Systematic failure to engage

The City of Perth’s engagement with the business community is not just about registering voters, it also involves getting quality business candidates onto council.

Pro Property principal and former managing director of Hawaiian Management, Brett Wilkins, stood for election to the Perth City Council in 2002 and failed, something Lord Mayor Peter Natrass said indicated that the system was failing.

“When you have someone of the calibre of Brett Wilkins who has a huge knowledge of the city, experience in the city, a huge network in the city, and can’t get elected, that shows something is wrong,” Dr Natrass said.

“Without mentioning other names, others who you would imagine having no connection with the city and no right to really be on the city council, get elected.”

Deputy Lord Mayor Bert Tudori added that, once the financial rewards for being on council were more substantial, more people would consider it.

Mr Wilkins said while he could understand why a lot of business people were not interested and didn’t care about council, such an attitude was short-sighted.

“When I look back, and it’s really sad to say, the best thing that happened to me was that I didn’t get in,” Mr Wilkins said.

“I was told it would take a day a fortnight to be on council, and I should have known better because the financial and time commitment is huge – it would have been three to four days a week.

“I think they have to change the structure to be like running BankWest or any other major company.

“To a lot of people who live in the suburbs somewhere, the CBD is just a dormitory to work in and then they go home,” Mr Wilkins told the luncheon forum.

“I don’t think it’s right, and I would like an iconic city with a great cultural centre and everything else, but a lot of people would just rather go out to the suburbs and then come in to the CBD for work.”

Best Western Emerald Hotel proprietor Laurie O’Meara said he believed some people were attracted to the notion of civic duty, but that business people were often involved in other community projects and simply did not have the time to become involved.

“There has been a lot of discussion about the complexity of voting and running, but if people are really interested they will overcome that,” Mr O’Meara said.

“People get satisfaction from a whole lot of different interests like clubs, charity and sport, and often it’s business people who get involved in those things.

“Business not involved in council does not necessarily reflect disinterest, but indicates there are other priorities on time.”

The CEO of a local government shire for 20 years, Mr O’Meara said that while he loved it, civic duty was something that appealed to some people and not others.

Australian Institute of Company Directors state president Terry Budge echoed Mr O’Meara’s comments, saying that people in business needed to feel that it was a good use of their time to become involved in extra activities.

“These are important issues that the council deals with, but if you feel as if you are not having an impact, or at best a minimal one, and there are so many other considerations competing for your time, it becomes very hard to want to be involved,” Mr Budge said.

“I think a lot of business people would like to be involved but I don’t think they see themselves as being able to do that with the process we have got.

“Maybe it needs some involvement in the planning area or advisory committees or something like that where you can get a view of key players involved.”

Councillor Michael Sutherland made the distinction between the City of Perth council and other suburban councils.

“We are not a normal city council; a lot of the time we think about how we can market the city, how we can keep it vibrant, because if the city is a hole, no one is going to want to come,” Mr Sutherland said.