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Cr Nora Lamont on Eastern FM — March 2015
P:
Seven minutes past midday and as is normal on the first Thursday of each month we
have a visitor from the City of Maroondah and today our special guest, Councillor Nora
Lamont. So welcome once again Nora. It’s good to see you back.
Cr:
Yeah, it’s great to be here Russ. This is my first time back since last year.
P:
It is. It seems like ages ago, but anyhow we’ll be looking forward to, you’ve got piles of
stuff there in front of you. This is a bit of a worry. Might have to throw you …
Cr:
Well that’s just because everything’s happening in Maroondah, so we got a lot of
things to talk about.
P:
Well that’s why we’ve got you here.
Cr:
Today I just wanted to touch base with International Women’s Day, which happens to
be this Sunday the 8th, and earlier today I joined with the Mayor and my fellow
councillors at council’s annual International Women’s Day breakfast at the Karralyka
Centre, and this morning we welcomed around 200 guests.
P:
Gee, you did well.
Cr:
Yeah. And out of those 200 we had six men. So we love it when the men come.
P:
Yeah, well that’s good.
Cr:
But mainly it was women in attendance. And we’re really fortunate to have so many
wonderful people in the community that come out early in the morning, especially
women from different community groups.
In keeping with the theme of International Women’s Day and empowering women to
achieve, we were privileged to have Major Winsome Merrett, she’s the divisional
commander of the Eastern Victorian Division for the Salvation Army as our guest
speaker, and she’s been with the Salvos for over 28 years and she’s responsible for
the church and social programs around the Eastern Victoria region, extending basically
from Hawthorn all the way to the Yarra Ranges, down the Peninsula and across to
Gippsland.
This year’s International Women’s Day event happened to coincide with the Salvation
Army’s 150th anniversary, so it was fantastic to have her as our guest speaker,
International Women’s Day. She’s a fantastic woman and it’s their 150th year, so she
talked a lot about the history of the Salvation Army and how they’re equal with men in
the Salvation Army. There has never been any competition between men and women,
so that was an important theme of today’s talk.
P:
Obviously something that the wider community would love to see happen I guess.
Cr:
Yeah, that’s sort of what we do on International Women’s Day to keep it alive, because
while we’ve come a long way we still have a long way to go where women still are not
equal in pay et cetera. But in the Salvation Army they are all equal, so you can rise to
the highest rank, you can preach, you can do everything that a man can, so it was very
inspirational to have her there today.
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P:
No, well that’s a good roll up too and it usually is at that breakfast each year. There’s
usually a fairly good roll up as well Nora.
Cr:
Yeah, we get a lot of the same people come every year because they really love it and
each year new people come, like today, they said to me, “Oh this is great. This is my
first time. I’m going to come back and I’m going to bring other people.” So each year it
kind of keeps growing, which is what we want to happen.
P:
Of course, yeah exactly.
Cr:
Because we want to inspire women to continue the dialogue.
P:
Well there’s plenty of room up there at Karralyka isn’t there?
Cr:
Yeah, it’s a great facility.
P:
Yeah, it is a fantastic facility and let’s hope that as a result of today there is an
increase in numbers for the following ones.
Cr:
Yeah and we also like to have the day and then we talk a little bit about council and
we’re lucky at Maroondah Council because five of the nine councillors happen to be
women.
P:
Dominated by women we are. My golly.
Cr:
I know, isn’t it fantastic? Women power! So we’ve been talking a lot, over the past well
the time I’ve been on seven years, about getting more women interested in standing
for local government, and so this is another opportunity as well to showcase what we
do at council and hopefully inspire women to want to come out and get involved in
local government.
P:
Might be soon. We might be having to work how to get a couple of blokes interested.
Take over the place.
Cr:
Yeah, well that’s right, we’ll take over.
P:
No, well I’m sure that there’ll be a lot of folk interested in that anyhow, but I think being
now still a Maroondah resident I find the council have been very good to deal with and
as you mentioned, there are lots and lots of activities going on in Maroondah. So we
might take a short break and be back with you after that.
P:
You’re on Radio Eastern, 98.1. It’s Thursday around noon and our regular City of
Maroondah segment. Special guest with us, Councillor Nora Lamont, and Nora’s
worked her way through the first page, so over to you Nora to carry on with more
information.
Cr:
All right, thanks. I wanted to touch on See Past the Stereotype digital media campaign
that’s being launched today, and this is something that council’s been involved with
and it’s a joint effort between Knox, Maroondah and Yarra Ranges and it’s aimed at
preventing violence against women, but before it occurs.
