriate for the rules on the disclosure of gifts to be included in the bill.
“Any tightening up of disclosure of gifts needs to apply to all local governments, therefore it should go in the local government legislation, not in a piece of legislation which simply changes the boundaries of the City of Perth,” he said.
“If the Government does not support our amendments, we will be opposing the bill,” Labor's local government spokesman David Templeman said.
Local Government Minister Tony Simpson has dismissed Labor's proposed amendments too.
“I agree with the Opposition, I think it is important that we look at it,” he told Parliament.
“But if I'm going to make changes to the act to make sure there's more transparency around gifts and travel it will be for all local governments, not just the City of Perth.”