Mayor Gary Mack - Town of Cambridge

I recently went to the 60th anniversary of the Dental school at the University of Western Australia.
This is a photo of a remarkable man. His name is Dr. Minh Tran.
He was a boy living in South Vietnam during the Vietnam war (which the Vietnamese called the American War). He recalls hearing the US helicopter gunships flying over his village. The machine guns poured out so many bullets that noise from those guns was not a rat-tat-tat sound but a humming sound. He said it was terrifying to hear.
After the north Vietnamese victory, and their occupation of the south, life was terrible for Minh and his family. They escaped from Vietnam on a boat and ended up in a refugee camp in transition to Australia. Ultimately he was accepted to Australia, and became an Australian citizen. Minh seized the opportunities that Australia offered and completed secondary education, then tertiary education. He qualified as a dentist practiced for many years then went on to complete a PhD in material science in particular bio-osseous integration of ceramics in bone. His journey is a remarkable story of the benefits of migration to Australia. His contribution trial community has been immense.
Mihn is not only a colleague, but also a resident of the Town of Cambridge and I intend to ask the librarian at the Town of Cambridge to record Mihn’s life story as part of the oral history section of our library so that his story is never forgotten.
I’m proud to have Mihn as a colleague and a friend.

I was very pleased to recently attend the University of Notre Dame Law and Business Awards in Fremantle.
I was extremely proud to present the Law Society’s Legal Process and Statutory Interpretation Award to a very inspiring young student Alissa Oddy.
Alissa want to practice criminal law and I am as delighted to hear this. There is currently a shortage of criminal lawyers and she will do extremely well when she is qualified.
Interestingly Alissa’s mother is Natalie Oddy who is the principal of Kapinara Primary School. At the end of every year I present a Town Of Cambridge endeavour award to a student at Kapinara.
Perth is a small pace and I estimate there is no more than one degree of separation between anyone in Perth from each other.
It was a delight to meet Alissa, Natalie and her husband on the night. Photos also include a photo taken of the national executive Dean of Business and Law Prof David Carter and the the very talented and hard working lawyer Ms Meneesha Michalka who delivered a very inspiring Occasional Address to the award winners as well as a photo of all the award winners. It was a pleasure to catch up with Menneesha.

This week I attended the AISWA leaders conference at Optus Stadium. Three key speakers spoke about the challenges of leadership in the modern era of education.
Dr. Christine Ferguson spoke about leadership for tomorrow.
Yasmin London talked about AI and chatbot and the opportunities and challenges these pose to teachers students and schools.
Alex Moffett talked about leadership through curiosity and mindset. As well as having expert neurological knowledge, Alex was also a competent magician performer.
Finally, Professor Gordon Flake talked about the current geopolitical order and it impacts on Australia and on the education sector in particular.

At the annual Law Access Walk for Justice fund raising event being part of Law Week celebrations. This year over $160,000 was raised for Law Access to assist with the placement of complex legal matters with pro bono lawyers for those in need. With my good colleagues Helen De Britto and Judy McLean

With Judy McLean Principal Solicitor of the Fremantle Community Legal Centre at their annual law clinic where members of the public receive one hour of free legal advice. This is part of Law Week celebrations.

Today I attended the 2026 Law Week Voice for Justice lunch. During this lunch various speakers including clients from the legal assistance sector who gave their own life experience stories in receiving services from the Community Legal Centres as well as the managers of those centres clearly stating that there is insufficient financial support to meet current Legal assistance demand. I was thrilled to share this space with my daughter Sasha and my work colleagues Lynette Hill and Kim Morrison and Executive team from the Law Society.

Attended the WA Ballet’s performance of Dracula at His Majesty’s Theatre. Beautiful dancing, amazing sets and costumes and most of all wonderful story telling of Irish author Bram Stokers novel. The dancers were accompanied by the highly talented WA Symphony Orchestra. The audience was taken to and brought back from a magical world tonight. Really enjoyable and highly recommended.

Yesterday I attended the Palmerston Association George Davies house opening which is located in Oxford Close West Neville. Since 1980 Palmerston has offered treatment for alcohol and other drug and other drug related challenges that people may suffer from. This New centre offers a wraparound service of psychological counselling, GP services, legal advice, financial counselling, and disability support services as well as having a fully equipped start of the art dental surgery that will service the needs of not just clients of Palmerston but others who are in need.
Is mayor of the town, I am proud to have such a service located within our boundaries. The building was named after George Davies who was one of the founders of Palmerston as well as one of the founders of the Perth Inner City Youth Services. It was a privilege to meet Emma Jarvis, the CEO and Emma Stevens Board Member and local government Councillor for Albany, uncle Charlie who performed welcome to country and Dr Sean Archibald from Healing Smiles.

The RAC Vision 2030 breakfast was conducted at Frazer‘s restaurant this morning. The keynote speaker was Adam Spence, a well-known tech speaker who has a PhD in pure mathematics. The topic was the role of AI and robotics in the modern workplace. Adam noted what is now well known that the apprentice model is breaking. Traditional organisational structures need to be re-thought.

There needs to be a shift in focus from training people to compete with AI to help helping them to augment it to invest in creativity, emotional intelligence, complex decision-making, and complex system thinking.

Tonight I am proud to attend the City of Perth Surf Life Saving Club Annual Award night. With newly inducted life member Brett Wakefield and fellow life member Sonia Reed and her daughter and former Club Captain Cat. Club President Eohgan Mc Kenna