NEWS DESK Police patrol
Operation Furlong race has been run
Drawing inspiration: Ryan Baker, left, Petros Kyrazis, Bonnie Fitsimons, Jana Jovic, Charlotte Keating, Anglicare CEO Paul McDonald, Alena Barfus and Elliot Bechaz proudly display The Awesome Kids Family Calendar. Picture: Yanni
Care all year round from calendar SALES of a calendar showcasing illustrations by Frankston area preschool and primary school pupils will raise money for projects helping vulnerable children. The Awesome Kids Family Calendar was officially launched at Frankston Arts Centre last Thursday (9 November) by Anglicare Victoria. Funds raised will go towards a community chest for community projects. Anglicare Victoria’s communities for children program manager Cathie Valentine said “the amazing artists’ tales” in the 2018 calendar could make a great Christmas stocking filler that also helps a good cause. “The calendar aims to foster fun and positive learning. It is a useful resource
for families and children that assists them with organising family life, with its colourful and plain language design,” she said. “It promotes relationships with local schools and kindergartens as the hubs of school and community life and provides us with an opportunity to hear and learn about the things that are important to children. “Most importantly though, is the opportunity to gather the thoughts and ideas of children about the world they live in, and the type of world they aspire to create. We have a great deal to learn from them and the calendar continues to capture the interest of the broader community in their vision for the present and future.”
The Awesome Kids Family Calendar is released in partnership with Atchison Consultants and Wilkinson Publishing and is available for $19.99 throughout Victoria in store and at booktopia.com. au online. The calendar is a collaboration between Communities for Children Frankston, Anglicare Victoria and primary schools and kindergartens including Aldercourt Primary School, Mahogany Rise Primary School, Karingal Primary School, Ballam Park Primary School, Naranga School, Banyan Fields Primary School, Banyan Fields Kindergarten, Seaford Primary School, Kingsley Park Primary School and Ballam Park Preschool.
POLICE breath-tested about 14,000 drivers in the Frankston and Mornington Peninsula Shire council areas over the Melbourne Cup long weekend with 28 being found to be either drink-ordrug driving. Another 315 traffic offences were detected, but only two serious injury collisions were recorded, which police said was pleasing “considering the amount of traffic that flowed through the area”. A 46-year-old Mt Eliza woman was allegedly driving at 107 kph in an 80kph zone when Somerville Highway Patrol intercepted her on Nepean Highway, Mornington, 2am, Wednesday 8 November. She blew 0.117 per cent and lost her licence on the spot for 11 months and received $1110 in fines. The woman said she had been drinking at a function all day, and thought she might be over the limit but drove anyway as she “needed to get home”. Her weekend could have been a lot
worse if she had been involved in a collision and killed or seriously injured herself or someone else, police said.
Arrest after assault
A FRANKSTON man has been arrested after an 87-year-old woman was allegedly sexually assaulted at Aspendale station, Friday 22 September. The 40-year-old man was charged with sexual assault by Transit Unit detectives. The woman, holding a walking frame, was waiting at the station on Nepean Highway about 11.25am when a man called out to her and asked if she wanted money. He then approached the woman and kissed her on the cheek before allegedly sexually assaulting her. The woman broke free and boarded the train. It is believed the man boarded a Frankston-bound train and got off at Carrum about midday. He has been bailed to appear at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, Friday 15 December.
Blow in the bag: Police breath-test drivers during Operation Furlong on Melbourne Cup Day. Picture: Supplied.
‘Unemployed workers’ united Neil Walker neil@baysidenews.com.au A UNION for the unemployed may seem like a contradiction in terms but that’s exactly what an organisation setting up shop in Frankston is all about. Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union volunteers will host fortnightly meetings at Frankston Arts Centre to help people on the dole negotiate the welfare system and know their rights when dealing with Centrelink and job agencies. “Our mission at the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union is to fight for the basic human rights of unemployed Australians, most of whom are living in poverty,” the group’s mission state-
ment says. “We are fighting back against Australia’s unfair welfare system. It was recently revealed that the basic Newstart payment is only half of what Australians need to live out of poverty.” Frankston co-organiser Paul Callanan said the Frankston branch of the AUWU is open to people “from Portsea to Mentone and Crib Point to Cranbourne” and it is free to join. “It makes sense to have a Frankston branch taking in all those areas,” he said. The organisation “run for the unemployed by the unemployed” is not a registered union and is an incorporated association, according to Consumer Affairs Victoria records. The group’s website declares “official endorsements from National Union of Workers (NUW) and the Electrical
Trades Union (ETU)”. Federal Liberal Employment Minister Michaelia Cash slammed the AUWU in June, saying the group’s “sole purpose appears to be keeping members out of gainful employment and encouraging them to shirk their responsibilities.” Mr Callanan — a former taxi driver, multi-storey plumber and employee of the Cain government era Victorian Economic Development Corporation — said he is helping the AUWU with spreading the word about the nascent Frankston branch online. The AUWU is calling on all Centrelink payments to be increased to $517 a week; work for the dole programs to be abolished and the axing of privately owned job agencies in favour or reinstating the Commonwealth Employment
Service to get the unemployed back to work. AUWU Frankston branch convener Fae Roth, a Hastings resident and former factory company director, said she got involved in helping the organisation after hearing about its work on community radio station 3CR. “I don’t think the general public realises how tough some people are doing it,” she said. “Unemployment, redundancies and job losses are affecting people directly more than anything else I can think of in horrific ways.” She said the factory she worked at for many years was eventually forced to shut its doors due to cheap overseas imports. The group opposes mandatory drug testing for the unemployed, increased
waiting times for the dole and “the completely unjustified expansion of cashless welfare” featuring debit cards for those receiving welfare payments. An editorial in the September edition of its Fightback! newsletter states: “With the Australian Labor Party and a number on the cross bench failing to commit to voting one way or the other on a number of issues, it’s up to us to let them know why they should oppose these punitive measures”. “I’m hoping our Frankston branch will be the prototype and role model that will inspire AUWU branches to open up all over Melbourne,” Ms Roth said. “It’s just so extreme what the parliamentarians get compared to how the unemployed are treated.”
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Frankston Times 13 November 2017
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