Author: Stephen Taylor

THE Road Safety Camera Commissioner has backed the performance of the Peninsula Link speed cameras and reproached motorists contesting their fines. The commissioner, John Voyage, was asked to investigate the cameras by Police Minister Lisa Neville after “public disquiet about the system” – most noticeably by members of the 108 group who claimed they had “set their vehicle’s cruise controls and so the detected speed reading was in error”. Mr Voyage stated in his report that he was “unable to find any error in any of the aspects of the road safety camera systems along Peninsula Link”. His investigation covered…

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A MARCH to “take back the night” attended by up to 150 people last Saturday (29 April) was aimed at letting a distressed Seaford woman that “she is not alone”. “We can’t change her life but I feel we helped her life,” Seaford Night March organiser Emmaline Jones said, referring to a 19-year-old attacked and sexually assaulted as she walked home from Seaford station, 3.10am, Saturday 1 April. The march started at the station and continued along Railway Parade to mirror the route the woman took before being attacked near Seaford North Reserve. Ms Jones, speaking alongside the march’s co-organiser…

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A SPECIALIST family violence court to be established in Frankston is among a raft of state budget measures that MP Paul Edbrooke says “commit more to the prevention of family violence than the whole nation put together”. The new court – expected to be at the magistrates’ court in Fletcher Rd – was included in a $1.9 billion package to tackle family violence across the state. Other similar courts will be established at Ballarat, Shepparton, Moorabbin and Heidelberg magistrates’ courts at a cost of $90 million over five years. “There’s no sugar coating the fact that we are confronted with…

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AN elderly woman’s car crashed through the front window of the My Spice Thai Takeaway at the Gateway Shopping Centre, Frankston-Cranbourne Rd, Langwarrin, Sunday 23 April. Her Toyota Corolla mounted the footpath hitting another car and ending up inside the shop – the second time this type of incident has occurred at the shop in the past five years. Business owner Jenny Giuffre said up to $20,000 damage was caused when the woman, 75, made her unexpected entry at 4pm. “She told police she hit the accelerator instead of the brake,” she said. “Now, all the front of the shop…

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A reversal of “devastating cuts” to funding for community legal centres has been welcomed by federal Isaacs Labor MP Mark Dreyfus. Planned federal government funding cuts that had been planned to take effect on 1 July but federal Liberal Attorney-General George Brandis announced last week the government will provide an extra $55.7 million over the next three years to the legal services sector as part of the 2017-18 budget. About $39 million of that money will go to community legal centres and $16.7 million to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services. The National Association of Community Legal Centres also…

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