Plan to breathe life into Perth CBD with free parking, transport and workers returning to city offices

The McGowan Government, City of Perth and city employers have been urged to act to save the Perth CBD, which has been likened to a “ghost town” with many employees still working from home. Current affairs show Flashpoint, airing tonight on Channel 7, will reveal some businesses still have as much as 85 per cent of staff working remotely despite no known community transmission of the virus in WA for more than six months. Ian Campbell, group executive of construction and property giant Brookfield, said it was time to “just take some big decisions to confront what’s stopping people coming back into the city”. “Let’s make public transport into Perth free right through to, say, Australia Day,” he told the Flashpoint panel. “Let’s make parking free. Get the City of Perth to suspend parking fees until Australia Day. Then if we need more parking spaces, let’s throw open spaces like Langley Park. “We need to tell Eastern States bosses, please get your people to come back into the office in Perth. It’s a beautiful city. It’s very, very safe ... Don’t destroy our city while you’re sitting in an office in Sydney and Melbourne. It’s crazy.” Property Council WA chief executive Sandra Brewer said the office occupancy or use of space that is leased in the Perth CBD was at 63 per cent. “I would say some businesses are at 80 or 90 per cent, but then there are some others that are well below 20,” she said. Ms Brewer said she expected occupancy to keep growing and leasing agents and commercial property owners were not yet too concerned office-working would not bounce back. Bradley Woods, chief executive of the Australian Hotels Association WA, said there had been a big transformation and investment in restaurants, bars and pubs in the city since it was called “Dullsville” 10 years ago. “I think if we’re talking about networking, business deals, creating relationships, interconnection, it’s so important to have that and the city is the primary hub for that,” he said. Elisa Colak, Ernst and Young Oceania talent director, said about 400 staff had returned to the Perth office since it reopened in July but 85 per cent of them were still working remotely. “The city will always attract our people back in,” she said. “I’m not sure we’ll see the numbers in the office we had pre-COVID.” Sam Fazio, from Jon’s Shoe Repairs in Trinity Arcade, estimated there had been a 50 per cent fall in the number of people through the arcade. “We have got to do something about the city ...because it’s like a ghost town,” he said.