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Wednesday 18 December 2019
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Workers benefit economies of two countries
BUSINESS ties with the Mornington Peninsula are helping the economies of Australia and Timor-Leste (East Timor). Last month (November) 24 people arrived at Sunny Ridge strawberry farm, Main Ridge from Timor-Leste to work for the next six months. They are being employed under the federal government’s seasonal worker program facilitated by the Timor-Leste embassy’s liaison officer Lucy Rodgers. There are 1400 Timor-Leste seasonal workers throughout Australia and their overseas earnings contribution to the Timor-Leste economy is greater than its coffee export cash crop, according to Mornington Peninsula Shire’s Cr Hugh Fraser. “This [work at Sunny Ridge] is a very exciting development with the mutual contribution that our Timorese friends can make to the peninsula and Timor-Leste economies,” Cr Fraser said. “We are all looking forward to the ongoing welcome of our Timor-Leste friends to the peninsula community.” THE 24 seasonal workers from Timor-Leste were welcomed at Sunny Ridge strawberry farm, Main Ridge by Samuel Soares, first secretary of the Timor-Leste embassy in Canberra. Pictured on the workers’ arrival are, from left, Tim Rodgers (Friends of Lospalos), Colleen Hammond, Marius Boarta (Sunny Ridge national harvest manager), Patsy Marshall and Tanya Fisher (Linx Employment TAS), Sam Soares, Graham Pittock (Friends of Lospalos deputy chairperson), Mark Sterling and Cr Hugh Fraser.
Koalas need plan to survive Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au THE state government is being urged to protect wildlife on the Mornington Peninsula and throughout Victoria. Koalas top Mornington Peninsula Shire’s list of wildlife concerns and it wants the government to set up and finance a koala survival master plan for Victoria. The shire has asked the state’s other 78 municipalities to pressure the
government to “safeguard koalas and other threatened species from extinction”. It has also called for assurances from Energy, Environment and Climate Change Minister Lily D’Ambrosio that powerboats will continue to be banned on Devilbend Reservoir. Cr David Gill said the reservoir was a “key international classified biodiversity area” where conservation values had already been diminished
by the introduction of trout and allowing kayaking. He said 50 wetland bird species – including blue-billed ducks, whitebellied sea eagles and migratory birds from the Northern Hemisphere – would be at risk “if the fishing lobby succeeds in making Devilbend another powerboat fishing ground”. “It is more important than ever that we show Victorians care about the protection of nature,” Victorian National Parks Association’s execu-
tive director Matt Ruchel said when members of more than 40 community groups rallied outside state parliament on Thursday 28 November. “The Nature for Life Rally is to highlight that protecting Victoria’s nature is critical for the survival of our state’s precious wildlife, but also for all Victorians and our way of life. “Victoria’s nature is in rapid decline and increasingly threatened by climate change. We are heading for strife if we don’t act more decisively now.”
The shire’s move to protect koalas also followed a public meeting in July called by the Main Creek Catchment Landcare Group where Deakin University’s senior wildlife and conservation biology lecturer Dr Desley Whisson spoke about “Absent without leaf: koalas on the Mornington Peninsula”. Cr Gill said statistics showed a decline in koala populations on the peninsula, with “large decreases” at Merricks Beach, Balnarring and Somers. Continued Page 11
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