Southern Peninsula News 11 January 2022

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Southern Peninsula

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Wednesday 12 January 2022

5974 9000 or email: team@mpnews.com.au www.mpnews.com.au SORRENTO Surf Life Saving Club is planning to replace its nearly 20-year-old clubhouse. The state government and Mornington Penonsula Shire have agreed to contribute about 20 per cent of the estimated $5.5 million cost. Club vice-president and treasurer Marc Clavin says the money is an “investment in significant public safety”. “In comparison to other Mornington Peninsula Shire Council-funded projects, the Sorrento SLSC will prevent drownings, which makes this … application an investment in significant public safety.” He said primary rescue equipment was now stored more than half a kilometre away from the beach which, combined with traffic issues, severely reduced the ability of on-duty lifesavers and when responding to after-hours emergencies.

Lifesavers look to expand

“Lifesavers set to build with shire’s $1m” Page 10 KEEPING an eye out for trouble in the water at Sorrento back beach on Sunday are Clancy Rowe, Bethany Orme, Peter McDonell and Sebastian Hales. Picture: Gary Sissons

Shire flags changes for A-Day 2023 Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au MORNINGTON Peninsula councillors have rejected the “divisive” suggestion that the Aboriginal flag be flown at half-mast on Australia Day. In doing so, they chose not to show the courage urged by Cr Sarah Race to “symbolise that this is a day of mourning of our First Nations people”. Cr Race said she will “walk as an ally” with Aboriginal people following a “mourning ceremony” on Wednesday 26 January. She said Indigenous Australians had regarded 26 January as a day of mourning since 1938 and would never consider it a celebration.

“And here we are in 2021, still not recognising this day as the day of mourning for our First Nations people, and still with unresolved intergenerational trauma,” Cr Race told council’s 14 December meeting. “The national flag will still fly fully and therefore does not take away the day for people in our community who like to celebrate this day for the many reasons they like to celebrate our amazing country.” Cr Race said deciding to lower the Aboriginal flag “will take courage … because we understand that not everyone in this community is ready to recognise the complexity of 26 January”. She quoted from the book Courage

is Calling, by self-described media strategist Ryan Holliday: “You can’t let fear rule because there has never been a person that did something that mattered without annoying other people. There has never been a change that has not been met with doubts. There has never been a movement that was not mocked.” Cr Race said reconciliation was not going to be easy or fun. “It is going to be a big, bumpy road … and we’re all going to be confronted by some horrible truths”. Councillors voted 7:4 against lowering the Aboriginal flag but signalled that further attempts at unity and reconciliation would be made in the lead up next year’s Australia Day.

Cr Susan Bissinger felt “very uncomfortable and quite disturbed that a non-Aboriginal person [Cr Race] would seek support from the Bunurong Land Council for such a divisive action”. “This is a big decision and in-yourface kind of comment, and I thought [council’s] reconciliation action plan was to bring people more together, not to divide them apart,” she said. “I see flying a flag at half-mast as being divisive. “I’ve grown up around Aboriginal communities and I’m not really comfortable with the idea of non-Aboriginal people dictating the way they feel and encouraging [them] in ways they perhaps would not go on their own.”

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Cr Bissinger would have supported lowering the Aboriginal flag “if it was instigated by them”. “I think we have 1200 Aboriginal people on the peninsula - that may have grown - but to have that many people and not a whisper from them … I can’t understand it really being that much of a sticking point for them. “I still have hopes that Australia Day incorporates a sombre part of our history that we can’t ignore … we don’t have to keep apologising for something that has nothing to do with the current situation.” Cr Steve Holland said official flag protocols stated that flags “should be flown at full mast on Australia Day”. Continued Page10


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