GET YOUR
FREE TV GUIDE INSIDE!
Western Port DOWNLOAD 3MP FROM THE APP STORE OR GOOGLE PLAY
An independent voice for the community
Your weekly community newspaper covering the entire Western Port region
FREE
Wednesday 21 February 2024
For all advertising and editorial, call 03 5974 9000 or email: team@mpnews.com.au www.mpnews.com.au
Confidently speaking THE international Toastmasters organisation which offers training in public speaking or making presentations has opened a new branch in Western Port. Western Port Bay Toastmasters Club will hold its first meeting next month at Balnarring. The club, being formed during the centenary of the Toastmasters organisation, is “dedicated to empowering individuals in their journey to enhance communication and leadership skills, in a supportive and dynamic learning environment”. Organisers of the Western Port club Loretta Buckley and Rick Stuart say skills gained with Toastmasters have helped them in their personal and professional lives. Buckley believes her Toastmasters’ experience helped secure a case management position in the disability sector. While Stuart says he is “better able to relate to people and feel more empowered to speak my opinion as well as actively listen to others”. Western Port Bay Toastmasters Club follows the organisation’s international educational program at fortnightly meetings starting at 7.30pm on 7 March at Balnarring Community Hall. For more details call 0447 689 539.
THE team heading the Western Port Bay Toastmasters Club, from left, Rick Stuart, Loretta Buckley, Simon Meyer, Nadeine Samuel and Simon Walliker. Picture: Supplied
Wards new names, new boundaries Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au NEW boundaries and nine new names have been announced for 11 singlecouncillor wards on the Mornington Peninsula. The changes will be used in the October council elections and replace the existing six wards, three of which have more than one councillor. The names of the shire’s 11 wards are Beek Beek, Benbenjie, Briars, Brokil, Coolart, Kackeraboite, Moorooduc, Nepean, Tanti, Tootgarook and Warringine. Briars and Nepean are the only
existing wards to retain their names, although each will be reduced in size and represented by one councillor. Briars ward currently has three councillors and Nepean two. The panel rejected changing Briars to Tichingorourke Ward and Nepean to Monmar. Ward names to be dropped are Cerberus, Red Hill, Seawinds and Watson. Six of the new ward names were on a list of 15 suggested by the shire. The changes to the municipal structure were announced in a December report by a three-person electoral structure review panel appointed last year by the Local Government Minis-
ter Melissa Horne. The panel said it decided the peninsula should continue to be represented by 11 councillors after considering the size and shape of wards along with the number of candidates who had contested past elections, incidences of uncontested elections and rates of informal voting. The panel said it had suggested Aboriginal ward names if it was the name of a place within a ward; the name was commonly used; and if it was registered under the Geographic Place Names Act 1998. The report said Cr Steve Holland had told a panel hearing last November that he believed reducing
the number of councillors from 11 to nine would save money and “allow equitable representation” throughout the shire. The panel said it found “no justifiable benefits in any nine singlecouncillor ward models to offset this increased [councillor] workload”. However, the panel had “agreed with the suggestion made by Cr Holland to simplify the names of wards based on significant features within wards”. Along with the new ward names and boundaries have come claims that the results may be subject to gerrymander, or manipulation, by political parties. “The result is a gerrymander be-
cause it is not based on the democratic, well established in Australia, system of only having a plus or minus deviation of 10 per cent to keep electoral areas as close as possible to even numbers,” Red Hill Ward’s Cr David Gill said. “My geographical area went up by nearly 10 per cent. It was 50 per cent of the shire, it’s now 60 per cent. “I believe only having [the local governmenr minister] in charge of electoral boundaries for local government leads to the possibility of the first political gerrymander in Australian history.” Aboriginal name for youth hub. Page 6
RESTORE YOUR ROOF! ADD VALUE TO YOUR HOME! GO FROM...
TO THIS!
CALL US ON 0420 265 413. WE WILL BEAT ANY WRITTEN QUOTE!
THE EXPERTS AT MR PAINT IT ARE READY TO START THIS WEEK!
