Frankston Council forms rubber stamp committees

Frankston Council forms rubber stamp committees

Keep Asking Until You get a Different Answer

It's quite obvious now that Frankston Council when it set up local area committee's for the purpose of consultation actually set them up so they could get the answer they wanted and get their proposals rubber stamped. Imagine Frankston Council's surprise when a new committee was formed this year in Karingal and 40+ people were present, and that almost the only topic of discussion was the green area at Gretana Cres.

Another meeting was held only a week ago, and once again nearly 40 people were present.

Residents Meet to discuss Gretana Cres 10 Oct 2013 

Not only that, but Council also organised a Local Area meeting last year, and the main topic of discussion then was Gretana Cres! There's actually been meetings in Karingal about this site over a number of years and the residents each meeting have made it clear that they want the area cleaned up and turned back in to publicly accessible green space and recreational area.

Council's response to this has been to let the site become derelict, and refuse to maintain the site. Council of course denys this, but their actions speak louder than any words they say.

Keep Asking Until You get a Different Answer

Since Council isn't getting the answer they want , they are now proposing to ask the whole of Frankston what they want to do with the site. This proposal is to be put to a vote at council next Monday 21st October 2013.  If you don't like the answer keep asking the question until you get a different answer. It seems this is council policy. Why not join us at Frankston council chambers next Monday, so we can find out first hand who it is that supports this insult to Karingal resisdents.

It appears that Frankston council just has no idea how angry Karingal Residents are over the issue, and that there will be repercussions if they continue down this path.

Public invited to discuss future of tennis club

Public invited to meeting to discuss future of tennis club

A PUBLIC meeting about the future of the former Karingal Tennis Club site will be held on October 10.

Karingal’s Phil Lodge said the group would present its plan for the site.
“It’s now at a vital stage where we need to do everything we can to convince Frankston Council to keep the site for the community and not turn it into residential developments,’’ Mr Lodge said.

Frankston Council demolished the derelict pavilion in May this year after it had been left dormant since the tennis club vacated it in 2008. Mr Lodge said since it was torn down it had not been maintained. “It is still a mess and in some respects worse than before,’’ Mr Lodge said.

Council chief executive Dennis Hovenden said since the ordinary meeting in March, council officers had been “thoroughly investigating all options for the future of the site”. “A further report has been finalised to go before council’s October 21 meeting to seek further direction,’’ Mr Hovenden said.

The meeting is at Karingal Place at 7pm.

Frankston Standard Leader P5 - 30 Sept 2013

Details of the meeting can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/170536943138822/

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Frankston Standard Leader
30 Sep 2013

ASYLUM SEEKERS - Some facts without the hype

ASYLUM SEEKERS

Some facts without the hype

The situation with regard to refugees or asylum seekers is not great. It is sad when anybody dies for what ever reason, but that does not make all deaths that occur our responsibility, unless we did something to cause those deaths.

We're 15th in the world for taking Asylum Seekers

Australia is continually criticised in the media for the treatment of asylum seekers and deaths at sea. That according to the media is Australia's fault. We're criticised for being 15th in the world for taking Refugees/Asylum seekers (based on refugees per head of population ).

Nations who take less Asylum Seekers than Australia

Here's a list of nations we know the statistics for that we are ahead of: Turkey, Canada, United States, Finland, Netherlands, Iceland, Yugoslav Republic, Croatia, Italy, Serbia, Switzerland, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Poland, United Kingdom, EU-Total (27), Estonia, Latvia, New Zealand, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Rep., Japan, Portugal, Rep. of Korea. Indonesia, Malaysia, China, and Russia aren't on the list at all and there are many many more nations that don't take refugees.

Instead of getting stuck into us every moment of the day, perhaps the press should be saying we're doing well, but perhaps we could do better.

How many Asylum Seekers

The other thing is how many refugee/Asylum Seekers die on route to Australia - i.e. at sea. You can find out relatively easily as Monash Uni keeps statistics, and there is at least one other site that gives the figures year by year. The figures between the two sources roughly correlate.

Asylum Seeker Arrivals by Year

Deaths on Route

So I plotted the number of asylum seekers, no of boats, and number that died by year.

Asylum Seeker Deaths and Boat Arrivals by Year

What is immediately apparent is that there was a huge disaster in 2001 and 336 people died. The response to that was a change or implementation of new policy by the Howard government. Over the next seven years, only a handful died - 28 in total, about 4 per year. Then Rudd/Gillard took over. In the next 4.5 years more than a 1000 people died. The number of people who died is directly proportional to the number of boat arrivals.

Comparisons

Compared with Howard's last year in office Rudd's second year of office produced 18 times as many asylum seekers and 111 deaths compared with none (zero). Rudd's third year in office - 44 times the number asylum seekers arrived, and there were 168 deaths compared with none. Under Gillard it just got worse. By her second term in office the number of asylum seekers was 116 times Howard's last year, and 359 deaths compared with zero.

Life or Death - a policy choice

The media can talk all they like, Labor can criticize all they like. The truth is, that nothing they have suggested will save the thousand lives lost, or the lives that are still to die as a result of their policies. Talk means nothing - but deaths do. You have to choose - do you want policies that will lead to thousands of deaths a year or no deaths and a steadily increasing asylum seeker/refugee intake as our population grows. Our refugee/asylum seeker intake is only beaten by fourteen(14) nation's in the world, rather they come by much safer means and without being exploited along the way.

Frankston Watch