So raising awareness regarding preventing violence against women is obviously a
priority for council and I’m saddened to say that Maroondah has one of the highest
rates of family violence in the eastern metropolitan region of Melbourne, and I think a
couple of years ago when I was the Mayor we were here and I was the Ambassador
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for preventing violence against women and we talked about this very topic and
unfortunately in those intervening year and a half or two years, nothing has changed.
So the See Past the Stereotype campaign consists of a number of short video
highlights and they highlight situation of gender discrimination, one of the leading
causes of violence against women, and these videos have been distributed through
digital and online channels and they’re really to raise awareness and continue the
conversation on this important subject.
Now, these videos will be launched today and can be viewed through council’s website
or on council’s YouTube channel, and we believe that the See Past the Stereotype
campaign will send a really powerful message and we hope that as a local government
unit we can do what we can to make a difference to stop violence against women in
the community.
P:
Yes. Well they’re being launched today and are accessible on the council website.
Cr:
That’s correct, on the council website and through the YouTube channel that we have.
If you just Google Maroondah Council on YouTube.
P:
That should be an interesting one, yeah.
Cr:
So that’s been a collaboration between Knox, Maroondah and Yarra Ranges, so really
sort of targeting the outer east.
P:
I guess one of the things that I’ve always felt is that, you know, some of the
established problems that are in the community are going to be a little hard to change,
but maybe we should be aiming at the younger fry. Is there a possibility that this sort of
thing could be made available to schools? Would it be suitable?
Cr:
I believe that it’s totally suitable to go out to schools and that is possibly something that
the joint collaboration will be doing, because this will be an ongoing effort.
P:
Yes, well if it hasn’t been raised, might be worth raising.
Cr:
Yes, absolutely.
P:
Because it’s an interesting one, but I think that’s I guess where we’ve got to change
the attitudes that are growing up in our younger fry and seeing if we can overcome it
there. Certainly if we can change established attitudes in some of our folk around the
place who are still responsible for taking that sort of action, but it would be beaut to be
able to change that attitude right across the community wouldn’t it?
Cr:
Yeah. And I think each level of government has their own programs going on right
now, because I think everybody has sort of established the fact that this really is the
number one problem.
Women in between the ages of, you know, 18 and 45, this is the leading cause of
death for them is domestic violence. So it’s something that we need to tackle at all
levels of government and get the message out. And so I think Maroondah, Knox and
Yarra Ranges are doing their bit to try and get out the messaging as best as we can at
the local level.
P:
That’s really a terrific initiative for sure. It’s 16 minutes past midday. We might take
another little break and be back with our guest after that. One of our sponsors.
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It’s 17 minutes past midday, Thursday around noon, our City of Maroondah segment
and back with Councillor Nora Lamont.
Cr:
Great. Well I’d like to talk about Celebrate Maroondah, and this is on Friday the 20th.
Now we’ve recently had two free community events in the Mullum and the Arrabri
wards called Celebrate Maroondah. I attended of course the Mullum ward event at
Maroondah Federation Estate last month and children were encouraged to dress up as
fairies and pixies for the afternoon, and this was in line with the theme which was
fairies and pixies. I even managed to enjoy the afternoon with a face painting and
some fairy wings myself.
P:
Anybody get a camera did they?
Cr:
Yes I’ve got some photos. We’ll keep those hidden though. But it was a really great
event and it was quite hot out, but we got a really good crowd and so that was sort of
targeted at the younger group. The third in this series is coming up on Friday the 20th
and that’s in the Wyreena ward, and that’ll be at the Wyreena Community Arts Centre
in Hull Road in Croydon.
P:
Right here.
Cr:
Where we’re currently located. And there will be once again something for the entire
family. Now this free event, and I stress that it’s free, it starts at 6:00pm and the
community is encouraged to come along in their best dragon training gear and enjoy
an outdoor screening of How to Train your Dragon 2, and that’s rated PG. I haven’t
seen 1 and I didn’t know there was a 2, but Dan seems to indicate to me that he’s
seen them. There’ll also be live music, free children’s entertainment and a free
barbecue.
P:
That’ll be right here. We’ll be able to look out the window and see it happening.
Cr:
And the best part about it is you get to meet your Wyreena ward councillors, Liam
Fitzgerald, Rob Steane and Les Willmott if you haven’t done so already. Now, the
movie will commence on the outdoor screen from 7 pm and I do want to remind
parents this is a PG rated film, meaning it’s not suitable for anyone under the age of
seven and they would require parental supervision. Listeners interested in finding out
more about this Celebrate Maroondah event can visit the council website or call our
events team at 9294 5561. That’s 9294 5561. Russ, are you going to come?
