THE spotlight has turned to pokies as part of the planned $29 million redevelopment project which will see the St Kilda Football Club return to Moorabbin. Anti-pokies campaigner Paul Bendat says the Saints should bin the gaming machines at the Linton St venue since taxpayers and ratepayers are pitching in $13 million to the redevelopment of Moorabbin Reserve. Kingston Council is contributing $5 million and the state government will kick in $8 million. “Children and pokie machine gambling should not mix,” Mr Bendat said. “This is a community facility with kids’ playgrounds and netball courts designed to attract junior footy…
Author: Neil Walker
AN apparent lack of transparency at the highest levels of Frankston Council has seen an attempt to curb councillors’ freedom of speech flounder amid dubious claims of “incorrect information” supplied to the media. Councillors agreed last month to defer a debate about a proposed amended council media policy which would have forced councillors to advise the mayor Cr Sandra Mayer “of any comments that they have made or are intending to make to the media”. Councillors are elected representatives, not employees of council, and should be able to express opinions without being gagged by council. A council officer’s report claimed…
THIS year’s federal budget has been dubbed “the small business budget” and Dunkley Liberal MP Bruce Billson has been right in the thick of it, as you’d expect from the Small Business Minister. The minister said it had been an honour to help craft a “significant small business and jobs package” for the budget. “For us in our community small business is the economy,” he said. “It’s the largest small business package that the nation’s seen. It’s something I’ve been working on and advocating for for some time and has been the key focus of my work for many years.”…
WHILE Australians pay their respects to the World War I fallen during this year’s Anzac centenary the war against terrorism continues in foreign fields and deserts. Aaron Healy is one of those who served and the Chelsea resident’s journal detailing his experiences during 112 days deployed in Afghanistan in 2011 have been accepted in to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. The former Trooper’s journal, written using a laptop, vividly chronicles the battles, danger and – at times – boredom that is a soldier’s lot during wartime. The journal was the first of two from the Afghanistan campaign – alongside…
FORMER residents of Mentone Gardens will receive compensation after the Victorian Ombudsman released a scathing report slamming the Department of Health for failing to adequately monitor the Mentone aged care home. Mentone Gardens went into voluntary administration two years ago with more than $4 million in bonds and deposits unaccounted for (‘Bonds lost as home goes bust’, The News 25/9/13). The department has agreed to make ex-gratia payments to former Mentone Gardens residents at taxpayers’ expense after an Ombudsman investigation finalised last month uncovered “a litany of failings by the department over an extended period of time”. Ombudsman Deborah Glass…