As parliament beckons, Basil Zempilas faces tight race for Perth mayor

The rampant speculation about Basil Zempilas’s political ambitions are being exploited by his main mayoral opponent.

‘My entire career has been about going my hardest today’: Perth lord mayor Basil Zempilas in his office ahead of Saturday’s council election. Picture: Colin Murty

Media personality Basil Zempilas – the man increasingly seen as the great white hope of the WA Liberal Party – says a loss at this weekend‘s City of Perth mayoral election would not necessarily mark the end of his political career.

Since his shock rise from TV and radio personality to Perth Lord Mayor in 2020, Zempilas has shown his move into local government was not just a gimmick. He has had a number of public run-ins with the Labor state government, further fuelling expectations he will be parachuted into the Liberal Party at the 2025 state election.

The ongoing speculation about his broader political ambitions is perhaps the weakest point of his re-election campaign.

Mr Zempilas remains favourite but is facing a spirited and well-resourced campaign by councillor Sandy Anghie, who has enlisted ex-premier Mark McGowan’s former strategic director, Mark Reed, to run it. Ms Anghie is pitching herself as an independent committed to serving a full term as mayor in an effort to appeal to those ratepayers convinced Mr Zempilas is set to ditch Council House for Parliament House.

Speaking to The Weekend Australian in his expansive mayoral office overlooking Perth’s Swan River, Mr Zempilas says not a day goes by without him being asked about the prospect of running for state parliament.

“I see it as a bit of an endorsement of my leadership qualities,” he said. “I like to see it as though people have said, ‘Okay, he‘s been a strong leader, he’s done a good job, he’s demonstrated that he is quite capable in this space’.”

His stock answer is that a run for state parliament is not in his planning, although he understands why people may think so and he has not ruled anything out.

“Mark McGowan was going to lead the Labor Party to the next state election in 2025, and then one day he wasn’t,” Mr Zempilas said. “People want guarantees, they want those commitments, but that’s not how I’ve operated. My entire career has been about going my hardest today, and going my hardest today can lead to lots of opportunities.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly for a man used to wearing many hats – he was working full-time for Channel 7 (television and print) and arch rival Channel 9 (radio) during his first three months as mayor, and called the swimming at the Tokyo Olympics also while in office – he will spend election night on Saturday hosting the annual Telethon Ball.

Even if defeated, he doesn’t see that as fatal to his time in politics.

“Most of the people who’ve had meaningful political careers in Australia have had significant losses along the way. And for that matter, every Australian cricketer who’s had an incredible career has been dropped at some point,” he said.

“Australia is the best place to have a go, fail, then have another go and succeed. I don’t think, if I lost this election, that’s the end of my political career full stop.”

Mr Zempilas rose to mayor after a tumultuous several years that saw the previous council sacked. Since coming to office, he believes the city’s reputation has been restored. Rate rises, he says, are the lowest of any Perth metro council over the past three years.

He has locked horns with the state government on several fronts, most notably pushing back on efforts to put the city on the hook for the ongoing operating costs of the new public swimming pool at the WACA Ground.

The council believed that would cost the city $120m over the life of the pool. The state eventually agreed to carry those operating costs, leaving the city’s commitment at a one-off $25m.

He also picked a fight with the state government’s parking levy, eventually securing changes in the way it was administered.

Mr Zempilas says he did not originally expect to have an at-times confrontational relationship with the state government.

“But when those moments came and I had to decide ‘what sort of a Lord Mayor am I going to be?’. Should we just do what they want us to do and … make life easy, or … do what I’ve been elected to do, and that is stand up for the ratepayers … putting whatever is best for the city? I knew what was the right thing to do.”

Mr Zempilas was also highly critical of the Cook government’s decision to rule out any pitch to secure the Commonwealth Games within minutes of the event being ditched by Victoria this year.

The haste of that decision, he says, pointed to a lack of understanding and a lack of willingness by the state government to see the opportunities.

He also believes the state, with all its wealth and resources, can do more to tackle homelessness and should be working harder to ensure its all-important mining industry pushes further into downstream processing.