NEWS DESK
Check-up for virus-hit businesses Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au AN assessment is being made of the financial hardship and wider effects COVID-19 is having on businesses on the Mornington Peninsula. Mornington Peninsula Shire acknowledges many businesses are “doing it tough” and says it will use the data to help with the “recovery process”. The move comes after the shire helped set up a system to deliver “care packages” to households throughout the peninsula. Cr Simon Brooks says statistics for
casual workers on the peninsula “linked to hospitality and tourism who may have lost their jobs” could be given to state and federal politicians. “These are typically, but not always, younger people who are often studying,” he said. “Because our shire has such a reliance on hospitality and tourism, I suspect we are affected much more in this space than many municipalities.” He said casuals in the hospitality and tourism sectors were “more vulnerable, as it is purely circumstantial as to whether they have worked for a given employer for more than a year, and therefore eligible for the JobKeeper al-
lowance as opposed to the JobSeeker allowance”. “The anecdotal evidence is some people are now couch surfing. Not all have families to fall back on.” Cr Brooks said tourism, hospitality, live entertainment and the performing arts sectors were among the first businesses to be shut down “and will likely be the last to re-open, yet due to the casualisation of these sectors, have the least support”. Cr David Gill suggested having “an online conference with our business community, and perhaps unions, to have a united perspective and/or leave these ideas to management to get moving quickly”.
Signs credited with reducing road kill Stephen Taylor steve@mpnews.com.au ELECTRONIC warning signs are being credited with cutting the number of kangaroos that have been killed on some of the Mornington Peninsula’s rural roads. Four solar-powered signs were placed on roads with high recorded incidences of kangaroo deaths: Point Leo Road, Red Hill South, Purves Road, Arthurs Seat, and Browns Road, Main Ridge, including the end of Jetty Road, Boneo. Mornington Peninsula Shire statistics show that 10 kangaroos were killed from July 2018 to June 2019 in Browns Road, Main Ridge, with just two being killed there after the signs were erected from August 2019 to March this year. The statistics show 20 kangaroos were killed over the same time in Purves Road, Arthurs Seat and only three killed in the same period after the signs were erected. The number of kangaroos killed in the same period in Pt Leo Road, Red Hill South, remained at two. The signs, paid for with $30,000 from the Transport Accident Commission’s and $10,000 from the shire, have now been removed to be eventually used on other rural roads. Kangaroos – predominantly eastern greys – reportedly make up at least 90 per cent of all wildlife collisions, with habitat loss partly blamed for
The shire’s bid to help business affected by the COVID-19 pandemic is part of a joint effort by the South East Melbourne (SEM) group of councils, which includes Frankston, Cardinia, Casey, Greater Dandenong, Kingston, Knox and Monash. The information about how businesses are coping during the COVID-19 lockdown will be used individually and collectively by the councils for “recovery activities and to advocate on behalf of our businesses as a result of the COVID-19 impacts”. Tania Treasure, the shire’s innovation and advocacy executive manager, said the online survey (which closes Sunday
16 May) seeks information from businesses about impacts to their revenue, staffing, supply chains and what government stimulus measure they are accessing. Ms Treasure said the peninsula’s results could be extracted from the overall survey to compare with other municipalities. Specific research was also being made so modelling could be done of the peninsula’s economy. “Both of these pieces of information will be important to help us get a good understanding of how and what to level the COVID-19 situation is affecting out business community to help inform recovery efforts,” Ms Treasure said.
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their deaths. Animalia Wildlife Shelter secretary Craig Thomson five years ago said kangaroos were being forced on to road reserves by the clearing of vegetation for housing and gardens, and by property owners building three metre kangarooproof fences, especially in the Tuerong to Cape Schanck area (“Roo slaughter on our roads” The News 29/9/15). It could only have become harder for them find food since then, with added risk posed by an increase in the number of cars on peninsula roads. “The fences limit their ability to move across the land,” Mr Thomson said at the time. The signs project evaluation had shown a “significant reduction in kangaroo roadkill and also a reduction in vehicle speeds along the project roads”, the mayor Cr Sam Hearn said. “We hope this signage will continue to inform and educate
road users of wildlife risks associated with peninsula rural roads and encourage safer driver behaviour.” Cr David Gill was a strong advocate for the signs: “There is significant community concern regarding kangaroos and other fauna being killed on our rural roads. The signs will contribute towards possibly saving human life and protecting our dwindling wildlife.” Mr Thomson said it was often thought that large numbers of kangaroos being killed on roads was a sign of an expanding kangaroo population but this was not the case on the peninsula. “Kangaroos [here] are an isolated population and we could lose them forever if we don’t protect them.” The Australian Wildlife Protection Council was a partner in the signs project, which was supported by the Nepean Greens and Red Hill South Landcare Group.
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