Political stunt taints Greens Mayor

EXCLUSIVE: BRAD knew.
Freo StreetWise can confirm Greens Mayor Brad Pettitt and City Ward Councillor Rachel Pemberton gave activists without authority verbal approval to set up a 24-hour street kitchen for the homeless on Pioneer Park opposite State Labor MP Simone McGurk’s office.
But no one will take responsibility for the continued use of ‘tent city’ beyond the Boxing Day event supported by the City which gave organisers, “access to the space, water and power”.
Worse, no one will answer to the nearly 80 calls for help to police for a string of offences including serious assaults, injuries and damage to public property once tent city became a political protest.
As reported exclusively yesterday, WA Treasurer and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Wyatt described ‘tent city’ as a political stunt gone bad (www.streetwisemedia.com.au/the-motivation-was-political-from-the-beginning-labor-treasurer-ben-wyatt/).
Police today confirmed they were told by City staff the Greens WA candidate for South Metropolitan and Cr Pemberton, a member of Dr Pettitt’s campaign team, had given organisers Freo Street Kitchen approval to set up on Boxing Day.
“It was my understanding Freo Street Kitchen approached the mayor and that Rachel Pemberton had given the green light for a 24-hour Boxing Day sleepover,” the police source told StreetWise. “Nothing came via police, no authority or notification.
“The police have no authority over whether it goes ahead or doesn’t, it’s council land. We as an agency have to be apolitical and keep peace and harmony and protect people and property.
“It seemed to be a very clandestine way to go about it. We were shocked this could go ahead without council approval. We were surprised.” WA Premier Mark McGowan described organisers as “professional protestors” and “anarchists” who were allowed by “some councillors” to stage a four-week homeless protest (as the Greens WA image on this page shows).
Dr Pettitt and Cr Pemberton’s complicity in the failed political stunt is confirmed in a statement published tonight by South Ward Councillor Marija Vujcic voicing her repeated calls for the City to investigate how organisers were allowed to remain at Pioneer Park – for a month. Her motion did not get up, Dr Pettitt sending it to a committee despite Cr Vujcic’s protestations and request for a “fair go”. Cr Vuycic published the three-page statement online after she left the council meeting, giving her reasons why it was reasonable to ask for an investigation.
She said she first raised her concerns over the continued use of the park with CEO Philip St John on December 30 after she visited the unauthorised camp and received calls asking questions about tent city. She was told the CEO said the City did not approve the camp.
Surprised no approvals were issued, Cr Vujcic called for an investigation on January 1 before calling an urgent meeting of council on January 7. But she said it was not until January 11, at an informal meeting of councillors, that she first became aware that Dr Pettitt and Cr Pemberton had given verbal approval to FSK.
The meeting also was attended by the CEO, who Cr Vujcic said referred to FSK’s verbal request as an “event” and saw no reason to deny the request as it was like any other request. The CEO is on leave from this Monday.
Councillors Andrew Sullivan, Sam Wainwright, Adin Lang, Jenny Archibald, Doug Thompson, Geoff Graham and Frank Mofflin also attended the meeting. Cr Sullivan left the meeting because of a proximity issue with FSK organiser Jesse Noakes, with whom he shares office space overlooking Pioneer Park.
“I asked, ‘How did we get here?’. Who authorised the event?” she said. “But there was no appetite at the meeting to unpack the question of approval. There followed what I understood verbal approvals given by the Mayor and Councillor Pemberton for a Boxing Day event.”

Proximity to Jesse

According to answers to questions on notice,
 Mr Noakes contacted Dr Pettitt and Cr Pemberton before Christmas with plans to set up the volunteer kitchen on Boxing Day. Dr Pettitt says he introduced Mr Noakes to Fremantle Chamber of Commerce CEO Danica Quinlan CEO via email on December 18 and Cr Pemberton says she introduced Mr Noakes to the WA Police Officer in Charge at Fremantle via text on the same day. She also she arranged a meeting between Mr Noakes and relevant managers at the City on December 21.
Cr Sullivan will be Acting Mayor from tomorrow. He told council he no longer had a proximity interest because tent city no longer existed. Do proximity interests also hang over Cr Pemberton and Cr Lang, who was involved with Mr Noakes (pictured here) in the failed homeless experiment at the Hougoumont Hotel last year? Neither councillors left the January 11 meeting where, according to Cr Vujcic, Mr Noakes’ name was not mentioned at all.
On January 18, at a second informal elected members meeting, Cr Vujcic said the CEO assured councillors the City was working with all stakeholders and it would take another two weeks to resolve. The plans came unstuck when the State Government closed the camp four days later, the City having refused to clear the park despite the number of anti-social incidents since Boxing Day.
“For the State Government to publicly say we failed and that they had to step in to protect the community is a poor outcome for this council,” Cr Vujcic said. She said Dr Pettitt used his position as mayor and resources of the City for his own electioneering purposes at the detriment of the wider public, businesses and, importantly, the homeless people at the centre of the tent city fiasco.
“For the record. There is no blame apportioned to Jesse Noakes nor the Freo Street Kitchen organisers. Jesse is an activist who believes in his cause and is prepared to lobby on behalf of the vulnerable in our society. Our democracy is all the better for the challenge. However, I do not support breaking the law because the ends do not justify the means. In respect to tent city, had our senior leadership and gatekeepers exercised good governance through compliance, Jesse may well have chosen a different strategy which may have produced better results.”
As reported exclusively in StreetWise this week, WA Treasurer and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Wyatt, who signed the revocation order to close the camp, said Dr Pettitt’s departure from council, “is well overdue”.
“ … this was an awful way to treat people,” Mr Wyatt tweeted on Saturday. “Might be time to give up the Mayor position so you can campaign full time.”
Ms McGurk called it a “dangerous game” (www.streetwisemedia.com.au/blame-game-divides-fremantle-community/).
Dr Pettitt attended his last council meeting as mayor to run in the State election in March, councillors applauding the departing Greens candidate. Dr Pettitt steps down officially Friday, the same day one of the two men and former tent dwellers who sexually assaulted one of two girls aged 13 and 14 on Fleet Street on New Year’s Eve will appear in Fremantle magistrates.
As one discerning StreetWise commented tonight: “So they (council) are working on it all being over. Shutting down the house, covering up the furniture.”