MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire mayor Cr Bryan Payne wants the public to be able to see a register of gifts made to council officers. “I personally agree that the gift register should be available for public inquiry and I will raise that matter with my fellow councillors,” Cr Payne said last week. The move for greater transparency around gifts to council officers follows revelations that shire CEO Carl Cowie in July 2016 was a guest aboard a cruise ship hired by prominent businessman and Portsea property owner, Lindsay Fox (“Shire boss on Fox ‘party’ cruise”, The Times 11/12/17). Mr Cowie says…
Author: Keith Platt
ALTHOUGH it was 50 years ago, many Australians can recall where they were when they heard that Australia had “lost” its 17th prime minister, Harold Holt. The news reverberated around the world, not necessarily because Mr Holt was known as a world leader, but because of the circumstances of his death: disappearing into the surf off a secluded beach within the restricted confines of the Portsea Officer Cadet School, at Point Nepean. Although his body was never found, the prime minister was presumed drowned and to most people it is memories of a leader who went missing rather than his…
A GROUP of south east Melbourne councils, including Kingston Council, wants family violence and “alcohol-related harm” taken into account when considering applications for new liquor stores. Members of the South-East Melbourne Council Group – Mornington Peninsula, Frankston, Kingston, Casey, Cardinia, Greater Dandenong – have been joined by Maroondah and Knox in seeking the necessary changes to the Planning and Environment Act 1987. The councils are lobbying Victorian Planning Minister Richard Wynne under the South-East Melbourne Council Group umbrella for increased planning powers to control “packaged liquor outlets”. If their efforts are supported, liquor shops will have to provide social impact…
MORNINGTON Peninsula and Frankston councils want to be able to take family violence and “alcohol-related harm” into account when considering applications for new liquor stores. The two neighbouring municipalities have joined seven others in lobbying the Planning Minister Richard Wynne for increased planning powers to control “packaged liquor outlets”. If their efforts are supported, liquor shops will have to provide social impact statements along with their planning applications. Under current planning laws “potential harm” caused by the proliferation of liquor outlets does not present a strong enough reason to refuse a permit. The councils want the planning rules changed so…
A RELIGIOUS leader of a Muslim community based in Langwarrin has accused other leaders of having “failed their people”. “Muslim scholars have failed their followers, hijacking a religion which literally means peace and leading masses astray for personal interests, pursuit of power and domination,” Imam Wadood Janud told a peace symposium at the Baitul Salam Mosque, Langwarrin. Imam Janud, leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Victoria and Tasmania, made his accusations while delivering the keynote address at the ‘World Crisis and the Pathway to Peace’ symposium which focused on the rise of extremism and nationalism. The Sunday 3 December symposium…