In an obscene attack on his own “lazy and slow-moving” council, a Perth councillor behind a cult-favorite barbecue empire has urged fellow restaurant owners to open their doors elsewhere.
Donovan MacDonald, a City of Bayswater councillor and proprietor of Big Don Smoked Meats, made the startling accusations after the council was found to be in grave violation of a damning external assessment on food inspections across the city’s 535 food enterprises.
He eventually took his frustrations to the ballot box and ran for council after several run-ins with the City over planning clearances for a permanent Bayswater warehouse, including an odd standoff over temporary restrooms in 2025.
His most recent complaint against his own council relates to a $15,400 investigation that found the City was seriously violating food business compliance regulations.
Inspectors had recorded the breaches as compliant on a document deemed “woefully inadequate,” according to the 20-page report.
Avoid opening a food company in the City of Bayswater. In the video, Cr. MacDonald stated, “Look for a better city to open your restaurant in.”
Unfortunately, local government is just as inefficient, indolent, and sluggish as you presumably imagine.And this comes from an insider. Nothing at all is accomplished.Nobody is accomplishing anything. That is simply the government’s struggle.
Former Woolworths manager Cr. MacDonald claimed he had pushed for an additional report describing recommendations and fixing the problems, but it was shelved.
Big Don Smoked Meats is owned by the Perth council member (shown).
Cr. MacDonald’s remarks, according to Bayswater Mayor Filomena Piffaretti (pictured), are harmful. “That means on the improvement committee, I was unable to help improve a document that 535 small businesses live and die by multiple times a year,” he added.
“It’s not precisely what I promised to do when I ran for office.”
The report will be discussed at the next council meeting, according to Cr. MacDonald.
“I have 3.5 years left in this term and I’m going to be the most transparent person you have ever seen,” he declared. “I’m going to run it up the flagpole and make people vote against it and hold the city accountable.” “I will probably be told that this video has brought the city into disrepute, of which the policy says, a wrist slap you’re in trouble.”
Filomena Piffaretti, the mayor of Bayswater, claimed that Cr. MacDonald’s remarks had damaged the hard work of the city’s committed employees.
“Cr. MacDonald needs to collaborate if his goal as a newly elected City of Bayswater council member is to support local food businesses,” she stated.
The shocking charges were made in a social media video by Donovan MacDonald, a City of Bayswater council member and owner of Big Don Smoked Meats (shown).
Before developing a worldwide cult following through pop-ups in bowling clubs and liquor shop parking lots, Cr. MacDonald began smoking meat in his backyard (his restaurant is featured).The administrative compliance problems that Cr. MacDonald mentions were found during a standard internal audit. The city is putting the suggested changes into practice. “In my experience, the best way to drive improvements is for council and the administration to work together.”
In a follow-up video, Cr. Macdonald stated that he was in favour of reducing the number of local councils, pointing out that there are 139 in Western Australia as opposed to roughly 70 in New South Wales.
According to him, LGAs jointly spend between $5 billion and $6 billion annually on council staff and roughly $250 million on the wages of mayors, directors, CEOs, and council members.
Residents around the country were cautioned by Cr. MacDonald to prepare for skyrocketing municipal rates.
“It will be bad no matter which city you live in,” he declared. “No matter what city you live in, your rates are going to blow you away this year due to inflation.”
