Cook denies labelling Stoneville residents NIMBYs

Sensitive Content Alert: Bushfire Trauma Mentioned

Dear Premier Cook...

On October 20 Save Perth Hills sent you a significant and, in part, confidential letter regarding lasting bushfire trauma affecting our Community.

We continue to await your reply...

Our letter was prompted by your reported comments, at an October 15 Property Council event, alluding to some residents in bushfire prone regions being NIMBYs.

You didn’t mention ‘North Stoneville’, but land developer Nigel $atterley was in your audience, and his appeal, against 34 years’ opposition against proposed North $toneville, was underway in WA’s Tribunal.

Three times now, WA’s Planning Commission has formally rejected North $toneville, citing - ‘bushfire risks’ - confirming opposition to the plan is embedded in legitimate Community safety concerns - not anti-development sentiment.

Indeed, five years ago, Save Perth Hills, and the Shire of Mundaring, proposed a constructive alternative: Rezone North $toneville to Rural Residential. Our applications remain on the WAPC table.

We acknowledge you may not have intended to cause our Community distress, especially as we’ve now entered a high-risk bushfire season. But your reported comments came as five local residents courageously faced the $atterley Tribunal hearing, on behalf of Save Perth Hills, to share their tragic and life-altering bushfire trauma.

Instead of suggesting people living in a vulnerable environment are ‘NIMBYs,’ perhaps it would be helpful to encourage $atterley, and the North $toneville landowner, Perth's Anglican Church, to re-consider their 7-year-long resistance to a Rural Residential estate, which would achieve environmental respect and safer outcomes for our increasingly volatile Perth Hills... and especially, for our bushfire prone Community.

Again, we respectfully seek a meeting with you to discuss our important letter in detail.

And, we continue to await your reply...

Cook denies labelling Stoneville residents NIMBYs

By Hamish Hastie 15 Oct 2025

Premier Roger Cook has denied that a comment he made about residents in bush suburbs in a tirade against NIMBYism at a Property Council event this morning was a veiled reference to the North Stoneville controversy.

In delivering his welcoming address to property luminaries, including North Stoneville developer Nigel Satterley, Cook lamented NIMBY opposition to development in the state.

“To achieve more housing, it requires challenging the status quo, and for so long, planning systems have favoured the status quo, prioritising existing residents,” he said.

“Challenging that status quo has naturally created debate, and if you don’t mind, I’ll put out a few of the more bizarre contributions to that debate that we have to endure.”

He then referenced a council fighting a children’s hospice in reference to the Nedlands council; a council writing to his government urging for more housing while sending the state letters about “COVID conspiracies” in reference to the Port Hedland council; and a Green MP who “purports to love public transport and housing, yet opposes electric ferries on the Swan River and claims that they will cause dolphins to go dead” in reference to Greens leader Brad Pettitt.

He then lamented “residents living in homes with gum trees brushing against their gutters opposing developments citing bushfires”.

When WAtoday asked the Premier whether he was referring to the North Stoneville opposition Cook said he was “characterising some of the arguments out there at the moment.”

“Every development obviously has to stand on its merits. But what we don’t want is a situation where people are unnecessarily opposing developments,” he said.