“IT’S great to have a good old hatchet job with an item like this; you know, it’s fantastic to have a publicised list that you can use to attack other elected members.”

Cockburn’s council’s antipathy was laid bare on Tuesday night as councillors tied themselves in knots over a now-cancelled $114,000 sister city trip to Croatia, with Cr Michael Separovich’s summing up of the chaos having a Puck-like glee.

The merits of sister city relationships took back stage to a skirmish over naming councillors who’d expressed interest in accompanying mayor Logan Howlett to Split – a ‘gotcha’ moment aimed at those who’d made political mileage out of criticising the trip but at some point had put their hand up.

The staff motion to refer an invitation from Split’s mayor to the council’s Sister City Reference Group for a recommendation on whether to go or not was pretty tame, but a stronger alternative from Cr Tarun Dewan to consider scrapping sister cities altogether sparked a series of factional manoeuvres that at times left councillors confused about where they were in the debate.

Cr Dewan had barely opened his argument that the merits of sister city relationships hadn’t been proven when he was questioned by colleague Phil Eva on whether he’d nominated for the trip. Cr Eva then asked for a list of all councillors who’d expressed an interest.

Deputy mayor Chontelle Stone and Cr Tom Widenbar tried to shut the questions down, describing them as irrelevant, and the latter successfully moved a dissent motion (5-4) against a ruling from the mayor that Cr Dewan should answer.

But when the deputy mayor sought to amend Cr Dewan’s motion to kill off the 2024 trip to Split, it gave Cr Phoebe Corke an opening to revisit the list.

Cr Corke had argued that releasing the names would be more transparent given public comments made about the Split delegation, and said raising the trip in the motion made them relevant to the debate.

Her dissent motion successfully flipped the vote (5-4 in her favour), while Cr Stone’s immediate response to try and shut down the debate by putting the item to an immediate vote failed to get the numbers.

The city’s corporate affairs executive Victoria Green then provided the list: Crs Dewan and Kevin Allen expressed interest in a side trip to Portugal (though Cr Dewan withdrew it the same day), while Cr Widenbar also showed interest but had missed the deadline.

Cr Separovich, who has a Croatian background, clarified that he’d been interested in going to Split, while new councillor Carol Zhang and the deputy mayor also gave a nod to a trip to their sister city, Cr Stone later withdrawing her expression of interest.

The sister city arrangements will now head back to committee for a discussion about whether they are still relevant these days, with only Cr Zhang prepared to mount an argument for them.

Cr Zhang said the debate over the Split trip had damaged the City’s reputation, but scrapping the arrangements seemed an over-reaction.

“We throw out the bathwater with the child,” Cr Zhang said.

“We have to think in a more holistic way and think about the long-term benefit.

“Outside WA not many people know about the City of Cockburn, but the thing about our it is now it’s different; now we are the gateway to the new Westport, we have the AMC, we are thinking about the blue economy.

“We need to promote our city’s name and rebrand our city.

“So sister cities is one way for making the city well-known outside Australia,” she said, noting Cockburn’s three current sister cities were all from different continents.

by STEVE GRANT