Mayor wants double the pay

Perth's Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi, in her office at Council House November 2, 2012, wants an increase in her $60,000 a year salary. Source: News Limited

LISA Scaffidi believes the position of Perth Lord Mayor is severely undervalued and warrants a 200 per cent pay rise.

The outspoken Ms Scaffidi, who has been Lord Mayor for six years, believes the salary should triple to match the pay of  her counterparts in the larger cities of Melbourne and Sydney.

Ms Scaffidi, who also gets thousands in allowances and a chauffeur, argues her $60,000 salary should increase to about $180,000.

"The lord mayoral position, given it's more than a full-time requirement to undertake the role professionally, should be treated similarly to the salaried levels of lord mayors of Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney,'' Ms Scaffidi said.  

But trying to head off a backlash, Ms Scaffidi last night used Twitter to tell supporters she didn't "instigate'' the pay push and that it "should not be belittled and all about me''. 

Earlier, she told The Sunday Times "to not pay makes running for this type of role somewhat elitist and not accessible'', adding that a pay rise would "therefore in itself be more democratic''. 

Ms Scaffidi said "I have never made an issue of this in my role'' but "I am pleased'' it is being looked at "after such a long time''.

WA Local Government Association president Troy Pickard, who wants a pay rise for everyone in local government, predicted ratepayers would initially react badly.

"While I expect the initial reaction from some in the community would be to oppose any increase ... if they thought it through they would agree that it is not fair that WA lags behind other states,'' Mr Pickard said. 

The Salaries and Allowances Tribunal is currently reviewing the pay structures for councillors and mayors and will recommend changes, to take effect from July 1.

On top of her $60,000-a-year salary, Ms Scaffidi  receives $14,000 in "meeting fees'' every 12 months. 

She is also entitled to claim up to $13,000 in expenses and has a chauffeur for council duties.

The Sydney Lord Mayor can earn an annual salary up to $221,200. Mr Pickard said the state's council representatives were short-changed compared with their eastern states counterparts.

WA councillors were paid a paltry $7000 a year, with some earning only $2400. Their colleagues in other states can receive up to $126,000 a year.

Mr Pickard said serving on a local council required a "significant time commitment'' and involved an  increasingly complex role that was "way in excess of attending meetings''.

"But it is true that not all councils have the same  demands or same levels of decision-making and that is why WALGA has suggested the inclusion of a specific system of bands,'' he said.

In other states, such as NSW and Queensland, councillors' pay is based on a series of bands of maximum and minimum pay rates. Councils are put into a specific band based on factors such as population and revenue. 

In WA all local government councils are treated the same. In WALGA's submission to the SAT review, the association argues that the salary of the lord mayor of capital cities such as Ms Scaffidi should receive special consideration to recognise the significance of the role.

"The association's view is that the City of Perth should be included in the top band to recognise the importance of the capital city and the role of lord mayor,'' the submission says.

The WALGA submission says one metropolitan mayor recently resigned after one term to find employment with higher earnings.

"This is not surprising given that the maximum allowance payable to a mayor or president in WA is less than average full-time earnings,'' the submission said.

A tribunal spokesman said it had been eight years since fees, expenses and allowances paid to mayors and councillors had been adjusted.

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Doctors urge baby gender secrecy

Doctors want to stop gender-based abortion by banning parents from knowing whether they're expecting a boy or a girl until it is too late to end the pregnancy. Picture: Thinkstock Source: Supplied

OBSTETRICIANS want parents to be kept in the dark about the gender of their unborn babies to stop couples demanding abortions to choose a boy over a girl.

The Sunday Times can reveal that couples in Australia are asking doctors to terminate pregnancies because they are unhappy with the sex of their unborn child.

Doctors want to stop the practice by banning parents from knowing the gender until it is too late to end the pregnancy.

The National Association of Specialist Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has suggested that laboratories performing publicly funded chromosomal tests during pregnancy be banned from revealing the sex of the embryo until after 20 weeks, except in cases of gender-based diseases such as haemophilia.

