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
Rate rise above CPI despite government ‘cap’ The Andrews State Government introduced certain rules designed to keep council rate increases at around CPI level. The reaction of most municipalities, including Mornington Peninsula Shire, was to find ways around the new regulations so that they could continue to increase rates by as much more than CPI as they could get away with, rather than accept that it was in everybody’s interest to keep expenditure under control. Imagine how many private enterprises would go to the wall if their managements adopted the same attitude. As an example, I have just received my rate notice for 2019/20 and find my rates have increased by five per cent over last year and 20 per cent over the last five years. That is not even close to CPI. Now, the shire wants vets to report stray dogs they return to their owners for what seems to me to be no better reason than that they want to fine the owners for allowing a dog to be at large even when they are not aware of it (“Vets wary of shire’s ‘strays’ contract” The News 20/8/19). To make sure the vets comply they can fine them $792 if they read a dogs microchip number and notify the owner. I know from personal experience that if a dog ends up in the pound it will cost the owner around $300 in release fees and fines and no explanation will stop the shire from applying both. I am not sure whether this is the mindset of the elected councillors or the executive, but it doesn’t sound like democracy to me. James McLoughlin, Balnarring
Climate change coming The Mornington Peninsula Shire is to be congratulated on its declaration of a climate emergency (“Shire plans action to combat ‘emergency’” The News 20/8/19). Through what was the then Western Port Greenhouse Alliance, now the South East Councils Climate Change Alliance, the shire took part in a $500,000 research project to determine the challenges that climate change poses for local residents. These included increases in heat waves, fire weather, sea level rise and storm surges. The research, conducted by CSIRO, showed that there certainly were changes on their way. The shire held a series of community consultations to inform residents of the challenges and plan ways to respond. This program of well-attended consultations was leading practice in community engagement across the country. It was featured at national conferences, in national environmental education newsletters and at gatherings of professional engineers to determine the best ways forward. The shire has a long history of leadership in climate change response that continues with this declaration. Greg Hunt, executive officer Western Port Biosphere
A northern problem Wow. Where to start? Mornington Peninsula Shire councillor Sam Hearn standing in houses inundated by rising sea levels (“Shire plans action to combat ‘emergency’” The News 20/8/19)? If Sam would like to contact me I will show him the Fishermans Beach, Mornington boat ramp sea levels that are the same now as in the 1960s, or perhaps half-tide rock at Mount Martha that still appears at half-tide just as it has since records have been kept. John Cain berating our prime minister for suggesting our children would be better off getting an education than striking over climate change (“TV for deniers” The News 20/8/19)? Try this from little Miss 16 interviewed on Sky News during the last rally. Reporter: “Why are you here today? “Because the emissions from this mine will kill the Barrier Reef in two years.” Reporter: “No. They don’t actually burn coal at a coal mine.” LM 16 “That’s what Scott Morrison wants you to think.” Or Australian Council of Education research that showed that 75 per cent of year six students thought cotton socks came from animals, 45 per cent didn’t believe bread, bananas and cheese came from farming and 40 per cent who believed farming damaged the environment. Wouldn’t it be nice if somehow we could go
back to teachers just teaching and not trying to influence young minds? I believe that man-made climate change is occurring, but all evidence points to the major affects occurring in the Northern Hemisphere, such as the demise of the Okjokull glacier in Iceland and yet only minute amounts of greenhouse gases are being detected at the research facility in north west Tasmania and no evidence of any measurable sea level increases in the oceans of the Southern Hemisphere (United Nations threeyear survey 2012-2014). Michael G Free, Mt Martha
Fox avoids change So, Fox News is Michael G Free’s source of his information on climate change (“Views reflect the news” Letters 20/8/19). Fox News, that temple of news that has as its experts Andrew Bolt, Ray Hadley and Peta Credlin and, on the sidelines, we have NASA, But wait, there’s more, let’s not forget Alan Jones and Malcolm Roberts. Fox news will never show you any climate catastrophe that shows icebergs and glaciers melting, inundations of low lying land masses or temperature swings causing out of season forest fires. Did Fox News tell Michael that, the Okjokull glacier in Greenland has disappeared for the first time in history? Maybe the extra available land has tempted Trump to offer to buy Greenland. What I see on my news source is glaciers melting and other climatic disasters, stuff that won’t get shown on Fox News. As far as the last federal election, the pollsters fed us a load of Friars Balsam. Their figures were wrong and misled all the media outlets. Lastly, if being a “loony leftie” means I am concerned for the health of the planet and future generations, then so be it John Cain, McCrae
