Disgraced Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi has been disqualified from office for 18 months after failing to disclose dozens of accommodation and travel gifts, including a $36,000 luxury package to the Beijing Olympics.
The State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) came to the decision in Perth on Monday, which will come into effect on September 7.
Despite not appearing at the decision, Ms Scaffidi’s lawyer confirmed they would immediately submit an appeal, WA Today reported.
Disgraced Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi has been disqualified from office for 18 months after failing to disclose dozens of accommodation and travel gifts
The State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) came to the decision in Perth on Monday, which will come into effect on September 7. Ms Scaffidi’s lawyer confirmed she will appeal the decision
In May the tribunal found Ms Scaffidi had breached the Local Government Act 45 times during 33 trips between January 2008 and October 2015.
Yet of the 45 breaches, she has only admitted to five – one which was a $36,000 luxury package to the 2008 Beijing Olympics funded by mining company BHP Billiton.
The 57-year-old also revealed she failed to declare a trip to Margaret River and a Hawaiian Investments-funded visit to Broome Cup in 2008.
For the other 40 alleged breaches, Ms Scaffidi was defiant that she was oblivious to contributions from third parties for her trips and didn’t realise she needed to declare them.
Action was brought against her after she made omissions in her 2008-09 annual return, which were deemed serious misconduct by the Corruption and Crime Commission in 2015.
Under the act, Ms Scaffidi should have disclosed any gifts worth $200 or greater.
The penalty was initially due be given in June, but Ms Scaffidi appealed findings that she repeatedly failed to disclose gifts and travel before the SAT could announce the penalty.
She had admitted to not being ‘very careful’ when filing her annual expenses report, while also claiming to being ‘too busy’ to read emails that confirmed her trips were funded by a third party.
In May the tribunal found Ms Scaffidi breached the Local Government Act 45 times during 33 trips between January 2008 and October 2015, including a $36,000 trip to the 2008 Olympics
But in one email, she managed to find time to respond to one of her staff organising accommodation saying: ‘Hope five star – let them know, I don’t stay in trash’.
Ms Scaffidi had previously resisted repeated calls for her to step down, including from Premier Mark McGowan, who vowed during his election campaign to sack the entire council if the Local Government Act allowed it, saying his party had a dim view of its propriety.
Mr McGowan later acknowledged not everyone on the council deserved to be punished, but wrote to Ms Scaffidi in April asking her to consider the best interests of the City of Perth and make an honourable decision and resign.
She remained characteristically defiant, telling reporters it was a ‘desperate political move’.
Ms Scaffidi was taken off the Local Government Standards Panel in 2015 over the scandal.