TV star Basil Zempilas’ new role running his city as lord mayor

Seven’s AFL caller and Olympics broadcaster Basil Zempilas has taken the reins at Perth’s scandal-plagued city council.

Media personality Basil Zempilas is Perth’s new Lord Mayor. Picture: Colin Murty

Seven‘s AFL caller and Olympics broadcaster Basil Zempilas is Perth’s new lord mayor, the first elected head of the City of Perth since the McGowan Labor government stood down the entire council two and a half years ago.

Mr Zempilas, 49, and eight new councillors - including two rivals he beat for the mayor’s job - will take over from government-appointed commissioners who sorted through the city’s finances and restructured the organisation, shedding about 100 jobs.

The new council inherits a recovery plan for the City of Perth that the commissioners reported was about 60 per cent implemented. It aims to reduce the city’s reliance on parking fees for income.

Commissioners wrote the corporate recovery plan after the City of Perth was brought low by scandal. A $7.3 million, 2000-page inquiry found there was a culture of self-interest on the previous council as well as poor leadership, rampant factionalism, dysfunction and interference in administration. Among the report’s findings was evidence councillors and candidates used sham leases to become eligible to stand for election, decisions on planning matters were not based on planning considerations, there was a lack of disclosure of financial interests by most councillors, excessive use of the free dining room by councillors for family and friends and examples of councillors using their position to advance personal business interests.

Basil Zempilas calling the Olympics.

Sunday Mr Zempilas described his win as humbling and exciting.

“In some ways it’s overwhelming, not that I don’t feel I’m up to it obviously I don’t doubt myself in that way but I know thee’s a lot of work to do,” Mr Zempilas told 6pr.

“We have got to get busy and get busy very quickly.”

The former Weekend Sunrise host’s election comes 20 years since he first publicly expressed his dream to become Perth’s lord mayor in a front page story in Perth’s Sunday Times.

Mr Zempilas intends to continue his roles with billionaire Kerry Stokes’ Seven West Media including anchoring the sports desk each weeknight while working as lord mayor. He has a weekly column in Stokes’ newspaper, The West Australian. On Thursday last week he announced he would not renew his contract at Nine’s 6pr radio where he has been on the breakfast show since 2014.

Mr Zempilas’ campaign focused on ways to make the centre of the city safer and friendlier. He said he would use his voice, platform and profile as lord mayor.

Mr Zempilas won the mayoral race with 1855 votes, or 29.44 per cent of the vote. His main rival was former journalist Di Bain, who got 1571 votes, or 24.94 per cent of the vote. Ms Bain now joins Mr Zempilas as a councillor as does Sandy Anghie, an architect and lawyer who ran for mayor as well.

City of Perth does not use a preferential voting system and voting is voluntary. About 41 per cent of eligible voters cast their ballots, up from 37 per cent at the last election in 2017.

The challenge of rough sleepers in the centre of Perth was a theme of the mayoral race. Homelessness has blighted the city and stretched the resources of organisations such as the Salvation Army since before the pandemic. About 40 per cent of homeless people in the city are Indigenous. Mr Zempilas proposes to adopt the “beddown” trial from Brisbane, where caparks that were empty at night become places for the homeless to sleep.