"You don't keep the test results secret, you just keep the sex secret," association president Andrew Foote said.

He said while he had no first-hand knowledge of gender-based abortion "I think it does happen".

"The view among my colleagues is they're definitely against it," he said.

"But if (patients) were of a view they must have a baby of a particular sex, they could turn up at a termination clinic and say it is for social reasons."

One of Australia's biggest abortion clinics has revealed that parents have requested abortions on gender grounds though it is "extremely rare" and always refused.

But The Sunday Times discovered a couple aborted their baby after discovering at 19 weeks they were having a girl when they wanted a boy.

The couple's GP, Dr Mark Hobart, refused to give them a referral to an abortion clinic and reported the specialist who later terminated the pregnancy to the Medical Board.

"The parents were upfront and told me that was the reason for the abortion," Dr Hobart told The Sunday Times yesterday. "I was dumbfounded.

"To get a request for an abortion for that reason (having a girl when they wanted a boy), I just couldn't believe it. It was the husband who did all the talking he was so insistent."

Despite being refused a referral by Dr Hobart, the mother had an abortion a few days later.

The Medical Board told Dr Hobart on Friday it would not pursue the matter because Victorian doctors are allowed to terminate pregnancies of up to 24 weeks.

A Senate committee is inquiring into draft legislation prepared by "pro-life" Democratic Labor Party senator John Madigan, which would ban Medicare rebates for gender-selective abortions.

The inquiry is also investigating "the prevalence of gender selection with preference for a male child among some ethnic groups".

Senator Madigan yesterday said that "we do know there are cultures where a boy is preferred over a girl", though he did not have statistics on the prevalence in Australia.

Dr Foote said that keeping the baby's sex secret until 20 weeks would be a "reasonable safeguard".

But Australian Medical Association president Steve Hambleton said women had the right to know everything about their pregnancy.

The Fertility Control Clinic Victoria's biggest abortion provider told the Senate inquiry that 96 per cent of abortions were performed before 12 weeks' gestation, when it was too early to know the sex.

"It is extremely rare for us to receive requests for gender- selection abortion and we do not acquiesce to such requests," the clinic's submission states.

The clinic's psychologist, Dr Susie Allanson, said patients requested gender-based abortions "once in a blue moon".

"It's very rare, and we have to say (to the patient) we don't provide abortion on the basis of gender," she said.

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Call for more prisoners to work on streets

More prisoners would work in the community to "repay their debt" to society, under a plan before the Barnett Government. File picture.
Source: PerthNow

MORE prisoners - including people smugglers - would be put to work in the community to "repay their debt" to society, under a plan before the Barnett Government.

A review of the state's prison system has revealed taxpayer-funded work camps are operating below 70 per cent capacity, despite nearly 100 prisoners being identified as fit for work.

Work camp prisoners perform community duties, from painting local churches, to general maintenance in hospital grounds and cemetery landscaping.

The camps also provide training and skills development, including how to operate heavy machinery and administer first-aid.

Inspector of Custodial Services Neil Morgan said the underuse of work camps was "unacceptable".

"They have involved a high level of public investment and need to be full or close to capacity to repay that investment," he said.

Mr Morgan said the department could increase the pool of prisoners in work camps by allowing Indonesian prisoners subject to deportation to work in the community.

There should also be more Aboriginal prisoners in work camps, he said.

Just 66 prisoners are working in four camps in Wyndham, Warburton, Walpole and Dowerin. At least 80 more are suitable for work, but have not been given placements. The review also highlighted an "alarming" number of Aboriginal prisoners being housed in WA's toughest jails, while non-Aboriginal prisoners were gaining minimum security ratings.

Mr Morgan said it "beggared belief" that Aboriginal prisoners weren't being given equal opportunities for rehabilitation.

"Aboriginal people constitute over 40 per cent of our prison population," he said. "If they are not accessing minimum security in sufficient numbers, the benefits of these facilities are not reaching a priority target group and public investment is not being maximised."

The number of non-Aboriginal people shifted to minimum security increased 62 per cent in the past three years.

