Important fisheries habitat in Corner Inlet will be restored thanks to a $400,000 grant from the Commonwealth Government.

Member for Monash, Russell Broadbent said that the project to be undertaken by the West Gippsland CMA would work towards protecting water quality and restoring the health and functionality of coastal and estuarine fisheries habitats.

“This project will protect water quality in Corner Inlet, by restoring 12 hectares of riparian area along tributaries within the catchment, creating a buffer between waterways and adjacent farmland, and will restore 12 hectares of Broadleaf Seagrass (Posidonia Australis) habitat in the embayment.

“With the nearby Port Welshpool Long Jetty and our natural beauty in South Gippsland, people travel from near and far to enjoy recreational fishing and the waters of Corner Inlet and it is important that we ensure it has a healthy future.

“The West Gippsland CMA will manage this project which is one of 28 projects across the country to share in $8 million of grant funding.

Recreational fishers will work alongside local farmers and Landcare volunteers to support riparian re-vegetation efforts, reducing sediment and nutrient loads from tributaries within the Corner Inlet catchment that threaten seagrass meadows downstream.

Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries Jonno Duniam said these projects would benefit recreational fishers by improving the health and productivity of habitats that support fish stocks and fisheries.

“Australia’s waterways are some of the best in the world,” Assistant Minister Duniam said.

“It’s critical we keep our fisheries habitats healthy so we can continue to enjoy our world-class fishing into the future.

“This funding will see Regional Land Partnership providers and recreational fishing groups partner in rolling-up their sleeves to directly improve fish habitats.

The Fisheries Habitat Restoration Program is a 2019 government election commitment to provide $8 million to restore the health and functionality of coastal and estuarine fisheries habitats.

 

Scott Pape reckons it’s “Christmas Time for Crooks”.

He is right they are finding new ways to steal your hard earn dollars.

This is serious. It is happening here and it’s happening now.

As Scott tells it in his Barefoot Investor column a woman recently paid her builder for a kitchen renovation transferring $11,000 using the bank details on his invoice.

What she didn’t know was a scammer had intercepted the builder’s email and changed the banking details diverting the funds to another account.

$11,000 gone! The bank has not refunded her, the builder has not been paid.

It’s a phishing scam. That is phishing with a PH.

Just recently I have heard of local attempts at this, two of them very close to home and big money.

Beware, these scammers are out there targeting people in our region.

Take Scott’s advice and check the bank details before you transfer anything.

This is just as I see it.

 

I never believed I would be on the same page as Bob Brown and Christine Milne when it came to wind farms but here we are.

When Bob Brown saw the destruction of eagles and other wild birds, he realised the damage wind turbines do to the natural environment.

Of one wind farm Brown argues “the project does not stand up economically without subsidies. And some proposed wind farms would turn pristine wilderness into industrial landscapes.”

There would not be one wind farm in Australia without the public at large subsidising every turbine. Yes, that means pensioners electricity bills subsidies wind farms owned by multinational companies.

I oppose the Delburn wind farm development because it is not widely supported by local landowners and will destroy the amenity of the area.

It is not to our credit that we ignore the views of local community and sacrifice their amenity on the altar of renewable energy.

I opposed the Bald Hills wind farm and I was right then - it remains a blight in the beautiful South Gippsland hills.

We can put wind farms in the ocean offshore, I can support that.

That’s just as I see it.

Have you ever been scammed? I have, I have been tried twice recently. It made me far more aware of the problem and the need for everyone of us to stay alert.

Scammers are becoming more sophisticated in the way they try and steal our money or personal details.

More recently scammers have taken advantage of new technologies, using social media apps and emails to contact potential victims.

Just last week I was sent an email that seemed to be from my bank.

But when I looked at it more closely, it was someone trying to fool me into giving them my bank account details.I know I'm not the only one to receive these fake emails.

Australians lost more than $634 million to scams last year. There were more than 350,000 cases, the real figure is probably much higher as many people don’t report being ripped off.

There’ve been reports of more than 4000 scams mentioning Coronavirus, robbing Australians of $3 million at a time when every single dollar counts.

So please be careful, stay on your guard and if you think you’re being scammed ask a friend, a family member or contact the business directly. Don’t be embarrassed or too scared to ask for help.

You can always say no, hang up the phone or delete an email. It doesn’t matter if you’ve said yes previously. You don’t owe the scammer anything.

Importantly, if you think your bank account details have been compromised, notify your financial institution immediately.

You can report a scam by contacting the ACCC on 1300 302 502.

As always, my office is here to help if we can. Please take care.

That’s just as I see it.

The economic consequence of this pandemic has fallen heavily on the shoulders of our young people.

