Nothing to see here? Council buries ‘tent city’ inquiry call

FEW people in Fremantle attend council meetings, particularly now with COVID on the loose. Those who can have the privilege of listening to elected members and City staff discuss important issues such as Freo’s lingering ‘tent city’ saga.
On Wednesday, council met to vote on items including South Ward Councillor Marija Vujcic’s motion for an independent inquiry into the Pioneer Park street kitchen WA Premier Mark McGowan described as a ‘political stunt’ before shutting down the camp opposite Fremantle Labor member Simone McGurk’s office on January 22. The City refused to withdraw its consent for nearly a month (www.streetwisemedia.com.au/calls-grow-for-tent-city-inquiry).
Acting Mayor Andrew Sullican chaired and City Ward Cr Rachel Pemberton was the first to “clarify” her role in the saga Cr Geoff Graham, in support of Cr Vujcic’s motion, said had sullied the city’s reputation as a family friendly destination.
In a brief exchange before members debated Cr Vujcic’s motion, Cr Sullivan warned Cr Vujcic not to make or repeat accusations she could not substantiate, including by WA Premier Mark McGowan. Cr Vujcic said there was ample time from December 18 to 25 to issue Freo Street Kitchen organisers approvals to hold the event. She said approval was given when, as the Premier stated, the City decided to provide power, water and sewerage facilities. “Acting Mayor Sullivan saw the organisers bring out the tents on December 24, but did not think it important enough to notify the City,” she said disputing the CEO report claim other service providers were closed over the Christmas weekend (www.streetwisemedia.com.au/tent-city-regrettable-and-political-ceo-report). “On January 22, the WA Government stepped in and took control of the park. In light of the City of Fremantle’s failure to withdraw its consent to the occupancy of Pioneer Park in a reasonable timeframe …”
Sullivan interrupted: “Councillor, you’re again making accusations about people in the organisation and their reactions which are not true, so can you just make your statement.
“What was not true?” Cr Vujcic said, referring to public statements by the Premier’s office about the political motivations behind tent city.
Sullivan: “By repeating something which is not true, you’re also emphasising a statement that can’t be validated and justified. One wrong doesn’t allow another person to keep repeating a statement which is not true.”
“Well you’re the chair,” Vujcic replied.
Sullivan: “Don’t make accusations that can’t be substantiated. I’m being pretty lenient in terms of allowing you to express your views.”
Vujcic: “The State Government certainly had the view consent was given by the City.”
Sullivan: “The State Government may have had that view but it’s not substantiated.”
“Like I said, you’re the chair and I don’t necessarily agree with you,” Vujcic said before thanking Mr McGowan for having saved the City from further damage and embarrassment (www.streetwisemedia.com.au/fremantle-council-goes-too-far-wa-premier).
Below is a blow by blow account of proceedings glossed over this week by local and social media. Streetwise will publish the full verbatim transcripts of essential items and motions as the ‘minutes’ are not a true and accurate record – in the public interest.

