Claudia’s View

And the winner is …
To measure the effect of a new Mayor, City of Fremantle after 10 years of woke Green progression, will probably be determined by subjective reaction: either Party political allegiance, and/or which side of the vote you are in: 44% (10,730) of ratepayers who bothered to vote or the 46% (13,784) who didn’t.
As it stands, the 44% who voted, of course, is the percentage who voted for the new Mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge: 10,730. Her closest rival Marija Vujcic bravely running a curious and costly slick and shiny populist Trumpian campaign in a Labor stronghold, predictably only managed to get 21% (of the 44%) of voters who bothered, “to make Fremantle Great Again”.
The election could be considered a landslide of disinterest unless you are a Labor voter or someone who understands the contradiction and the mechanisms of ‘first-past-the-post’ voting and implications of non-compulsory voting in supposedly apolitical event.
For most people who understand the politics of change or better, the ‘Realpolitik’, the 2021 Mayoral win was a silent ‘coup de grace’ of the State Labor Government to strategically regain control of an historically Labor influenced Council that had lost its way into the hands of the Greens.
While the State government was in Liberal hands, this was not an issue, but the election of a State Labor Government highlighted some problems/ headaches in the traditionally Labor Council that State Labor did not need, culminating in the disastrous Tent City debacle inconveniently playing off outside the office of the Child Protection, Women’s Interests, Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence and Community Services Minister Simone McGurk during the 2021 State election.
This failed contrived political exercise to promote homelessness began to appear more as a photo op for the aspirational Fremantle Mayor, Dr Brad Pettitt, who was seeking a seat in the Upper House with the aim of holding the balance of power to leverage off Labor.
Ultimately this failed strategic exercise only saw off the City of Fremantle CEO as its scapegoat. State Labor ‘selflessly’ assisted the previous incumbent of the Fremantle Mayoral ship on his way to irrelevance by preferencing him into the inconsequential Upper House where a landslide Labor victory means he leads only himself and leverages nothing, as Labor hold the balance of everything.
This strategy tastefully removed any formal necessity by the State (or the Council itself) to investigate perceived and well publicised financial and administrative irregularities of the Council by simply restoring the natural order of things: a Labor Mayor in a landslide Labor State in a traditional State Labor seat.
Enter Hannah Fitzhardinge.
Labor member, former Beaconsfield Elected Member, former staffer in the Labor Gallop office, and then into corporate and her own consulting business.
As with many Labor apparatchiks, with a solid bourgeoisie background (Hannah’s with direct familial links to the well-known western suburbs architectural firm of Forbes Fitzahardinghe and a parent in academia), Hannah strives to link her Western suburbs private school and familial background with working class ‘identification by association’, claiming her mother’s Nth Fremantle abode in the 80s as in the midst of, “working class, wharfies and HomesWest housing”.
Given the profile of Australian Labor is inherently middle class and bourgeois, with all three major Parties contesting the middle ground, it is a strange affectation, particularly in Fremantle where ABS data places the demographic firmly in the middle class, with many of its older residents refugees post America’s Cup from the western suburbs.
Set against this background, Hannah’s election campaign was picture perfect, well supported by State Labor and locals and it was a dream run, as could only be expected with a landslide State Labor election behind it, in a safe State Labor seat with Labor mentors.

