Letters To The Editor - May 31, 2018

Bellarine population boom has a downside

Dear Editor,

On the face of it, the huge surge in houses being built down here and the consequent hike in prices look to be a great thing. But it is actually one of the worst things that can happen at this time.

Because all that is being built are houses. Not businesses with permanent jobs for the community. There is no infrastructure to support this booming population! Jobs (if any) are in Geelong, which means a long time-consuming commute for anyone here, on ever-increasingly congested roads.

Even worse, it means more and more people looking for work from local businesses to alleviate their mortgage stress. And don’t get me started on the rental stress down here. Now add in the incredibly stupid amount of holiday homes here, and you can understand why local businesses are not increasing but struggling to survive. We are just not ready!

If we intend to continue with the housing boom then we need to build the businesses first. I for one do not like large store complexes, but we need them, or something like to support us now.

Do I have an invested reason here? I certainly do! Not as a business owner but as an over 55, single, low income lady struggling with rent and increasingly sinking into the poverty trap, as many permanent residents here are. Because, like them, I am desperate to find a part time morning job which enables me to actually have some standard of living. And there just aren’t any!

Di Roberts
Portarlington

Community artworks flourish on the Surf Coast

Dear Editor,

What great news within David Bell’s Mayor’s Column (May 24) that Surf Coast Shire is regarded as one of the top five creative hotspots in regional Australia. The Regional Australia Institute report proves we are a great place to live and visit!

No doubt in my mind that we rank so high with so many contributing young secondary college to elder-aged artists with the strong support of Surf Coast Shire and so community-minded financial contributors such as Torquay Community Enterprise, Anglesea & District Community Bank, Intrapac Property (developer of The Quay and Quay 2), other community organisations and anonymous donors. You truly can see our community artworks flourishing throughout the Shire.

I expect many more artworks to come, and thank you to the many creative individuals, and community minded organisations and donors within our creative shire. Keep up the great work!

John De Witt
Torquay

Supporters keep pushing to keep bike park

Dear Editor,

As reported in the Surf Coast Times (“Gear up”, May 24), the Surf Coast Shire has decided to support the retention of Anglesea Bike Park at its current site. On behalf of the Bike Park Committee of Management, I would like to express our thanks to councillors and council officers for the decision and background work leading up to it. We see the decision as an important step in the right direction and a demonstration of Council’s responsiveness to community preferences and values.

As many readers would know, Alcoa and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning propose residential and tourist accommodation across approximately 13 hectares of Alcoa owned land, north of the current town boundary. Under the plans, the Bike Park will be bulldozed.

As owner of the land, Alcoa will decide the future of the existing Bike Park. Council’s decision does not prevent Alcoa clearing the site when the Bike Park lease runs out at the end of June, should they decide to.

We thank Alcoa for accommodating the bike park, rent-free, for almost 12 years. We urge Alcoa to work with Council to retain the bike park, in line with Council’s resolutions. We point out particularly, the opportunity to retain the Bike Park and develop some of the land, should development be supported by the wider community and local and state government planning processes (the proposed land uses are not permitted under current zoning).

We invite all comers to visit the Bike Park this Sunday, June 3, from 2pm, to support this unique community facility and celebrate World Bicycle Day.

Mike Bodsworth
Chair, Anglesea Bike Park Committee of Management

Alcoa should donate Anglesea bike park land

Dear Editor,

The Surf Coast Shire’s decision to back the retention of the Anglesea bike park is welcome, but it’s very unsatisfactory Alcoa and DELWP appear determined to see the facility bulldozed for housing.

Alcoa has received many billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies and it polluted Anglesea for 45 years. In these circumstances, it is poor form that the company is being intransigent about a mere 1 hectare of land that isn’t even zoned for housing!

Plainly the right thing to do would be for Alcoa to donate the bike park land to the community as a small gesture of good will. If it is too mean to do that, then the shire should not be offering to pay anything more than fair value for the land as currently zoned.

