NOVEMBER 14, 2017 \ STARWEEKLY.COM.AU
NEWS + SPORT + THE WEST’S BEST PROPERTY GUIDE
Rally call for safety By Tate Papworth
Young gun shows drive
Protect Victoria, a group formed earlier this year following the Bourke Street car attack and which has more than 30,000 Facebook members, will hold its first rally this Sunday. Members of the group will descend on Caroline Springs’ The Grange Village Park from noon as they continue to push for harsher penalties for serious violent crime, particularly for repeat offenders. While the group has held safety forums in the past, Protect Victoria founder Hayden Bradford said the Caroline Springs event will be its first rally. “Based on what our members wanted, we thought a peaceful rally was the way to go,” he said.
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Lachlan Munday has defied the odds multiple times in his short life. Born three months premature, weighing only 1071 grams, Lachlan spent the first three months of his life in a neonatal intensive care unit. Now, at 11 years of age, Lachlan has overcome adversity and will travel to China to represent Australia at the 2017 IFMAR electric off-road 1/10th world championships – the pinnacle event for radio controlled car racing. While the sport isn’t one that receives widespread attention, Lachlan’s mum, Christina, said it’s helped enormously with her son’s development. “Growing up he tried his hand at a number of mainstream sports, but he never really felt comfortable with them,” she said. “His dad does electric off-road racing and so he decided to give it a go and hasn’t looked back.” Lachlan picked up the sport in late 2014 and in that time has rapidly ascended the ranks, taking the family across the nation. “We’ve travelled to South Australia, Western Australia, New South Wales, all over Victoria and last year we even went to the US,” Ms Munday said. “Normally you get two years to accumulate enough points to race in the world championships, but Lachlan only had a year, so we’ve been competing at all sorts of different state championships and he’s racked up the points.” After seeing the profound impact the sport has had on Lachlan, Ms Munday said she wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to parents in a similar position. “It’s a unique sport. It’s really good for children who fall out of the box. “There’s children from all walks of life, who may not fit into mainstream sports. “It’s great for fine motor skills and concentration, however the best part is that after racing, all the children go off and play.”
We’re simply fed up with crime and want to see change brought about
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“It won’t be like one of those rallies you see on the news, it’ll be a friendly, peaceful event held in the park, suitable for families and children. “We’d like to get over 1000 people there, but we’ll be happy with a healthy turnout. These things take time to build.” The group has steadily expanded since its creation and Mr Bradford said there was a jump in members each time a new incident generated media coverage. “Each time there’s a story about home invasions or carjackings on the news, we see a surge in new members,” he said. “It’s pretty clear to me that these sort of numbers show that people are fed up with the soft system we have at the moment.” Mr Bradford has created a petition, asking the government to conduct a full review and overhaul of the Victorian judicial system and to provide a tougher alternative to its policies around crime and youth detention. “At the end of the day, the government doesn’t care about Facebook numbers, but by signing our petition and coming along to our events, peaceful people power will bring about change,” he said. “We’re not a vigilante group, nor are we racist or anti-police. We’re simply fed up with crime and want to see change brought about. “There’s an election next year, but that’s too long to wait, we need change now and that’s only going to come with people power.”
(Joe Mastroianni)
- Hayden Bradford
Tate Papworth
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