Rarely a Dull Moment - Budget Time, Laws, Parks, and Painting the Town Purple

As the dark, chilly fingers of Makuru reach in and pinch what depleted energy reserves remain, I note a proliferation of typos left, right and centre, in both my own scribblings to my great shame and in more officious documentation. Whoops. At least you can be reassured a human wrote it, hopefully? But they didn’t produce all the imagery, can you spot the AI content below?

Under three hours for the meeting this night, even with a packed agenda.

A curiously empty gallery and only one Public Question asked regarding why STRA – Short Term Rental Accommodation – hosted operators are being stung with a differential rate. (Answer: all STRA operators are being charged this, but if you don’t want to pay then you can cease operating the STRA).

LOCAL LAW REVIEW – SAND DRIFT ABATEMENT AND PARKING

At the Ordinary Meeting of Council held on 12 March 2025, Council resolved to review the City’s local laws to ensure their currency. These two were proposed to remain unchanged.

During public consultation for this item, the City received one submission asking for more parking bays in front of their grouped/multiple dwellings, and queried how the Prevention and Abatement of Sand Drift Local Law 2002 applied to residential verges. It’s unclear about the parking request, but in respect to sand the City responded:

“The Prevention and Abatement of Sand Drift Local Law 2002 does not expressly exclude verges or local government land, however verges are generally held to be the responsibility of the adjoining landowner (rather than the local government) particularly where activities of the occupier (such as parking) are creating a genuine sand / dust nuisance.”

Council unanimously adopted the recommendation that it:

Considers the submission received during the consultation period for the unchanged Parking Local Law 2021 and the Prevention and Abatement of Sand Drift Local Law 2002, as provided in Attachment 1; and
Approves that the Parking Local Law 2021, provided in Attachment 2, and the Prevention and Abatement of Sand Drift Local Law 2002, provided in Attachment 3, remain unchanged.

ACTIVE RESERVE HIRE POLICY

You may recall the initiation of this item for public advertising at the OCM on 23 April 2025.

The aim of the policy is to encourage equitable and sustainable use of the City’s reserves, by individuals and formal groups alike, including for use in community activities. A key piece of feedback provided during consultation included the observation that reserves are generally underutilised and mainly by sporting groups.

73% of responses confirmed their support or partial support of the policy. During advertising, 11 submissions were made in response to the proposed policy. 7 submissions were from members of Community Sporting Clubs or Organisations. Several public health organisations advised of their support. A local sporting club voiced their concerns of the potential impact the policy could have on infrastructure they assist in maintaining, but the areas they referenced are outside the remit of the policy and will instead be dealt with under existing management agreements. The policy reinforces this via the following provision:

Community groups or organisations that hold tenure agreements on facilities adjacent to the active sporting reserve will have priority access to secure bookings.

The City plans to manage the tenuous relationship between perspective formal sporting club dominance over certain reserves versus the need to protect those exact clubs from encroaching uses by:

Implementing clear usage agreements for existing clubs
Communicating reserve availability for public use outside scheduled times

The item had a Deferral motion by Cr Van Dorssen at one point, who thanked City officers for their time on this and the community consultation. From her perspective, Fremantle District Cricket Club raised “some really valid concerns” that they feel have not been resolved or acknowledged beyond the formal response.

To address this, Council acquiesced to an amended recommendation noting that the City will work with the FDCC to address their concerns in respect to third party use of Stevens Reserve.

Cr Graham supported the amendment but raised concerns as he and Cr Camarda met with the FDCC secretary and president who were worried about how the reserve had been classified, and noted that the policy itself is only 4 pages despite the forty pages of extensive consultation material. No changes are proposed to the classification of the reserve and the City is committed to maintenance of the reserve.

When not in use, other people can get access to it without harming the FDCC use of it, in a nutshell.

Discussion reflected that this policy is formalising something that’s really important in the face of limited available public open space and events such as the sewage bursts temporarily displacing Fremantle Sunday Markets from Bruce Lee Oval.