For Aboriginal prisoners the rise was less than 5 per cent.

Opposition corrective services spokesman Paul Papalia said it was "scandalous" work camps were a quarter empty.

"Work camps are a successful tool for re-integrating people and preparing them to go back into society," Mr Papalia said.

"The Barnett Government has turned our prison system into complete shambles. You're putting relatively low-risk prisoners in with hardened criminals and you'll be teaching them how to become a proper criminal. It's creating crime universities."

Corrective Services Minister Joe Francis and the Department of Corrective Services declined to comment.

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Daredevil cave divers exploring depths

Cave diver John Vanderleest explores the underwater caverns of WA's Nullarbor. Picture: http://lizrogersphotography.com Source: Supplied

DAREDEVIL divers are exploring remote underground caves across the Nullarbor Plain, swimming below millions of tonnes of rock where one mistake can prove fatal.

But they say taking the ultimate risk is worth it to pioneer a world most of us will never see, in water so stunningly clear that it is "the closest you can come to being an astronaut on Earth".

Their view backs up Lonely Planet's list of top dive spots which shows WA's Nullarbor ahead of the Great Barrier Reef.

While that outraged tourism bosses in Queensland, a hard-core club of about 50 WA cave divers say Lonely Planet was right to name Cocklebiddy Cave, 1150km east of Perth, as one of the world's top-10 dive locations.

"You shine your light and it is so magnificently clear it makes a swimming pool seem murky," Nullarbor veteran and Cave Divers Association of Australia director John Vanderleest said.

"You can't articulate how crystal clear it is. You're floating in a giant cave that's so crystal clear you don't even realise you're underwater. It's like you're floating in space."

And it's almost as dangerous as a trip to outer space.

More than 90m below ground, divers are beneath millions of tonnes of rock. And at 6.5km long, Cocklebiddy Cave is the longest underwater passage in the country, up to several hundred metres wide, along a fault line in the biggest slab of limestone on the planet.

In 1972 and 1973, at least eight people died cave-diving in Australia, prompting the formation of the cave divers association and the introduction of a permits and a training system that has kept fatalities to two since then.

That record was almost ruined in 1988 when producer Andrew Wight led a Nullarbor cave-diving expedition and a freak storm caused the entrance to collapse, leaving 15 people trapped underground.

A rescue mission was mounted and everyone survived in a harrowing ordeal that inspired the movie Sanctum.

So mysterious are the world's giant, flooded underwater caverns, the Maya believed the entrances to them to be portals to the underworld.

"It's an unforgiving sport. You can't afford mistakes. If anything goes wrong, you have to deal with it underwater," Mr Vanderleest said.

He said the Nullarbor's six regularly dived caves were among the most popular in the country for Australia's small and highly trained group of cave divers, who number about 800, including up to 70 in WA.

Phenomenal visibility is the result of artesian basin water that has taken thousands of years to filter through the limestone surface layers, the cave divers association's scientific officer, Ian Lewis, said.

And exploring the underwater realm isn't cheap.

"A re-breather will be $12,000-$15,000, an underwater scooter $5000, but people don't mind the expense because when your life is reliant on equipment, you don't want an old VW, you want a Ferrari," Mr Vanderleest said.

Perth diver Craig Challen holds the "crown of Cocklebiddy" for going deeper than anyone to the end of the cave system, where it branches into several tight passages. Another Perth legend of the sport is Paul Hosie, who has mapped more than 15km of virgin cave-diving passages in the Nullarbor and elsewhere.

Fellow diver Geoff Paynter has tackled Cocklebiddy more than a dozen times since it was discovered in the '70s.

He said most West Australians had no idea that the treasure existed.

"People are literally driving over the top on their way to Perth or Adelaide and they don't realise what's below," he said.

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Police officers charged with criminal offences

WA Police Internal Affairs figures show 347 charges have been laid against 100 officers since 2008. Source: Supplied

WA police officers have been convicted of nearly 250 criminal offences over the past five years including sex crimes against children, serious assaults, burglary and dangerous driving.