DELWP is a Victorian state government department, but bizarrely it appears to be acting as an enabler for Alcoa’s rezoning wish list. It has now been sitting on the community feedback on its controversial “Anglesea Futures” Draft Plan since March, which should concern all Anglesea community members. What exactly is DELWP hiding? Why hasn’t the Andrews government intervened? Is there actually a done deal, meaning that the “community consultation” was a charade?

Andrew Laird
Anglesea

Use National Reconciliation Week to learn

Dear Editor,

National Reconciliation Week runs from May 27 to June 3. Each year, Reconciliation highlights the issues facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in a broader Australian culture.

This year’s theme of “Don’t Keep History a Mystery: Learn. Share. Grow” encourages us to learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and share that knowledge with others, my organisation Youth Off The Streets is dedicated to learning and teaching about these cultures.

Teaching our young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people about their culture and history is so important for building connections to their communities and families. At Youth Off The Streets we have an entire team dedicated to empowering and teaching young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people about their culture through dance programs, cultural camps, art lessons and many more tailored services.

I want to echo this year’s theme of teaching, but with an emphasis on teaching Australian people as a whole, not just Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Through all of our services at Youth Off The Streets we encourage our young people to attend cultural events, participate in programs and learn about the world’s oldest culture and they take immense value from this.

I also encourage my staff to continuously learn about our country’s cultural history and to be culturally aware. As part of our dedication to reconciliation, we have created a Reconciliation Action Plan to ensure all our staff are culturally aware and formally trained in cultural competencies and will actively embrace the principals and practices of reconciliation.

Join your local community in any local events. This Reconciliation Week, Don’t Keep History a Mystery: Learn. Share. Grow.

Father Chris Riley
CEO and founder, Youth Off The Streets

If you need help with mental health, reach out

Dear Editor,

I am writing from the not-for-profit organisation the Mental Illness Fellowship of Australia.

In particular, I’m wanting readers to be aware that far too many people who have a serious mental illness are not getting treatment… and we need to get that to change.

It’s estimated less than 50 per cent of Australians who have a serious mental illness get treatment. Obviously, this is alarming.

The Mental Illness Fellowship of Australia urges people who may have mental health issues to reach out and get the help they need. There is significant support out there from GPs, clinical specialists, and most importantly, community mental health services.

We have a free phone number people can call from anywhere in Australia to get guidance and just call 1800 985 944 if you need some advice on where best to go. Readers can also go to MiNetworks.org.au.

Our latest campaign highlights that 230,000 people in Australia are estimated to have schizophrenia. When you include families helping these people, around one million people are impacted.

It is utterly shameful that the average life expectancy of someone with schizophrenia in this country is now just 54 years old. We have to do so much more to support people with schizophrenia. People with schizophrenia can and do recover.

We also highlight that it’s time there was much more government funding for mental health services in all areas of Australia. Current mental health services are grossly inadequate and this needs to change.

Tony Stevenson
CEO, Mental Illness Fellowship of Australia

Decentralisation policy hasn’t moved much

Dear Editor,

It’s a big let down for regional Australia that the Turnbull Government’s decentralisation policy has turned out to be a fizzer.

On Budget night, the Government announced just six agencies would move a handful of jobs. What they didn’t say was that it was only 98 jobs which would, in fact, be “decentralised”; and that only 16 of those would actually go to a regional centre.

In fact, 80 per cent of the jobs will move from one capital city to another. This includes 25 jobs which the Government will move from Sydney’s CBD to Parramatta, only 25kms away.

Over the last year, the government has raised considerable expectations in regional Australia about its policy only to disappoint. Many councils have put time and energy into making the case for hosting agencies in their regional cities.

The Coalition’s decentralisation policy is nothing more than a complete fizzer.

If the Government was serious about supporting regional employment, then it should stop their ongoing cuts to regional public service jobs.

Stephen Jones
Shadow Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government