‘Junket’: An extravagant, expensive and unnecessary trip or celebration enjoyed by a government official at public expense. JET-setting Fremantle mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge and councillor Ingrid van Dorssen will fly to Italy, Portugal and Croatia on a $20,000-plus junket to visit…
FOURTEEN months after the WA Electoral Commission botched the 2023 local government elections in Fremantle and voters are no wiser as to whether the disputed elections will be rerun. It is six weeks since parties appeared in the Magistrate’s Court…
NOW that the dust on the Fremantle local government elections has settled, let me take readers on a trip down memory lane to reflect on four years of representing the ratepayers and residents of Fremantle. Remember the $1.2m ratepayer inducement…
WA Electoral Commission solicitors today dismissed witness statements by Fremantle voters who gave evidence they were disenfranchised when they received incorrect ballot papers in the 2023 local government election. State solicitor Michael Olds asked the Magistrate’s Court to ignore evidence…
ELECTORAL fraud and false signatures overshadowed proceedings in the Magistrate's Court today when parties presented disputed evidence in the bungled 2023 local government elections in Fremantle. After a day hearing from WA Electoral Commission witnesses, State solicitors turned their attention…
A LEGAL question over the existence of the City’s significant tree register saw elected members for the second time this year vote to remove the Moreton Bay fig at 195 High Street from its controversial ‘list’ of trees in Fremantle.…
THE validity of the disputed 2023 local government elections in Fremantle will be tested in October - a year after thousands of ballot papers were mailed incorrectly to central and coastal ward voters. Parties returned to court on Monday. The…
TWO State Government departments have denied StreetWise FOI access to public documents related to infected trees and the use of blank ballot papers in Fremantle. The WA Electoral Commission says it is not in the public interest to release election…
WAEC has further muddied the electoral waters following a Freedom of Information request for the number of blank ballots the City of Fremantle used in the 2021 and disputed 2023 local government elections. Hundreds of spare ballots were used by…
THE department of primary industries and regional development cannot explain why it cleared the Moreton bay fig tree at 195 High Street of shot-hole borer a day after its pest and disease experts said it was infected. On April 29,…
