Basil Zempilas ready for scrutiny as he runs for Lord Mayor of Perth
TV personality Basil Zempilas wants to be the next mayor of Perth. But is that the best outcome for both the council and the city?
Is a part-time celebrity mayor with multiple paymasters the best option to lead a council that has been riven with mismanagement and conflicts of interest?
The move by TV and radio personality Basil Zempilas to finally declare his candidacy for lord mayor of the City of Perth last week means the October vote will be the most closely watched local government election in West Australian history.
Zempilas — a more popular, West Australian version of Victoria’s “Eddie Everywhere’’ Maguire — will be up against a field that includes another member of Perth’s A-list, former ABC journalist Di Bain, the wife of high-profile Perth businessman John Poynton, and a fellow radio colleague and former Seven Network newsman Mark Gibson.
Zempilas plans to maintain his existing media commitments — including his morning radio show on Nine Entertainment‘s 6PR, his evening role anchoring the sports segment on Seven, writing a weekly column in The West Australian newspaper, and leading Seven’s AFL and Olympics commentary — not just through the campaign but throughout his mayorship.
His opponents have seized on that workload as proof that Zempilas cannot give the role the attention it deserves, particularly given the turmoils that plagued the last council. His extensive work roles also give rise to a host of potential conflicts of interest.
Armed with a voracious work ethic and a charming demeanour, Zempilas has become one of Sevens most prominent faces. He was even drafted in to host the leaders debate between Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten ahead of last year’s federal election.
Seven West Media is tightly interlinked with the City of Perth on several fronts. The company, controlled by billionaire Kerry Stokes, holds a significant parcel of land in the city linked to the old Entertainment Centre site. It has historically been the broadcaster of the city’s annual Sky Show, although it lost those rights in 2018 to Nine as well as the city’s annual Christmas Pageant.
Zempilas told The Weekend Australian he would manage any conflicts of interest the same way every other local councillor in Australia should, by recusing himself from involvement in any matters linked to his employers.
He says his unconventional work arrangement, where he is on the payrolls of a pair of arch rivals in Seven West Media and Nine Entertainment, means he is no stranger to managing conflicts.
The widespread coverage his candidacy has drawn in Seven West’s The West Australian and on 6PR has already raised the ire of his mayoral rivals, but Zempilas says he has put rules in place to manage the coverage. After all, he says, listeners would get tired pretty quickly of hearing about nothing but his campaign.
“It would be an unfair advantage if I continually used it as a platform for my election, but that is not what I’m going to do,” he said. “Like everybody else is entitled to continue to work in their chosen professions if they stand for office, I think as long as I play fair and play by the rules, and the rules we set for ourselves, then in my mind it’s okay.”
Even before the coronavirus outbreak, Perth’s CBD was notoriously lifeless after dark. Attempts to develop precincts that would inject life into the city, such as Elizabeth Quay on the Swan River and the Yagan Square site between the CBD and neighbouring Northbridge, have met with mixed success.
Like most major cities, Perth has also been grappling with homelessness. In a newspaper
column written before his candidacy was confirmed, Zempilas called for homeless people to be removed from Perth’s main malls, “forcibly, if that’s what it takes”.
He says he is ready for the scrutiny and pressure that would come with the position.
“My entire career has been scrutinised and examined and spoken about, and my life is an open book. I’ve got no problem with scrutiny,” Zempilas said.
“If I am successful I would be a lord mayor who would live by the very simple philosophies I was taught by my parents. They taught me to work hard, use common sense, and do the right thing always. Nothing changes.”
Gibson, who has been filling in as a host on 6PR for the past week, is the only candidate to date who actually lives in the city. He has crossed paths with Zempilas throughout his media career, and simply doesn’t believe his colleague can juggle the needs of the city with his work commitments. “He is a great guy and is very well-intended, but it has highlighted that he sees it as just a part-time side gig. I think the City of Perth deserves better than that,” Gibson told The Weekend Australian.
“You can’t do morning radio, afternoon and evening television, weekend television and be travelling the country covering sport, and be the lord mayor of Perth. It just physically doesn’t work.”
Zempilas’s biggest rival seems to be Ms Bain, who of the three current and former journalists in the field appears to have the broadest skills set. Since leaving journalism, she has run her own marketing and creative agency and has sat on boards including Tourism Western Australia, Activate Perth and the Perth Zoo.
Ms Bain said it was crucial that the next mayor was available and fully focused on the role.
“It’s not fit and proper to be taking ratepayer money and not do the job,” she said. “People want to know unequivocally whether or not the council they are going to elect is going to be reliable, sensible, not polarising, and have a governance track record. They don’t want us to go through again what the city has been through the last four years.”
Given the farce of the city’s last council — which was suspended more than two years ago amid rampant dysfunction — the opponents‘ calls for a more focused, undistracted and non-conflicted mayor carry particular weight.
An inquiry into the City of Perth council, handed to the state government last month, identified 250 findings, made 300 recommendations and referred 23 people to authorities over “suspected criminal behaviour”.
The scars from that last council are still fresh. If nothing else, Zempilas’s candidacy ensures the campaign is more scrutinised than any that came before.
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