Figures obtained by The Sunday Times from WA Police Internal Affairs show 347 charges have been laid against 100 officers after complaints from the public and internal investigations since 2008.

The database reveals 11 officers have been convicted of a string of offences in the 2012-13 financial year, including a senior sergeant failing to stop after a crash, dangerous driving, stealing as a public servant and aggravated assault.

More than half the criminal charges for the past five years were for misusing police computers, which includes illegally using the police database to uncover personal details.

Other charges included disorderly conduct in a police station, refusing a breath test, forgery and burglary. Some officers were penalised for failing to store their firearms properly.

WA Police Union president George Tilbury said the figures amounted to less than 2 per cent of the police workforce.

"Police officers are also members of our community and they are not immune from societal influences," he said.

"Police do a difficult, dangerous job and deal with stress and trauma that most people would never encounter in a lifetime. Criminal conduct is not condoned, but there are often mitigating factors and every case should be assessed in isolation."

Of the 68 officers convicted of 248 charges, five were handed prison sentences for their crimes, including dangerous driving causing death, stealing and unlawful use of police computers.

Another officer was jailed for 10 counts of indecent dealing and six of sexual penetration of a child under 16.

Acting Assistant Commissioner Allan Adams said WA Police had a strong focus on the "ethical health" of the agency.

He said it published information on charged officers when it was in the public interest.

"Any information that alleges misconduct by any police officer is thoroughly investigated and where evidence identifies criminal behaviour to the required standard the matter is progressed in line with the DPP Prosecution Guidelines," Insp Adams said.

"The public interest is always carefully considered in our endeavours to be open and accountable."

Release of the figures comes after a Bunbury police officer pleaded guilty this week to assaulting a man in a hotel carpark. The court was told the off-duty officer approached a man he believed was going to break into a car last month and forced him to the ground. He received a spent conviction and a $4500 fine.

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Driver, 82, banned over fatal crash

An 82-year-old Perth woman has been banned from driving for life for causing a fatal crash. Picture: Rob Leeson Source: PerthNow

AN elderly Perth woman banned from driving for life after causing the death of a man will be haunted with memories of the accident for the rest of her days, her son says.

Mary Bolgia, 82, has been convicted by a jury of dangerous driving causing the death of Jean-Pierre McEvoy, 71, outside a service station in February last year.

He died in hospital a month later from injuries sustained in the accident.

In handing down the disqualification period and a $5000 fine in Perth's District Court on Friday, Judge Jeremy Curthoys accepted that Bolgia had been driving slowly when she struck Mr McEvoy but then panicked and accelerated.

He said it had been a "harrowing'' experience for her and she was a low risk of reoffending.

Bolgia had co-operated with police and immediately surrendered her driver's licence, which demonstrated her remorse, the judge said.

"It falls, despite the tragic consequences, at the lower end of dangerous driving causing death,'' Judge Curthoys said.

He said his sentence did not take into consideration the value of Mr McEvoy's life.

Outside court, Bolgia's son Loyd told reporters the case had taken a toll on his mother, who had lost 5kg in the past few days.

Mr Bolgia said he was grateful that the judge was sympathetic to his mother's situation and accepted that it was an accident.

"Someone has died, which is tragic,'' he said.

"She's going to have to live with that for the rest of her life, basically, and maybe that was punishment enough for her.''

Mr Bolgia said his mother had never been in a traffic accident before and was now catching the bus to get around and visit her Alzheimer's-affected husband, who was being cared for in a home.

He said she would never recover from the trauma of the memory of the accident.

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Court tangles leave RSPCA in limbo

Unresolved court cases have left the RSPCA's Malaga shelter a full house. Picture: Stewart Allen Source: PerthNow

THE RSPCA's Perth shelter is in crisis, overwhelmed by an influx of seized animals and unable to move them on because of unresolved court cases.

The charity warned in February that it was at breaking point after an unprecedented number of neglected and mistreated animals were brought in.

More than 350 dogs, cats, birds, rabbits and livestock are currently housed at the Malaga site, which has room for only about 200 animals.

