Flinders Pier, again, again
Altona Pier resplendent with its $12m make over, Portsea Pier with a Christmas Promise, Dromana Forecourt in refurbishment, and now our Flinders Pier.
Having been through surgery for months, it has been put into something worse than palliative care.
Most of us would wonder why we would start a “repair”, get close to the completion, and decide, “No, it’s not worth finishing it!”
I’ve never heard a dishwasher repairer, or a car repairer say “I’m sorry, I’ve just spent your $1.3m dollars and I’m not going to fix it”.
Where is the economic justification for all this?
As far as we can tell, all the reports of the condition of the pier were clear and well-researched, and the costs were estimated.
But to get to the end of the repair process and then run out of money while the repair of Port Phillip piers is galloping along to achieve coastal beauty close to political homelands seems a bit obvious.
Our newly elected member for Nepean has assured us that a new government will repair things. We at Flinders, and those 45,000 people who asked seven years ago for the repair of our pier, are waiting for some Superman or Supergirl to arrive with a big machine to get things finished by, maybe, by this Christmas?
We hope patiently, but are not amused. Jacinta, can you do something?
Dr N. D. Hallam, Flinders
Housing project
The Southern Women’s Action Network’s Women for Housing Justice group are pleased to see that the Women’s Properties Initiatives (WPI) housing project in Hastings is going ahead and will be opening early in 2027.
The WPI housing project is an excellent example of what our community needs – more affordable housing for local people who are struggling to find a safe place to live.
In the last 18 months seven people have died sleeping rough on the Mornington Peninsula. Recent figures show that there are currently more people sleeping on our foreshore, in cars and in parks than ever before and these numbers are continuing to increase each month.
Sadly, the Mornington Peninsula now has the highest number of rough sleepers in Victoria.
SWAN has long been advocating that housing and homelessness groups and agencies work together to address the dire situation in our local area.
We have also been calling for our fair share of funding from all levels of government to make it possible to build more crisis accommodation and social housing.
This project is a great partnership between the Mornington Peninsula Shire, WPI, Homes Victoria (State government’s Big Housing Build) and philanthropic partners Jack and Ethel Goldin Foundation, TEN Women and Homes for Homes.
It shows how a collaborative partnership can deliver a very positive outcome. Thank you to all involved for making this project possible.
What we now desperately need is more projects of this kind. We do not want more people to die in our community because they do not have a place to call home.
Judith Couacaud Graley,
Chair, Women for Housing Justice (A sub group of SWAN)
Abandoning services
The contrast between the two articles on page 5 of Mornington News is a disgrace. One (Tiny homes handover after a huge community effort, The News 16/6/26) is a credit to the vision, compassion and determination of the generous nature of the hearts of good community people while the other was not (Shire’s Meals on Wheels service to be abolished, The News 16/6/26).
Past shire mayor, Simon Brooks hit the nail on the head. He states, “governments and agencies struggle to deliver … through unwieldy processes that frankly are not often fit for purpose”.
We have one of those agencies for the Victorian state government here known as the Mornington Peninsula Shire. Its primary objective is to deliver state policy and related agendas.
The hidden agenda of the Aged Care Act 2024, although presented as benevolent and rights orientated for the aged, is essentially abdicating responsibility of “duty of care” in these services for our aged from itself to outside entities.
As Jeff Kennett gave us higher energy costs in the 90’s by selling off the Gas and Fuel Corporation and the State Electricity Commission utilities, this move will likely result in higher costs and therefore higher charges for what should be compassionate service delivery for our aged population.
The specialty providers that take on Meals on Wheels, Community Transport and Group Social Support will likely result in profit-based providers because of the increased statutory duties and compliance costs… here read fees… due to this over governance. The result will be people will go hungry. Often these services are the only contact a pensioner may have on a weekly basis.
The shire should stick with it instead of “abandoning ship” and find a way. It must continue valuing its volunteers and all the benefits, both psychological and economical, that come with using volunteers.
Monic Martini, Mornington
Anniversary celebration
On Saturday 13 June I joined with the members of the Gunnamatta Surf Life Saving Club in celebrating their 60 years of volunteer community service from 1966 -2026.
The history involves early volunteers who set up the club in an old tin shed and patrolled one of Australia’s’ most dangerous beaches.
