NEWS DESK
Elections like never before Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au ALL candidates in the October Mornington Peninsula Shire Council elections must complete a course on local government in August. The course requirement means candidates will be unable to keep their intentions secret until the last moment on nomination day, although the option of not lodging papers would remain. The elections are being held during an unprecedented time in local government caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Council meetings are being held online, the CEO John Baker has been granted emergency powers and shire income is under threat with an abnormal number of requests expected to defer rate payments. Councillors last week fine-tuned the powers Mr Baker can exercise during the caretaker period the time between the end of one council and the appointment of another. Councillors also agreed to call for a ban on council and state government candidates receiving campaign donations or at least preventing donations from developers or lobbyists. In a bid to increase the number of women councillors the Victorian Local Government Association (VLGA) in conjunction with the shire will hold a workshop in July to "connect women with the knowledge, skills and contacts to potentially become local government councillors”. Currently, five of the shire’s 11 councillors are women. Although still months away, three councillors - Bev Colomb, Bryan Payne and Rosie Clark -
have told The News they will not seek re-election. Crs Hugh Fraser and Kate Roper say they will stand, while the mayor, Sam Hearn, and David Gill, Simon Brooks, Antonella Celi, Frank Martin and Julie Morris say they have yet to make up their minds. Two people who have already publicly declared their intention to stand are Paul Mercurio, an outspoken supporter of the Peninsula Aero Club, and Janet Street, of Mornington. Cr Hearn said he would make up his mind about standing in "another month or two”. Having a young family meant that it was “sometimes quite difficult serving the community, but incredible to do it and bring about good outcomes”. Cr Gill said there were “so many things to consider before committing to another four years”. “I haven’t yet decided, but [because of the mandatory course in August] it will be the earliest we’ve had to make up our minds,” he said. Cr Celi was “considering” whether to run but would “definitely encourage others to stand, in particular women”. “I am more than happy to chat to those men and women who are thinking about running in the elections and to answer any questions about the role that councillors undertake in local government and about the shire,” she said. Cr Celi said the VLGA was leading a campaign for 50 per cent of Victoria’s councillors to be women. The current figure is 38 per cent and to attain the higher number “we would need to have over 320 women elected to council”.
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audiences around the Mornington Peninsula, Mr Kalma saw a bigger picture: “I wanted to do more after the terrible bushfires and now the coronavirus outbreak.” He won approval from the Red Cross, Mornington Peninsula Shire and Mornington Chamber of Commerce to raise money for the Red Cross by busking. Now he is looking forward to being able to restart his career at the Wednesday market in Main Street after the long lock down.
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MAN of many facets – secondary school teacher, sports psychologist, author, artist, and these days, “muso” – Robert Klaas Kalma says he will use all his skills as a busker at Mornington’s Wednesday market. Kalma, 80, who lives with his wife Sue at Mount Martha, has in recent years overcome prostate cancer and a major heart attack. However, he is not deterred by these setbacks and sees music as an “opportunity towards making a full recovery”. After joining the ProBuskers and playing for
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ROBERT Kalma busking at Mornington’s Wednesday market. Picture: Yanni
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Mornington News 30 June 2020
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