Let nature do its thing on our beaches
It seems our shire again caved in to the entitled few in our community, with its decision to continue with the environmentally destructive and very costly practice of machine beach cleaning. We here in Balnarring have no gripe with the annual shedding of sea weed and it’s repositioning on our beaches. On the contrary, we think it a great bonus for the annual creation of our sandy beaches. It’s a natural process and helps with catching some of the sand that gets taken away by the sea over summer. Why are some people so incapable of letting nature do it’s thing? They should have stayed in the city if nature is such a scary thing to them.
Rupert Steiner, Balnarring Beach
Council protests
I was one of hundreds who attended the last council meeting to protest against the funding cuts to the arts, Willum Warrain, and climate emergency. A debacle from beginning to end, the venue was altered at short notice from Flinders to Rosebud. The cynical amongst us might wonder if the change allowed the councillors to skulk in the back door at Rosebud, instead of being forced to run the gamut of protesters.
While I left early in disappointment and disgust, I doubt if any debate was allowed on the cuts to the organisations mentioned above. However, I did hear the discussion about beach cleaning; mechanical raking versus hand cleaning. Science clearly has no place in this council. There were diverse statements about which was the most cost effective, to add to the confusion.
Raking is ascetically pleasing, none of that unsightly seaweed, beautiful level sand. However, seaweed is a natural phenomenon, supports microorganisms, and assists in healthy beaches. Beaches that have been hand cleaned show increased vegetation, and sand dunes recovering. Hand cleaning also removes litter from behind beach boxes and the foreshore which raking cannot do.
The urge to have everything looking perfect is akin to supermarkets who refuse fruit and vegetables that have a blemish or are too large or too small. As a member of the Beachbox Association, I was disappointed to receive an email requesting I contact my ward councillor to seek support for mechanical cleaning. Haven’t they read the science? Have they considered that raking removes the natural slope of beaches, so tidal activity and waves will encroach further on their beloved asset?
As the mayor shut down any discussion, talked about community consultation, and said this was democracy at work, I decided his idea of democracy was very different to mine.
Enid Williams, Mt Martha
First Nation plight
During the Voice referendum we were assured that the proponents of the “No” case were not racist, all they wanted was to concentrate on practical efforts to “Close The Gap” rather than constitutional changes.
But ever since the defeat of the referendum all we have seen is emboldened attacks on First Nations people: Complaints about Welcome to Country, leaving the flying of Aboriginal flags, the lowering of the age of criminal responsibility leading to the jailing of vulnerable children of 10 years of age.
Now the Mornington Peninsula Shire wants to get into the culture wars with their de-funding of Willum Warrain, the shire’s only Aboriginal Gathering Place.
If the council does not change this decision, the holes in our souls will be bigger than Mornington Peninsula’s pot-holes. I am sure that this is not what a majority of rate-payers want.
Joan Doyle, Dromana
Shire cuts wrong
The council’s threatened cut of over $100,000 to Willum Warrain, the shire’s only Aboriginal Gathering Place is shameful. Willum Warrain has 3180 Aboriginal members and their families who depend on their support, as well as an equal number of non-Indigenous associate members.
It is also unbelievable that the council wants to cut $9,000 from Friends of Lospalos for projects in Timor Leste. Both community groups do amazing work with this small but vital amount of money, multiplying by many times the value of this community investment. A debt is owed to both groups.
Timor Leste played a crucial role in assisting Australia during World War Two. We need to have friendly and supportive relations with these near neighbours.
The debt owed to our First Nations people is even more obvious. Bunurong lands were illegally occupied 225 years ago under the legal fiction of “terra nullius”. Endless injustice followed: stolen land, dispossession, destruction of food sources, language and culture, disease and violence including the kidnapping and stealing of women and children.
We need to pay at least a pepper-corn rent and give them a share of the council’s budget.