Nothing to see here

So, how is Hannah doing as Fremantle’s (second female) Mayor and does her campaign spiel live up to expectations?
From the point of view of the (P)olitical background above, the transition/‘coup’ has been seamless and steadfast. Nothing to see here [anymore].
Nothing and nobody has been able to penetrate the systemic attempts to investigate any of the major perceived transgressions of the Pettitt administration, particularly the financial ones. However, there are subtle changes to the running of the City and the Council that indicate a line has been drawn and there is a new regime, and perceived financial profligacy is to be reined in. In Hannah’s own words “back to basics” with the optics of “clean streets… to match the investment.”
And for the casual observer out at night, Fremantle is buzzing with the predominance of new bars, woke breweries and hospitality hubs.
Hannah ran for Mayor following, amongst other influences, a discussion with Dave Coggin, another Labor apparatchik (last heard of in MacGowan’s Premier and Cabinet and former East Ward Elected Member).
From the point of view of Hannah’s own election agenda, based largely, publicly and consistently on the completely pragmatic and very sound process driven reality, that a mayor is:
1. a leader/ coordinator/ negotiator
2. one vote of 13 elected members votes
3. NOT an autocrat, totalitarian, or authoritarian
Hannah’s personal reason for standing, (as opposed to the broader political agenda and outcomes), was based on the stark and unforgiving political reality that the role of Mayor IS about skill set and procedural in effect, and not about a bag of improbable promises or goodies or pork barrelling.
It is about negotiation, leadership, facilitation, communication, connections all of which require professional and sophisticated verbal abilities and competencies. It is process driven and requires the capacity to facilitate the bringing together of diverse and sometimes hostile views to a collective resolution and, if that is not possible dealing with the fall out.
A baptism of fire for the Mayor has been the thorny problem of mandatory vaccination where a strident minority group of the community demanded that the Council represent its views to the State Government. The Council and the community have had to be guided through this as so few realise the difference between the authority of the State and the authority of the other tiers of government.
That this new regime is attempting to delineate the lines of authority and boundaries of legislative responsibility, is new to the casual observer but is in line with the silent coup of stabilisation and reform within the Fremantle Council.
The minority of residents who have been used to a clarion call of dissent and resistance from the previous ‘woke’ oligarchy, are not seeing this (yet). It really helps to have been apart of the wider group when dealing with major players in local government, particularly a State Labor government, if you want to get things, and get things done.
There is some doubt for the casual observer yet, of evidence of success for the new Mayor in her attempts to deal with the issues of division and acrimony, and to pilot a lack lustre Council by using her skill set. It is not convincing, although the will and lingo are there.
The advantage of live streaming of Council meetings is that all is now laid bare, and one can observe the operation and leadership of our Elected Members. Not only that, but there are also replays and tapes of the proceedings to inform us.
What appears clear to this avid watcher is that the Mayor is attempting to use her skill set and is very much about “process” and “and dealing with difficult issues and coming to a collective resolution”. The language used supports her commitment to facilitation, communication, collective decision making but what has yet to be tested is the, “to have success in [the] need to engage with the Federal and State governments”, that is, the negotiation skill set following the “collective decision-making”.
What is also evident is a lack of confidence almost timidity in the learning process of handling the governance and process of the operation of Council.
Where the previous Mayor had to overcome a lack of verbal capacity and clarity of meaning, this Mayor appears to use a nervous laugh and over relaxed informality, which does not fulfil her aim for observable substantive leadership and capacity to provide strong negotiation skills in the real world, to the observer. This peccadillo is an irritation to other online observers.
Apart from skill set and “bringing people together”, Hannah did have some views on her vision for Fremantle, and some of these issues have been up for discussion already on Council’s agenda. She identified that the Fremantle cultural profile was, “highly committed, involved and educated”, and that, “Council should be shifting to facilitator of providing support to people to do things”. This aspiration appears to be coming to fruition directly and indirectly from observation of Council agendas.
A marked difference in Hannah’s vision from her predecessor’s, is movement from the blatant ideological to core responsibilities. Again, here, demonstrably is the silent coup rather than strident intervention.

Retro fit

There is retro talk of improved amenities (sporting clubs and parks), tree coverage, street signs, clean streets, asset management, subgroups access to resources: “more money for services and infrastructure” but, “where do we get the money?”, which she describes as the perennial Freo challenge”.
And herein lies her self-imposed challenge, and winning script, can Hannah use the skill set, tribal connections and particularly communication and negotiation skills to achieve procedural success and outcomes. If its an increase in the rate base that’s needed to shore up the coffers, then a major source of potential income could come from the University of Notre Dame.
“NDU is integrated into the City. It occupies buildings that once paid rates, the MOU has lapsed, and the conversation needs to be had,” she has said. This back to basics of fundamentals of revenue raising will be a major test to her leadership and negotiation skills.
The conversations have started and now it is crucial as to how will they end, for the ambitions of a skills and governance focused Mayor.
There is a fundamental shift in approach, if the observer is prepared to filter their thoughts through the big picture political systemic framework, as well as the implied differences between the past regime and the current coterie, as articulated by the Mayor prior to her election.
In her own words, the Mayor said that the change from the past would be differentiated by: [She is] “her own person”, she “respects the governance structure we work in”, “in order to have good governance you need to respect the organisation in which you work in [sic]”, “facilitator approach”, “values are about getting stuff done”, “good governance: that is, what is it that local government needs to do that, what’s in our bailiwick”.
There is little doubt from the record so far that she is on course. The only clearly debatable point is, given all the history, background and political input and advantage from the Labor Party, how much of “her own person” can she be? Could anyone be? And that is the conundrum or dichotomy of Local Governance and the similarity not the difference between the regimes.
Hannah is fulfilling her own expectations and those of both ‘the tribe’ who elected her (and as likely those 46% who didn’t bother to vote), and the Labor tribe ensemble that anointed her and have ambitions for State and Federal electoral spin offs.
Hannah is also part of the Labor ruling class/demographic, with an impeccable profile so no Party faithful feathers are being ruffled while the woke and progressives are unaware that subliminal slow but incremental change is taking place within the organisation and to the current system.