A community independent intends to disrupt the battleground contest in Churchlands by standing against Labor member Christine Tonkin and Liberal hopeful Basil Zempilas. Lisa Thornton, of Doubleview, a Stirling City councillor, is
undaunted by the profiles of her opponents.

“Just because you have a high profile doesn’t mean you’re going to be an effective leader and effective representative,”
she said.

“They have notable, notable backgrounds. I respect them as people and in their careers, but they serve two masters.

“They will be serving the party-political machine, or the party machine, and also trying to navigate serving their community.”

She said she had seen many times that party politicians had chosen to toe party policy over the interests of their constituents.

She also referred to the attempt to unseat Liberal leader Libby Mettam and replace her with Mr Zempilas from outside parliament.

“Just in the last few weeks we have seen the unsightly WA Liberal Party political infighting, putting egos first rather than the community,” she said.

“On the other side we see WA Labor lacking courage on climate commitments.”

Ms Thornton said she was approached to stand by the Churchlands Independent group, which already had around 70 volunteers, and was growing.

She was elected to Stirling Council in 2019 after attending meetings over a bad planning matter, and had since seen the state government seize most planning powers for itself.

“Communities can’t make strong planning decisions anymore,” she said. “They’ve removed them.”

Development assessment panels were biased towards developers, she said: “They are stacked so that council members are always outvoted.

“And Western Australia is the only state that doesn’t have third party merit appeal rights in the State Administrative Tribunal.

“Those neighbourhood rights are very important for people to have a say about how their neighbourhood and their amenity are going to be affected by development.

“I believe we get better outcomes when we consult with our community.”

She said Churchlands cared about sustainable development, climate action and the environment, integrity in politics and cost of living
pressures.

She would campaign to ban political donations from developers. She has spent much of her life in Doubleview and wanted to preserve the way of life that Churchlands residents had chosen.

“I remember, you know, growing up, climbing trees, always being outside, riding my bike, and I feel very strongly about what future I’m leaving for our children,” she said

That involves much wider issues including climate change, tree canopy and housing affordability.

Ms Thornton has run a small business and now works as work health safety advisor, trainer and counsellor. She said support for science, business, health and education would be a strong focus.

She and her supporters have surveyed community opinion and plan to extend this through town hall meetings, mobile offi ces and door-knocking.

“We’re aiming to represent the community’s wishes over party politics,” she said.

Churchlands has a long history of electing an independent: Dr Liz Constable served as the local member for 17 of the seat’s 28 years of existence.