Author: Stephen Taylor

FAMILY violence figures have been collated and publicly released for the first time as part of a push to bring domestic assaults out from behind closed doors. The Victorian Family Violence Database released last week by the Crime Statistics Agency shows a rise in the number of cases every year from July 2011 until June 2016. Described by the state government as “lifting the lid on the hidden scourge of family violence”, the database includes figures from Victoria Police, magistrates’ and children’s courts, the departments of Health, Human Services and Justice and Regulation, and Victoria Legal Aid.  The figures show…

VOLUNTEER groups which play a huge role in rescuing those in distress on Port Phillip and Western Port bays are “bewildered” at being overlooked in last month’s state budget. The 26 marine search-and-rescue units in Victoria, include the Victorian flotillas of the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard, Volunteer Marine Rescue Victoria and Southern Peninsula Rescue Squad. They say they are the only emergency service providers not to receive regular government funding and are unable to work to a budget. A Coast Guard vessel is based at Safety Beach, the VMR at Mornington and the Southern Peninsula Rescue Squad at Blairgowrie. Their…

SECONDARY schools in Mordialloc, Parkdale, Keysborough, Patterson River and Mentone are set to be shortchanged by millions of dollars in federal funding over the next two years, according to figures released by the Victorian Department of Education. The schools are among 70 statewide slated to each receive up to $1.1 million less in the short term than would have been the case under Better Schools funding, also known as the Gonski agreement, since businessman David Gonski reviewed schools’ funding for both the previous Labor and current Coalition federal governments. A “Gonski 2.0” funding agreement officially announced in last Tuesday’s federal…

SECONDARY schools in Frankston and on the Mornington Peninsula are set to be shortchanged by millions of dollars in federal funding over the next two years, according to figures released by the Victorian Department of Education. The schools are among 70 statewide slated to receive up to $1.1 million less in the short term than would have been the case under Better Schools funding, also known as the Gonski agreement since businessman David Gonski reviewed schools funding for both the previous Labor and current Coalition federal governments. A “Gonski 2.0” funding agreement officially announced in last Tuesday’s federal budget by…

A SPECIALIST family violence court to be established in Moorabbin is among a raft of state budget measures aimed at providing support to victims in Kingston. The new court funding was included in a $1.9 billion package to tackle family violence across the state. Other similar courts will be established in Frankston, Ballarat, Shepparton and Heidelberg at a cost of $130 million over five years. The courts “will give vulnerable people access to safer courts and more targeted family violence support services,” Labor MP Nick Staikos, whose Bentleigh electorate includes Moorabbin, said. “This funding will enable the Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court…