LETTERS
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
New MP must work hard to tackle drugs in community I congratulate Peta Murphy in succeeding Chris Crewther as our new Federal Member. I implore Peta to make one of her first priorities as our new representative to uncover where federal funding is being allocated to combat illicit drug use in our region, namely the ongoing increase in methamphetamine (also known as ‘ice’) cultivation and usage in Frankston and the wider region. $300 million dollars was announced in 2015 by the federal government to increase prevention and treatment to reduce the rate of ‘ice’ addiction throughout Australia. However, local crime and quantitative data indicates that narcotic use continues to rise in the Frankston municipality. Mostly concerning are statistics coming out of Frankston North where, in some offence categories, increases in offending rates have reached triple digits. As a city councillor, I have not seen tangible trickle down evidence of the $300 million dollars that the federal government earmarked for communities under duress due to the scrounge of ‘ice’ and other illegal substances. Former Frankston Citizen of the Year Reverend Angel Roldan continues to advocate for a regional rehabilitation / detox facility for drug users wanting to get clean. Thus would be an excellent use of public monies. Last week Frankston City Council was successful in passing (almost unanimously) a national resolution at the Australian Local Government Association Conference in Canberra which called on the federal government to ensure public monies intended to fight ‘ice’ and narcotics are expended in consultation with local communities to maximise both breadth and reach. Therefore, Peta, I ask that you keep the
federal government accountable in its promise to tackle narcotics in our community, as well as work with them and the other tiers of government to decrease drug use in Frankston and the greater region. Kris Bolam, councillor North-West Ward
Money to preserve What happened to pure unrestrained giving by those that have spare? Philanthropy is the name, but we have a lack of it around the Mornington Peninsula now that the late and much loved Dame Elisabeth Murdoch has passed on. Frankston and Langwarrin have visible signs of her generosity and, hopefully, Cruden Farm and the McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park will be maintained. Where are such magnanimous donations to the net public good around our peninsula? Do we rest on the laurels of Beleura, McCrae Cottage, Sages Farm, The Briars and Coolart and not make the effort? A wonderful restoration of the Norman Lodge historical cliff top heritage building has been completed and we, the patient public, have to wait until the National Trust ( Victorian branch) and the current owner of this private land adjacent to the Nepean Highway Mt Eliza, actually allow us to see this important public colonial establishment. Mt Eliza has other important listed historical buildings as well, including the listed Ranelagh Estate, the Moondah Hotel, the Gate House, several cliff top houses such as Rubra and, of course, the colonial Anglican church of St James the Less on Nepean Highway. Surely some well meaning local citizen with access to surplus money could consider
making some ongoing and community minded gesture to return their hard earned assets to the people of the peninsula in the form of property purchases. Kunyung Road is such an area where a genuine intervention of local money could preserve its current open sea and cliff views, the variety of local flora and fauna, the koala habitat, the flying foxes, the southern croaker frogs, the Sir Reginald Ansett-inspired open pastures, and the most fortunately located state primary school in Victoria, if not Australia. Ian Morrison, Mt Eliza Community Alliance
Guessing with quotes Many ratepayers will know that extracting information from Mornington Peninsula Shire officers can be more painful than pulling teeth. Occasionally though, they drop their guard and you get two very different answers to the same question. Facing an exorbitantly large fee to have a footpath constructed residents emailed different shire officers inquiring about the cost they faced. A senior shire project manager stated that the “special charge” would be $4531.24. Absolute precision. Around the same time his superior, a director, refusing to answer the question, indicated that “… it is impossible to know the exact final cost of a project in advance”. They can’t both be correct, but the smart money is on the first answer. Geoff Allen, Sorrento
Council’s class war Boat shed owners are not all wealthy people. Mornington Peninsula Shire mayor Cr David Gill’s comments about boat shed owners smells very like then Labor leader Bill Shorten [during the recent federal election campaign] when they tried to establish a class war in our community, but failed. The majority of boat sheds have been in the same family for 20-30 years and should not be treated like cash cows to make up for socialist
PUZZLE ZONE
ACROSS 1. Fine display 7. Internally 8. As a result 10. German cabbage dish 12. Body preserver 14. Solid 16. Gated canal section 17. Overly precise
20. Field glasses 23. Gush 24. Offal 25. Sacred poem
DOWN 1. For some time 2. Curved lines 3. AM, ... meridiem 4. Songbirds 5. Perfectionists 6. Method 9. Too soon 11. Vulgar comment
council economic records, such as spending millions of ratepayers’ money on a dud library site [in Rosebud]. Tom Millar, Tootgarook Editor: Increases in fees for boat sheds have been adopted as part of the shire’s 2019/20 budget.
Adani good, and bad Now that the Adani coal mine has been approved, the good news is that there will be 100 permanent jobs created by Adani once the mine is built and operational. All the rednecks in Queensland are celebrating. Now for the not so good news; Australia has decided to destroy our kids and grandkids’ future right around the globe by making it possible for the coal from Adani’s mine and the many more that will be opened in the same area, to be burnt. This in turn will increase CO2 in our atmosphere and so hasten global warming to such an extent our planet will become uninhabitable in the very near future. Thanks LNP and Queensland Labor for your “forward thinking” policies. Rupert Steiner, Balnarring
Painful viewing Nothing matters? At best, wise words prior to death. Everything matters. Triptych, from the Greek adjective three-fold, in my case pain and suffering over two days, albeit in the scheme of things, insignificant. Where to advertise one’s angst, to cry pain, than in the letters pages of our healthy The News? Collingwood’s Jaidyn Stephenson’s unfair suspension via the AFL’s (Fort Knox?) anti-gambling hypocrites; our home affairs minister suggesting women using rape and abortion as a ploy to get to Australia; the current suggestion to watch AFL football (or any football apparently) with buttoned-up lips. There, and I haven’t even mentioned Adam Goodes, Rosie Batty or John Setka. I feel better now. Cliff Ellen, Rye
13. December 31, New Year’s ... 15. Scalp strands 16. Hit ball high 18. Tribal convention 19. Atlantic or Pacific 21. Recline lazily 22. Mineral springs
Puzzles supplied by Lovatts Publications Pty Ltd www.lovattspuzzles.com See page 26 for solutions.
Frankston Times 25 June 2019
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