WA Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas has rejected claims that ongoing governance issues at the City of Perth are a result of his time as lord mayor, after Perth MP John Carey labelled the problems “Basil’s legacy”.
Carey said a proposed merger between the City of Perth and the City of Vincent would be difficult while the current leadership remained in place, arguing the current lord mayor was closely aligned with Zempilas.
“This is Basil’s legacy. He ran with Basil. He used the same campaign team… what you’ve got now is the direct result of Basil Zempilas’ legacy,” Carey said.
The comments come as the state’s local government inspector investigates more than a dozen complaints relating to City of Perth chief executive Michelle Reynolds. The council has also been monitored since January, with a report due on June 19.
Zempilas defended his record as lord mayor, saying the council functioned effectively during his tenure.
“All I’ll say is everybody who watched and witnessed the 4½ years that I was lord mayor knows how the city council operated during that time,” he said.
“Knows what was reported about how the function and the council was coordinating and knows the success of the operation that we put together.
“So that is a ludicrous thing for the Health Infrastructure Minister [Carey] to be saying.”
Zempilas argued responsibility for addressing concerns at the City of Perth rested with Local Government Minister Hannah Beazley.
“If you’ve just said that a minister of this state government has genuine concerns about the City of Perth council, the question is, what is the state government going to do about it? What is the premier going to do about it? What is the local government minister going to do about it?” he said.
Source: SMH.
