The newly elected Member for Cottesloe, Sandra Brewer claims her campaign funding was “community driven, funded through local support” ("Campaign funding 'was community-driven'" Post Newspaper 12 Jul 2025). Ms Brewer, a former WA Executive Director of the Property Council of Australia, further claims this community funding was in contrast to the funding I received as the Community Independent Candidate for the Cottesloe Electorate.
Ms Brewer is correct when she says transparency and integrity should be at the heart of political funding.
This is why Cottesloe Independent and I made the decision to ‘walk the talk’ on transparency by voluntarily disclosing every donation on my website in real-time.
Integrity meant not accepting any donations from property developers. We need to break the link between donations by property developers and any suggestion of political favours. Let’s follow the lead of NSW, Queensland and the ACT and ban property developer donations!
Ultimately, it is about prioritising community interests and not property developer profits. This is the issue at play in the Cottesloe Station Street Towers where an extraordinary 91% of the 764 public submissions opposed the project, most of them in its entirety, with 20% supporting it subject to the state-mandated maximum 10-storeys.
With transparency and community interests in mind, I have two questions for Sandra Brewer:
1. Will our elected member join me in voluntarily disclosing who her donors were? Which, if any, donors are property developers?
2. Will our elected member break her public silence on the Station Street Towers? Does she support community concerns over the height and shadowing effect of the Towers or does she stand alongside the property developers?
Cottesloe Independent