Margaret Gregory

Eating Disorders Victoria (EDV) have launched an online tool to aid early intervention in eating and exercise disorders. how far is too far provides clear and practical information for friends and families, fitness professionals, teachers and school staff, and individuals seeking support for themselves. The information is based on the early warning signs of eating and exercise disorders. A useful location map helps site-users find support, such as counsellors, in their area. EDV are aiming to improve early intervention within Victoria. Jennifer Beveridge, CEO of EDV describes the motivation behind the cause as “helping people want to get help.”

At the launch for how far is too far, Martin Foley, Minister for Mental Health said that “in 2012 one-million Australians were affected by a serious mental health issue” and in relation to body image disorders that “70% of adolescent girls have suffered from body dissatisfaction.” This statistic is important but should not distract people from the fact that people from all ages and across both genders suffer from eating and exercise disorders. Beveridge said that “two children can grow up side-by-side and it’s impossible to predict who will be susceptible to an eating disorder.”

Read more

17 June 2016

Victoria’s Marine Search and Rescue Services Recognised at the Melbourne Boat Show

This morning over a hundred members of Victoria’s Marine Search and Rescue Services including volunteers, Victoria Police and Transport Safety Victoria attended the official opening of the Melbourne Boat Show, which is dedicated to recognising the vital role they play in keeping Victorians safe on the water.

The opening followed the Boating Industry Association of Victoria and Emergency Management Victoria Marine Search and Rescue Breakfast, which was addressed by Victoria’s Emergency Management Commissioner, Craig Lapsley.

Irene Hoe, President of the Boating Industry Association of Victoria (BIAV) said the annual Marine Search and Rescue Breakfast provided a major opportunity acknowledge the ongoing contribution of all Marine Search and Rescue Services in Victoria.

Read more

Victoria’s Marine Industry, which employs 17,700 EFT and generates $4.5 billion annually into the State’s economy, is a major key to unlocking billions of dollars of future investment, economic development and major employment opportunities, the Boating Industry Association of Victoria said today on the eve of the Melbourne Boat Show which opens on Friday .

Steven Potts, CEO of the Boating Industry Association of Victoria (BIAV), said “Victoria’s world class expanding marine industry and related tourism activities provides Government at all levels with major opportunities to interface with the private sector to create a stronger BLUE ECONOMY, which to date has not been fully recognised or promoted as a policy at all levels of Government despite its massive potential.

“It is a little known fact that there are more boats in Victoria than motorbikes or caravans, and that just under one million Victorians annually are engaged in marine activities.  This is expected to double with the predicted population increase in the central coastal areas of Victoria, including Port Phillip and Western Port, from 4.6 million to nearly 8 million by 2050.

Read more

25 May 2016

Imagine the possibilities of the federal government funding volunteer management instead of an “illegal” internship program

This month’s Federal Budget and its proposal to introduce $4 per hour internships for unemployed under-25s has already been broadly debated and criticised. The PaTH (Prepare, Train, Hire) program proposes to provide intensive workplace training for young people who have been on Newstart for six months or more, followed by the option of undertaking an internship at up to twenty-five hours per week, for up to twelve weeks. In return, the young person receives an additional $100 per week on top of their Newstart allowance. The employer receives a free employee (paid for by the taxpayer) for up to 300 hours, a $1000 bonus upon completion of the program, and is under no obligation to employ the young person once the internship is over.

Employers in this program can come from any industry. Cafes and supermarkets were promoted as positive examples by the Government in the Budget Overview, whilst Senate Estimates confirmed that even the beleaguered 7-Eleven chain could employ interns free of charge under the PaTH program. It’s quite clear that this is a program aimed at the business market; it’s less clear what the skills benefit transfer is for participants.

Research from Interns Australia has found that 81% of internships do not lead to a job. The Australian Council of Trade Unions, based on legal advice they have received from Maurice Blackburn, has said that the program may even be illegal under the Fair Work Act.

Yet imagine the possibilities, if this program centred not on taxpayers paying for-profit business to engage free labour, but on training and mentoring young people in the not-for-profit sector through a properly funded volunteer management program.

