Vic

Member for Indi, Helen Haines, will host an interactive community forum on March 6th in Wodonga as part of a campaign to ‘End Pork Barrelling’, the practice of governments directing funds to projects in marginal electorates to win votes, without regard to evidence of the project’s merit ... "Funding decisions should be evidence-based, with grants awarded on merit and need": Helen Haines.

The Riverina State Group has passed the 800-member mark on its way to enrolling 1,500 members and being registered as a political party in time for the next federal election. The group intends to stand candidates in Farrer, Riverina and Eden-Monaro in NSW, and Mallee, Nicholls and possibly Indi in Victoria.  

Diane Eastwood. The Shared Ministry agreement between the Church of Christ and Uniting Church has been running for 25 years and was established to help fund a Minister who would be responsible for the congregations at Kaniva and Serviceton, whilst still retaining their own identity, buildings and control of financial matters. One of the findings from the review focused on the fact that our congregations in both towns are made up of a number of people from denominations other than C of C and UCA ...

Chris Drew. Western Ag continued their Supporting Communities Campaign through 2023 and are pushing on in 2024, equipping more regional communities with potentially life-saving automated external defibrillators (AED). The campaign, supported by Nufarm Australia, began in 2022 and at the end of 2023 had put 15 defibrillators into rural communities. The project has started strong this year, with a further 14 defibs donated to Wimmera Southern Mallee Development...

Widespread power blackouts affecting thousands of households and businesses across Victoria again highlight the vulnerability of the state’s energy supplies under the State Government. “Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio has been repeatedly warned about outages yet has sat idle. We have now seen the consequences of Labor’s incompetence and Victorians are paying the price as they go without power,” said Member for Southern Metropolitan Region, David Davis.

Registered Aboriginal Parties (RAPs) are significantly delaying building projects while charging higher prices for their Cultural Heritage Management Plans (CHMPs), a compulsory requirement for land development under the Aboriginal Heritage Act  2006. Member for Western Victoria, Bev McArthur, called on the Minister for Treaty and First Peoples in Parliament to immediately and comprehensively review the legislation. “The Cultural Heritage Management Plan sees cash end up in bank vaults and indigenous artefacts in storerooms."