THE state government has announced a $77.5 million package to provide support to children in foster or kinship care. Carrum Downs woman Tay, now 21-years-old, lived in kinship care. She said that children in care who turn 18 during the COVID-19 pandemic may find themselves in a difficult situation, and need the extra support. “I found it hard to get the support I needed,” she said about her own experiences of growing up in kinship care. “Mum had passed away already and Nan was doing her best to bring me up, but there was a lot of struggle. I did…
Author: Brodie Cowburn
KINGSTON Council is expected to be one of eight councils to move to a single member ward structure at the 2020 local government elections. The Local Government Act 2020 was passed into law late last month. The act mandated the change to single member wards for a number of local councils, including Kingston, which will move to that structure at the October election. Kingston Council currently consists of nine councillors spread across three wards. The change will see individual councillors represent smaller wards. The state government’s move to enforce single member wards defies a recommendation made by the Victorian Electoral…
THE Australian Transport Safety Bureau has been unable to find a reason for a reported engine failure that caused a fatal plane crash in Mordialloc in 2018. The ATSB released their final report into the crash on 24 April. The report read that “the ATSB examined the aircraft’s engine, its components and fuel system, but was unable to determine the reason for the reported engine power loss.” The fatal crash occurred on 8 June, 2018. The pilot and sole occupant of the Cessna 172 aircraft transmitted a mayday call, telling Moorabbin Air Traffic Control “we’ve got engine failure”. The plane…
POLICE are performing more frequent checks on people they say are “a high risk of being the victim of further family violence offending” during the coronavirus pandemic. Operation Ribbon will see detectives from family violence investigation units ramp up checks to homes to help reduce “the anticipated increase of family violence incidents during this time and beyond,” a police statement read. As part of the operation, compliance checks will be carried out on perpetrators. Victoria Police announced on 21 April that they had conducted 347 checks statewide, including 106 compliance checks on “high-risk perpetrators”. 44 family violence offences were detected…
KINGSTON Council has endorsed concept plans for their “chain of parks” project. The Chain of Parks project will see a number of sites formerly used as landfill converted into parks. Those public parks would be linked. At their most recent meeting, councillors agreed that the concept plans showing how the sites will be linked should be incorporated into their Green Wedge Management Plan. The project is still subject to future site purchases. The report provided to Kingston councillors read that “the delivery of the Chain of Parks trail is subject to a range of factors including rehabilitation of landfill sites…