Decorate Main Street to ‘cheer up’ Christmas
It’s almost Christmas, so please can Mornington Peninsula Shire Council make an effort this year? Most people head down Main Street, Mornington at holiday time. We are the gateway to the peninsula, can we please have some cheer with lights in the trees and cheerful, bright decorations down Main Street [and] getting rid of the awful Happy Holiday signs hanging from lamp posts that do nothing to cheer us up.
Another suggestion would be to plant brightly coloured flowers around every roundabout. How good would that make us all feel when driving down Main Street?
Anne Robinson, Mornington
Drop the flag
In recent years, there has been a large increase in the number of under 18 year olds seeking “gender affirming care” from gender clinics.
As reported in The Daily Telegraph late last year, “There were 2067 young people attending public [gender] clinics in 2021 [in Australia], almost 10 times the number in 2014, when there were 211 children. The number of under 18s being prescribed puberty suppressing drugs shot up from five in 2014 to 624 in 2019…”
The recent Channel 7 Spotlight news special dealt with the phenomenon of “detransitioners“.
The state government in Victoria has just spent a whopping $25 million opening a transgender clinic in St Kilda.
In Australia, we don’t allow under 18s to purchase R-rated movies or video games. We don’t allow them to purchase cigarettes or alcohol or allow them to vote. We don’t let under 16s drive a vehicle without an adult being present, yet our system allows minors to access this horrific treatment.
The indoctrination of our children is abhorrent. The LGBTQIA+ flags flying in all three of our shire buildings on the peninsula have to be taken down immediately.
Felicity Benson, Mornington
Indigenous support
Anyone who is even slightly familiar with Nairm Marr Djambana Aboriginal Association in Frankston will know that it provides vital services and programs for Indigenous people and deserves every bit of community and financial support it can get.
The association’s highly valued roles include critical social support to Indigenous individuals, families, children and babies, cultural connection programs, community strengthening work, learning knowledge from elders, cultural awareness education for non-Indigenous people, and reconciliation events, as well as managing its own social enterprises.
Instead of respecting this much needed organisation, the failure of the referendum is being used to justify depriving it of much needed funding, thus begrudging them money for a decent premises (“Commonwealth treaties” Letters 24/10/23). The writer also dangerously speculates on Australians’ attitudes towards supporting First Nations people, asserting we are anti special Indigenous programs and claiming this opinion is fact. What is factual, however, is that the Coalition parties failed to provide bipartisan support for constitutional change to recognise First Nations People and give them a voice.
Referendums do not succeed without bipartisanship. The proposed change was thus doomed to failure.
The referendum outcome is being manipulated to attack state and local programs that aim to redress Indigenous disadvantage and promote self-determination.
In my view this is unjustifiable, grossly unfair and just plain heartless.
Maureen Donelly, Mornington
Pharmacy needed
On Thursday 19 October, having severe breathing problems after two heart operations, I sought help at Frankston Hospital’s 24/7 emergency department. It was so crowded and busy that I waited nearly seven hours before being seen by a helpful doctor.
Medicine was prescribed, but I was amazed to hear our impressively developing public hospital did not have an emergency pharmacy to dispense my prescriptions – quite unbelievable.
Phone calls by a friendly triage nurse gave worrying news that at 10pm every Frankston pharmacy was closed, except Cranbourne Road Chemist Warehouse, which was open until 10.30pm – we had only 30 minutes to get there.
My husband and I were lucky to be independent with a car but could only feel sadness and concern for many other patients, especially those with sick children.
Later, I was amazed yet again to read that the Albanese government had delivered almost $10 million for a special Indigenous First Peoples health and wellbeing centre in Frankston CBD, including redevelopment of the “local Aboriginal gathering place”.
No such favoured handouts for any other groups, let alone much needed 24/7 pharmacy for Frankston Hospital’s emergency department.
Meredith Neumann, Frankston
Estuary abused
Congratulations to Taj McCallum and his parents for adopting a sustainable and environmentally friendly approach to his sport of fishing (“Casting a careful eye on fishing’s future” The News 31/10/23).
