Tuesday, 20 May, 2025
Petition to lower speed
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A Star News Group Publication
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O’Brien keeps bringing the gold By Rose Leban The Olympic gold medallist, Kelland O’Brien who was born and raised in Lilydale has won a Victorian Sport Awards (VSAs) presented by the State Government of Victoria and Vicsport. O’Brien won the Frank Wilkes award on Wednesday 14 May which recognises a Victorian individual athlete who has achieved outstanding results in respect to performance/s at a national or international level in the male category during the 2024 year. O’Brien started his cycling career at the Lilydale BMX Club before becoming a decorated national cyclist. Being a member of the Australian team Pursuit quartet, and winning gold at Paris Olympics which was Australia’s first track gold since 2012 while also claiming a world record time in the semi-finals. The VSAs recognise people across individual and team athletes, coaches, officials, volunteers, administrators, media personnel and the initiatives that promoted participation. “Being able to recognise and celebrate the grassroots heroes throughout Victorian sport and active recreation alongside those who excelled at an elite level is what makes the Victorian Sport Awards such a special night,” Vicsport chair Jason Hellwig said. Turn to page 27 for more
Kelland O’Brien was named as the winner of the Frank Wilkes award. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)
Aged care crisis By Mikayla van Loon Dwindling aged care staff numbers is nothing new with research estimates reporting that tens of thousands of workers will be required to fill the growing need by 2050. So when the daughter of a resident in her eighties at the Walmsley Aged Care Home in Kilsyth heard that six staff members across both leadership and lifestyle roles were leaving rather abruptly, concern was instant. Wanting to remain anonymous due to worry of any backlash for her mother, the daughter, who we’ll call Sue, told Star Mail that all the departures
of staff came unexpectedly. These included three members of the lifestyle team and the community development manager in March, and the general manager in April, all effective within a day or two of a letter being sent to advise residents, staff and family of their resignations. In a response from Australian Unity, the parent company of the home, on Thursday 8 May, a spokesperson said the reasons for staff leaving included “personal resignations and an internal transfer to another Australian Unity aged care facility”.
Recruitment for a new general manager occurred from 17 April, with communication sent out advising of a newly appointed manager on 5 May, with the position filled from Monday 12 May. At the time of speaking, Sue believed the remaining positions had yet to be filled but the Australian Unity spokesperson confirmed that recruitment had occurred for all and “all positions have since been filled”. “Our focus at Australian Unity was on recruiting staff to fill these roles with minimal interruption to our services and care. This was achieved,” they said.
HT W G I L E K MA
Despite the relatively quick resolution to staff resignations at Walmsley, staffing challenges in the aged care sector have been seen across the country for a number of years, which is only predicted to increase. The Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) identified in 2021, through its report Duty of care: Meeting the aged care workforce challenge, that Australia was facing a shortage of at least 110,000 direct aged-care workers within the next decade unless urgent action was taken. More on Page 2
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