Western Port
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Wednesday 13 May 2020
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Focus change as family meals make it onto the menu A CHANGE in focus is allowing tasty and nutritious meals to be prepared for struggling families on the Mornington Peninsula through the COVID-19 shutdown. This has come about by having kitchen staff at the Somers Residential School Camp cook 350 meals a week for needy families in the district, rather than children who are usually staying at the now-closed camp. The meals are delivered to nominated schools and picked up by parents doing it tough for their evening meals. Camp principal Mark Warner said a “bright idea” from staffer Coralie Gibson to use the idle camp kitchen for community meals led to the program being arranged and implemented with donations from Woolworths Hastings. Crib Point Primary School’s Tina Coumb contacted the Mornington Peninsula Foundation which gave $5000. The service supplies meals to parents with children at Eastbourne, Tootgarook, Rosebud, Somerville, Somerville Rise, Hastings, Wallaroo, Bittern, Tyabb, Taradale and Crib Point primary schools, as well as Rosebud Anglican Church. “It’s a win-win situation for us all,” said Mr Warner, who runs nine-day camps for primary students year round. Mr Warner said the meals, cooked by chef Lars Pedersen and his staff, typically consist of butter chicken, lasagne, roasts, cannelloni, or risotto, and cost about $2000 each week to prepare. Woolworths Hastings had been “super helpful” in providing produce valued at $1000-$1200 a week. Parents collect food packs containing two to six servings from their schools and take them home to reheat and serve. The schools decide who the meals go to. Mr Warner said planning was in place to carry on the meals service through second term but “we’ll go for as long as we are in shut down”. “We are now looking at increasing the number of meals were prepare to 400.” Mornington Peninsula Foundation CEO Stephanie Exton said: “Rapidly changing times are bringing out the best in so many people in our community.” Stephen Taylor
Ripe choice: Somers Camp chef Lars Pedersen in the Somers Camp kitchen where meals are being prepared for distribution to families throughout the Mornington Peninsula. Picture: Yanni
‘Fairness’ call for AGL decision Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au THE state government is under pressure to “do the right thing” and delay making any decision on power company AGL’s request for a gas import jetty at Crib Point. Environment Victoria and Save Westernport say it would be unfair in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic to give the community just 30 days to respond to the “thousands of pages of
documents” prepared by AGL. The adequacy of AGL’s environmental effects statement (EES) for its proposed floating gas terminal and a 56 kilometre pipeline to Pakenham is now being reviewed by the Department for Environment Land Water and Planning (DELWP) before being released for public exhibition. Victor Komarovsky, community organiser at Environment Victoria said extending the time for public submissions would be “the right thing” to do. "AGL has had nearly two years to
put together thousands of pages of documents. It isn't fair that the community would be given only 30 days to respond, in the middle of a global pandemic lockdown, all without being able to physically meet and deliberate,” Mr Komarovsky said. "Online public hearings might work in the CBD, but not here. Many people here are on dial-up speeds, if they have internet at all.” Mr Komarovsky said Planning Minister Richard Wynne should instigate a process and timeline reflecting “the
circumstances we're in that acknowledges the challenges faced by communities up against big companies. This can't be rushed”. When requiring AGL to provide an EES in October 2018, Mr Wynne said the project “has the potential for significant environmental effects” including “risk to some aspects of the ecology in the north arm of the Western Port Ramsar site”, which is protected under an international agreement. There were “potential effects” also from the pipeline needed to carry gas
from Crib Point to Pakenham on waterways and Ramsar site “and on Aboriginal cultural heritage”. However, Mr Wynne added that these “significant effects and other residual effects could be assessed and managed through a range of separate statutory processes”. The AGL proposal includes mooring a 300-metre long floating gas plant at the existing Crib Point jetty, to convert liquid natural gas (LNG) into gas, and building new jetty. Continued Page 5
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