Zempilas takes aim at Cook’s chief of staff as election campaign fires up

The writs haven’t even been issued, but the WA election campaign is already firing on all cylinders.

A fresh row has erupted between Perth Lord Mayor and Liberal Churchlands candidate Basil Zempilas and Premier Roger Cook’s chief of staff Daniel Pastorelli over annual leave taken during campaigns.

City of Perth lord mayor Basil Zempilas.Credit: Jesinta Burton.

On Tuesday, Pastorelli, who is running as Labor’s candidate for Landsdale, said he was taking annual leave to juggle his taxpayer-funded role as the premier’s chief of staff and campaigning.

He said he had taken annual leave to join a press conference announcing upgrades to Warwick stadium to create a new home for the Wildcats and said he would take extended leave before the end of January to focus on campaigning.

“I’ve always in my job as chief of staff, I’ve always performed that in the best interests of the public and same goes for my role now as a candidate,” he said.

“I have got a bit [of leave] in the bank.”

Pastorelli then offered to provide his annual leave forms to the media to prove he was keeping the roles separate.

But at a press conference on Wednesday morning, Zempilas took umbrage at the criticism levelled at him by Labor over the blurring of the lines between his role as Perth Lord Mayor and Liberal candidate since announcing his intention to run for state politics.

Zempilas turned it back on Pastorelli and said he wanted the premier’s chief of staff to make his leave forms public.

Zempilas maintained his decision to remain as lord mayor until the writs were issued early next month was appropriate.

“To be clear, what I am doing is what elected officials in local government have done for years right around the country,” he said.

“What I am doing is what mayors normally do, and it’s for others to determine what the premier’s chief of staff is doing, but I have heard a lot of noise coming from that area.

“Get your own house in order. Everybody knows what I’m doing is following the rules and procedures that have been set out forever. I’m doing that. Ask yourselves, is that what’s happening on the other side of the fence?”

Cook said his government would not be providing Pastorelli’s leave forms to Zempilas – and if he wanted to see them, he could do so through Freedom of Information laws.

“If we’re going to provide it to, you know, upstanding members of our media contingent, that’s one thing – we’re not handing it over to the other side, they can get an FOI claim in,” he said.

“Daniel Pastorelli is a man of the highest integrity.

“He understands full well his obligations and responsibilities as a public servant, but also as a candidate, and he was doing everything by the book to make sure that he doesn’t confuse one duty with another, or that he’s on the government payroll when he’s undertaking his activities as a candidate.”

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