Letters To The Editor – April 12, 2018

It should be front page news

Dear Editor,

The Surf Coast Shire is undertaking a review of the services it provides to its elderly and also to people with a disability.

The review results go to council on May 22 and the opportunity for community engagement and for residents to comment closes soon. So please read and respond urgently. It can be found on the Surfcoast Shire website: surfcoast.vic.gov.au/About-us/Your-Say/Positive-Ageing-Review.

All residents, in particular the elderly and those with a disability, deserve and require access to services that are affordable, professional, needs based, responsive and supportive.

The focus of services needs to be about the individual and the support required to enable them to be supported in their own home (if that is what they want) and to participate actively in their communities.

The changes proposed through the Aged Services Review will seriously impact council’s capacity to provide affordable, professional, needs based, responsive and supportive services.

In fact, on reading the discussion paper it would appear that council may consider withdrawing from aged care service delivery and handing over the services to private providers.

A model currently being referred to as consumer driven care – a concern for the elderly who from 2020 (less than two years away) may be required to manage their own aged-care package and pay an administration fee, who may be required to “shop around” to find the quality provider of choice that is affordable.

How do the elderly – often fearful or unable to speak up – ensure that they receive an affordable quality service? For the elderly that access a number of services eg. home care, transport, and respite – will they now have to navigate and negotiate with three different service providers?

The concerns are many and the implications for the elderly are significant, especially those with dementia, without family, at risk due to mental health issues, isolated and/or on a very low income.

I encourage all residents to take the time to read the Aged Services Review and respond to the questionnaire.

Noting that the questionnaire itself is not user friendly, not easy for the elderly to complete and not consistent with good community engagement practice. If you are unable to complete the questionnaire, Surf Coast Shire are encouraging residents to contact them by phone – 5261 0525.

Surf Coast Shire needs feedback on this Aged Services review and the implementation of the outcomes and they need feedback on the engagement process.

How many elderly residents even have access to a computer or know how to use the internet to access the above link?

A discussion on this Aged Services Review and its implications for the elderly needs to be on the front pages of local papers.

Christine Brooks
Surf Coast Shire resident

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Better in the bin

Dear Editor,

Lorne’s refuse drop point was established so non-residents could drop off refuse on their way out of Lorne instead of leaving their bins unattended.

Originally sited in north Lorne, its use was abused and now we have the mess in Otway Street, outside the Lions headquarters and at the back of Stribling Reserve.

It must be frustrating for the residents living opposite to see the constant procession of locals and others too lazy to visit the local transfer station or manage their own bins.

Surely it would be better to put up with non-locals’ bins being left out than the free for all dumping that now exists.

The signs saying there is CCV coverage is a sham.

Barry Hayward
Lorne

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Cox makes sense

Dear Editor,

I write in reference to the proposed redistribution of electoral boundaries to create the new Federal seat of Cox.

These changes make sense, in terms of the economic, social and environmental issues relevant to each electorate.

The seat of Wannon will enable constituents to have a united voice on agricultural needs, Corio focusing on topics such as the future of the Ford site and role of manufacturing and the proposed seat of Cox addressing significant population growth and the infrastructure pressures that exist within Armstrong Creek, Torquay and Ocean Grove.

As a long-standing member of the Geelong community, having lived in each electorate both rural and city, I know the needs of the communities can differ, but through our common interests this proposal allows these communities to have a greater collective voice.

All of these electorates have issues such as unemployment, transportation and the provisioning of quality education.

This proposal empowers these electorates to hone in on the key issues relevant to them and address those needs.

Cameron Stow
Moriac

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Cox an opportunity

Dear Editor,

I was recently lucky to travel to Warrnambool for the Labour Day weekend. As I drove through the region, I noticed the difference between the urban sprawl occurring through Geelong’s south-west suburbs of Armstrong Creek and Waurn Ponds and how towns like Colac and Camperdown have retained their rural feel.

What a forward-looking and informed decision it is by the AEC to acknowledge a town like Colac and its community by moving it into a truly rural electorate like Wannon where agriculture is a key driver of economic development. For the new electorate of Cox, this is our opportunity to chart our future.

Our federal member can concentrate on more specific local impacts such as coastal environment, infrastructure across Geelong, the Bellarine and the Surf Coast as our southern growth corridor continues to boom, and put in place a plan for the electorate that addresses the needs of an expanding population of families and retirees moving to the area.