Unfortunately, there are others in the community who do not share this approach. The Balcombe Estuary, Mount Martha has been blighted by selfish and uncaring fishers who care little for the environment.
It is not hard to find these people who illegally use multiple lines as well as having a little disregard for catch sizes and bag limits. They further degrade the environment by creating their own paths through the sensitive estuary reserve and leaving their mess and, in some cases, excrement behind.
One has to reasonably ask where the Mornington Peninsula Shire, Victorian Fisheries Authority or Department of Energy, Environment and climate action officers are. They certainly aren’t checking the estuary.
Dr Ross Hudson, Mount Martha
State in the middle
The calls from Cr Kris Bolam and other Frankston councillors to spend the $221 million left over from the business case for the electrification of the line between Frankston and Baxter on roads and footpaths and other projects the council wants in Frankston will be good for Frankston (“Call for rail money to be spent ‘locally’” The News 31/10/23). However, the council cannot get the funding directly from the Commonwealth government and must go through the state government as the Australian Constitution does not recognise local government and, of course, direct grants/money to Frankston Council are unconstitutional.
The fact is that the Australian Constitution is being broken deliberately by state and federal governments including local governments.
When money is allocated for the Victorian government to be allocated to councils the state government takes a percentage for administration.
The Whitlam government put a referendum question to the Australian people to recognise local government in the Australian Constitution, but the Australian people said No.
Frankston Council should tell the Frankston people how much money they have received through direct grants or money directly from the Commonwealth government unconstitutionally.
Russell Morse, Karingal
Money disappears
The distribution of taxes of hard working Australians looks like stealing to me.
The NDIS established to provide care and assistance through taxpayers’ money [which has] has apparently been handed over, willy nilly to thieves.
Have these people been prosecuted? When will they be named and shamed?
Who provided money to establishments without checking credentials and recognising the cruel behaviour of staff, subjecting clients to further mental damage?
I am afraid we Australians are asleep at the wheel and hear the news response with shock and disbelief and forget about loved ones who battle with NDIS for a fair go.
Maureen Sharpe, Bittern
Vison needed
As the saying goes: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For some, a slowly turning wind generator on the horizon using a breeze to generate clean energy is a thing of wonder and beauty. For others it is a blight on the countryside.
But this divided opinion is unlikely to occur over coal mines and coal-fired power stations. Most agree they are dirty, polluting and contribute to climate change.
There are others who only see what they want to see. Because greenhouse gases are invisible, they are not in your face like a transmission line. While a transmission line is relatively benign most would agree it is ugly. While it has a footprint on the land, its footprint does not compare to that of a gas field like Narrabri with 800 wells. It doesn’t produce the invisible greenhouse emissions that sit in the atmosphere for 300 to 1000 years.
Some do not believe that these invisible emissions are responsible for heating and drying the planet leading to wildfires in unusual places like Siberia, the Yukon or southwest Tasmania. Others see the climate changing in front of their eyes and witness firsthand the ferocity of climate-fuelled weather events.
It was Jonathan Swift who said, “Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” More than ever before, we need the vision to make the right decisions if we are to save life on Earth as we know it.
Ray Peck, Hawthorn
Making a point
Zoe McKenzie, Liberal MP for Flinders, in her latest newsletter: “I thank all those who worked in the referendum, and who contributed to the (mostly) respectful debate on Indigenous recognition and the proposed changes to the system of government.”
“Mostly”: almost entirely, predominantly, as regards the greater part or number. “Mostly” is used to indicate that a statement is generally true, for example, true about the majority of a group of things or people, true most of the time, or true in most respects. OK then.
Joe Lenzo, Safety Beach
Letters – 300 words maximum and including full name, address and contact number – can be sent to The News, PO Box 588, Hastings 3915 or emailed to: team@mpnews.com.au
First published in the Mornington News – 7 November 2023
