Wednesday, 15 30 June, 2022 2021
Pakenham
pakenham.starcommunity.com.au
@PakenhamGazette
/PakenhamBerwickGazette
$2.00 Inc. GST
Queen honours locals PAGES 8-15
Cost of living puts strain on food banks A cost of living crisis is being felt by Pakenham residents with inflation at a 21-year high and expected to rise. People suffering from hardship are flooding community pantries in search of food support. Pakenham Living and Learning Centre chief executive officer Miriam Cadwallader said food demand had “skyrocketed“. “We have our 24/7 community pantry and it’s wiped out every night,“ she said. Single, young mums and dads appear to be the most vulnerable to the rising prices of food, housing and transport. STORY PAGE 2
Braving the Big Freeze
Retail giant on the way The community exploded with excitement on Wednesday 8 June at news the American bulk buy superstore Costco would be opening a membership warehouse in Officer. Thousands of interactions from Gazette readers on Facebook made the article one of the most liked, shared and commented on stories published by the newspaper. Costco Wholesale announced it would to invest $150m into opening three new stores in Victoria, if plans were approved. STORY PAGE 5
The Garfield Hotel was packed full of people for its inaugural Big Freeze event which raised almost $20,000 to fight motor neurone disease (MND). Sliding into a pool of icy water were 15 brave souls who dressed to impress on Sunday 12 June. Hotel owner Brad Alden-Brown thanked the local community members of Garfield and Bunyip for their substantial support. BIG FREEZE COVERAGE 16-17, 22-23
Butcher John Preston and councillor Graeme Moore slide together. 285164
Picture: ROB CAREW
Farm’s $60K fine A Kooweerup farming company has been fined $60,000 for employing illegal workers to pick and pack asparagus and broccolini. M&G Vizzarri pleaded guilty in the Victorian County Court to recklessly employing nine
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illegal workers at its farm in 2016. The employees, who did not have the visa provisions to lawfully work in Australia, were paid under the award rate with women earning $14 an hour and men given $15 an hour, County Court Judge Trevor Wraight said on Friday 10 June. M&G Vizzarri did not check the
employees’ visas, despite the business being aware of an online government system set up to help Australian companies with the task. The farm was raided by Australian Border Force and Australian Federal Police officers in December 2, 2016, and nine illegal workers were found packing vegetables.
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