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Wednesday 23 March 2022
5974 9000 or email: team@mpnews.com.au www.mpnews.com.au Fund raising: Cyclists are taking part in the Ride for Relief charity ride, with all money going directly to mental health service Mentis Assist.
Cyclists hit the road for mental health awareness Liz Bell liz@mpnews.com.au TO raise much-needed money to support mental health, Mornington Peninsula cyclists with the Ride for Relief team left for Mallacoota
yesterday to enjoy some pampering before the ride. The group will be enjoying a preopening dining and bathing experience at the soon to be open Metung Hot Springs, where they will be able to relax in geothermal waters and take on breathtaking views across the
Gippsland Lakes. The riders are preparing to ride across Victoria as part of a fundraising mission, and hope to build on the success of past Ride for Relief events. This year’s ride will be a six-day tour option, in addition to the one-day ride.
The group will travel across half of Victoria exploring the emerging bathing destinations in Metung, Traralgon and Phillip Island along their route back to the Peninsula Hot Springs. .All money raised goes directly to Mentis Assist, a community, not-for-
profit mental health support service that provides specialised mental health services for people living with severe mental illness in and outside the Mornington Peninsula. To donate, go to the group’s website at https://rideforrelief.grassrootz. com/
Councillors collect healthy pay rise Brodie Cowburn brodie@mpnews.com.au MORNINGTON Peninsula’s councillors will enjoy a substantial pay rise this year. The Victorian Independent Remuneration Tribunal made the decision earlier this month. Councillors statewide are set to enjoy a pay increase, with deputy mayors the biggest beneficiaries. Mornington Peninsula council is
designated a category three council. Under the new pay rate, category three councillors will receive an allowance of $35,972, up from the previous amount of up to $31,444. The mayor’s pay has risen from up to $100,434 to $119,316. Deputy mayors will now be paid $59,659. The new allowance comes into retrospectively from 18 December last year. The Victorian Independent Remuneration Tribunal has also determined that mayors and deputy mayors will receive a pay rise each year until
2025. In the year 2025 mayors will be paid $132,573, and deputy mayors $66,286. Councillors will receive a pay rise each year until 2023, when they will be paid $38,047. In its determination, the Victorian Independent Remuneration Tribunal wrote that it had “taken into account the substantial change in the roles, responsibilities and workload of council members since their allowances were last reviewed and considered the purpose of council member allowances
and the impact of altering their value, including on diversity of representation in local government. The Tribunal has also comprehensively reviewed the existing allowances system for council members taking into account similar allowances for elected members of local government in other states and in the Northern Territory and allowances for persons elected to voluntary parttime community bodies.” In its submission to the tribunal as part of the decision making process, Ratepayers Victoria said “we have lit-
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tle control over the income we need to cover the cost of rates on top of other taxes and charges. We have one income and three governments to serve. We have no ability to refuse to pay rates even if council’s rate costs are unaffordable. Given there is no reliable data to predict the financial impact of a rise in mayor, deputy mayor and councillor allowances on Victorian households, Ratepayers Victoria feels it would be unwise for the tribunal to make such a determination.”