“The motivation was political from the beginning”: Labor Treasurer Ben Wyatt
EXCLUSIVE: GREENS Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt must resign or explain how tent city organisers were allowed to camp for 30 days outside State Labor MP Simone McGurk’s office in Market Street.
The Greens WA candidate for South Metropolitan told Freo StreetWise: “To be clear staff didn’t approve tent city. Nor did I.” Then who did? Who allowed activist group Freo Street Kitchen to remain at Pioneer Park after setting up what the City says was supposed to be, “a 24-hour food service on Boxing Day”?
In the 30 days until the State Government closed down the camp on January 23, WA Police received nearly 80 calls for help, with two men, in their early 40s, charged with sexual assault against two girls, aged 13 and 14, on December 31.
Lands and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Wyatt told StreetWise today: “The activities of the Pioneer Park camp organisers became an issue as soon as it became clear that activity at Pioneer park had shifted from a single day event to people camping overnight. By the admission of the activists and professional protestors behind the camp, the motivation was political from the beginning. Putting vulnerable people and the community at risk in this way is not an effective or compassionate way to make a political point. I understand that Dr Pettit is intending to step back from his duties as Mayor to pursue his campaign – this is well overdue.”
On Friday, the day Mr Wyatt signed the revocation order for police to move in (https://wamnnews.com.au/news/statement-from-state-government-on-fremantle-tent-city), WA Premier Mark McGowan accused “some councillors” of being uncooperative and using tent city to score political points, describing FSK organisers as “professional protestors” and “anarchists”.
On Saturday, Mr Wyatt said the City allowed the camp to be established and continued to provide water and power, “and refused to put a stop to it”. He added the City, “refused to withdraw consent, which is what WA Police and the State Government requested”.
Dr Pettitt tweeted: “Ben, most of what you’ve said is simply factually incorrect. It was a good outcome based on collaboration. Disappointing you can’t acknowledge that.” If this was a “collaboration”, why did the Government have to change legislation to enforce Mr Wyatt’s revocation? Losing control of a City asset is not a collaborative outcome.
Mr Wyatt added: “ … this was an awful way to treat people. Might be time to give up the Mayor position so you can campaign full time.”
Mr Wyatt told StreetWise Ms McGurk raised concerns with the City about the organisers’ motives and potential for the camp to become, “an intractable public safety issue”, based on experience at other camps such as the Lord Street camp in East Perth.
“The Department of Communities was in regular contact with the City as the situation progressed,” he said. “In light of the City’s failure to withdraw its consent to the occupancy of Pioneer Park in a reasonable timeframe, the State Government took the necessary action late last week to protect the community. It was in the public interest, and in the interest of the vulnerable people who were being taken advantage of by the activists and organisers of the camp, for the State Government to intervene.”
Investigation call
South Ward Councillor Marija Vujcic will tomorrow night call on council to order an investigation into the tent city saga and that a full report be presented at the February ordinary council meeting.
“I do not believe we can move on from the tent city incident without unpacking the event and understanding what went wrong and how we can improve going forward,” she posted today.
The only elected member to raise her concerns over the continued use of the park, Cr Vujcic said the systematic failures of the Council’s own procedures and governance had seriously impacted on the local business community, ratepayers and residents and reputation of the City of Fremantle.
Dr Pettitt told StreetWise he did not speak to police until January 4. He said the winding up of the camp, “in a manner that was compassionate and got everyone into alternative accommodation”, was something the City of Fremantle had requested of the State Government since early January (www.fremantle.wa.gov.au/news-and-media/city-welcomes-camp-closure).
However, Dr Pettitt’s version of events is contradicted by a StreetWise reader who spoke to police on December 31 after he noticed there were an increasing number of tents being set up on Pioneer Park leading up to the New Years weekend. He said police told him because there were under 100 homeless people camped there at that point, it did not violate COVID-19 protocols.
When asked whether the City had alerted police about the camp, the officer reportedly said Dr Pettitt and Cr Pemberton had called to say the City knew about the camp and had it under control.
This raises questions over who at the City is telling porky pies about their role in the tent city fiasco that saw nearly 80 people seriously assaulted and injured, businesses damaged and the public threatened during the 30-day political stunt. Some of those questions are with council and published at www.streetwisemedia.com.au/fremantle-council-goes-too-far-wa-premier.
Postscript
As Mayor, Dr Pettitt will attend the Fremantle council meeting for the last time tomorrow before the State election in March.
But who is responsible for the rapes, assaults and damage to property caused by the “theatre” of activism espoused by tent city organiser Mr Noakes and his supporters?
Condemned by the media, WA Premier, business leaders and members of the community including local service providers who toil each day to help the homeless, it became clear the only people who benefited from tent city were those who organised and allowed it to be set up in the first place. As Mr Wyatt states, “from the beginning”.
As 6PR presenter Gareth Parker stated, the line-in-the-sand moment for tent city organisers (and the rest of the community appalled by the violence overlooked by those criticising the Government’s inaction on homelessness) was the sexual assault of two teenagers on New Year’s Eve.
Instead, the City sat on their hands for another 21 days.
On January 23, the Government took control over Pioneer Park after scathing media headlines such as: “Even rape claims not enough to see fix for Freo’s ‘tent city’.”
The good will and intentions of people to help disadvantaged and vulnerable people is to be commended, but the line must be drawn when people are hurt, maimed and assaulted, their businesses damaged and members of the public abused because of a political statement.
Cr Sullivan will be Acting Mayor from tomorrow. His proximity interest prevents him answering questions about his links with FSK and Mr Noakes and FSK, with whom he shares office space overlooking Pioneer Park.
As StreetWise reported on January 23 (www.streetwisemedia.com.au/tent-city-bust-up-exposes-council-homeless-fiasco), proximity interests also hang over Cr Pemberton and Cr Lang, who was involved with Mr Noakes in the failed homeless experiment at the Hougoumont Hotel last year.
This publication, like the rest of the Fremantle community, wants to know why the City approved the camp and, importantly, who will take responsibility for the cost of herding nearly 100 people into a public park next to a Government minister’s office for over a month?
One of the two men who sexually assaulted one of the two teenagers on Fleet Street on New Year’s Eve will appear in Fremantle magistrates court on Friday when Dr Pettitt steps down officially as Mayor to run in the March State election (https://wamnnews.com.au/news/wa-police-statement-regarding-fremantles-tent-city).