Chris Speldewinde
Torquay

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Cox was a woman

Dear Editor,

Interesting, the new federal electoral boundary. Certainly enhances the coastal and tourist aspects of our regional economies. And Cox was a woman.

Living in Apollo Bay and lacking services is de rigeur. Wry smiles are in order, a la little sister syndrome.

Lorne and the Surf Coast probably feel dudded too – if the town nearest the geographic centre were to be vested with a few commonwealth offices.

Winchelsea certainly has some grand old buildings. No jobs, just blowin’ in the wind, as Dylan might say.

Better public transport should be in order too, unless of course it’s all about the car economy and scattered real estate leading us by the nose.

Jack Munday suggested we analyse the percentage of the surface of the earth already covered by garages, cars and roads – not to mention logging trucks and the greenhouse effect.

Good town planning demands a degree of centralised infrastructure if we have any notion of the vitality of community life and a foot-friendly society.

Yvonne Francis
Apollo Bay

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Public thanks

Dear Editor,

I want to publicly thank the many volunteers and organisations who helped in the response to the South West Fires recently; 100-kilometre-per-hour winds whipped the landscape into a blazing frenzy with locals literally escaping fireballs by just seconds.

The fires destroyed 26 homes, 63 sheds and livestock were lost in the thousands.

More than 2,000 sheep – probably closer to 3,000 – were destroyed. More than 1,000 cattle died – 80 per cent of which were dairy cows.

It is devastating. The animal losses, alone, are cruel – they represent not just the loss of that animal, but also the time and investment that went into them prior to the fires.

The Cobden peat fire continues to cause disruptions and concern for the aged, young and those with vulnerable health conditions.

Students in the area are either temporarily attending other schools safe from the peat impacts or are staying at home.

About 15,000 hectares of land and 290 properties have been burnt. There are 2,000 kilometres of fencing that need to be replaced; 70 of the farms devastated by the fires were dairy farms.

It is the first fire in Victorian to devastate an intensive agricultural area for some time – it has exposed the impacts of lack of power and water.

We must help these farmers get back into action – and I thank those organisations, neighbours and volunteers who are already well involved in that process – including those who have supplied fodder; 120 farms have been the recipients of such generosity.

While politicians parade at these times and love to be seen among the ashes, it is the nameless helpers, or the lifetime neighbours who deserve our thanks and praise.

The people who give of themselves without need for thanks or fame are the ones who truly represent who we are – and who we want to be – as Australians.

To those recovering from the loss, we wish you well, rest and resilience. We stand by to help.

Simon Ramsay MP
Assistant Shadow Minister for Agriculture

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Development issues

Dear Editor,

Who is really going to benefit from the Torquay Hotel development? Fight, object, avoid.

Robert Soltesz
Barwon Heads

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When you play with rubbish, you get dirty

Dear Editor,

Bancroft, hard eyes, got the apology out of the way, and then got onto his main interest, himself, and talked of his regret that someone else would claim his place in the team.

Mr Smith, and all sportspeople and people in service, have hopefully learned a lesson: your duty is to do the right thing; your first duty is to do the right thing, it’s not to a team; you’re not a “lag” by calling out the wrong thing, you’re a strong person.

That’s guts.

There’s plenty of riff raff in all walks of life who’ll cling onto you – crims love to befriend entertainers and champion sportsmen for example – but you don’t sacrifice your values and your duty to be a good fellow, a nice bloke; pliable, that’s weakness.

When you play with rubbish, you get dirty.

You don’t get led, you don’t turn a blind eye and say “I don’t want to know”; the devious and the selfish will merely see you as something they can take advantage of and it will mean the compromising of your own values; call out the scum for what they are; it’s not friendship or what you think is friendship or team ship to agree to what they want, you’re being used, and they won’t back you when caught.

The whole cricket team and its hierarchy need to go, and it’s astonishing they haven’t had the honour to offer their resignations; instead we’ve seen PR containment; it’s that culture that caused this.

At state level by not playing cricket as it should be played, playing the man instead of the Game, it cost Mr Hughes his life.

To thine own self be true: live by the Game as the Game is intended: Cricket.

John Dobinson
Via email