Greenland’s bonus I too laughed at the American President Donald Trump when I heard that he wanted to buy Greenland, until I wondered why would he, and then I remembered Erik the Red. Erik settled in Greenland in AD 986 with a few thousand others on 180 farms and they grazed cattle and sheep. Apparently it was nice and green around the coastal areas and warmer than it is now. It continued for hundreds of years until somewhere around AD 1350 a genuine “climate emergency” started. The climate changed and “the little ice age” started, the lands froze over permanently and eventually all the settlements were abandoned. Nowadays, the planet is warming and the coastal areas should once again be fertile and a green land. The ice sheets, comprising 80 per cent of Greenland and three kilometres deep in places, should recede a little. A temperature increase of 10 degrees C would be just fine. I think Trump is told what’s what and what’s rot and he wouldn’t mind buying a warmer Greenland because he recognises the enormous potential of the known, valuable mineral deposits under the ground with substantial offshore oil and gas fields. America needs that oil, and a bit of uranium and some diamonds wouldn’t go astray. Brian A Mitchelson, Mornington
March for change Every time I read the letters of Michael Free and Brian A Mitchelson, I’m reminded of the two old blokes on the Muppet Show making comments from the balcony. We are facing a climate emergency on the whole planet, if they like it or not. Spruiking the mantra of our present government in Canberra that we should not worry about it is not making it go away. How they can keep on dismissing the fact that the Mornington Peninsula is under attack from rising sea levels now is beyond me. Beach boxes along Port Phillip shores are being abandoned by authorities and deemed undefendable. Portsea beaches are disappearing by the truckload and cliffs all around the bays, Western Port and Port Phillip, are falling into the sea. But Mr Michelson and Free appear not inter-
ested in doing anything about the small chance of acting to prevent far worse calamities around the world. Just like our prime minister has chosen to ignore the plight of our Pacific neighbours in the island nations at the last Pacific forum. And listening to Labor’s Penny about abandoning coal by mid-century or earlier, the Labor party is only a tiny bit less culpable. I for one will be marching with the school kids in Melbourne on 20 September. Will it again take more than 100,000 people marching to get our elected representatives to take action for all of us? Rupert Steiner, Balnarring
Don’t abandon beach As your article indicates, the “management option” proposed for the future of Mt Martha North Beach is “do nothing” (“No help for threatened beach boxes” The News 20/8/19). We cannot allow this to happen. This is an important piece of our natural environment, an essential resource that has been appreciated by countless numbers of residents and visitors over decades and should likewise be available for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations. Doing nothing would result in a limited and deteriorating amenity position, restricting usability to the warmer months, the balance of the time being unusable or inaccessible and potentially closed. It would remain to be seen for how long the beach remained usable in the warmer months before becoming unusable at this time as well. The potential closure of the beach at any time is strongly opposed. It should be made safe (as promised) for year-round accessibility and use. Given the choice of beach or no beach, it is perfectly clear, nobody wants to lose the beach, be it temporarily (seasonally) or permanently. The state government and Energy, Environment and Climate Change Minister Lily D’Ambrosio need to be reminded of their December 2017 announcement “Protecting Mt Martha North Beach” which rightly acknowledged “how important the Mt Martha North Beach area is to the community - we’re listening to the local community and ensuring that the beach is safe”. We call on them to honour this commitment to the community. Finally, the government’s seeming preparedness to abandon our beach sends an alarming message to not only our, but other threatened communities. Alan Farquhar, chairman Mt Martha North Beach Group
Apalling apartments Australia’s apartment building crisis is leaving owners out of pocket and, in some cases, homeless. Industry insiders reveal a litany of failures that could leave defects for years to come. This is another shocking episode of government failure to look after those who vote for them rather than pandering to corrupt corporate mafia. Both state and federal governments and both major political parties have been aware of this for decades, and yet no action (sounds like the banks). Only when totally out of control and leaving more decades of shoddy apartment developments for owners to contend with and no one to hold accountable as those responsible put companies into receivership hiding behind numerous untouchable shell companies. Even this federal government is having a hard time blaming unions and tradesmen for the situation. And, deity forbid, they should look at their complicity as the problem. The only people held hostage are those individuals who have been victimised. So just what is the duty of care that our elected officials have to us? Not much, I would suggest. Joe Lenzo, Safety Beach
Health and 5G Do we want the Internet of Things (IoT)? The front door will unlock for us, the kettle will be on and the dinner cooked, the washing done and the energy industries will have passed our data onto the companies that will pay them for it. Very nice, but would we rather have the health of our family and future generations? According to peer reviewed studies independent of the telco industries, the IoT and our future health will be mutually exclusive. The bridge between the telecommunications we now have and the IoT is 5G. It’s a new ball game.
