PREMIER Mark McGowan renewed his call for Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi to stand down “for the sake of the people of Perth”.

“I think this soap opera has gone on for long enough, the law is difficult for us to deal with her,” the Premier said after Ms Scaffidi was today disqualified from serving on council for 18 months in a ruling by the State Administrative Tribunal.

Mr McGowan went to the last state election pledging to sack the council and in April this year urged her to stand aside.

Camera Icon Premier Mark McGowan says the " soap opera" has gone on long enough. Credit: PerthNow, File.

After being found guilty of 45 serious breaches of WA’s Local Government Act earlier this year for failing to properly disclose trips to the 2008 Olympics paid for by BHP, and a trip to the Broome Cup paid for by property group Hawaiian amongst dozens of others, Ms Scaffidi finally learned her fate this morning.

The disqualification will begin at midnight on September 7.

The penalty is believed to be one of the harshest ever handed to a serving councillor in Australia, eclipsing the original four-month suspension handed to controversial NSW councillor Salim Mehajer last year, which was overturned on appeal.

Ms Scaffid's lawyer Steven Penglis immediately said he had instructions to apply to have the penalty stayed - or put on pause -until they could appear before the WA Court of Appeal.

He said that application would be lodged within 24 hours, and hoped for an urgent hearing before the penalty was due to begin on Thursday.

Play Video Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi has been disqualified from office for 18 months over the travel and gift scandal. Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi has been disqualified from office for 18 months over the travel and gift scandal.

In a statement posted on Twitter this afternoon, Ms Scaffidi said she had accepted her conduct was careless but the order made today was "unduly severe".

“I will continue to fight for what I consider to be a fair and just outcome in this matter, both for myself and for those who elected me,” she said in a statement.

“In particular, I will not give in to those who wrongly seek to make this a political issue.”

Ms Scaffidi was found guilty of dozens of breaches for failing to disclose gifts and travel, and also failing to disclose third-party contributions to travel from corporations and governments, following a two-day SAT hearing earlier this year.

At that hearing, the Lord Mayor admitted to some of the breaches – including the Olympic trip and the trip to Broome.

But she denied many others, claiming she either didn’t know she was supposed to declare the flights and accommodation, or was unaware the City of Perth had sought reimbursement for the cost of trips to Beijing, Houston, Sydney, the Gold Coast, Seoul, Japan, Spain and New York.

In the 77-page SAT judgment, Justice Jeremy Curthoys said that the panel had come to the conclusion that they had “no option” but to disqualify the Lord Mayor, partly for a perceived lack of insight.

“Compliance with her obligations under the LG Act was simply, and worryingly, not a priority for her ­- she was too busy with matters she regarded as more important,” the judgment said.

“It is astonishing that Ms Scaffidi should be so careless as to overlook the Beijing Olympics trip when she had recognised it as a 'gift'.”

The judgment also pointed said Ms Scaffidi had acted with “gross carelessness”, and described her apologies as “empty words”.

Ms Scaffidi has maintained she did not think she had to declare travel linked to her role as a member of the Australian Press Council because it was work related.

During questioning, state lawyer David Leigh quizzed the Lord Mayor on the non-disclosure of the US $24,000 Olympic trip – saying the value was three times more than all the combined value of all the other gifts declared by Ms Scaffidi in all her other years as Lord Mayor.

“(The value) is so extraordinary that if you had given a microsecond of thought about it (when filling out the annual return), it would have hit you like a thunderclap,” Mr Leigh said.

It was also argued that for some trips the Lord Mayor clearly knew third parties were paying - and was at times actively involved in negotiations around travel arrangements.

In one email, Ms Scaffidi wrote: "Hope hotel five star - let them know I don't stay in trash."

Ms Scaffidi’s lawyer Stephen Penglis had called for any suspension from office not to be immediate, saying the breaches were careless, not corrupt or surreptitious.

He told the SAT Ms Scaffidi had shown “remorse and contrition” over her omissions and had “taken positive steps to avoid repetition of such matters”.

He also said the publicity which had followed the scandal had been “quite unfair and hurtful”.

By contrast, lawyers for the state said Ms Scaffidi had consistently blame-shifted for her breaches, and as she represented the "top of the tree" of local government a message needed to be sent.

"The bottom line is ... it is not appropriate for her to continue a leadership role given her shortcomings," state lawyer Carolyn Thatcher said.

Local Government Minister David Templeman said the penalty handed by the SAT was significant but it reflected Ms Scaffidi’s “serious” breaches of the Local Government Act.

Mr Templeman lamented the time it had taken for the matter to reach a determination and said Ms Scaffidi should have taken the “honourable decision” to stand down much earlier.

Despite the SAT’s decision, Mr Templeman vowed to push ahead with the Government’s proposed legislative changes that would give the Minister the power to remove an individual councillor in extenuating circumstances.

“What I’m focused on is making sure the City of Perth residents, ratepayers and businesses now can rebuild confidence in their city,” Mr Templeman said this morning.

“It’s unfortunate, what’s occurred for a period of over two years.

“I feel that this, of course, could have been dealt with earlier had there been an honourable decision made earlier.

“That wasn’t the case.

“But we have a serious determination which I think now says to the people of Perth… that that local government must now get on with establishing confidence and ensuring they can get on with their important work.”