Some 300 animals were rescued from just three properties between late 2012 and early this year, including 132 taken from one suburban property in December.

Caring for the extra arrivals has cost the RSPCA about $175,000.

The RSPCA said rehoming animals was often held up by legal processes and people challenging their convictions under the Animal Welfare Act 2002.

But it uses foster carers and other programs to ensure the animals are as comfortable as possible until the cases are resolved in court, RSPCA WA chief executive David van Ooran said.

The RSPCA has been unable to take any cats for months because that part of the shelter is particularly overstretched.

"We're in a very busy holding pattern,'' Mr van Ooran said.

"The animals seized by RSPCA inspectors remain in the care of the RSPCA until court cases can be resolved.

"Once the court case has concluded, we are then able to put the animals through our rehoming process which involves micro-chipping, desexing and behavioural assessment to ensure the animals go to the right homes.''

Mr van Ooran said the RSPCA was grateful to local legal firms that had saved it hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in fees by working on the cases pro bono.

He also urged the public to donate clean blankets and towels to help keep the animals warm during the colder months.

The RSPCA's biggest fundraising event of the year, the Million Paws Walk, will be held on May 19 across the country.

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Jockey was pushed to her limit

Nikita McLean (left) with fellow jockey Michelle Payne after her five-month suspension was cut in half by the Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board. Picture: Andrew Brownbill Source: Herald Sun

A SYMPATHETIC appeals board slashed in half a five-month suspension imposed by stewards on jockey Nikita McLean for the assault of her teenage sister, Jackie.

Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board chairman Judge Russell Lewis was frank in his support of 27-year-old McLean, who pushed and punched 18-year-old Jackie Beriman at a recent race meeting at Hamilton.

"He (McLean's husband) had it off with her younger sister," Judge Lewis said.

"She's not a robot."

Earlier on the same day at Hamilton, McLean's estranged husband, jumps jockey Brad McLean, had tapped her on the behind with his whip, upsetting her and contributing to her later assault of her sister.

McLean told stewards at an earlier hearing the sight of her sister parading in front of her in the jockeys' room had also upset her; "a very provocative thing to do", according to Judge Lewis.

Judge Lewis added McLean was vulnerable at Hamilton because it was the first time she had shared a racecourse with her ex and Beriman since their August 2012 affair.

"There is no doubt this young woman has been drawn to the limits," he said.

In successfully arguing that the stewards' penalty of five months was "manifestly unjust", Patrick Whelahan, for Nikita McLean, said the circumstances of the assault were "extreme".

He said McLean had acted "very courteously and professionally" towards her sister since learning of the affair. Judge Lewis described the brief affair as a "gross betrayal".

Mr Whelahan said the five-month suspension would have robbed his client of about $70,000 in earnings; a penalty "completely out of step".

The board heard McLean, now living in Ballarat, shared ownership of a home in Warrnambool with her estranged husband, who lives there, but only Nikita McLean was making mortgage payments.

Board member Brian Forrest asked her if Brad McLean was a "freeloader", and she said "yes".

She later vowed to mend the fractured relationship with her sister and urged other jockeys to also forgive Beriman.

Racing Victoria and the jockeys' association intends to begin mediation and increase counselling for the sisters. Jackie Beriman had been ostracised by other jockeys since the affair.

Nikita McLean's suspension ends on June 30.

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Patients burn alive in hospital fire

A fire in a psychiatric hospital near the Russian capital Moscow has killed at least 38 people.

• 29 of the 38 were burnt alive and death toll also includes two doctors
• Many patients were sedated and did not wake up
• Patients at the facility ranged from 20-76 years old

A FIRE swept quickly through a psychiatric hospital outside Moscow early Friday, killing 38 people, most of them in their beds, officials said.

The one-story brick-and-wood hospital building housed patients with severe mental disorders, Health Ministry officials said. An emergency ministry official said the fire started in a wooden annex and then spread to the main brick building which had wooden beams.

The patients were under sedatives and most of them did not wake up, Yuri Deshevykh of the emergency situations ministry told RIA Novosti.