Council also adopted unanimously amended recommendation to receive and note the community engagement report, adopt the policy, and note that the City will work with the FDCC to address their concerns in respect to third party use of Stevens Reserve.

Receive and note the Community Engagement Report, as provided in Attachment 1.
Adopt the Active Reserve Hire Policy, as provided in Attachment 2; and
Note that the City will work with the FDCC to address their concerns in respect to third party use of Stevens Reserve. [refer to Council minutes once released for official wording on this]

WORKING GROUPS UPDATE

Just a quick one.

At the last Community Emissions Working Group meeting, the members deliberated over the following:

The draft Community Emissions Reduction Action Plan (CERAP) was presented by the City’s Senior Sustainability Officer, including the 12 Key Actions. On 19/05/2025 the Chair circulated a set of alternative Key Actions for the draft CERAP. These are being integrated with the original 12 actions for the Working group to reach a final decision at its next meeting.
A broad sustainability framework specific for Fremantle was presented that would, in time, replace the One Planet framework. This received broad support from the Group.
It was noted that the draft budget for 2025/26 included funding for sustainability actions, once the Group had finalised its preferred list and gained support from Council to proceed.
It was noted that the draft policy and timeline to introduce LCA at DA stage for private developments would be presented to council on 14th May 2025.

Cr Jemima Williamson-Wong chimed on with a note: the Life Cycle Assessment was approved for trial in May, minor typo corrected.

Cr Van Dorssen – spoke to the North Fremantle Plan and policy and praised the City on its work for the Fremantle City Plan as well in the wake of their recent What If event on Friday night, and hopes they get lots of good quality feedback for this process. The officer report confirms the Working Group has “essentially completed its work in guiding the engagement process for this piece of strategic work” but another elected member workshop will be held to discuss it.

We also received updates on the Economic Development Strategy and the North Fremantle Plan Working Group, which recently held a focussed workshop on the draft Plan with locals on 10 June 2025 at the North Fremantle Community Hall.

Adopted unanimously by Council.

ANNUAL BUDGET

Key facts about this year’s budget:

Budget 2025-26 includes just over $149 million in operating and capital expenditure over the coming financial year. The budget has been prepared taking into consideration the Strategic Community Plan, Corporate Business Plan and long-term financial plan.

This budget proposes a 5.0% increase in rates as well as increases in most non-statutory fees and charges in line with CPI where appropriate.

This is anticipated to generate $67.5m in rate income out of $119.0m total budget income over this financial year, an increase on $4m from the previous year.

Apparently this has been “probably the smoothest budget” the Mayor has ever seen! Mayor Fitzhardinge remarked everything seems much less chaotic, with a good collaborative effort, and the long term financial plan is clear. The City is “growing as a community”, heading to 35,000 people in the next few years. The budget incorporates $3m public infrastructure and amenity, including roads and streetlights, new playgrounds at various reserves, and $11.5m for parks and natural areas. More is being spent on tree canopy than ever before. Budget also accounts for Fremantle’s leisure centre gym, heritage buildings such as the Victoria Hall, two public toilets, and more.

Key assets prioritised to prevent future cost burdens to the community include “parks, footpaths, buildings, library, roads, facilities etc”.

With that in mind, the core objectives are:

Continue to deliver core services that meet the needs of our growing community.
Invest in the upgrade and renewal of public infrastructure and amenity.
Manage and maintain our parks, reserves & community infrastructure.