‘Red tape’ Rachel

COUNCILLOR Pemberton says Freo’s ‘tent city’ was a stupid idea in which Freo Street Kitchen organisers grossly abused and took advantage of the City’s hospitality.
During debate on Cr Vujcic’s motion, Cr Pemberton, who is a member of Greens WA candidate and mayor-on-leave Brad Pettitt’s State election campaign team, said: “Before I was elected I became quite well known around Freo for throwing street parties where the community was invited to basically take over the street … and a big part of that whole agenda was to give the residents and ratepayers an opportunity to really engage in community building together. And what subsequently came out of that … was around the red tape reduction strategy and the just-say-yes policy. These were concepts that were actually really really important to me around the idea of empowering our community to working to be able to be part of working collaboratively together in addressing our problems, creating a sense of social connection, and innovating really.”
She added she did not want to worry, “that some of this way of thinking might lead us down this path where we put walls up to stop this sort of stuff”. Cr Pemberton said despite the, “informal approach that was taken”, there was no tent city conspiracy nor underhandedness: “It was about this idea of the just-say-yes policy or the red tape reduction policy that was like, OK how do we try and facilitate this in a way that is as low risk as possible. The right people know what’s going on and if there is a problem something can be done. And the problem was this was grossly abused. In this instance, it was really grossly abused. But in my 10 years in council that has never happened before. The likelihood of it happening again is probably slight. It is somebody who got a stupid idea in the head and took it to the enth degree to try and make a point or whatever.” She said council had nothing to hide, adding an independent investigation would be an unnecessary additional cost to the City, but urged people to contact the Corruption and Crime Commission which she said would not cost the City.
“I think there was really good intentions that embraced the attitude of our community, the council and the kind of community that we want to encourage that was just really unfortunately taking advantage of in a way that blew up in a really unfortunate way. And the criminal things that were associated with it they are yet to be tested in the courts, they are yet to actually be proven to be connected to tent city and even so they are the actions of individuals who were doing the wrong thing. This is actually not about holding members of this council responsible but rather than actually how do we want to exist as a community going forward in order to minimise the risk of this sort of abuse happening again?”
Cr Pemberton’s finger pointing was preceded by a long-winded statement about red tape reduction policies and street parties before explaining her ‘conduit’ role in tent city: “Jesse Noakes did contact me about a week before Christmas to say he and some local volunteers were planning to set up a street kitchen to feed people experiencing homelessness on Boxing Day.”
She said she put Mr Noakes in touch with local police via a text message on December 18. On December 21, she arranged a meeting between Mr Noakes and relevant City managers: “As councillor I am very much aware I have no authority to make any decisions or direct staff in any way, let alone the WA police staff. Rather, I fulfilled my obligation to act as a conduit between community members and the city administration and any other relevant officials I think appropriate. It is my understanding no formal approval was requested or given in regard to this event.
“I acknowledge the disruption and distress that it caused many people, particularly those local businesses that were affected and the inner city residents. But the challenge was we could not simply move people on when they had no where to go. The issue of homelessness is not solved by simply dismantling a tent city. It is only made less visible.”
She added: “I suspect a full investigation into this matter is likely to find that our administration had done all it could within its powers to address growing problems of anti-social behaviour and street person homelessness and was actively seeking collaboration with service providers and relevant authorities to address the issue further.”

Conflicted accounts

BEACONSFIELD Cr Geoff Graham questioned Cr Pemberton’s chronology of events leading up to the Boxing Day fiasco: “There has been too many gaps in this story for me. On January 11, at an informal meeting of elected members, Cr Pemberton stated she had spoken to the organisers before Christmas about the event. I had spoken to the mayor the week prior to that IEM and he said he knew nothing about it, he’d been down south and he wasn’t aware of what was going on until he got back. So that pricked my ears up. He knew nothing about it but Cr Pemberton said they had spoken two days before Christmas. It wasn’t long before Brad actually did backtrack, but it was an odd conversation I had I thought. It was an informal conversation in his office.
“At that same meeting (January 11) Cr Sullivan I overheard you say that you knew there were 100 or some tents in your leased (office space). You subsequently declared an impartiality interest on the basis you leased space to Jesse Noakes (www.streetwisemedia.com.au/acting-mayors-office-staging-post-for-tent-city).
So Mr Deputy Mayor, if you did know, and this is why we need an independent investigation of some sort, you did know something about tents on your premises, I would have thought that would be a red flag and enough to notify the CEO that something was brewing more than just a Boxing Day event. And that obviously did not happen and that’s not for me to answer.”
Cr Graham said there was a delay in notifying elected members of what was going on: “I didn’t find out about this tent city until well after Christmas closer to New Year form a ratepayer at a bowling club. No one notified me. Whether it was a Boxing Day feed or a tent city, surely some notification should have come around to elected members so were weren’t caught out or on the back foot. That was very disappointing and that is not in the CEO’s report either.”
He added the seriousness of the alleged criminal activity linked to tent city cannot be understated, “and that has been glossed over in the CEO report. These charges, I don’t know where they are, if they are taken further … obviously council may be asked to please explain. The impact on local businesses is widely reported, as was the fear of local residents and the broader community. It has done a whole lot of damage to Fremantle’s image. It certainly didn’t help, people are still talking about it. Will this go away? I don’t think it will, it’s a bit of a festering sore. Until we get a proper thorough independent investigation … I just think we need to find what happened, how it happened … the city could be involved in criminal charges whatever they were and wherever they end up.
“I noticed in the press last week that the State Government is refusing to pay the hotel fees for these people. I don’t know whether the organisers will pay, I certainly wouldn’t surprise me if that bill doesn’t ends up with the acting CEO. That could go on for some time. The premier’s language is very strong around the organisers of this event. I think there is a sense from people around this table who want it to go away. A way out for us is to have an independent investigation”.

