Brunswick Labor.net

CERES Community Environment Park has received a $180,000 Eco Living Grant from the Victorian Government to refurbish the CERES EcoHouse and empower the community to respond to climate change.

CERES will be one of seven Eco Living Centres will be developed across the state for local residents to experience sustainability in action and learn how to apply sustainable measures at home.

With this funding, the CERES EcoHouse will be better placed to support the community by providing local programs and encouraging individuals to take action on climate change in their everyday lives.

Maintaining Stage 3a water restrictions is a relief to the community and particularly community sport. The continuation of Stage 3a restrictions provides Melburnians with greater certainty over the next nine months while maintaining the existing savings by households, industry and the wider community.

Under Stage 3a water restrictions:

• A manual dripper system, hand-held hose fitted with a trigger nozzle, a watering can and a bucket can be used to water gardens as required on specified watering days between 6am - 8am*.
• An automatic dripper system can be used to water as required on specific watering days between midnight - 2am*.
• Cars can be washed at a commercial car wash. A bucket filled from a tap can be used to clean windows, mirrors and lights; and spot-remove corrosive substances.
• One in four sports grounds can be watered. Councils must complete a water conservation plan and ensure water use on these sports grounds is cut back by an additional 25 per cent.
  

* Even numbered properties can water on Saturday and Tuesday; odd numbered can water on Sunday and Wednesday. People aged 70 and over can water between 8 am and 10 am.

More details about the Stage 3a water restrictions are available at www.ourwater.vic.gov.au

In periods of adversity communities pull together, and that is exactly what has been happening in Moreland amongst the 12 soccer clubs in the area. Those clubs have now established the Moreland football forum. Over the summer only four soccer pitches were being watered, and basically a number of clubs did not have any facilities, any grounds or any training areas. The teams and the clubs came together and started to share grounds and support each other in a period of adversity. They are also providing a unified voice to deal with the council to ensure that there is a contingency plan for watering next season that will sustain the various clubs.

The clubs are numerous. There are 12 clubs in the Moreland area.

I did a little estimate and found that there are 149 teams, with something around 2500 players; the vast majority are juniors; women and girls are the fastest growing component, which is growing at an exponential rate; and there is also all the growth that followed the World Cup and the success of the Socceroos.

The 12 clubs have set aside their sporting rivalries to work together in a common cause. They are working together in a time of adversity to ensure the viability and sustainability of world football in the Moreland area. I congratulate all 12 clubs for their willingness to work together.

The Bracks Labor Government has announced a $4.9 billion plan to boost Victoria's water infrastructure, responding to the drought and climate change. Over the next five years the Government will

• build Australia’s largest desalination plant
• modernise irrigation systems in Victoria’s food bowl to capture lost water
• expand Victoria’s Water Grid – the network of rivers, channels and pipes linking our major water systems
• provide more water for regional centres including Geelong, Westernport, South Gippsland and Hamilton
• upgrade Melbourne’s Eastern Treatment Plant to provide more high grade recycled water
• support new and existing water conservation programs for Victorian homes and industry.

You can find out more at the ourwater.vic.gov.au or watch the video.

Carlo's press realease is over the fold.

Melbourne’s north could be home to a new premier league football facility with funding for a new study. Carlo Carli MP announced details of a ground breaking study into football (soccer) facilities across the north west region of metropolitan Melbourne at the football forum - a meeting of Moreland based football clubs at Dunstan Reserve in Brunswick West.

$60,000 has been provided by the State Government to enable Moreland, Moonee Valley and Hume Councils to consider and adopt a regional approach for the provision of premier league football facilities (soccer) in the north-west region of Melbourne.

Local schools in the Brunswick electorate have a great opportunity to save water under a Bracks Government initiative.

Schools in Brunswick, Coburg and Pascoe Vale are being offered a full audit of their internal water use, plus installation of water efficiency fittings and maintenance to slash their water use.

I have written to my local schools encouraging them to take up the offer.

Victorian Labor is helping to continue sport in our area despite the drought.

I am writing to local sporting clubs and the council to provide information and to encourage co-operation so that sport can continue.

The worst drought on record for Melbourne means we will have tighter water restrictions from 1 January 2007.

Labor’s 2004 long term water plan, Our Water, Our Future, has changed the way many Victorians think about and use water. Victoria now leads the nation in the smart use of water, but we all need to do more to secure our water supplies for the next 50 years and improve the health of our rivers.

The Bracks Government today released a comprehensive plan to increase Melbourne’s water supplies by more than 260,000 megalitres per year by 2055 to meet the challenges of climate change and population growth over the next 50 years.

Securing enough water to meet the demands of climate change and a growing population was one of the greatest challenges Victoria faces.