Brunswick Labor.net

Victoria is at the forefront of the education revolution, with a bold, five-year education reform agenda designed to deliver excellence in schools across the State and give young Victorians every opportunity to achieve their full potential.

Better leadership throughout schools, better support for parents to involve them in their child’s learning and a restructure of school networks statewide will be the drivers for future excellence in education in Victoria.

Today Jacinta Allan, Minister for Skills and Workforce Participation, along with the Premier, announced Securing jobs for your future: Skills for Victoria - a $316 million package that will create more than 170,000 additional training places over the next four years.

This represents the single biggest boost to investment ever made in our skills system and introduces the most significant reform in decades.

Securing Jobs For Your Future includes the Victorian Training Guarantee - an Australian first. The Victorian Training Guarantee entitles all Victorians access to post-school qualifications which they can access at any stage of their adult lives. This sees Government committing to support the training of every eligible Victorian that wants to train for the first time, retrain at higher levels or boost their existing qualifications.

The full document and a series of fact sheets can be downloaded from www.skills.vic.gov.au.

Patronage on Melbourne’s public transport network has hit a record high with 450.8 million passenger trips made in the past financial year a record high driven by growth of 12.7 per cent with trams and buses achieving 158.3 million trips and 91.3 million trips respectively.

Monday night's 'Future of Sport in Brunswick' forum was a great success with about 60 people turning up to discuss proposals about the future of Gillon Oval, Raeburn Reserve, Clifton Park and Brunswick Park.

The mood of the meeting was quite negative towards Moreland Council's draft structure plan. Many representatives of sporting clubs informed the meeting that until Carlo Carli had written to them they had not been informed of the structure plan at all. However participants were keen to put forward a resolution that was positive and suggest a way forward.

The meeting also wants the public consultation period extended (it ends on Friday).

A copy of the resolution can be accessed by clicking on the image to the right. 

Council is considering spending tens of millions of dollars on a new sports hub on industrial land adjacent to Clifton Park.

 This may lead to the relocation of existing sporting clubs to the proposed new location. What will be the effect on your local community if this occurs?

Moreland Council has prepared a draft Brunswick Structure Plan to guide the development of Brunswick over the next 22 years. The structure plan includes the picture below.

What are the implications of buying more land and spending these resources for sport in Brunswick, and the make up of Gillon, Clifton and Brunswick Parks?

Moreland City Council is holding a series of community meetings and opportunities for people to express their views about the redevelopment of the Brunswick Baths on:

A stall will also be set up at Barkly Square Shopping Centre to provide the opportunity to discuss views with the planning team on;

All Brunswick Labor members will welcome today's news from Canberra regarding changes to the detention system for illegal immigrants. Today's announcememnts are a vindication of the hard work by Labor for Refugees and rank and file members of the ALP in Brunswick, and elsewhere, over the past seven years arguing for change in both ALP policy and the nation's policy.

Minister Evans speech, New Directions in Detention, outlines a new appraoch.

The challenge for Labor, having tackled the worst excesses of the Howard immigration legacy, is to introduce a new set of values to immigration detention – values that seek to emphasise a risk-based approach to detention and prompt resolution of cases rather than punishment....
Today I want to announce that Cabinet has endorsed a policy containing seven values that will guide and drive new detention policy and practice into the future.
These values will result in a risk-based approach to the management of immigration clients.

The Government’s seven key immigration values are:

1. Mandatory detention is an essential component of strong border control.
2. To support the integrity of Australia’s immigration program, three groups will be subject to mandatory detention:
(a) all unauthorised arrivals, for management of health, identity and security risks to the community
(b) unlawful non-citizens who present unacceptable risks to the community and
(c) unlawful non-citizens who have repeatedly refused to comply with their visa conditions.
3. Children, including juvenile foreign fishers and, where possible, their families, will not be detained in an immigration detention centre (IDC).
4. Detention that is indefinite or otherwise arbitrary is not acceptable and the length and conditions of detention, including the appropriateness of both the accommodation and the services provided, would be subject to regular review.
5. Detention in immigration detention centres is only to be used as a last resort and for the shortest practicable time.
6. People in detention will be treated fairly and reasonably within the law.
7. Conditions of detention will ensure the inherent dignity of the human person.

Labor’s reforms will fundamentally change the premise underlying detention policy.

Congratulations Federal Labor.

Since the release of the East West Needs Assessment Study Report there has been a vigorous debate over its recommendations.

There is a very strong community view that:

• Action is needed to meet demand for sustainable transport services
• Action is needed to address social disadvantage
• Action is needed to ensure that the transport sector makes a contribution to meeting ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction targets
  

Our community has told us via public meetings, conversations in the shops, on the street corners, via phone, letter and email and on the internet that their priority is for a better sustainable transport network. They want better public transport networks that provide real access and choice. They want better walking and cycling infrastructure to cater for people who walk and cycle to work, to shop and to socialise.

The Brunswick community will have the opportunity to participate in a live, online forum about Sir Rod Eddington’s report into Melbourne’s east-west transport needs.



On Friday 11 July, the Government will lead a 2.5 hour, online discussion about recommendations in Sir Rod Eddington’s report – Investing in Transport.

In developing the best transport plan for the community, the government has said it wants to hear from those people who cycle to work, drive across town and catch trains, trams and buses.

To participate register on the Premier's website, www.premier.vic.gov.au

Carlo Carli MP has welcomed the release of the draft Garnaut Climate Change Review report today.

The tenor of the report is clear - that as a country we need to act and address climate change.

However, we need to have a clear understanding of the implications of the changes that are coming such as an Emissions Trading System.

We need to ensure a pathway to a low emissions future while protecting communities – especially low income households –  against the negative effects of a new system.

I urge everyone to read the report, and get involved in the debate.

 Dawson Street Child Care Co-operative is amongst nine childcare providers in the Brunswick electorate that will share in $10.7 million in Brumby Government grants to buy equipment, expand surfaces, renovate and improve general amenities.

Nine local services each received grants as part of the Brumby Government’s boost to the state’s early childhood services.

Dawson Street Child Care Co-operative would receive $100,000 to extend the toddlers room to increase capacity, and to install a new entry gate and pathway.

Young drivers are being mailed out free green P Plates as the new probationary driver system is set to go on July 1.

From 1 July 2008 a new four-year, two-stage probationary license system will begin across Victoria, replacing the existing three-year license.

The new system is expected to save up to 12 lives per year under the Victorian Government's road safety strategy, Arrive Alive!

Brunswick North West Primary and Moreland Primary Schools will receive a healthy boost after receiving $6,000 each from the 'Go for your Life' Healthy Start Grants scheme.

The funding will be used in individual schools for a variety of purposes such as upgrading existing canteen facilities, repairs to exercise tracks, bike sheds, provide re-asphalting, all-weather protection of outdoor play areas and kitchen gardens.

 

Carlo Carli's submission on the Blueprint for Early Childhood and School Reform is now available to download.

The submission particularly focuses on earl;y childhood issues including:

• the nature of early childhood services in Brunswick
• Co-location or Partnerships?
• Workforce issues including qualifications and conditions and
• the future of sessional kindergarten

Its available to download from the side bar on the left or here.