On the Mornington Peninsula we have some 5G phone towers using very similar frequencies to 4G. Next will be boxes called “small cells” with antennas placed on lampposts, bus stops and other infrastructure as close as every 100 meters. In front of homes, schools and offices. Focussed millimetre waves, not used in the past and not researched in terms of health effects, will beam into all our homes, schools and offices, hugely increasing our exposure to microwaves. Our appliances will transmit radiofrequencies, just as our smart meters now do. Everything in our homes will talk to everything else, so the soup of radiation we currently find ourselves in will be greatly increased. Research indicating biological harm to people and other life forms from current levels of wireless radiation is indisputable. ARPANSA, the body which sets the standards of exposure to protect the Australian public, last reviewed the standards in 2002 - before smart meters, wi fi and 4G. The permissable standards of exposure it sets for us are thousands of times higher than those considered to cause biological harm. Together with USA and Canada we have the highest standards of exposure in the world by far. Do we want 5G? Paula Polson, Dromana
City’s rotting core Frankston should be the shining jewel in Victoria’s crown. It ticks almost all the boxes. Unfortunately the city centre is rotting away. It can be saved. Frankston Council has the means but not the heart. I have been sickened by the sight of preventable homelessness. On Friday 16 August I witnessed a “drug related” arrest in broad daylight on Young Street. It took up to about a dozen enforcement officers to arrest one person, a very young mother. Tell me, what is her future? Compare her plight to your own. This is breaking my heart. I don’t believe crime or homelessness is going away any time soon. What I do know is councillors must listen to ratepayers. Council’s management wrongly think they are immune from accountability. They are not. It’s time for reform. If councillors and council management don’t take self-reform seriously, they must go. A council staffer’s comment that homelessness “is happening everywhere” echoes in my mind. Read the book Journeys with my Mother by Halina Rubins. This book is written by my dear cousin. They were not just homeless, they were stateless. I will continue protesting about issues that concern me as long as I breathe. If I have to break the law, I will. That is a promise. Vic Langsam, Frankston
Gender equality up for comment MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire is inviting public feedback on a strategy aimed at improving gender equality and reducing violence against women and their children. The draft Gender Equality Strategy follows nearly 2000 family violence reports being made to police in 2017–2018. A shire survey showed 68 per cent of the people contacting the shire did not feel that all men and women are respected equally in our community; 62 per cent identified gender inequality as one of the main causes of violence against women. “Violence against women and their children is preventable if we all work together to address the impact of gender inequality,” the mayor Cr David Gill said. Cr Antonella Celi, who heads the Mornington Peninsula Health and Wellbeing Committee, said the draft gender equality strategy was aimed at preventing violence. The “settings for action” in the draft strategy include: education and training; work and economic security; health, safety and wellbeing; leadership and representation; sport and recreation; media, arts and culture. Read the draft plan and provide your feedback at mornpen.vic.gov.au/haveyoursay or mornpen. vic.gov.au/genderequality Documents will also be available to read in hard copy at the shire’s offices in Rosebud, Mornington and Hastings. Mornington News
27 August 2019
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