Pauline Ratcliff, Mornington
Reply awaited
On 5 May we wrote to the mayor regarding the shelving of the MPSC Climate Emergency Plan. We asked the following questions:
- What are the specifics of alternative programs and the project funding mentioned at the meeting?
- Why was this decision rushed and the community ignored?
- Why has Council withdrawn from the declaration?
Concerned at his very dismissive reply: “Respectfully, we will have to agree to disagree on this”, we wrote a second time, asking the mayor to please answer our questions. This time his reply was longer: “I believe that those councillors (including myself) have provided their rationale, and the others should respect the vote.”
To date the mayor has not answered our questions or explained to us the rational of which he speaks. SWAN members remain deeply disturbed about the lack of transparency regarding this decision and the lack of evidence on which it was based.
These feelings are now compounded by the recent decisions by our councillors to reduce a wide range of community grants. We are particularly concerned as to the reasoning behind the mean-spirited decision to remove the “Inclusion subsidy” to Willum Warrain Aboriginal Gathering Place ($103,500) and a grant of $9,000 to help finance scholarships to train teachers in Los Palos, East Timor. Small grants in the realm of things, that would have made a significant difference to many marginalised people.
All councillors have been made aware of the mayor’s replies to our letters and we have asked them to tell us their own views on these matters. Especially regarding the transparency of decision making. We await their responses with interest, knowing full well they do not all agree.
For SWAN members, it’s simply not enough to be brushed aside by being told “this is democracy in action’’.
Diane McDonald, Facilitator
Southern Women’s Action Network
Cuts welcome
Contrary to the long bleeding heart letters in today’s issue of the The News, I commend the council for its gutsy decisions to cancel funding for Creative and Performing Arts Fund and the Willum Warrain in favour of items that are relevant to the vast majority of ratepayers.
Creative and Performing Arts generate little or no enthusiasm for the public at large, particularly once they have left school. If these interested parties are so convinced of the merit of their craft then they should be content to have them supported by public subscription in the form of ticket sales to their performances.
Past funding has been out of all proportion in favour of an elite few. If these groups cannot survive by bringing the public to their functions then it demonstrates how irrelevant they are.
As for Willum Warrain I stand up and give an almighty cheer to councillors who had the guts to reflect what the vast majority of ratepayers think about having this cult of aboriginality thrust upon us all too frequently.
Keep up the good work councillors. We are living in 2025, not 1825.
Barry Rumpf, McCrae
A healthier future
It’s terrific to read that many schools and families participated in “National Walk Safely to School Day” (Small steps make a big difference, The News 20/5/25). But, ideally, this shouldn’t just be a once a year thing. Where possible, kids should be walking or riding bikes to school every day.
It’s true that, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, kids aged between five and 14 should undertake at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day. Less than a quarter of Australian children do this.
Growing up in the 80’s most kids were outside and active all the time. The rise in screens has correlated with the decline of childhood freedom and engagement with nature. Walking or biking to a bus stop or to school boosts individual and community health and reduces our toll on the environment.
Where possible, let’s take steps toward a healthier future.
Amy Hiller, Kew
Party lines
While I acknowledge the importance of adequate funding for our emergency services, like many people I do not accept Labor’s Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund (ESVF), which begins in July. In most instances the levy will more than double the current Fire Services Levy and many Victorians, already seriously struggling financially, will be disproportionately impacted.
Some councils across Victoria will rightly use council meetings to question the fund, which is expected to raise at least $2m in additional property tax revenue at many councils. The fair and equitable method of funding our emergency services would be through general state revenue, thus spreading the expenditure more evenly through our community. To off load this new tax onto shire councils seems both lazy and unimaginative.
This issue also raises another important question about the effectiveness of our representation in state parliament. Being an elected member of parliament is a difficult and demanding job but that fact doesn’t excuse the reaction below on social media from Paul Mercurio MP when questioned about his voting for the ESVF.
“I knew nothing about the bill until a week or so before it came to parliament. The Labor party votes as a block. To vote against a bill that the party put forward pretty much gets you kicked out of the party and you would end up as an independent. That would be a completely useless and ineffective place to be.”