At least 29 people were burned alive, said Irina Gumennaya, a spokeswoman for the Russian Investigative Committee.

Firefighters extinguishing fire in the burning psychiatric hospital where inmates were trapped inside behind barred windows. Picture: AFP PHOTO / MOSCOW REGION EMERGENCIES MINISTRY

Investigators said 38 people, including 36 patients and two doctors, have died. They said a nurse managed to escape and save one patients, while another patient got out on his own. The emergency services also posted a list of the patients indicating they ranged in age from 20 to 76. Gumennaya told Russian news agencies that most of the people died in their beds.

Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyev said some of the hospital windows were barred. Gumennaya quoted testimony of the surviving nurse who said that doors inside the hospital were not locked.

Officials from the Russian Investigative Committee said they are looking at poor fire regulations and short circuit as possible causes for the blaze that engulfed the hospital in the Ramenskiy settlement, some 85 kilometers north of Moscow.

Police said the fire was caused by a short circuit. Picture: AP Photo/Pavel Sergeyev

Vadim Belovoshin of the emergency ministry said that it took fire fighters an hour to get to the hospital following an emergency call because a ferry across the canal was closed and the fire fighters had to make a detour.

Vorobyev told Russian state-television that the fire alarm seems to have worked but the fire spread too quickly.

Russia has a poor fire safety record, with about 12,000 deaths reported in 2012. In January, a fire in an underground parking lot killed 10 migrant workers from Tajikistan who were working and living there. In a similar incident in September, 14 Vietnamese workers were killed by fire at a clothing factory near Moscow.

Firefighters work at a site of the fire where 38 people including 36 patients and two doctors died. Picture: AP Photo/Pavel Sergeyev

In one of the most high-profile case of negligence, more than 150 people died in a night club in the city of Perm after a pyrotechnic show ignited a wooden ceiling.

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Geelong players a pair of Cat bunglers

Billie Smedts leaves Kardinia Park. Picture: Mike Dugdale Source: Herald Sun

BILLIE Smedts and Josh Caddy should stick to kicking a Sherrin, because as Cat burglars they make mighty fine footy players.

When the duo decided to play a prank on Jackson Thurlow, the "innocent fun" they decided on was a spot of housebreaking at their teammate's new digs.

But the concept of a fleet-footed Raffles doing a midnight flit across the rooftops without a trace eluded them.

For a start, it wasn't dark yet. On top of that, they got the wrong house.

So when a woman looked out her window and noticed two balaclava-clad men trying to force their way in, not unnaturally she called 000.

And soon after making their getaway back to Kardinia Park, the hapless pair found themselves staring down the barrels of guns levelled at them by five of Geelong's finest.

"Oh, mate, it was scary - very scary," a sheepish Smedts said.

Caddy said: "We are both sorry to that lady. In hindsight, we shouldn't have done it."

Josh Caddy says it was an ''innocent'' prank which went wrong. Picture: Mike Dugdale

Caddy said it was simply a prank gone wrong.

"It was just some innocent fun with me and Billie, which unfortunately scared people.

"We were just in the $2 shop and saw them (balaclavas) and thought it would be a bit of fun to scare young Thurlow at his new house he'd just moved into," Caddy said.

"We're a little bit embarrassed, but it's been dealt with."

Smedts added: "If (police) want us to go and apologise, we will. But it's all done and dusted, and they know it was a big prank and a big misunderstanding."

Inspector Gary Bruce said police had attended several burglaries in the South Geelong area in previous weeks and so responded swiftly to the call from Yarra St about 5pm on Wednesday.

He said the pair were given official cautions.

"They were extremely apologetic. It placed our members in danger in responding quickly to the call and caused potential danger, not only to our members but also those two."

He said police had spoken with club management.

Club media manager Kevin Diggerson said no further action would be taken.

"It was a misunderstanding and the boys hadn't done anything wrong," he said.

"There was no malice or attempt to cause any drama."

Asked whether Geelong players would be spoken to about pranks, he said: "We think our players are a mature group of people and will take out of it what they like."

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