Read more

7 June 2016

A statement from Volunteering Victoria CEO Sue Noble

Volunteers in the emergency services save lives. Their work is a major component of what we are talking about when we say that volunteering in Australia contributes an estimated $290 billion in value to the Australian economy – this figure includes the realistic estimate of lives saved by volunteers including firefighters, surf lifesavers and first aid practitioners.

The generosity of emergency services volunteers is perhaps most strongly demonstrated and noticed in times of crisis. In the time surrounding Victoria’s Black Saturday bushfires in 2009, over 22,000 people spontaneously volunteered their support, together with the 4,000 CFA volunteers who responded to the fires.

The scale of the volunteer effort in the emergency services is clear from the fact that there are 1,147 volunteer fire brigades, 60,000 volunteer firefighters and 5,000 State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers in the State of Victoria alone. And this doesn’t take into account the volunteers that support the other emergency response, relief and recovery agencies.

Volunteering Victoria fundamentally believes that volunteers deserve to be afforded the same level of rights and respect, and to be valued as highly as paid staff.

Read more

Admittedly, I mainly ate cheese at Melbourne’s Good Food & Wine Show, and a few Blush tomatoes. My plus-one had the wine part covered, rating Golding as her number one preference.

After a few rounds of the stalls, because you never know what you may have missed the previous round, we decided to watch the talented Matt Moran take to the stage and cook crispy chicken.

The Convention & Exhibition Centre was mixed with foodies, wine connoisseurs, lovers of the food industry showing us the future of the marketplace, and the raw workers from the land that usually remain behind the scenes growing and producing everything us Melbourne foodies love to devour. Hearing from the farmers about the processes and motivations behind their brands was touching, the passion to deliver quality and good flavours lives in all of them.

Get down to the Convention & Exhibition Centre Saturday the 4^th and Sunday the 5^th and see for yourself how much energy goes into what we put on our plates and in our glasses.

Read more

Lynette Noni is the author of The Medoran Chronicles (Arkanae, Raelia and Draekora), a Young Adult fantasy series following protagonist Alex Jennings as she stumbles upon the magical world of Medora and tries to make her way back home.

Wanda Wiltshire is the author of the Betrothed series (Betrothed, Allegiance and Confused), a series divided between Earth and the magical world of Faera; home to faeries and perhaps Marla’s long lost soul mate. 

I sat down with both Lynette and Wanda and had a chat about their different writing styles, their inspirations and creative processes. Here’s what they had to say:

What inspired you to go into YA? Was it your own reflection of childhood, teenagers in your life or certain authors that really connected you to the genre? 

Wanda: Well, when I started writing it was, the very short version of it, was the result of an epiphany. And so I just wrote the story that came to me. The story was actually the answer to a prayer quite literally. I had no kind of feeling about which genre it might fit into or who the audience would be or anything like that. I didn’t start to think about that until afterwards. But I definitely draw on my own childhood. Especially my main character Marla who kinda has had a bit of a struggle with her childhood and then slowly throughout the novel we see her find herself and find her strengths and use them, so in that way my childhood has inspired. And my audience actually, is not just Young Adult either. I think that’s the starting point but I’ve also got readers that are grandmothers who then pass it down to their children and their grandchildren so it wasn’t really a thought thing, it was just something that happened. 

Lynette: I was reading, I’ve always loved reading younger books, and I was reading a lot of them at a time just before I started writing and I was growing increasingly concerned by a lot of the protagonists and the age of the readers to how mature the themes were in the books, and I wanted to write a book that had a lot of the normal mild tropes and enjoyment and escapism kind of elements, but with someone who was healthy to sort of look at. Not look at as in physically but look at as in be inspired by, be encouraged by. When a reader reads a book, especially in that age group, they’ll want to be that person. So I wanted to give them someone who was relatable and someone they could aspire to be but also someone who wasn’t teaching them stuff that I wouldn’t want my kids to be taught if I had them in that age group too. Basically I wrote the book I wanted to read. 

So you were more influenced by what you’ve read?

Read more