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City of Perth Mayor, councillors block move to investigate media 'blacklist'

Emma Young
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Questions have arisen over what City of Perth ratepayers are paying media officers hundreds of thousands of dollars to do if not responding to media queries, after a councillor revealed what appears to be a policy of 'blacklisting' certain outlets.

A motion by Councillor Reece Harley to investigate allegations of directions to media liaison staff to ignore questions from certain media outlets was voted down at Council on Tuesday.

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WA Premier Mark McGowan says he is looking at options to deal with the Perth City Council, one of them being dismissing the council.

Cr Harley raised the motion after journalists appealed directly to him to break the stalemate. He, Deputy Lord Mayor James Limnios and Cr Jemma Green made it three votes for the motion.

Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi and Crs Judy McEvoy, Keith Yong and Lily Chen made it four against.  

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Crs Jim Adamos and Janet Davidson were away and could not vote.

Media inquiries to local governments invariably proceed through the same rituals no matter what the local government:

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  1. Journalist sends official emailed query, providing questions and a deadline
  2. Journalist and media officer negotiate any problems with questions or deadline
  3. Council provides written response or sets up interview.  
  4. Journalist includes response in story

Media officers are paid to provide this service and other public relations services; the City of Karratha is advertising for a communications officer to "ensure effective internal and external communications" for $111,079 per annum. 

WAtoday staff observed the latest advertisements for a City of Perth media liaison position at $130,000.

There are three local newspapers covering the area.

Post Newspapers' Lloyd Gorman, a reporter with 20 years' experience, has not had a response to a query from a journalist in 12 months.

The Perth Voice's David Bell said the paper had not had a response in 18 months to its various inquiries and attempts to discuss the issue with management a year ago were unsuccessful.

But the CCC report that indicated the Lord Mayor herself was taking gifts from outside parties and then voting on their applications before the council, to me that is as serious as it gets.

WAtoday understands the third Perth paper, The Guardian Express, has also experienced problems getting meaningful and timely responses.

WAtoday journalists have had the same experience, with long delays of up to a week customary, demanding follow-ups that eventually result in evasive and inadequate responses.

All these publications have covered the scandals surrounding Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi, asking about travel and gift policies, Lord Mayor Scaffidi's speech at a briefing for mayors and chief executives about changes to declarations, requests to view a report the Lord Mayor said she wrote on a National Infrastructure Summit in 2015, questions on whether CoP ratepayers were paying legal fees and numerous questions regarding the sacking of the City's previous chief executive.

The Perth Voice has written numerous stories that are highly critical of Lord Mayor Scaffidi.

It must be noted City administration cannot respond to queries regarding the activities of the elected members, which must be referred to the individuals, as the City's media staff pointed out – within the deadline – when asked by WAtoday.

But there appear to be many, many examples of stories on routine operational matters, of public interest both to wider Perth and local ratepayers, that the City of Perth has refused to engage in.

Some of these topics:

  • CoP's sponsorship of the City to Surf and charges to organisers
  • Development applications for QEII Medical Centre
  • Skip bin policies (despite a similar question from another outlet receiving a response)  
  • $500,000 allegedly promised to Subiaco Council for staff redundancies resulting from CoP Act
  • Survey work on a dangerous road near Kings Park
  • Enforcement of two hour ticket parking at a local shopping centre
  • Reviews of al fresco dining rules for local cafes
  • Opening of the new city library
  • Sponsorship of the Hopman Cup
  • Questions on the CoP's operating expenditure

"In order to best serve ratepayers and the community, the City allocates resources responsibly to address legitimate and reasonable media enquiries," its response to WAtoday on Wednesday said.

"Due consideration is given to the prominence of the media outlet, the subject matter of the enquiry, the outlet's readership or audience, timing of the enquiry and deadlines provided."

The Post's Lloyd Gorman said he believed it was impossible to address important local issues in the way they needed to be addressed.

"By not responding to questions from The Post we think they are doing their own ratepayers a disservice," he said.

WAtoday understands one of the councillors who voted down the motion described The Perth Voice as never writing anything "positive", and that Lord Mayor Scaffidi said during the meeting she believed The Post and The Perth Voice were not following Press Council guidelines.

The City's official response to WAtoday on Wednesday denied any policy of media exclusion, but also said the council "prioritises enquiries that will afford the greatest chance of balanced, ethical reporting and can be held accountable to the Statement of Principles set by the Australian Press Council."

A search of Press Council adjudications over the past decade found zero complaints against The Post and only one against The Perth Voice - six years ago, and only partially upheld.

The Perth Voice's David Bell told Radio 6PR on Monday he knew the paper was "a bolshy paper at times" and "definitely liked to keep a close eye on them" but the paper was not there to "polish the turd".

"We report the truth and some of the truths are a little harsh, especially given the Lord Mayor's difficulties over the last couple of years, the internal fighting on council, the CEO being sacked with odd timing," he said.

"We can't make that look good. We just have to try to put the truth across. They could make it look better if they would at least present their point of view.

"Every few weeks we will have a query for the staff. This is separate from questions about the Lord Mayor or councillors. Purely to the staff, who are on the ratepayer dime."

The denial of any official policy of media blacklisting stands in contrast to Lord Mayor Scaffidi's history of attempting to control the press.

Several journalists, including WAtoday's David Prestipino, who has written several unfavourbale articles on the Lord Mayor, are blocked from following her public social media accounts.

Recently it was revealed she attempted to force fellow councillors to sign a statutory declaration promising they had not talked to The West Australian.

While it is not clear who, if anyone, has directed City staff to blacklist certain outfits, it is illegal for a council member to direct a local government employee on how to do their job. 

Moreover, the Local Government Act describes the five aspects of a councillor's role, the third being that a councillor "facilitates communication between the community and the council".

While Cr Harley will not be able to move another motion with the same wording, there is the potential for another councillor to attempt to progress the issue with a fresh motion in future.

Meetings have been scheduled between the City, The Perth Voice and The Post.

Scaffidi not a priority: McGowan

Meanwhile, new WA Premier Mark McGowan has indicated he'd prefer to not be talking about the Lord Mayor every day but said he was looking at options to sack the embattled City of Perth council.

"I really don't want to be talking about the City of Perth everyday but it seems to be a question I get all the time," he told Perth Live's Oliver Peterson on Radio 6PR.

"I think what happened at the City of Perth in terms of the CCC report and some of the dysfunction in the relationships between the councillors means there needs to be a circuit breaker.

"We're looking at other options in terms of dismissing the council... it's overly complicated, the (Local Government ) Act is overly complex.

"But the CCC report that indicated the Lord Mayor herself was taking gifts from outside parties and then voting on their applications before the council, to me that is as serious as it gets.

"We're going to undertake a review upfront and seek to reform it." 

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