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A century of Jean The formidable Jean Emmie Hitch will be welcomed into the ranks of Macedon Ranges centenarians on July 1. The Gisborne Oaks Aged Care Facility resident has lived a colourful life, working in broadcasting and in a doctor’s office before diving headfirst into farming in the Macedon Ranges. She was born in Elsternwick, and grew up while the second world war raged. When Jean left Australia in 1947, she spent years overseas in Holland and Indonesia, and travelled through Europe. In 1965, Jean bought property in Kerrie, even though she knew very little of farm life. After buying her first hundred sheep, she never looked back. She ran the farm on weekdays, up at the crack of dawn to check on her flock. After eight years, it was time to upsize, and she impulse-bought Glenbrook, a 1200 acre established property near Kyneton. Her greatest joys in life are her three children, and it’s with a little smile and a wink that he says the biggest life lesson she’s learnt is to “grab every opportunity you can”.
JEAN HITCH
‘Traumatic’ time at Hume By Elsie Lange A councillor has opened up about the “traumatic” toll of Hume’s internal arbitration processes, which have cost the organisation nearly $143,000. The previously confidential details and costs of councillor complaints against each other were revealed during a council meeting on Tuesday, June 14. Cr Joseph Haweil said he felt “immense sadness and disappointment” that $142,898 of ratepayers’ money had been spent to investigate applications to the Principal Councillor Conduct Registrar from November, 2020 until May 31, 2022, despite limited breach findings.
“After councillor [Jack] Medcraft, I think I am the second most complained about councillor … although not one of the four complaints ever made against me provided an adverse finding against me, only two even proceeded to arbitration,” Cr Haweil said. “It’s fair to say going through that complaints process can be a very traumatic and upsetting period, it can be a period in which you feel like you’re in limbo. “You don’t know what the outcome will be, you have to expend … a significant amount of time providing responses to arbiters … I certainly did that, at financial cost to myself.” Cr Haweil said it had been an “upsetting and difficult period” for him, and other councillors had told him the same.
“You do lose sleep, at times, and I’m not embarrassed to say that, because you think … did I do something wrong, have I said something wrong, and what will the outcome of this process be,” Cr Haweil said. The documents show the council has spent at least $48,583 on 21 internal arbitration matters brought by Cr Trevor Dance. One has resulted in a finding of a breach of the councillor code of conduct, so far. The most expensive arbitration case to council was brought by a group of councillors, who were represented by mayor Carly Moore, against Cr Dance, costing $16,987. In this case Cr Dance had eight breaches found against him, was banned from two council meetings and forced to apologise.
The documents also reveal council spent $65,014 on costs for a councillor conduct panel, which found Cr Dance guilty of serious misconduct and suspended him for three months. Cr Dance has appealed that verdict to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, and has been reinstated while the process plays out. Cr Haweil implored his colleagues to avoid recourse methods that costs ratepayers “huge amounts of money”. “Nearly $145,000 of their hard-earned money has been spent on lawyers, and from what I can see … those figures we see quoted could very much increase, and increase exponentially, depending on what happens,” Cr Haweil said.
Mary-Anne Thomas MP
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LABOR MEMBER FOR MACEDON DELIVERING FOR OUR COMMUNITY
Authorised by MA Thomas, Shop 14, Nexus Centre, 9 Goode Street, Gisborne
A: Shop 14, Nexus Centre, 9 Goode Street, Gisborne, VIC 3437 P: 5428 2138 E: mary-anne.thomas@parliament.vic.gov.au MaryAnneMacedon @MaryAnneThomas maryannethomasmp
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