The City has not been immune to global and national economic pressures, and rebuilding budget stores has been tricky given that 60% of the budget is based upon rates revenue currently. Diversification of revenue streams would assist in reinforcing the sustainability of future budgets. The Officer report includes interesting insights into the performance of WA’s economy and how local government is influenced by it, based upon the Western Australian Local Government (WALGA) economic briefing for the March quarter of 2025 key observations in relation to the Local Government Cost Index (LGCI):

After a period of high increases in construction costs, followed by elevated wages growth, Local Government costs are starting to return to a more moderate level of growth across the board.
While the rate of wage growth is beginning to ease, wages are expected to continue to grow as the WA labour market is the tightest in the nation and economic activity is forecast to support ongoing employment growth. [hurray!]
Growth in construction costs has begun to stabilise however tight industry capacity and likely cost pressures in some components of construction raise the possibility of additional upward price pressures beyond current forecasts. Elevated levels of housing construction, encouraged by the State and Federal Governments, will increase demand for a limited supply of materials and labour.

Accordingly, the City is prioritising the following capital projects in the 2025/26 budget:

$7.6m across our parks and recreation reserves
$2.3m across key heritage assets
$2 million for the improvement of public amenity and infrastructure
$2 million towards the upgrade of community facilities
$1.5 million towards road safety and traffic calming

And $7.5 million towards business as usual projects such as drainage, roads, lighting, and park maintenance. In case you were curious, this capital budget does not include any new loan borrowings for 2025/26, “the opening loan principal balance on 1 July 25 is $16.9m and, taking into account the principal repayments throughout 2025-26, the estimated closing balance at 30 June 2026 is $15.6m”.

60% of the budget for capital works is dedicated to projects located outside of the Fremantle CBD, so the suburbs not need feel left out.

As for operational expenditure, this shall incorporate:

$15.9M towards the operation of our key community facilities including the Fremantle Library, Fremantle Leisure Centre, Fremantle Arts Centre and Fremantle Community Legal Centre, a large portion of which is offset by the fees and charges income and grant revenue generated by those facilities.
$11.5m towards parks, landscapes and natural areas
$9.5m towards the delivery of waste and resource recovery initiatives
$5.9m towards the ongoing Maintenance of our buildings
$2.3m towards the delivery of economic development, tourism marketing and investment attraction initiatives
$2.0m towards the delivery of arts, culture and festivals
$2.2m towards community safety

Capital project expenditure shall include:

$1.2m for the Henry St Façade upgrades
$2.6m for renewal and upgrade of roads
$1.0m towards the delivery of upgrades at Samson Park
$1.75m for the Hilton Park Master Plan Northern Zone projects
$1.1m for public toilet facilities at Collie Street
$1.8m towards irrigation systems
$0.8m on playgrounds
$0.7m towards City buildings
$0.7m towards footpaths
$0.2m towards street lighting
$3.2m towards Booyeembara Park Masterplan – Golf course/Community Facility.

Cr Lawver lamented that it is too late in this particular budget to consider the difference between hosted and unhosted STRA. There are 449 that pay above the minimum, about 60 or so at the minimum, but in future years hopes for it to be nuanced. That could be because the City didn’t receive any submissions on the differential rates during the public advertising period despite advertising via traditional printed and digital media, so if that’s something that interests you perhaps ensure you keep your eyes peeled for when it is next advertised.

Cr Sullivan queried aloud what the best name for this budget should be. Anything is better than the big beautiful bill! He also noted the recent milestone reaching with Targeted Underground Power Project (TUPP) costed by Western Power at approximately $53.8m or $24,000 per property, which is of course affecting local rates despite the 50% subsidy Western Power are offering, and thanked the City staff in all of their work towards the budget. There is genuine community concern about why the remaining $14.3m cost of infrastructure improvement is being passed on to ratepayers by the State Government via Western Power, which he expressed his sympathies over. Apparently some have threatened not to pay, and to sue the City! Not sure how successful that would be.

Cr Williamson-Wong praised the budget as a reflection of what locals overall want to see, inclusive of the arts, amenity, and canopy.

