Politics
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IT’S TIME – Students join Melbourne Strike 4 Climate rally
Students from Trentham District Primary School joined the Melbourne Strike 4 Climate rally in front of Parliament House on Friday. In Australia more than 300,000 school children and workers in more than 110 towns and cities joined four million people world wide calling for climate action. Last week Hepburn Shire Council declared a Climate Emergency…
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Castlemaine cries out for climate action
A crowd estimated at upwards of 2000 turned out in Castlemaine’s CBD on Friday demonstrating support for the day’s global Strike 4 Climate with rally numbers across the nation recorded in the hundreds of thousands. Castlemaine’s Victory Park rally drew entertainers, school children, local business and community leaders alike and coincided with far larger events…
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Deputy Leader of the Nationals in Kyneton to launch treatment plant petition
Deputy Leader of the Nationals Steph Ryan paid a visit to Kyneton today to launch a community petition calling on the Legislative Assembly to demand that the state government upgrade the Kyneton Water Reclamation Plant to facilitate the production of Class B water only. Ms Ryan met with affected landowners along the Campaspe River to…
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Climate petition gathers support in Mount Alexander
A group of Mount Alexander Shire residents with serious concerns about a lack of urgency by government at all levels in addressing climate change is calling on the shire council to declare a climate change emergency. The newly formed Mount Alexander Climate Emergency Team is urging council to take a stand and join the 36…
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Container deposit push builds
Mount Alexander Shire councillors and executive staff are among those strongly supporting the push for a container deposit scheme in Victoria, with the state Greens expected to this week introduce legislation aimed at establishing the scheme. Recycling has become a hot button issue in Victoria after major processor SKM went into liquidation, forcing many councils…
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Plan endorsed, doubts remain
The Macedon Ranges has moved a step closer to receiving high level protection for its sensitive landscape as the first gazetted distinctive area and landscape in Victoria. The Statement of Planning Policy was endorsed at Macedon Ranges Shire Council’s ordinary meeting last Wednesday in a 5-2 vote after it was sent back to the state…
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Reform ‘a step backwards’
Macedon Ranges has joined a chorus of local councils demanding answers on a major proposal to reintroduce single-member ward structures state-wide. The change would likely carve Macedon Ranges into nine council wards with individual representation, but the restructure call has been widely criticised as ‘a step backwards’. Macedon Ranges Council has called for choice over…
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Threats trigger security
Security and police have been engaged over threats from the public made to Macedon Ranges Shire Council staff. Security guards screened all general public attending Wednesday’s ordinary council meeting following threats made relating to an agenda item up for discussion. Acting Macedon Ranges chief executive John Hausler did not divulge the nature of the threats…
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Bittersweet result
It was a bittersweet result for returning Labor MPs Lisa Chesters and Rob Mitchell as they celebrated comfortable wins in the federal seats of Bendigo and McEwen respectively while their party mourned an election loss. Saturday’s win to the Liberal National Coalition means the local MPs will once again sit in opposition in the federal…
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For writers and thinkers
Whether you’ve got a book and you want to self-publish, or you’ve lost the plot… or perhaps you’re interested in exploring ideas like where Australia is headed, of fierce Australian women past and present… The Words and Ideas program of the Woodend Winter Arts Festival has 10 events you can choose from. Here’s a three-word…
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Question over candidate
Early voting in the nation’s federal election opened yesterday with seven candidates contesting the federal lower house seat of Bendigo including several rival elements of Australia’s political far right. Among them former Bendigo councillor Julie Hoskin – who many voters will recall from her failed legal challenge to a mosque being established in Bendigo –…
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Sunny for senate
A Kyneton local with an innovative plan to address immigration and regional growth in Victoria has announced he will be standing as an independent candidate for the Federal Senate in the upcoming elections. Sunny Chandra believes his policy of redirecting international students to regional areas is economically sound and of no cost to the taxpayer.…