P:
You’d be able to pick that up by contacting--unfortunately that date just rang a bell in
my brain and my daughter and son-in-law are musicians and they’re playing at a place
over where I’ve been residing for the last intervening time between Heathmont and
Croydon, over at Wattle Glen, so I’m over the far side of the river on that night having
dinner whilst they perform an entertainment for the assembly of all the folk who come
along to the--they’ve got a sign up on the building, they’ve just renovated it all and it’s
not a free plug, but approaching Diamond Creek you come from the city down a very
windy bit of road, quite a nice surface, a good surface road, but it’s been known for
years and years as the windy mile, and that’s the name of the place we’re going to be
at, because the restaurant has been christened the Windy Mile and we’ll be having
dinner there and watching my son and daughter-in-law perform. So I can’t come I’m
sorry about that.
Cr:
That’s too bad.
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P:
But you won’t miss me because there’ll be so many other people who’ve decided to
come along and enjoy the beautiful facilities here at Wyreena, outside there, and the
setting is absolutely magnificent folks.
I think everybody knows where the Wyreena Community Art Centre is. That’s where
the radio station is as well. If you’re wandering past you’ll be able to look in the window
and see whoever’s on air at that particular time pumping away in the studio, and if
you’re very kind you might even be able to come inside and have a quick look around.
But the outdoor theatre program, or the movie outdoor has been on before in the
grounds here at Wyreena and was well attended, so let’s hope they get a good roll up
for that one.
Cr:
Yeah, Well hopefully the weather will co-operate now that we’re sort of getting into
autumn. Let’s hope that the weather’s good, but it should be. And that’s Friday the 20th
people, if you’d like to come out. Everyone in the entire city of Maroondah is welcome
to come down and have a free barbecue and watch a movie and catch up with your
councillors.
P:
There you are Dan, you can come and have a sausage sizzle.
Cr:
I think Dan’s looking forward to it. I just wanted to talk a little bit about legal tree
removal in Maroondah, because I just wanted to remind residents about how seriously
council takes its role in protecting the trees.
Given that one of our greatest assets in Maroondah is our extensive green canopy, we
want to make sure that our future generations can enjoy the same outlook that we
have today.
In the last week, a Croydon North man has been fined $11,500 following the illegal
removal of canopy trees and illegal earthworks on his own property. The verdict
handed down in the Magistrates Court should send a clear message that all property
owners must be responsible for the management of vegetation on their properties.
Now council was alerted to this illegal vegetation removal and earthworks leading to
our planning enforcements officers going and investigating this site. They found
significant evidence of canopy tree lopping, canopy tree removals and earthworks
occurring without a single permit.
The property owner pleaded guilty to three charges relating to the lopping of seven
native canopy trees and the removal of four canopy trees as well as excavation on the
work site.
Now this successful prosecution and substantial penalty imposed is really a result of
the investigation and commitment shown by the council officers who worked to ensure
that the property owner was held accountable for his actions and just to re-state, he
got fined $11,500, which is quite a hefty fine for removing these trees.
So, I just wanted to remind Maroondah residents, property owners and contractors that
they must ensure that they manage trees in line with council’s planning scheme. Now
under our planning scheme a planning permit is required to remove any canopy trees
or vegetation in most areas within the significant landscape and vegetation protective
overlay that we have, and we have a lot of good protections in the City of Maroondah
that a lot of other councils don’t have to make sure that--because one of the things that
people say to me most about they love living in Maroondah is the leafy green
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neighbourhoods and the trees and the bush reserves that we have.
So council planning officers are always available to discuss tree removal to ensure it’s
conducted in line with council’s regulations, and if you want to trim or remove a tree on
your property, just give council a call and have a chat with our council officers before
doing so. Council planning officers are here to help and make the process as easy as
possible, and destroying trees and earthworks without approval is definitely not the
way to go about it, and we’ll never get those canopy trees back and you’ll be up for a
hefty fine.
But if you want to have a look at the council’s website, it’s a wonderful resource and it
has a range of information about canopy trees, applying for a permit and it also has a
list of the native species that we have in Maroondah, and of course you can check that
out at Maroondah.vic.gov.au or you can ring council at 1300 882 233.
P:
All right. So there’s a little warning for anybody who’s thinking of doing the wrong thing
with any trees that are around their property and there is a proper way to undertake
any trimming and removal of trees, but first of all you must contact the council.
Cr:
That’s right.
P:
All right, Nora, well does that round out your voluminous file of information you’ve
passed onto us today?
Cr:
It does.
P:
You did a good job anyhow and it was good to see you back on board again.
Cr:
Yeah it’s great and I look forward to coming back again soon.
P:
We’ll be happy to have you as well. We’ll look forward to another City of Maroondah
segment on the first Thursday of next month, so we’ll see you later. Bye.