In case you’d like a reminder, here’s a summary all the deliverables from the 2024/2025 Budget:

The completion of the South Beach Changerooms and landscaping works [any day now?]
Major investment into heritage including upgrades to the Town Hall balcony, electrical upgrades at the Moore’s building and commencement of Façade works to 38-40 Henry Street
Commencement of the federally funded Arts Centre Creative hub
Acquisition of two new public toilet facilities to be installed early in the 2025/26 financial year
MRRG High Street, South Street and other Road Upgrades
Completion of footpath upgrades at Attfield St, Field St, Wood St, Paget St, Swanbourne St, South St, Solomon St, Martha St and Leake St
Completion of drainage upgrades at Wongan Ave and Collick St
Delivery of upgrades to several parks and reserves including BBQ upgrades at South Beach, upgrades to Parmelia Park Playground, Shade Sail at Griffiths Park, additional parking and footpaths at Samson Reserve as well as renewal of irrigation.
Commencement of the commercial fit out of the Walyalup Civic Centre as a result of securing several commercial tenancies.
Over $1.1 million was invested in the renewal of plant, fleet, and equipment to ensure the continued operational capability across key service areas. This included the procurement of a new footpath sweeper, pool vehicles, mowers, and trucks to support the functions of Waste & Cleansing, Construction Maintenance, and Parks & Landscaping.
$5.5 million on the maintenance of our parks and landscapes, including over $500K invested in the planting and maintenance of trees.
Over $5 million invested in the management of waste and resource recovery.
Over $4 million invested into the maintenance of our community facilities and buildings.
Over $3.6 million invested in arts and culture related programming, events and facilities.
Over $2 million invested into the maintenance of existing roads, footpaths and drainage.
Over $2 million invested in the delivery of community programs, services, safety and well-being.
Close to $1 million in economic development and activation related initiatives.

Adopted unanimously with an amended officer’s recommendation tidying up a few timelines and TUPP costings.

LONG TERM FINANCIAL PLAN

In a nutshell, the LTFP “presents a 10-year estimated outlook on future financial capacity for the City and should be considered in conjunction with the corporate business plan and any capital project/operational information that corresponds with the annual budget each year.”

As a reminder, the City manages $700m worth of assets and in this budget is striving to increase the allocation of the budget towards renewal of these assets to ensure that a future gap does not eventuate and shortchange the community. That includes:

Building Maintenance and Renewal
Drainage
Footpaths
Parks & reserves
Plant, Equipment and Vehicles, Road safety and maintenance
Street Lighting

But the LTFP does consider more exciting projects, such as the redevelopments of Fremantle Oval, the City of Fremantle Depot, and the Fremantle Leisure Centre.

Cr Archibald finds this plan much more interesting than the annual budget. Really, the next four years will be the most tangible, including Fremantle Oval transformation and Booyembarra Park. She noted this is a small City with modest ratebase but this Plan will put the City in good stead. Ephemeral wetlands, story circle, and rewilding, are all planned for Booyembarra Park along with one day decontaminating for the amphitheatre of asbestos to allow it to be usable for events! A park with a difference, very exciting to see that work coming forward. Wetlands may become a research project. A fabulous outcome for that area. Cr Archibald thanked the staff and her colleagues for all their effort on this project.

Cr Camarda considered this has been a better and better process in each year since he came on board to Council. There will be plans in place in the future to ease rates pressure for locals by finding different revenue streams to inform the budget.

Cr Sullivan expressed he wished this current process had been in place 20 years ago and agreed it is an important exercise for confirming the health of the budget and demonstrating the power, and gaps, of meeting community expectations. Capital works are currently between $10-20m. These will skyrocket to $70m in the future on account of projects such as Fremantle Oval.

Cr Thompson suggested that it was encouraging that no one was in the public gallery as it is a sign of confidence in the Council and City’s process in determining the Annual Budget and Long Term Financial Plan! Mayor Fitzhardinge noted that the City has done extremely well in public benchmarking for recent projects, noted that this work generally isn’t “sexy” as Cr Williamson-Wong observed earlier, but it delivers the outcomes we need. Once a point in time we couldn’t have heard Council deliberate these items without more public debate on the night.

Also unanimously adopted!

Then an en bloc adoption for several other items such as the Delegated Authority Register update.

