How wonderful is it to be back out and about again! I was lucky enough to be able to get together with musicians at Harrietville recently, the home of Australian Bluegrass, and catch up and jam with friends who we haven’t seen for a long time. There was probably more talk than play as we relished the freedom of live music again. As we adjust to our new way of living after the past 18 months of challenges and compromising, it is great to have our freedom back to do the things that we enjoy with the people that we love, just in time for the summer months and the festive season.

At our November Council Meeting, we resolved to make six unused road reserves available for the development of social housing in Wonthaggi and Cowes. Offering up these unused road reserves is one very clear way of signalling to the community that we take this issue seriously. We will make three sites in Wonthaggi available to Salvation Army Housing and one site in Wonthaggi along with two sites in Cowes available to Community Housing Limited. These organisations will determine which, if any of the sites, they will include in a submission to the Social Housing Growth Fund Regional Round through the State Government’s Big Housing Build, which has allocated a minimum of $25 million for the development of social housing in Bass Coast.

I was proud to support Deputy Mayor, Cr Leticia Laing’s notice of motion at the November Council Meeting regarding erosion of the Inverloch foreshore. Inverloch has lost eight metres of coastline since February 2020, with the vegetated dunes receding by an additional 30 metres at Wreck Creek. This requires urgent action. We have written to both the State and Federal Environment Ministers to express our concern over delays on delivery of the Coastal Hazard Assessment and the risk of permanent dune loss in coming months. We will continue to advocate for immediate sand renourishment works at the Inverloch Foreshore, with a particular focus on Wreck Creek.

Finally this week, I would like to take a moment to congratulate ‘The Cape’, Cape Paterson’s sustainable housing development, for winning the Industry Leader award in the Climate action category of the Premier's Sustainability Awards 2021.