Rotary Melbourne's 41st Meeting of this Rotary year and our 5,032nd all time Club meeting, in its one hundred and third year embraced several important messages.
Barbara Yerondais delivered a thought provoking reflection which is posted elsewhere in this Bulletin.
In Club news President Chris called Trevor Nink to the podium to deliver an insightful presentation on the club’s contribution to several successful water and wash projects in the Philippines and Pacific Island neighbours, graciously acknowledging the work of Ruth Carlos-Matinez and these impactful programs that influence accessibility to water to local communities, sanitation that prevented the spread of childhood diseases, and improved education participation. The presentation is attached HERE, and is included in the Full Meeting video, access the video at the end of this meeting report.
President Chris then welcomed visiting Rotarians and guest, acknowledging the 88th birthday of Past President David Jones AO, OBE, KSJ.
He sadly noted the passing of Lyn Cooke, wife of deceased former Rotary Melbourne stalwart Lawton Cooke.
Chris congratulated Suresh Marcandan on his 5th anniversary as a member. He then congratulated Russell Board on his 11th year at Rotary Melbourne following his earlier membership of the Darwin Sunrise, and Cairns Rotary Clubs.
Chris concluded Club announcements by reminding members of the joint hosting by the Royal Society of Victoria and Rotary Melbourne of the first Artificial Intelligence (AI) Summit on Wednesday 21 May @ RSV Latrobe St Melbourne. The Panel specialists in Education and Health will address the impact of AI on their work.
President Chris then called on Richard Parker to the podium to Chair the meeting and introduce our guest speaker. This week we had a particularly interesting speaker in Jonathan Spears from the State Government agency "Infrastructure Victoria". Jonathan is the CEO who heads up a relatively small but very capable group.
"In terms of Government's long term planning and control over the shape of the State's urban and regional development, his agency is the most important policy group in the Victorian Public Service.
Delivery of projects and regulatory approvals etc still remain with the line agencies e.g. Roads, Public Transport, Ports , Water etc., but Infrastructure Victoria is somewhat different as it is empowered and required under its statutory charter to provide independent advice on the State’s long term Infrastructure requirements to both the Government and the broader all party Parliament. This is not only a very wide brief, but is also a politically sensitive role because the agency's recommendations may well, (and often do) differ from the views of the Government of the day.
Using a powerpoint presentation, Jonathan explained that the State is facing a population increase of around three million in the next ten years, most of which will end up in greater Melbourne.
His talk was essentially a summary presentation on the work they are doing to evaluate five quite different urban growth scenarios ranging from continuing the present approach (where most of the growth will occur in outer suburban low density developments), to at the other end of the options, a scenario which would put the brakes on ever increasing sprawl and strongly encourage higher densities in a much more consolidated form of land use. Each scenario is being evaluated against a wide range of criteria like, housing liveability, housing prices, transport, public cost, environmental, and economic development criteria. It is clear from this work that continuation of the current fringe development policy option will not produce the best long term outcomes for Victorians. Turning the ship will not be easy so this topic would be a good one for Rotary Melbourne to revisit on a regular basis.
As expected, the presentation evoked numerous interesting questions from the floor before the meeting was wrapped up." Thank you Richard Parker for preparing an outstanding summary of Jonathan’s address.
The full meeting recording can be viewed by clicking the link below and likewise the speaker recording below.