‘The real story’?

HILTON Cr Sam Wainwright told council: “I really do find it introspecting handwringing about a four-week camp at Pioneer Park rather surreal in the context of homelessness in WA. So there was some people who were homeless sleeping on the street somewhere else, for four weeks they were sleeping at pioneer park, and now they’re homeless sleeping somewhere else again. That’s really the story and this desperate attempt to try and ascertain who to blame at the City of Fremantle. I accept the inconvenience to businesses and huge officer time it consumed but overdoing the victim thing, poor old us, why did it happen to us? As I’ve said at previous meetings I manage an office space adjacent to a tent city for two years, the negative consequences of which were 5 to 10 times anything that happened at Pioneer Park. I can absolutely bet my life on it, guarantee it. So let’s just have a little bit of perspective. Pioneer Park was relatively calm compared to the one existing in Perth. I absolutely guarantee that. You haven’t seen anything. The question of criminality, if anyone has committed offences or suspected to, they will be charged and the courts will deal with it. But in the context of all this … it’s a strange sort of assumption that somehow if homeless people are congregated into a tent city they are more likely to be either the perpetrators or victims of the crimes. There is nothing particularly to justify this.”
Beaconsfield Cr Hannah Fitzhardinge said if people felt an independent investigation is important they should contact agencies of government outside council’s jurisdiction, “If you believe there is some kind of behaviour that goes beyond the bounds of reality. Anything else I think is a witchhunt being dressed up in independent clothing. I guess i’m interested in where that went wrong in terms of the last-minute intervention by the Premier, but by and large we should be putting this matter to bed and focusing on issues that will actually enhance Fremantle”.
East Ward Cr Jenny Archibald and Hilton Cr Frank Mofflin said they could not support an independent investigation until they saw the second part of the CEO report due next month. Cr Archibald agreed with Cr Wainwright the real issue was homelessness. Cr Mofflin said no-one disputed it was a ‘regrettable event’, as stated in the CEO report: “There were significant impacts on varying groups of people, businesses, people who were in the camp … and unfortunately for whatever means Fremantle became a political football and our reputation was sullied.”
Acting Mayor Andrew Sullivan closed the debate, but not before explaining his role in tent city he said went wrong: “I know I had done everything I could possibly do to provide clear information about what I knew and what I didn’t do and when I declared my interest and the like. If you don’t believe me that’s you’re right. But it’s not going to be clarified by having an independent inquiry investigation.”
Cr Sullivan added: “On the issue of the criminal stuff, I’ve given other elected members a really clear understanding of what I know about all those matters, some of them I can’t mention in public. Very little of the information that was put out in the middle of January about criminal activity in Fremantle had anything specifically to do, directly and indirectly, with tent city. It was the crime that was taking place in Fremantle and some of it very horrific and some of it should be investigated. But not by us. I am satisfied with the information in the CEO report.”
City Ward Cr Adin Lang, East Ward Cr Su Groome and North Ward Cr Doug Thompson did not speak on the motion though they knew Mr Noakes and his misguided tent city motives.