The above statement demonstrates that sufficient attention has not been exercised regarding bills being discussed in parliament. It demonstrates a lack of willingness to vote in the best interests of the electorate.
It’s not too late for the member for Hastings to stand up in parliament and make clear unfair financial impact of the EFSA will have on the community he represents.
Geoff Selby, Moorooduc
Warming proof
Brian A Mitchelson (Climate clash, Letters 20/5/25) doubts that the greenhouse gases emitted from burning fossil fuels are the main cause of the relatively rapid temperature rise we are experiencing. Instead, he wants “proof”, says that “scientists know next to nothing” and claims “the lengthy cycles of sunspot activity, during which the solar radiation is changed slightly in magnitude and composition” are the cause.
But when one looks at the graph of measured solar irradiation over time, it can be seen that the six solar cycles since 1950 have been remarkably similar and show no upward trend. In answer to the question, “Is the sun causing global warming?” the NASA response is “We know subtle changes in Earth’s orbit around the Sun are responsible for the comings and goings of the ice ages. But the warming we’ve seen in recent decades is too rapid to be linked to changes in Earth’s orbit and too large to be caused by solar activity.”
Australia’s own Academy of Science declares that “human activities, specifically the burning of fossil fuels and the destruction of forests, are rapidly changing Earth’s climate. Anyone who looks at NASA’s graph at climate.nasa.gov/evidence/ will see that, based on ice core samples and today’s measurements, carbon dioxide levels are at their highest levels for 800,000 years, and rising fast. That’s “proof” enough for me.
Ray Peck, Hawthorn
Climate denial
Brian Mitchelson (Climate clash, Letters 20/5) cannot be serious in claiming that CO2 has not be proven as a cause of global warming. Thousands of climate scientists have spent years collecting and analysing data that shows conclusively that increased CO2 levels over the past 300 years correlate with increased global temperatures. No other change has occurred in the atmosphere, the ground or the Sun that can account for these changes.
The chemistry behind the absorption of solar radiation by CO2 and the emission of the energy as heat energy is well understood by science.Thousands of climate scientist the world over do not dispute this except a few radical and discredited scientists who beg to differ. These scientists are quite well known by virtue of the fact that they are part of a very small group.
Brian refers to the solar cycles which apparently, according to Brian, science knows little about, however, solar cycles are about ten years long and despite the vagaries of the cycles there is no discernible difference in the recorded upward trend in global temperature.
It is fine for Brian to say that global temperature is returning to “normal”, whatever that is, but this new normal will have devastating effects on coastal communities and untold impacts on food production.
Unlike in the millennia past when the Earth’s population was small and populations could move to new locations to better environments when the weather changed, such movements are simply not possible in today’s overcrowded world.
Would people like Brian rather we do nothing to address climate change and then in say 50 years, when even sceptics such as himself are proved wrong, they will say “oops my bad”?
Dr Ross Hudson, Mount Martha
Political leaders?
Three more years, accompanied by fragmented (perilous?) trade deals?
We (almost all) wish, including the bunny Richard Marles, our PM and catholic Anthony Albanese a safe return from his Jakarta and Rome jaunts, possibly even coffee with Donald, US of A.
Ditto his factions colleagues.
Not however, Ed Husic and Mark Dreyfus and the nonsense of a collective process, or our other world traveller, moderate Sussan Ley, a hidden jewel or a flop; net zero nuclear policy, and PM hopeful Jacinta N Price?
We thank Angus Taylor for sparing us more of his bland take on economics, if any.
Our once famous Liberal Party is spruking “maintaining values” which is like me saying the umpire was unbiased in a Collingwood loss.
Values; the rich getting richer, negative gearing, capital gains and biassed umpires?
We thank God for the privacy of my local RSL, ignoring the many Herald Sun headline readers. Enough said…
Cliff Ellen, Rye
