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16 DECEMBER, 2025
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Merry Christmas everyone!
Children across Melbourne’s western suburbs, including Penelope, 4, are eagerly counting down the days until the big man in red arrives. As the end of 2025 draws near, the team at Star Weekly would like to wish readers and advertisers a Merry Christmas and safe and happy 2026. The first edition for 2026 will be out on Tuesday 6 January.
‘Major gaps’ in report By Sam Porter Residents are calling on Brimbank council to improve services and accessibility for people with disability, citing the council’s annual report to highlight areas needing improvement. Brimbank Disability Advocacy and Support manager Shannon Meilak said the annual report reveals “major gaps” for people with disability. Ms Meilak said while the report highlighted accessible car parking upgrades, council hasn’t addressed several parks in the municipality that have been repeatedly flagged by the disability community as lacking accessibility, including yaluk barring park and Green Gully dog park. Ms Meilak said the closest accessible
carpark to yaluk barring park was at Keilor Golf Club, over a kilometre away, and that the new accessible parking at Green Gully dog park does not have curb cutouts for people to access the park. Another issue identified related to council’s community transport service. The annual report stated “the majority of clients using the service are older people and people with disabilities,” however Ms Meilak said buses used for the service do not have the capability to transport people in scooters and wheelchairs. “This contradicts the report’s messaging and leaves many disabled residents without transport to community programs and supports,” Ms Meilak said. Council’s 2025 Community Satisfaction Survey also revealed respondents with disability have lower than average
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satisfaction with council’s services. Ms Meilak expressed concern the report contains no commitment to address this gap. She said she’s worried council is not properly engaging people with disabilities in its community consultation processes. “The report states extensive engagement was undertaken with seniors, carers, children and young people - but people with disability were not specifically targeted or mentioned, despite forming a significant portion of the population and historically facing barriers to participation,” Ms Meilak said. While Ms Meilak highlighted concerns with the report, she noted that council also does a lot of great work in making programs and events accessible to people with disabilities.
Brimbank council community wellbeing director Lynley Dumble said council is always looking for ways to improve the way it includes people with disability. “Council’s Disability Action Plan 2022-2026 is overseen by the Disability Advisory Committee and informed by robust consultation with community. The Action Plan guides Council’s key priorities and actions in supporting people living with disabilities and their carer,” Ms Dumble said. “Council provides a range of programming that is accessible and inclusive. People with disability are encouraged to contact Council directly to open a dialogue about how we can do things better to support and service the needs of people with disability.”
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