APPOINTMENT OF THE PRESIDING MEMBER AND DEPUTY PRESIDING MEMBER OF THE AUDIT AND RISK MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

Cr Mofflin foreshadowed the Audit and Risk Committee will be updated in response to State Government changes, noted. This will also affect staff use of purchasing cards as part of operational expenses as they are subject to greater scrutiny. Other local governments in their expenditure on food and beverages may have been stretching the definition of operational costs in that respect, and the findings of this audit are triggering a policy check at Fremantle in response. The lack of guidance is currently an issue, it seems.

Council unanimously adopted the recommendation to:

Appoint Cr Frank Mofflin as presiding member of the Audit and Risk Management Committee for the term of four months, to expire following the 2025 Ordinary Local Government Elections.
Appoint Cr Fedele Camarda as deputy presiding member of the Audit and Risk Management Committee for the term of four months, to expire following the 2025 Ordinary Local Government Elections.

FINANCIAL HARDSHIP POLICY

The officer report advises:

“The Financial Hardship Policy was introduced and approved by Council on 8 July 2020. It has been in place since that time with no amendments. The wording implemented at the time referenced COVID-19 specifically which is no longer required. All arrangements dealt with under that particular provision have also now been resolved or paid off by respective debtors.

The City has also identified family and domestic violence as increasingly contributing to financial hardship within local communities and as such has recommended the addition of this category to the eligibility criteria for the policy.”

Cr Williamson-Wong lauded this work as a great step towards supporting victims of Family and Domestic Violence and gender equity, echoed by Cr Mofflin and Mayor Fitzhardinge.

Once again, adopted unanimously with a third recommendation that the policy be reviewed every three years.

NOTICE OF MOTIONS TIME

Cr Lang moved a Notice of Motion to Paint the Town (City) Purple should the Dockers score us a win in the proceedings to the Grand Final. A grand festival along the temporarily pedestrianised Cappuccino Strip with participating shopfronts is envisaged.

As Cr Lang puts it:

“The intent of this Motion is to celebrate and support the greatest team in the history of the AFL, the Fremantle Football Club (FFC), while also bringing the spirit of finals football into Fremantle. If implemented, it could also offer a low-cost economic development vehicle to encourage more visitors to Fremantle.

In 2013 when the FFC made the AFL Grand Final, Fremantle Council painted the median of the Cappuccino Strip purple. This further encouraged residents and businesses to follow suit, and much of Fremantle was taken over by all things purple. This was repeated in the following years when the FFC made the finals, more recently the grass slope of the Walyalup Civic Centre was painted with the FFC logo.

However, Both the timing and scale of support offered by the Fremantle Council has historically been ad hoc which creates uncertainty about if/when there will be Council support or when others should join the festivities.”

Cr Williamson-Wong concurred, recalling a community member even once suggested a purple fountain! Cue a fond and friendly discussion on the benefits this could bring to locals, with hopes this will not jinx our port team!

And Cr Sullivan reprimanded the others for missing the memo on wearing purple tonight, he and Cr Williamson-Wong certainly dazzled with their fashion this time.

Adopted by Council unanimously with an amendment to allow for recognition of significant achievements by local and Fremantle-connected clubs.

Cr Lawver NoM – Notice of Motion – calling for a new CEO established Working Group with the remit for overseeing a series of measures aimed at ensuring a culturally vibrant City, subject to an amendment for Working Groups to be able to engage external stakeholders.

Council adopted the recommendation to

Request the Chief Executive Officer to establish a Working Group to report back to Council with an initial report before September 2025 and provide more detailed recommendations for consideration before the end of this year on the following:

Any changes required to ensure the planning framework, policies and operational practices acknowledge new developments in City Centres should be required to undertake appropriate measures to dampen external noise generated by cultural activities.
That new residential and accommodation developments achieve a high level of sound mitigation through good design and acoustic performance.
Any changes to the City’s policies or planning scheme to ensure venues providing cultural benefits to our City have robust sound attenuation requirements to minimise external noise impacts.
Opportunities to advocate State and/or Federal Governments for legislative reform and other outcomes that will allow our City to balance residential and tourism growth alongside vibrant cultural activities.
Recommendations on the Implementation of any of the above.
Considerations on current and/or future enforcement best practices.

