Police awards ceremony
LAST Wednesday night I was privileged to attend an awards ceremony for our police who work to keep us safe in the west of the state.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Thirty-three police members from across the Wimmera were presented with national medals and/or awards on the night, with almost 100 people attending the event and 39 apologies.
It is notable that the apologies were members attending the funeral of one of their own who recently tragically lost his own life.
Such are the pressures of policing.
Remarkably there were 10 police members who received individual recognition for saving or attempting to save lives by performing CPR or high risk intervention, across four incidents.
The locations of these events were Horsham, Stawell, Ararat and Halls Gap.
There was a fifth incident in The Grampians involving two members who were recognised for their efforts in responding to a self-harm call and involved excellent safety, initiative, decision making and interpersonal skills to resolve the incident.
One member of the community was also recognised for his service.
We see examples of police and emergency services working with the community to save lives and property around the world.
The recent Las Vegas tragedy is but one example and history has shown that we need our police and emergency services to be willing to step in as our front line to protect and support us.
We should all be proud of their efforts and grateful for their service.
Cr John Robinson BM OAM, Horsham Rural City Council
Diary from history
A DIRECT descendent of the pioneer Scotts of Warracknabeal and Rich Avon has recently given me photocopies of their diary, pastoral licences, maps and other documents, which relate to the Scott brothers Andrew, Robert and Thomas.
On their stations 240,000 sheep were shorn and the wool carted under contract to Geelong.
Mention is made to visits to Horsham to discuss financial matters with the managers of the Bank of Australia there.
Trips to Glenorchy and back home to Mount Mount Buninyong near Buninyong are also detailed.
Andrew Scott built the present large home with 14-foot ceilings, saying he never wanted to endure the heat of the Wimmera again.
Hope this is of interest.
Olive Guthrie, Ballarat.
Pension card changes
FORMER part-pensioners in Wannon are having their pensioner concession card reinstated from this week.
These former part-pensioners lost the card in January as a consequence of reforms to the pension assets test, which was designed to make the pension system more affordable and sustainable for the future.
Those reforms provided an increased pension for people with lower levels of assets, while some part-pensioners with high levels of assets lost access to their part-pensions.
In reinstating the PCC, the Turnbull government is ensuring that these 90,000 former part-pensioners, including 807 in Wannon will be able to access those benefits again in the future.
The PCC will be automatically reinstated from this week and it’s expected that all those eligible will have their card within the next fortnight.
Those expecting a reissued card don’t need to do anything to receive it, it will be sent to them automatically.
They will also retain the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, which continued to be provided after the January 2017 pension changes.
This means they will continue to be paid the energy supplement that they formerly received with their pension.
Dan Tehan, Member for Wannon