Tuesday, 25 August, 2026
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End of the road
Down in the dumps
Signing on for peace
Hawks primed for finals
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SPORT
Making a vital point St John’s Old Collegians’ player Clayton Emery was pumped with the slimmest of premiership victories in the SFNL division four grand final on Saturday 22 August. His side prevailed by just a single point in a Dandenong Derby for the ages against Dandenong West. It was a fairy-tale finish for St Johns OC, which had been accepted into the SFNL for the first time this year. For more on the extraordinary match, turn to Sport
(Rob Carew: 573395)
Room for debate Greater Dandenong Council is calling for a massive rise in social housing to avert homelessness, but has shied from urging a cap on rooming houses in the council area. Greater Dandenong is home to 137 registered rooming houses – with nearly half in the suburb of Dandenong itself. “We are turning into the rooming house mecca of the South East,” Cr Rhonda Garad says. The “explosion” of rooming houses – up to five
in some streets - is increasing pressure on neighbourhood amenity and support services, she says. In a motion last week, she blamed the rising number on a series of state governments underinvesting in affordable, public and community housing. Families, unable to afford to pay 70 per cent of their incomes on private market rentals, were being squeezed into rooming houses, Cr Garad says. However, a Labor majority of councillors re-
moved the State Government reference. Deputy mayor Phillip Danh counter-argued that the increase was due to “a range of factors” including housing affordability pressures, socioeconomic factors, and limited housing supply. Amenity impacts were not due to the number of rooming houses but due to failures in “compliance and enforcement”, according to his amended motion. Paradoxically, the council unanimously en-
dorsed a separate motion that a “critical shortage” of social housing is “driving homelessness across our state”. Infrastructure Victoria is recommending 60,000 social homes over 15 years as “essential infrastructure” as the Victorian Housing Register waitlist tops 65,000. Greater Dandenong has reportedly one of the highest rates of homelessness in the state. For more on the story, turn to page 3
rachel.payne.mp@parliament.vic.gov.au
FAIR, COMMON SENSE POLITICS. LEADING WITH COMPASSION.
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(03) 9651 8972 rachelpayne.com.au