Note that Working groups are able to engage with external stakeholders and seek their advice through a variety of means, Including convening roundtable discussions.

Adopted.

Flashback to the last time we painted the Town purple, courtesy of the 26 June OCM report

Cr Williamson-Wong NoM (pardon, an earlier draft of this mistakenly attributed the NoM to our Mayor): acknowledging the role of Fremantle community in climate advocacy and calling for the City to formally express their disappointment in the approval gas extraction from Browse Basin and extending operation of the North West Shelf Processing Plan as it will double emissions since the 1980s to 1.6 billion tonnes of carbon, even though it is simply only processing gas, and irreparably damage the world’s oldest rock art at Murujuga. It also threatens Scotts Reef, “one of the State’s ecologically significant marine environments which is home to endangered species such as the dusky sea snake”.

This was received favourably by Council who spoke at length about what it means to Fremantle’s community, the greater community, and how it will harm the target of achieving Net Zero Emissions by 2050.

For context, in 2015 the City of Fremantle became a signatory of the Local Government Climate Change Declaration (via WALGA).

The Declaration states:

Local Government acknowledges:

The science is clear: climate change is occurring and greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are the dominant cause.
Climate change threatens human societies and the Earth’s ecosystems.
Urgent action is required to reduce emissions, and to adapt to the impacts from climate change that are now unavoidable.
A failure to adequately address this climate change emergency places an unacceptable burden on future generations. Local Government is committed to addressing climate change. Local Government is calling for:
Strong climate change action, leadership and coordination at all levels of government.
Effective and adequately funded Commonwealth and State Government climate change policies and programs.

As an additional precedent, in March 2021, Council adopted the Climate Emergency Position Statement, recognising the severity of the climate crisis, as follows:

“The City acknowledges that the situation requires urgent action by all levels of government. The City calls upon the State and Federal Governments to acknowledge that there is an emergency and to act accordingly, to rapidly decrease and draw down greenhouse gas emissions … Most importantly, the City of Fremantle urges all levels of government to base climate change policy in science.”

WA remains the only state without an emissions target, despite the impact already experienced of climate change and future projections.

Further information can be reviewed here, for anyone seeking to expand their knowledge of it:

https://www.ccwa.org.au/scientists_experts_reject_north_west_shelf_project_extension

https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/department-of-water-and-environmental-regulation/climate-change-wa

Cr Van Dorssen advised she would not be supporting the NoM as she considers it is not the role of Council to become political in this respect and she has not been approached or requested by her Ward to act on this matter. Cr Camarda echoed this statement but noted the passion of the community on this matter.

Adopted, in two parts, with Crs Thompson, Van Dorssen, and Camarda against (although Cr Camarda supported part 1):

Council

Acknowledges the Fremantle community’s continued advocacy on strong climate action.
Request the Chief Executive Officer write to the relevant Government Departments and Members of Parliament listed below to promote the concerns of the community of Fremantle, and the Council’s disappointment in the progressing of approvals to extend the taking of gas from the Browse Basin and for a North West Shelf processing plant to 2070;

Senator the Hon Murray Watt, Minister for the Environment and Water for Australia,
Hon Josh Wilson MP, Member for Fremantle and Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy,
Hon Anthony Albanese MP, Prime Minister, and
Director General for the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER)

EMERGING ISSUES REPORT

Discussed and determined behind closed doors, the outcome of which will be outlined in the Minutes.

THAT’S A WRAP FOR TONIGHT

And off to bed we go. See you next time!

By Gayle O’Leary. If you’d like to catch up on more by Gayle here on Fremantle Shipping News, look right here!

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