Western Port
GET YOUR
FREE TV GUIDE
YOUR GUIDE TO WHAT’S ON THIS WEEKEND FOR PENINSULA FAMILIES
INSIDE!
FACEBOOK: peninsulakids.com.au
An independent voice for the community
Your weekly community newspaper covering the entire Western Port region
FREE9
INSTAGRAM: mornpenkids
Wednesday 1 November 2023
For all advertising and editorial, call 03 5974 9000 or email: team@mpnews.com.au www.mpnews.com.au
Morning dip payout for retiree Twilight IT was more beachside than trackside, but there was no lacking in enthusiasm when the Melbourne Cup was run across the beach at Balnarring by security guard. The guard, Gem Biricik, was at the beach early on Friday 20 October as part of the People’s Cup Tour of the $600,000 18-carat-gold trophy in the lead-up to next Tuesday’s running
of the Melbourne Cup. The tour started the previous day at St Thomas More Primary School, Mount Eliza, before heading to Martha Cove Village, Safety Beach and at night to the Ranelagh Club, Mount Eliza. Also on the beach at Balnarring and probably attracting more attention than the cup was the
2020 winner, Twilight Payment. Serise Veli, from Moorooduc-based Racing Hearts Equine Assisted Therapy rode the nowretired Twilight Payment into the shallows (his first dip in the sea) and watched as the horse then happily took a sand bath to dry off. Keith Platt Pictures: Gary Sissons
Administrator to ‘fix’ land council woes Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au A SPECIAL administrator has been appointed to bring the Frankston-based Bunurong Land Council (Aboriginal Corporation) back to “good health”. Peter McQuoid, who was appointment in early September, has told the land council’s members that someone in his role “helps to fix problems such as money trouble, service delivery problems or poor governance”. “… The special administrator’s aim is to work with the corporation to fix internal problems and restore it to good health. When I achieve that, I will appoint a new board of directors and hand
back control of the corporation to its members.” Under the terms of his appointment McQuoid, of PDM Consultancy, is due to hand back control on Friday 15 March 2024. In his first newsletter, McQuoid said the Registrar of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporations Tricia Stroud had “formed a view that the corporation was not being governed effectively or in the best interests of the corporation and its members”. “Problems with governance and financial management have been going on for some time. The corporation hasn’t successfully held an AGM for the past two financial years, denying members their right to elect directors to govern the corporation on their behalf.” Financial statements on the Bunurong Land
Council website for the year ended 30 June 2021 show a net profit of $1,294,887 ($698,446 in 2020) and a “positive cash flow from operating activities” of $3,542,405 ($1,128,815 in 2020). The land council provides municipal councils with archaeological field assessments as part of cultural heritage management plan (CHMP) process, cultural heritage advice, and information about the Aboriginal community, people, Bunurong culture, and the environment. For each of the past two years Mornington Peninsula Shire has given the land council $100,000 under a memorandum of understanding agreement that, according to the mayor Cr Steve Holland, “details our partnership on matters such as land care, cultural training and some of the actions of our Reconciliation Action Plan”.
Holland said the land council’s involvement in CHMPs costs “from about $6000, depending on their complexity”, but was unable to say had how much the shire had paid in the past three years “due to the range of services and fees involved over multiple projects”. When announcing the appointment of a special administrator Stroud said an examination of the corporation’s books in March “identified serious concerns with respect to the standard of corporate governance of the corporation”. Examiners who checked the corporation’s books in March “confirmed poor standards of corporate governance and financial management, likely arising from long-standing dysfunction and factions among key roles in the corporation”. Continued Page 6
