Email - news@themooraboolnews.com.au
News
The Moorabool News – 19 July, 2022 Page 5
A brighter future from donations By Lachlan Ellis A local chicken shop is celebrating an incredible milestone this month, with more than 6000 meals now provided for struggling families in Cambodia. Chicken With a Mission on Main Street, Bacchus Marsh is owned and operated by Belinda Marshall, who opened the shop last year. Ms Marshall said the fundraising tied in with the non-profit Brighter Future Organisation, which she founded in 2018 to alleviate poverty and illiteracy in Cambodia. “The passion’s come from their lack of access to education and poverty. A meal in Cambodia is about 20 cents, so we work that out with what the villages we work with need, which is mostly rice, and sometimes veggies. Depending on our meal sales, we get about 10 to 15 families a month supplied with rice,” Ms Marshall said. “I’m a teacher by trade, and did some work volunteering in an orphanage over there. Then when I got back, we kicked off with some fundraising to build a new school, and now we’ve got an NGO based in Cambodia. The chicken shop on the side supports that funding for the NGO.”
The country is still recovering from the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s, and Ms Marshall says the corrupt government that currently rules isn’t making it easy for Cambodians to get back on their feet. “I’ve lived in Cambodia, we’ve built three schools over there so I’ve spent a lot of time over there. It’s really tough for people, there are really high levels of poverty. The main areas we help in are food, shelter, and clothing, and then the next level is education,” she said. "A lot of the villages and people we work with struggle to put food on the table. The two villages we’re in right now, they have an average of $1 a day income. The kids are illiterate, not just in English but in their own language too, because they have no access to education in the villages. “So it’s pretty tough, there’s a lot of corruption in Cambodia.” For more information on the Brighter Future Organisation and how to support its fight against illiteracy and poverty in Cambodia, visit www.brighterfutureorg.com.
Belinda Marshall with the running tally of meals donated to Cambodians, with photos of Cambodians the Brighter Future Organisation has helped below. Photo – Lachlan Ellis
After debate, grants awarded By Lachlan Ellis A series of Community Grant applications have been approved by Council, despite disagreement over moving funding between the categories. The ‘Community Grants Report – March 2022’ first came before Council at the 1 June Ordinary Meeting, deferred to the 6 July Ordinary Meeting due to debate over the terms of funding allocation. In the latest round of Community Grant funding, $160,045 was available across five program categories, with 16 applications requesting a combined total of $107,747.50. However, each category had a different portion available, from a $8,400 pool for ‘Sustainability and Environmental Engagement’, to $71,645 from the ‘Community Development Fund’. After assessing the applications, Council Officers recommended $25,582.50 of funding be provided. Debate arose among Councillors over the suggestion to take money from the leftover funds from other Community Grant categories, and give it to Sustainability and Environmental Engagement applicants, which had exceeded its available amount by $5,250. Councillors Tom Sullivan and Paul Tatchell argued, while the projects in question were worthy recipients, taking money from other streams would contradict Council policy. “It’s a very difficult thing to actually do this...basically because we’re not following the adopted process of guidelines that we agreed upon some time ago. We’re now trying to utilise funds out of other reserve funds within the Community Grants program, to supplement these ones,” Cr Sullivan said. “They’re all very good projects, I’m not denying that, but it’s process I’m concerned about...it leaves us open to criticism that we just make decisions on the run.” Cr Tatchell agreed, arguing that “process should ultimately be the foundation of anything we do”. “The reality is the only way you can protect
‘Going to work’ no excuse By Lachlan Ellis
yourself when you move money around is by sticking to the process. While I agree that the grant money should be given to those volunteers who do wonderful things, we have a responsibility to the process we have,” he said. Cr Rod Ward, who moved the motion to approve the grants, said he was comfortable with Council allocating the money, given it was well below the amount available. “The most important resource we have in the community is volunteers. The amount recommended [to provide] is $25,582.50, about 16 per cent of the pool...I’m very comfortable that all these grants should be approved. It’s significantly less than we budgeted,” he said. Crs Tonia Dudzik and David Edwards agreed with Cr Ward, stating the grants should be approved and the Community Grants policy should be clarified for future rounds. “Planting days do have to happen in spring, if we did delay them till next allocation of money it would’ve been too late. Noting that we do need to clarify our policies...I think the right thing to do is allocate the funding,” Cr Edwards added. Crs Ward, Dudzik, Edwards, and Cr Ally Munari voted in favour of the approval, while Crs Tatchell and Berry voted against – thus, the vote was carried. Cr Tatchell told the Moorabool News the process has not been followed which appears to have now set a precedent. “It is not our money, it is ratepayers’ money and the process should have been followed,” he said.
A young man has been fined for two driving offences, after telling police he was “going to work” while driving over the speed limit. Jaskaran Jajj entered a guilty plea to both exceeding the speed limit and driving while disqualified at the Bacchus Marsh Magistrates’ Court on Friday 15 July. “It was 8.50 am on Sunday the 30th of May 2021. Police observed the accused driving a silver sedan at a fast rate of speed east on the Western Freeway near Myrniong, estimated at 130 km/h in 110 zone,” Leading Senior Constable Clare Kane explained. “Using a speed detector, he was seen to be at 128 km/h, with an alleged speed of 126 km/h. He was intercepted, licence checks indicated his licence had been disqualified for a period of six months from the 30 January 2021 in relation to an infringement notice. His vehicle was impounded for 30 days. He was asked if there was any reason he was driving so fast, he said no. He was asked what his reason was for driving while disqualified, he said ‘I’m going to work’.” Magistrate Hugh Radford acknowledged that Mr Jajj was young and a hard worker, but said he had to set a penalty that deterred him and other drivers from disobeying road rules. “Therefore I will impose an aggregate fine of $800 on both charges. One of the aggravating charges is that it was quite clear you shouldn’t have been driving,” the Magistrate said.
Have your say on how we plan Victoria’s grid of the future
Victoria’s energy system is changing - and the way we deliver energy infrastructure is changing too. The Victorian Government has released a Consultation Paper on the preliminary design of the Victorian Transmission Investment Framework (VTIF), which sets out its proposed approach to developing Renewable Energy Zones. Public consultation on the framework is open until 15 August 2022 and we want to hear from you to help plan this key part of Victoria’s energy transition.
energy.vic.gov.au
Details of online information sessions are available at engage.vic.gov.au/victoriantransmission-investmentframework where you can also read the Consultation Paper, make a submission or take a short survey to give your views.