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Tuesday 4 August 2020
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Beachgoers face long wait for better access
Mt Eliza Association for Environmental Care’s Judy Smart wants Mornington Peninsula Shire to upgrade the road and car park at Canadian Bay beach. Picture: Yanni
THE car park and road leading to Canadian Bay beach – described as the most popular in Mount Eliza – are a disgrace, according to the Mt Eliza Association for Environmental Care. Member Judy Smart said the “whole area is very run down, with car parking dominating the landscape, and the road barely driveable. The picnic area is sub-standard”. “We have been trying to get the shire to upgrade the car park and picnic ground because the whole area is very run down and ugly, and the road in has massive pot holes,” Ms Smart said. “It's the only beach in Mount Eliza with easy access for families and the less able. The other beaches have long steep cliff tracks, so it has far more visitors and users than any other Mt Eliza beach. “The shire has a plan for its upgrade, written in 2012, which is very acceptable. We believe that it was nearly scheduled last year or the year before, but Mount Martha got the work done instead.” The shire’s coastal planner Laura Crilly said in a letter to the association that the Mount Eliza Foreshore Reserve Management Plan (2004) recommended updating the Canadian Bay car park and picnic area. “In addition, there is an incomplete Mount Eliza Coastal Management Plan (drafted in 2016),” she said. “In terms of next steps forward, funding for the completion of the new coastal and marine management plan is included in the 2020/21 budget.” Ms Crilly said while the new plan would include the car park upgrade as a “key action” there was no finance included in the long-term capital works plan to complete it. Stephen Taylor
Reprieve for Centrelink Stephen Taylor steve@mpnews.com.au MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire Council has welcomed the six-month extension given to the operation of the Mornington Centrelink office, but wants the arrangement to be permanent. The mayor Cr Sam Hearn said news the Centrelink/Medicare service centre in Main Street would remain open until March next year would “come as a relief to the many local residents who use the service”.
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“This is a crucial support for our community and to close it in the middle of a pandemic would have been disastrous,” Cr Hearn said. “Having that extra six months will ease concerns about the inadequacy of the new agency service that has been set up to replace the centre.” Dunkley Labor MP Peta Murphy said the federal government’s decision to close the Mornington Centrelink office run by 16 staff and replace it with a single desk staffed for 15 hours a week at the Mornington Post Office was “ludicrous”.
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per cent for Australia) and an 11 per cent drop in employment opportunities. “We fear the economic and social impacts of this period will go well beyond March,” he said. “We will continue to advocate for Services Australia to permanently reinstate the Mornington Centrelink office.” The Frankston, Rosebud and Hastings service centres remain open. The Mornington service centre is open 8.30am-4.30pm Monday to Friday.
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tough right now, and locals on the Mornington Peninsula are no different,” Mr Hunt said. “I know that so many families are deeply distressed by the return to stage three restrictions and for those that need assistance, the service centre will be there to support them through this pandemic.” Cr Hearn said the peninsula had suffered one of the heaviest hits to employment in the state due to the coronavirus pandemic, with close to 6000 job losses, a 21 per cent fall in gross regional product (compared with 6.9
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“Before the recession and pandemic, over 800 people visited Mornington services centre every week,” she said. “The fight to protect Mornington Centrelink and Medicare is far from over. Together we will support each other to get through the current crisis and then refocus to ensure that this community gets the service it deserves.” Flinders MP Greg Hunt said he was pleased that Services Australia was keeping the service centre open “to support locals through COVID-19”. “Many Australians are doing it
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