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Tuesday 6 February 2018
5973 6424 or email: team@mpnews.com.au www.mpnews.com.au
Blood moon rising
MORNINGTON Peninsula Astronomical Society members and keen moon watchers gathered at The Briars Astronomy Centre in Mt Martha last Wednesday evening (31 January) to witness the total lunar eclipse on the second full moon of the month. At first, the mood was somewhat subdued as the cloud cover was heavy but at about 10pm the skies cleared revealing the beginning of the Penumbral Eclipse. Over the next four hours, the shadow of the earth gradually encroached between the moon and the sun, changing the colour of the moon to a blood red. Members of the astronomy club were kept busy helping the public set up their cameras and telescopes. By 1am, most people had called it a night leaving a few diehards to watch the end of the eclipse in the cool night air under the Milky Way. The next total lunar eclipse will be on 28 July, commencing at 3.13am with astronomical twilight beginning just prior to mid-eclipse, ending observation at 6.22am precisely. Keep watching the skies: Tony Nightingale sets up a telescope to get ready for the eclipse. Picture: Gary Sissons
Opening the books on shire ‘gifts’ Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au THE public is finally being given free access to a register of gifts and benefits received by Mornington Peninsula Shire councillors and council staff. The information was previously only available through the costly and timeconsuming Freedom of Information process.
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Last week’s decision by councillors to open the gifts register follows revelations that the shire CEO Carl Cowie accepted an invitation to join a Mediterranean cruise on a ship hired by businessman and Portsea property owner, Lindsay Fox (“Shire boss on Fox party cruise” The News 11/12/17). Mr Cowie last week told The News he would not be listing the cruise in the gifts register.
The mayor Cr Bryan Payne, a former CEO at several municipalities, told The News on Thursday that he would not have accepted an invitation such as that made to Mr Cowie by Mr Fox. “I wouldn’t have gone,” Cr Payne said. “I wouldn’t go for obvious reasons - I don’t think it’s appropriate.” While Mr Cowie has called publicity over his trip “a distraction”, Cr Payne sees it as “a real topic”.
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in the Gifts, Benefits and Hospitality Policy, an “internal document” that is also now publicly available. A review of the policy by councillors and council officers is designed “to ensure that any ambiguity is addressed in a clear and meaningful manner,” Mr Cowie stated in a news release following last week’s decision by councillors. Cr Payne said “a solicitor is coming into to do it”. Continued Page 8
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Mr Cowie says he told the mayor at the time of the impending July 2016 cruise, former councillor Graham Pittock, but was not bound by the Local Government Act to register it as it was made a no cost to council and during his annual leave. As well as making the register publicly available (by appointment only) councillors have also called for a review of the “definitions” of words used
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