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AVENEL • BEVERIDGE • BROADFORD • CLONBINANE • DONNYBROOK • EUROA • HEATHCOTE JUNCTION • KILMORE • NAGAMBIE • PUCKAPUNYAL • SEYMOUR • TALLAROOK • TRAWOOL • WALLAN • WANDONG
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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2025
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● Mary Anne Thomas, Health Minister
■ State Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas says that an assertion is false that Seymour Health was going to raid woirkers’ leave entitlements to fund services. Euroa MLA Annabelle Cleeland raised the concerns in State Parliament last week. “Will the minister guarantee that every single dollar of staff entitlements is protected by issuing a directive that workers’ leave entitlements cannot be used to fund services?” Ms Cleeland asked. Ms Thomas said: “ I can happily assure the member for Euroa that the assertion that has been made is false. This government will never compromise the hard-won entitlements of our workforce. “In fact, in contrast, our government has invested record funding into our health services, and every health service in the state has received an uplift in funding in the last financial year. Our government is investing in our world-class health service system, including at Seymour Health. “Country Victorians know that when it comes to their health care they can only trust a Labor Government, because it was under the Liberal and National Parties that we saw a dozen hospitals in country Victoria close. “Across a range of key measures our health services have shown some significant improvements. Indeed right now, right across particularly rural and regional Victoria, we are focused on delivering more care and more services closer to home,” Ms Thomas said.
RICHARD WELCH MP UNDER INVESTIGATION
■ North-Eastern Metropolitan MLC Richard Welch’s part-time printing business run out of his Parliamentary office is being investigated. Mr Welch admitted to offering “same-day” printing services from his taxpayer-funded office to his party’s MPs, candidates and branch members in a possible breach of parliamentary rules. Mr Welch denies any wrongdoing, and says taxpayers have not subsidised the business. He admitted sending WhatsApp messages to fellow MPs saying that his printing machine was available for Liberal Party-related material. Mr Welch denied it was against the rules as he had paid for the printer out of his own pocket. His opponents question if office electricity and supplies, paid by taxpayers, were used in the Welch business. All party-related activities by office staff in electorate offices is banned. Mr Welch says that any printing work done in his offices was done by volunteers in their own time. The Herald Sun reported that Mr Welch sent a message to more than 30 Liberal Party branch members spruiking a new office printer. “Party members, including many involved in party fundraising, were invited to call his ‘friendly’ staff at his Blackburn office to organise “usually same-day service”, according to the message seen by the Herald Sun.” Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas has asked for Mr Welch to be investigated.
● Richard Welch MLC
● Annabelle Cleeland, Euroa MLA
■ Euroa MLA Annabelle Cleeland says that she has met survivors who have waited decades to speak up, carried shame that was never theirs, people who were dismissed, disbelieved or silenced by authority figures who should have protected them. “Many did not seek wealth; they just wanted the truth,” Ms Cleeland said. “They sought just acknowledgement, they sought accountability and above all they just wanted safety for the next generation, and this bill aims to do that – not money, not politics and not institutional reputation. “This is about whether power over children comes with a responsibility that can never be contracted away. “ The new statutory test rightly focuses on whether the institution placed a person in a role that supplied the occasion for abuse and whether the perpetrator took advantage of that role. “Authority, power, trust, control and the ability to achieve intimacy: these are conditions that have enabled abuse, and these are the realities that law must recognise. “If an institution placed a person in a role where they could abuse, then that institution must wear responsibility for what followed,” Ms Cleeland told State Parliament.
The Local Paper MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR This is the final 2025 issue of The Local Paper. Our team now takes a summer break, re-opening the office on Tuesday, January 27. Our first 2026 issue is scheduled for Wednesday, February 4.