Today is Remembrance Day, and at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month we pay tribute to all those who died in war.
Later on tonight another group of people, the homeless, will be remembered, when the Liverpool Council homelessness and housing crisis task force meet to find solutions locally anyway.
The task force was created after a big push by Councillor Peter Ristevski, who says homelessness in Liverpool is an issue that deserves much more attention than it gets currently.
The meeting starts at 6pm and will go for two hours. Apart from the councillors and officers, many organisations which help the homeless will be represented, including St Vincent de Paul Men’s Crisis Centre, The Salvation Army Liverpool and Anglicare Liverpool.
♦ Campbelltown MP Greg Warren is calling on residents of the Macarthur region to nominate local women for Western Sydney University’s Women of the West Awards. The awards are an opportunity to recognise achievements and contributions of women from all walks of like in the Greater Western Sydney region.
Since the awards were established in 2005, they have recognised many inspiring women who have all left their mark on the Greater Western Sydney region in their own way. Nominations are open for the Women of the West and Young Women of the West categories, with the winner in each category receiving a $5,000 grant.
The awards will be presented at the University’s International Women’s Day celebrations in March next year. Submissions can be made online at www.westernsydney.edu.au/womenofthewest and close on Sunday, December 13.
♦ At the recent Football NSW annual dinner, a State award was presented to Iain Kelly of the Macarthur Association, pictured (fourth from left) with all the winners. State Award winners are nominated by their association in recognition of their tireless efforts and service to football in their local community. Well done, Iain.
♦ After World War II the Australian Government farmed out gifts to every area in the country as a thanks for sending its men and women to war. The gifts were war equipment like tanks and the like seized from the Germans. Liverpool ended up with a 77mm Krupp/Ehrhardt Field Gun 96, but it has taken a long time before being put on display outside the Liverpool Library recently. After considerable research, much of it by former mayor Gary Lucas, it has been confirmed that this gun was initially allocated to the town of Cooma in May 1921. It was then ceded by the town and transferred to Liverpool. It was placed in Discovery Park sometime after 1965 and remained there until the early-1990s when it was sent to Old Sydney Town Farm for restoration work. On its return to Liverpool it was positioned outside the council building at Hoxton Park Road where it remained until mid-1998. From there it was stored in Council’s depot at Rose Street until it was put on public display in the Liverpool City Library forecourt last week.
♦ Liverpool Councillor Peter Ristevski has been much in the news lately over a so called bitter power struggle with the mayor Ned Mannoun. But Cr Ristevski probably deserved more publicity for hosting on Monday a visiting trade delegation from Macedonia, including CEOs of major companies coming to Liverpool with the ambassador and foreign investment minister to look at business opportunities in investing in Liverpool.
♦ It is no surprise that the battle to save local motor registries has been defeated by a Baird Government determined to go to a new model of much bigger service centres. One suburb that will feel the loss of its motor registry will be Ingleburn, which closes down from this weekend.
Local member Anoulack Chanthivong, pictured at left, fought the good fight but it was not enough to persuade the government to change its mind.
Ingleburn residents are being advised to use the Liverpool Service Centre from November 14 onwards.
But the Liverpool centre is in the Megacentre on Orange Grove Road and nowhere near a rail station like Ingleburn was, so getting to it will be pretty hard for some sections of the community like the aged and those without cars.
Politically, it means that nice Mr Baird has lost a few more fans.
Not that he lose any sleep over it: the next election is more than three years away.