Since then it has progressed to being the incredible club it is now with hundreds of members and many programs involving training to the highest standards of life saving including “Nippers” programs. The club has also achieved outstanding success in surf carnivals.
The Mornington Peninsula has many brave volunteers involved in life saving including the CFA, SES, our six Surf Life Saving Clubs and Dromana Lifesaving club.
Thank you to Gunnamatta SLSC and all the other lifesaving volunteers for the work you do.
Cr David Gill, Coolart Ward
Power problem
Tom Maher’s letter (Electrifying, Letters 16/6/26) opines that I am mistaken in my opinion that we will never have sufficient electricity to recharge a national fleet of electric vehicles. He then asserts that most people recharge off solar panels, but that can’t be done and isn’t.
Most EVs have batteries between 50 and 100 kilowatt-hours. The usual standard solar array is about seven kilowatts, producing maybe 24 Kwh per day. A full charge would require about two days for the smaller car, four days for the larger one.
But wait, there’s more. Most cars are being used and not at home during the day, home charging would have to be at night when solar power is zero.
The average home itself consumes about 13 Kwh per day. The average common larger EV uses at least as much as the house.
Think deeply about EVs. In the future, if most cars are electric, when you are driving and nearly empty and enter a charging station, all of the other cars are not going to fill up and move on in five minutes, they are going to queue and take up to two hours.
There may well be ten cars waiting ahead of you. For hours.
Victoria is barely holding out with electricity supply, relying on kindergarten engineering: intermittent and unreliable wind power, solar farms, some peaking at four to five hours a day, and now gigantic in size and cost storage batteries of which there are not enough.
Nuclear is cheaper and should placate all of the carbon and pollution and doom zealots, but the State (the taxpayer) would have to do it all and then, into the future, some short sighted ideology driven incompetent politician would sell it all off.
Brian A Mitchelson, Mornington
SECCCA still?
It was encouraging to read that Mornington Peninsula Shire has established a Climate Resilience Plan Advisory Committee (Council renames climate group, The News 16/6/26).
As Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) President Cr Matt Burnett has noted, investing in resilience helps protect communities and reduce future disaster costs.
While the federal government’s $1bn Roads to Recovery funding is welcome, ALGA warns councils remain under severe financial pressure from natural disasters and rising costs.
That challenge is particularly acute for Mornington Peninsula Shire. With 190km of coastline, it ranks among the three east coast councils most exposed to storm surge and sea-level rise, the others being Bega Valley Shire and the Sunshine Coast.
The timing of the shire’s resilience planning is good because it coincides with the Victorian government’s preparation of Adaptation Action Plans 2027–31 for 8 statewide systems: Built Environment: Education and Training, Energy, Health and Human Services, Natural Environment, Primary Production, Transport, and Water Cycle.
However, resilience and adaptation address only part of the problem. The greater challenge is reducing emissions.
Responding to the rescission of the shire’s 2019 Climate Emergency Declaration, the Western Port Biosphere expressed disappointment that emissions-reduction measures were being viewed as costs rather than investments in community wellbeing.
Mornington Peninsula Shire is one of the nine members of the South East Councils Climate Change Alliance (SECCCA), whose first objective is to “achieve net-zero council emissions and lead action toward net-zero community emissions”, in line with the Paris Agreement. Can the Shire still justify its membership?
Ray Peck, Hawthorn
Self evident
Diane and Nerida wrote regarding my letter indicating I included incorrect information (Getting the facts correct, Letters 16/6/26), (Covid confusion, Letters 16/6/26).
Statistics show the Covid pandemic in Australia occurred between March 2020 and October 2021, Victorians suffered 262 days of lockdown.
During the period above there were 1671 deaths related to Covid 1084 (65%) in Victoria and 540 (32%) in NSW the remaining 47 were in the other states and territories.
Bolte, on leaving government left a debt of $22.7b. His infrastructure legacy included projects needed at the time: Westgate bridge, Tullamarine Airport, and expansion of our universities.
Cain/Kirner left a debt of $33b (approximately $244b today). Their legacy among other projects left a part finished Monash Freeway. On the plus side the TAC and Vic Health, paid for by selling the State Bank.
Kennett’s debt was $6.5b (approximately $44b today). His legacy is the Domain tunnel, City Link, Federation square and “Jeff’s Shed”.
While the past is interesting, today’s records show a picture which is self-explanatory. Our future does not look positive with the state debt reaching $200b and debt repayments not matching the required amount by $56m per month (it is called insolvency).
