Western Port An independent voice for the community
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Wednesday 13 December 2023
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Summer fire warnings SUMMER has arrived, with Country Fire Authority already declaring total fire bans in some areas and the Mornington Peninsula’s fire danger rating period starting on Monday 18 December and ending 1 May 2024. The CFA has also reminded Victorians to consider their pets and livestock when making bushfire survival plans. Chief Officer Jason Heffernan said bushfire relocation kits for pets should be kept within easy reach during highrisk bushfire days. “It can take longer than you think to move your pets, so make sure you can transport them efficiently and have towels and woollen blankets on hand to protect them,” he said. Heffernan said a separate plan was needed for horses and livestock “as late evacuation will put you both at risk Your plan should identify evacuation routes and which animals you intend to leave behind. You need to act quickly, as moving stock after a fire has started is dangerous.” RSPCA Victoria’s head of prevention Rebecca Cook said planning for potential emergency evacuation and knowing what was needed for pets was vital. “You should store photos on your phone and email of important documents like registration, microchip numbers, vaccination certificates, medication directions, and your local vet.” On the peninsula planned burns must be registered online with Fire Permits Victoria at firepermits.vic.gov. au/notify. Check fire rating days at: emergency.vic.gov.au/ firedangerratings.
Spreading the cheer CRIB Point Fire Brigade has been getting into the Christmas spirit, inviting Santa to climb aboard and spread some festive cheer. Picture: Supplied
‘Transparent council’ Take 2 Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire councillors were this week to again set to grapple with the concept of transparency and the release of information to the public. Part of the shire’s official “mission” is “keeping you up to date with what is happening across the shire in an open and direct way”, but last month councillors voted five to four against publishing summaries of their secret discussions, or briefings, with officers. Cr David Gill, who proposed the defeated motion, said while briefings
were noted on agendas the details remained secret and it could be up to six months before they came back to council for a decision (Transparency backed, but ‘secret’ talks stay, The News 28/11/23). At this week’s public meeting Cr Sarah Race asked her colleagues to spend $200,000 to $300,000 on establishing an online Transparency and Integrity Hub to provide “unprecedented access to the city’s finances and provide greater scrutiny over how council spends ratepayers’ money”. Establishment of the hub would “allow the shire to be leaders in transparent and open government”.
The “broad and deep” information on the “digital portal” about finances, council decisions and activities would be “intuitive, interactive, auditable and downloadable by selection”. “Stories will be developed to provide context to the data and to assist the community to discover more about how council works and to engage with council data based on areas of interest,” Race said in background notes to her notice of motion on the agenda at Tuesday’s public council meeting. Customer and transformation manager Patrick Dillon, in a report on the agenda, said the hub proposal was being made “to address” the council’s
poor community satisfaction survey results (Shire again misses survey satisfaction, The News 21/6/23). Dillon said a Transparency and Integrity Hub would offer “streamlined access” to “selected” and “curated” information which “may” include financial records, asset management (the shire’s capital works program), procurement data “and more”. “This online hub will allow visitors to explore and visualise data, providing an overview of the shire’s decision-making and activities. This will require the procurement of a suitable web-based platform to publish these datasets for open consumption.
“It will also require the collection, cleansing and curation of each dataset to ensure it is accurate and ready for release.” After Gill’s notice of motion was defeated last month, he said listening to the arguments against providing more information reminded him of the saying: There’s nothing to fear but fear itself. Race, who opposed Gill’s motion but now wants a Transparency and Integrity Hub, said “It comes back to the unintended consequences of a little bit of information because they say, to use that expression, a little bit of information is dangerous.”
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