Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In my community of Boorloo Perth there is an arts scene that has given Australia some of the most exciting artists of the last few decades. Just north of the CBD is the Pickle District, a thriving arts hub that houses co-working spaces, photography studios, art galleries and design studios all benefiting from being very short distances from each other and adding to the character of the area. The Pickle District is a place that encourages raw community growth and collective action. The district is unique as a neighbourhood of innovative and imaginative minds with a common vision to enable the arts industry to thrive. It leads and creates places of activation and development through engaging, organising and empowering local residents and businesses to continue exploring our industrial and open nature to find a way to create a more sustainable, diverse and inclusive place to live, work and play.

Our arts community is always worth protecting and in Perth it is no different. We are already seeing the signs that the interests of big business and developers might be put ahead of protecting the very thing that makes our city and this space so unique. Last year plans were announced for a $25 million development that will see among other things a new Bunnings go into the district. It does not seem to matter to the proponents that there are two other Bunnings in very close proximity to the location already. This is part of a wider trend across the area, where we are seeing greenfield developments that help big businesses but don't work for the community.

This year, the Greens have knocked on thousands of doors across Perth and the things that the community have shared with us are very clear. They are goals which our Greens movement are wonderfully aligned with. They have shared with us the need and their desire to see affordable and accessible housing, and real solutions to the rental crisis that that community and so many others are experiencing. They want us to protect, support and grow our arts community, not push it out so something like a Bunnings can get yet another location in the inner city. And they want real action on climate change because our city is at the forefront of an even greater accelerating climate crisis than we have ever seen before. We are seeing bushfires put homes and lives in danger across Perth's south-eastern suburbs, and the sight of the city covered in smoke has become, quite frankly, far too common.

Western Australia is a beautiful place and Perth is the most exciting city in the country. I am sure not a single person in this place would disagree with me on that statement. It deserves representation that shares its community vision, not just the vision of those obsessed with maintaining a status quo. I am thrilled to be able to say that it now has that representation because the Greens working together with the community have enabled the election of the first-ever openly Greens councillor for the City of Vincent, the first Greens councillor in the history of state of Western Australia. This milestone has been reached because the community are sick and tired of their needs and their priorities being swamped by the needs of big businesses that have bought favour with the major parties.

Our arts sector is just one example of a community being massively underserved by the current government. The Greens want to see increased funding for local art and to protect places like the Pickle District that make our state so special. I want to congratulate Sophie Greer and the campaign team that took on the vested political interests of WA's local government structures and elected a transparently Green member of parliament for the first time in the history of this state, bringing transparency and accountability to our local government system. Well done to all of you. It is an incredible achievement.