The problem was created by incompetence, East link is currently $26b over budget, West Gate Tunnel was $10b over budget, and the SLR railway is predicted to be $16b over budget. This inept management has led to a debt level of $25,000 for each Victoria.
To anyone who might listen, a wise person once said,” Purchasing” during life was “What is Needed,” not what you would like, need should always become the motivation to spend.
The removal of railway gates is needed, as is the repairing of potholes, reducing crime, and fixing the judicial system. What is not needed is an underground rail system when there is a system already running above ground!
Bruce White, Safety Beach
We need a monoculture
Pauline Hanson is right: many of our nation’s deepest problems today stem from our refusal to defend and maintain a distinct monoculture. For too long, the political and media class have dismissed this concept, yet a nation cannot function without a singular, dominant cultural baseline to unite its people.
Real Australian culture is not a blank slate, nor is it non-existent. It is an unspoken social contract built on deep mutual trust, fierce egalitarianism, and an unshakeable camaraderie where we all pull in the same direction. It is a high-trust system forged by generations who respected the rules, worked hard, and looked out for one another. When we fragment into competing factions with conflicting values, that foundational social glue completely dissolves.
If we all adhered strictly to this traditional Australian ethos, our country would be a far safer, more cohesive, and prosperous place for everyone – including those who have been given the immense privilege to migrate here. True integration means taking that opportunity with both hands, showing absolute allegiance to our civic rules, and working for the betterment of the nation that welcomed you.
When a national team takes the field, they win because they wear the same jersey and play by the same playbook. It is time we expected the same from everyone living under our flag. A monoculture isn’t about race; it is about protecting the high-trust standard that made Australia the best country in the world in the first place.
B. Parker, Mornington
Rise of One Nation
It seems the left leaners ignored the message sent by everyday Aussies with their 60% no vote in the Voice referendum and still expected us to fall in line with their radical views.
Now, with the rise of One Nation, what started out as mild amusement, has now morphed into full blown panic.
When polling showed One Nation polling well in the Farrer by-election, Get-up sent out an emergency e-mail to it’s donors for campaign funds for the climate 200 candidate. The result? $600,000 of donor money down the drain.
They then followed with an attempt to bully Hanson at the National Press Club. Aussies don’t like bullies.
Normal everyday Aussies are waking up. Unlike with Trump in 2016, people aren’t afraid to voice their support for the coalition or One Nation.
When the ABS states that for every three migrants we need one new dwelling, who can argue that 500,000 a year is too many?
Who could argue that it’s wrong for an U16s girls netball team in Mildura to refuse to play against a side containing a male wearing a netball skirt who had allegedly broken the jaw of a 14-year-old girl the week before?
I mean really… Our Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner can’t even give a definition of what is a woman.
Who can argue that the ABC doesn’t have a glaring bias to the left?
Just like in the USA, Britain and mainland Europe, Australians are finally coming to a new understanding of politics. It’s called common sense.
M. G. Free, Mt Martha
The Orange Curse
After watching Pauline Hanson’s press club manifesto, I’m asking, what is in the water in Queensland?
The mindless populism, without actual policies that comes out of characters like Bejelke Peterson and now Hanson, should have any thinking person worried.
The pure vindictiveness shown towards media she dislikes is Trumpian in its shallowness.
I hope people will wake up to her divisiveness over the next two years until the next election, and make her disappear.
All I see is a tool of the billionaire Gina the great big.
Rupert Steiner, Balnarring
BarleyCharlie@90
Jitters in June. “Ain’t We Got Fun” Peggy Lee, as in “the rich get rich and the poor get poorer”.
Australia; 13 billionaires to 188 in 15 years, similarly 12.8 below the poverty line to currently 15.6.
And yet, Pauline Hanson’s popularity (policies?) over Labor approaching an Orange tsunami?
Add in the wonders, thinking (?) of regional and rural Australians as they gorge on their breakfasts of fresh orange juice, bacon and two eggs on toasted sourdough?
Are they aware of Princess Pauline’s policies, her millionaire’s luxury aircraft?
Sure, we survived Bolte, Howard, Costello, even the slightly weird Scotty, but Hanson?
Not forgetting Donald overseas and Collingwood’s dropping down, down, down.
“Oh woe is me”? Thank God for meals on wheels.
Cliff Ellen, Rye
