PERTH

The City of Perth incorporates the Perth CBD together with the suburbs of East Perth, West Perth, Northbridge and a part of Crawley. The CBD accommodates a workforce of over 149,475 people. The Gross Regional Product of the City of Perth LGA is $40.2B with a total economic output of $75.1B. Perth is consistently ranked as the seventh most liveable city in the world by The Economist Intelligence Unit’s liveability survey. $13.2B worth of government and private sector investment in landmark projects such as Perth City Link and Yagan Square, Elizabeth Quay, Optus Stadium Perth, Waterbank, the Forrestfield Airport rail link to the Perth CBD and a range of new Hotel and retail projects are redefining the City and driving future growth.

The City of Perth has a residential population of over 27,000 people and covers an area of 26.93 square kilometres. There are 26 parks, which cover 153.5 hectares and 11.25 km of river foreshore. Key community facilities include a child care centre, rest centre, library, town hall, two concert halls and two senior citizen/community centres.

The City of Perth employs 742 employees and has an annual revenue budget of $205.9 million. There are nine elected members and the City has 15,395 electors.

The City of Perth is one of 30 local authorities in the Perth metropolitan region. Twenty of these local authorities are classified as cities, seven as towns and three as shires. The state’s population is 2.58 million, with 78% (2.02 million) residing in the Perth metropolitan region.

Lord Mayor Profile

BASIL ZEMPILAS

Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas

Basil Zempilas was elected Lord Mayor of the City of Perth in October 2020, the 18^th Lord Mayor of Perth and the first following a three year period without elected leadership.

This is the Lord Mayor’s first foray into Local Government and comes after a successful and ongoing broadcasting career in television and radio and as a newspaper columnist with The West Australian.

Basil began his television career at Channel 7 in Perth in 1994 and since 2001 has been the station’s Senior Sports Presenter, a role he continues in today. He also hosts the Triple M Breakfast show on Perth radio.

Basil has been a host and commentator at eight Olympics Games for the Seven Network, most recently calling the swimming at the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 games. In 2002 he famously called Stephen Bradbury’s historic gold medal win, Australia’s first in winter Olympic competition.

For over 10 years he was a commentator and host of Seven’s Australia Open tennis coverage and for five years he was Master of Ceremonies at the Melbourne Cup Carnival. Between 2012-2019 Zempilas was a host and commentator on the Seven Network’s AFL coverage.

Away from sport, Zempilas spent two years commuting from Perth to Sydney from 2018 to co-host Seven’s Weekend Sunrise and in 2019 he anchored and moderated the first Leader’s Debate between Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten.

Since 2010 Basil has been host of Seven Perth’s world renowned 26-hour live television charity fundraiser, Telethon. Since its inception, Telethon has raised almost $400 million for sick children and medical research and in 2020 raised a record $46.3 million dollars.

This year in his role as Lord Mayor, Basil was twice asked to activate the Lord Mayor’s Distress Relief Fund, first for the Wooroloo and Hills bushfire and then for the victims of Tropical Cyclone Seroja. The two appeals raised almost $25 million.

Basil is Perth born and bred, a huge contributor to the community and fiercely proud of his Greek heritage, His family hails from the tiny island of Kastellorizo, Greece which has had official Sister City status with the City of Perth since 1984.

Basil was educated at Hale School and gained a Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Graduate Diploma of Journalism from Murdoch University. In 2019 he was honoured with a Distinguished Alumni Award. Basil has been married to Amy since 2009, they have two daughters, Ava and Chloe and a son, Anthony.