CONTROVERSY has been brewing at the City of Cockburn about a planned $114,000 trip by mayor Logan Howlett and three councillors to the sister city of Split in Croatia, with irate members of the community calling it a junket. 

Media commentators have also questioned the value of sister cities, and if they are still relevant in our modern times. 

Should local councils engage in international relationships, when ratepayers want them to look after roads and rubbish?

Why do local councils have sister cities? 

Are they still relevant, or just sentimental hogwash and a waste of money? 

What do these relationships costs? 

What are the benefits for our local councils having sister city relationships with overseas cities? 

Are there any?

The City of Fremantle has five sister cities; Capo d’Orlando and Molfetta in Italy, Funchal in Portugal, Seberang Perai in Malaysia and Yokosuka in Japan.

It also has three friendship cities; Surabaya and Padang in Indonesia and Korcula in Croatia.

I could not find information about sister cities the City of Melville and Town of East Fremantle might have.

I can’t recall having heard of any official visit by a Fremantle delegation, or delegations from any of those cities visiting Fremantle in recent times, or at all.  

According to the City of Fremantle, former mayor Brad Pettitt visited Seberang Perai in 2018. 

The last sister city visit to Fremantle was in 2017 when the mayor and a delegation from  Capo d’Orlando came to the 70th anniversaryof the Blessing of the Fleet.

Councillor Fedele Camarda went on a family holiday to Molfetta last year, and combined that by connecting with the council there, at no cost to the Fremantle ratepayers. 

Before she became mayor, councillor Hannah Fitzhardinge visited Capo d’Orlando in 2017 during a private visit, and addressed their council in Italian. 

The Fremantle ratepayers did not pay for that trip either. 

So what is the purpose of sister cities?  

Is there an economic benefit? 

Do our sister cities promote Fremantle as a holiday destination? 

We don’t even have a display of photos in the Walyalup Civic Centre that shows our sister cities, and neither do we have an exchange of art exhibitions, or an artist in residence program, where artists from Fremantle spend time overseas and artists from Europe come to Freo to create art and exhibit here.

I do understand the desire to nurture sister cities that have a historic connection with Fremantle. 

Many people have an Italian background and have emotional and sentimental attachment to some of our sister cities. 

Their grandparents, or parents, came from those cities and started a new life here in WA. 

The Fremantle  fishing fleet grew because of the hard work of Italian, Portuguese, etc. migrants. 

But  why do we also connect with overseas places that have played no significant part in Fremantle’s history and growth? 

What is that based on?

Roel Loopers/Freoview