Seeking help
Dear Editor,
We are looking for Serving and ex Service Men and Women. The Kilmore Wallan RSL Sub Branch has been a fixture in Kilmore since 1921 and we need people to keep it open so that we can continue to help members when they need it. The Welfare and Advocacy Team are working very hard every second Monday morning helping veterans and their families with pension claims, etc.
We need veterans prepared to learn and to give them a helping hand, with this free service.
We also need people in positions of Leadership and Admin Support to keep this vital part of Kilmore Wallan open. Please come along and meet us on a Wednesday morning , for morning tea, between 10am – 12 pm at 14 Sydney Street, Kilmore. Bring along your sense of humour. We look forward to meeting you.
Lorraine Coleman
Helping families with the essentials
Dear Editor,
As the cost of living continues to put pressure on household budgets, more families are reaching out for help with everyday essentials.
For families with young children, nappies are one of those essentials that simply cannot be avoided. They are needed every day, and the cost can quickly add up.
That is why my office has a permanent collection box for The Nappy Collective, giving our community an easy way to donate nappies and help families who are doing it tough.
The Nappy Collective collects nappies and distributes them through community organisations to families experiencing disadvantage, ensuring these basic items get to children who need them.
I know how generous people across our region are, and I encourage anyone who has a spare packet of nappies, particularly in a size their children have grown out of, to drop them into the collection box at my office at 25 Bridge Street East, Benalla.
It is a simple way to help a local family with something that every parent knows is an absolute necessity.
Annabelle Cleeland MP
Member for Euroa
Fire season approaching
Dear Editor,
In light of the current northern hemisphere fire season and Victoria’s own history with fires, I submit the following.
As a former Mitchell Shire Councillor (12 years), a CFA member for over 50 years, small farmer and a member of the Mitchell Emergency Management Planning Committee for 12 years (including significant time as Chair), I have grave concerns relating to management and planning for the next major bushfire disaster in Victoria.
We all know this event is coming. It is just a matter of when and how we face it.
Last year’s experience with bushfires highlighted significant problems; management issues, communication problems, lack of adequate fire prevention works and lack of fire fighting resources.
Let alone the core issues facing the CFA. These include declining volunteer numbers (10,000 less since Black Saturday), low morale, an ageing fire tankers fleet (many more than 30-years-old) and a management structure that appears to have forgotten the basics and why it was created. The core responsibilities should be VOLUNTEERS, FIRE PREVENTION and RESPONSE.
The current emergency management structure appears overly bureaucratic and complicated, leaving little space for communities and the people directly affected by emergency events able to participate in a meaningful way. This particularly applies to major fire events.
Farmers, rural communities and ordinary people who are able and impacted by major fires are not being fully utilised and integrated into the response.
There are a whole host of people who (if allowed and encouraged) could participate in practical and meaningful ways.
These people are an unrecognised resource, who in many cases are simply ignored or only become operational when authorities are overwhelmed.
These people should be recognised, encouraged and incorporated far more into the emergency management structure at all levels. They have a wide variety of skills and experience, they include farmers and contractors with their private units and other equipment. Ordinary people stepping up to help in a whole range of ways. From manning and helping out at relief centres, the initial supply and delivery of food and drinks, to supplying local information and knowledge that is so critical in the early stages of a major event.
Also don’t forget the huge contribution that many of these same people make to fire prevention and mitigation. The ordinary person having their own fire plan and equipment, cleaning up their backyard, the roads and streets in their neighbourhoods.
Farmers purchasing their own fire fighting equipment, planning fire breaks and stock containment areas, supplying critical dams and other water points.
Communities have resources and knowledge that is significantly under valued and under utilised and only comes into play when the situation is already extremely dire.
There are many roles people are thrust into when a fire disaster strikes and emergency services are overwhelmed. However, if individuals and communities were better integrated and given a significant voice and ownership in the first place far more could be achieved.
To my knowledge very little actual work or studies have been carried out in this space.
The current emergency management structure appears very much concentrated on agency-based planning. Their rigid and bureaucratic response leaves little room for incorporating the private sector and other individuals into the system (and recent history is not encouraging). However if this was altered and experienced community members were given a proper voice and incorporated into all levels of emergency management and planning it would supply a whole new prospective. A proper community voice would mean not just a token gesture but a number of proper ground level representatives who can make a real difference with fresh ideas and a more integrated community approach.
Therefore, I would like to see an independent and cost-effective investigation carried out into this by a responsible organisation or university.
Victoria needs to drastically improve its response to the growing and constantly evolving threat of major fires. The climate is changing and the threats are increasing exponentially. We need everyone on board if we are going to adequately combat these threats.
A whole-of-state and a whole-of-community approach is needed.
Ordinary people simplify and bring a wealth of common sense and reality.
One fact remains crystal clear, we need to better integrate individuals and communities into emergency management.
The best way of achieving this, is a whole of community approach to emergencies.
Bill Chisholm,
Tooborac