In this week’s budget we are working to cushion the impact, lessen the pain and give hope to our young people with support in undertaking training and learning skills, getting into the workforce, and being supported with:

Take heart - if you’re just starting out, there is a great future ahead for you and your young friends.

That’s just as I see it.

The Morrison Government’s Economic Recovery Plan for Australia will create jobs, rebuild our economy and secure Australia’s future.

Member for Monash, Russell Broadbent said that under the Federal Government’s Budget, taxpayers across Monash will get a tax cut backdated to 1 July this year.

“This means more money in the pockets of local households to assist with the cost of living, but also to help generate local economic activity and create jobs for locals”, Mr Broadbent said.

The Budget announcements build on the Morrison Government’s unprecedented investment in the health and economic response to COVID-19.

By bringing the Budget back to balance for the first time in 11 years and maintaining our AAA credit rating we entered the crisis from a position of economic strength, providing us with the fiscal firepower to respond when we needed it most.

Since the onset of the pandemic, the Government has provided $257 billion in direct economic support to cushion the blow and strengthen the recovery.

The 2020-21 Budget commits a further $98 billion including: $25 billion in direct COVID-19 response measures and $74 billion in new measures to create jobs.

“We’re supporting Australians to get back to work and businesses to rebuild, grow, and create jobs”, Mr Broadbent said.

The JobMaker Hiring Credit will be payable immediately to employers who hire eligible employees.

This Budget is investing a record amount in skills and training to make sure Monash job seekers have the skills they need to get a job.

Russell Broadbent said “we are also further assisting first home buyers and the construction sector by extending the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme to another 10,000 places and providing an additional $1 billion of low cost finance to support the construction of affordable housing.

The Morrison Government is investing in our manufacturing capability to ensure we have an internationally competitive and resilient manufacturing sector, and in the process create more high value jobs.

Further, our incentives for businesses to invest in their business will create more economic activity and jobs in the Monash community.

Tax relief for Monash businesses includes allowing 99 per cent of businesses to deduct the full cost of depreciable assets in the year they are installed, and allowing companies with a turnover of up to $5 billion to offset losses against previous profits on which tax has been paid to generate a refund”, Mr Broadbent said.

The Federal Government is also delivering record infrastructure investment, expanding our record 10 year infrastructure pipeline to $110 billion, and supporting a further 40,000 jobs nationally. The Budget also includes a $2 billion investment in road safety upgrades to save lives and an additional $1 billion to support local councils to immediately upgrade local roads, footpaths and street lighting to create jobs now.

“Our community-led recovery plan will deliver roads and community infrastructure through investment in shovel-ready projects.

“These projects are not only important in providing safer roads, additional community infrastructure but also in generating local jobs in our rural communities during construction,” Mr Broadbent said.

As Einstein is claimed to have said - ”Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”.

When the recommendations of The Stretton Royal Commission, that followed the 1939 Black Friday Fires, are still to be fully implemented and there have been 57 further inquiry since then, it is time to ask what we need to do differently.

“Catastrophic fire conditions may become more common, rendering traditional bushfire prediction models and firefighting techniques less effective”. That is a quote from the recently released Interim Report by the Natural Disasters Royal Commission.

Another quote in reference to the massive loss of wildlife notes, “The 2019-2020 bushfires have been described as an ‘ecological disaster’”.

Our fire experience here in Australia and the current US experience provide undeniable evidence that our established standards and practices for forest fuel management are ineffective methodologies for protection and conservation of flora and fauna and for the safety of established communities.

The Black Summer fires were a wake-up call.  Fiddling with what we have been doing will not achieve the quantum change necessary.

In our efforts to protect and conserve our concept of the “natural environment” are we misguidedly increasing the very real threat to the future of the flora and fauna we seek to protect?

If native wildlife could survive and adapt to fire for centuries before Europeans set foot in Australia then perhaps our efforts at mitigating our impact and that of fire should be attempting to get closer to emulating the natural fire regime that existed before we interfered.

Fire, mostly slower and cooler burning, was a regular event that encouraged woodland and open forest with minimal understorey. Descriptions of the forest environment by old timber industry workers emphasise the almost total absence of understorey and the relative freedom of movement through the forest as they walked to their work locations. Photographs taken during the 20's and 30's tend to support these descriptions.

The growing interest in trying to replicate the fuel management practices used by our indigenous predecessors might help us re-create the fire regime and natural environment that existed in the past.

Only then will our well trained and capable suppression forces using the best available technology have some chance of achieving a degree of control over wildfires.

Russell Broadbent MP
Sign up here to receive the latest news from my inbox.
crossmenuarrow-up-circle