While the level of challenge around us does not lessen, it’s been a year for remembering that connecting and celebrating people is powerful. We’ve had 10 Whitehorse Citizenship Ceremonies for 2022, each one a marvellous occasion at a very full Box Hill Town Hall. Over 1,500 new Australian citizens have been welcomed, celebrating both their journey and what lies…
Amidst the mounting challenges all communities face, there is no more powerful opportunity than the motivation, identity and belonging created by real inclusion. Real inclusion is about sitting alongside difference, instead of buffering ourselves by only being surrounded by what looks, thinks, believes, and talks, ‘like me’. I’m delighted to be part of the Whitehorse Interfaith Network (WIN) Inclusive…
Amendment to the Burwood Brickworks Development Plan was debated and agreed by Council on 14 June. That amendment relates to the removal of widely preferred storm water treatment measures that would have benefitted the development via conversion of Melbourne Water’s Eley Road Retarding Basin to a wetlands. Despite problem-solving negotiations over many years, there will be no wetlands –…
I give significant attention to being Library Board Chair for the Whitehorse Manningham Regional Library Corporation (WML). Regional Library Corporations can’t continue after 2030, due to changes to the Local Government Act. In the next 8 years, there must be governance change. Entwined with choosing a new governance structure, there are many broader challenges. In my lifetime, we’ve shifted…
Like so many others in our community, my family and I have now experienced COVID. We were very grateful we didn’t need hospital, yet we struggled with the supposedly ‘mild’ symptoms. Many of the things the people of Whitehorse need to access, or just like to do, will continue to be impacted by staffing and supply shortages or our…
2022 is a fresh opportunity to seize moments of community connection and feedback, adapting always to whatever the pandemic is presenting. In 2021, Council adopted a Community Engagement Policy, setting the big picture for a more consistent engagement ecosystem, and rolled out the Your Say Whitehorse platform. A number of matters in Eley Ward have already benefitted from this….
Exactly 12 months ago, I was declared elected for Eley Ward and started my first stint of any kind of public office. I am deeply grateful for the faith a majority of Eley voters showed in me. The challenge of this year has been greater than 2020, given the pervading and sustained impacts of the pandemic. While I’ve been…
The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its latest report in August; https://www.ipcc.ch/. While global climate urgency has taken a back seat to pandemic response, global warming in excess of 2°C is still a stark threat in front of us all. Deep reductions in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions remain the only workable mitigation. Whitehorse is…
The National Simultaneous Story time in May took us out of this world. I had the delight of reading for Whitehorse’s contribution to the collective voicing of Philip Bunting’s Give Me Some Space! It was a wonderful interplanetary adventure, and kudos to the Whitehorse Manningham Library staff for making it happen seamlessly for a large online audience. Putting on…
