🟠 Kinder chaos and a funding flatline

WHAT’S COMING UP 🎟️

• FRIDAY 08/05/26, 8.30-11PM | Kris Mizzi

• SATURDAY 09/05/26, 10AM-10.30PM & SUNDAY 10/05/26, 10AM-5PM | Healesville Festival

• SUNDAY 10/05/26, 8-11AM | Mother’s Day Classic

• FRIDAY 15/06/26, 8-9.50PM | Steve Kilbey

• SATURDAY 16/06/26, 8PM | Rogue Traders

• EVERY DAY FROM 10AM-5PM | Play School: Come and Play!

📰 THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES

How Maroondah Council plans to cut emissions in half and save money into the future

Maroondah Council is aiming to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2035 under a new plan that would also shrink its gas heating bills at local pools and reduce the cost burden of maintenance and fuel for its fleet.

The council’s Climate Adaptation Plan puts a timeline and price tag on moving council operations off fossil fuels.

Its main target is cutting the council’s greenhouse gas emissions to half of 2021/22 levels by 2035.

Measures include replacing at least 50 percent of passenger fleet vehicles with electric vehicles by 2030 and fully electrifying at least one of the council’s three aquatic centres by 2035.

Maroondah councillor Chris Jones said the council’s pools were its most significant consumer of gas, with the electrification of one pool set to protect a key community asset from energy insecurity.

“We're only going to do it if it actually means something to our bottom line,” said Jones. “This isn't about ideology, it's about reducing the exposure to a volatile energy market by lowering long-term operational costs.”

In 2023, Darebin City Council completed the $63.5 million rebuild of the Northcote Aquatic and Recreation Centre as an all-electric facility.

Using water reuse technology and solar power, the shift from gas to electricity has cut about 1,400 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

The average Australian car emits about 2.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, meaning this reduction equates to 560 cars being taken off the road.

Many aquatic centres in eastern Melbourne still rely on gas heating, including Maroondah’s Aquanation in Ringwood, Aquahub in Croydon and Croydon Memorial Pool.

In its 2025/26 budget, Maroondah allocated $16.5 million to keeping its three pools running.

Croydon’s Aquahub pool features 770 rooftop solar panels, which cut annual energy costs by 56 percent in 2023.

Nearby, Yarra Ranges Council said gas use across its six pools produced about 10 percent of council emissions.

While EVs can cost more upfront, charging and maintenance are significantly cheaper than petrol or diesel vehicles.

According to the Australian Automobile Association, EV owners save between $1,320 and $3,070 annually on fuel and maintenance.

According to Maroondah Council, transitioning their fleet to EVs would create a saving of $5,248 per vehicle over five years.

The Eastern Alliance for Greenhouse Action is a collaboration of eight councils in Melbourne's east – including Boroondara, Knox, Maroondah, Monash and Whitehorse – driving regional action on climate change.

Executive officer Sharon MacDonnell said the average annual climate damages to eastern Melbourne councils’ infrastructure was already between $90 million and $120 million.

“Without proactive adaptation, this is projected to increase to $210 million to $300 million per year by 2050 and $400 million to $540 million per year by 2100,” MacDonnell told the Eastern Melburnian.

MacDonnell said councils needed greater state and federal government support for climate adaptation projects.

Eastern Melbourne’s politicians fight over Maroondah Hospital’s $850 million upgrades

Ringwood East’s Maroondah Hospital redevelopment has not received construction funding in this year’s budget, with the minimum $850 million project facing a 2029 deadline if it is to be completed on time.

However, the State Government has dismissed claims from opposition and independent MPs the project had been “scrapped”, calling the accusations “an attempt to score cheap political points” and stating planning was still underway.

In September 2022, Former Premier Daniel Andrews first announced a minimum $850 million commitment towards the redevelopment and expansion of Maroondah Hospital, with a new name of Queen Elizabeth II Hospital also proposed.

Construction was originally slated to begin in 2025.

Plans included more than 200 extra beds, a new emergency department and a dedicated children's emergency unit.

The latest public update was in July 2023, highlighting that expressions of interest were open for a master plan and feasibility study.

While no major work has begun, the project remains on the State Government’s list of projects set to be delivered with support from the $320 million Hospital Infrastructure Delivery fund first outlined in the 2023-24 budget.

The updated hospital was first projected to open in 2029.

The State Government has been assessing the existing conditions of the Ringwood East site over the past 12 months.

“While local MPs attempt to score cheap political points and spread misinformation, we’re getting on with delivering the QEII Hospital,” a State Government spokesperson told the Eastern Melburnian. “Delivering a project of this scale requires significant planning – this work is well underway.”

North Eastern Metropolitan Region MP Nick McGowan said not seeing money committed for another year was “heartbreaking”.

“Today’s silence represents a betrayal of trust,” McGowan told the Eastern Melburnian. “Not a cent of funding to construct a toilet, much less an entire hospital which locals were told would start being built last year.”

Independent Ringwood MP Will Fowles, formerly a Labor MP, said the omission of funding for the hospital was “shameful” and “unacceptable”.

Eastern Melbourne locals helping families struggling to put food on the table

More than half of Melbourne’s families found it harder to afford food in April.

For those living in Manningham, a new food relief program partnering with Templestowe’s CareNet food insecurity support charity is helping to cut down on grocery bills and get high-quality food on the table.

The Templestowe service recently opened as a Box Divvy hub – a support model where community groups, families and individuals receive food from local wholesalers and farmers and then welcome up to 55 families to collect their orders on a set day each week.

Husband and wife Jayne Travers-Drapes and Anton van den Berg founded Box Divvy in 2018 to improve local access to food.

Six years on, the model offers fresh produce and pantry items between 30 and 40 percent cheaper than major supermarkets across more than 350 hubs across the country.

Food insecurity occurs when people lack reliable access to food due to economic hardship, and can cause understandable worry and, in some cases, cause people to go days without eating.

A study from the University of Melbourne and Murdoch Children's Research Institute found over 55 percent of Melbourne’s 2023 population lived in neighbourhoods without a healthy food outlet within 500 metres.

A Foodbank study showed 53 percent of Australians found it harder to put food on the table in April, up nine percent from March.

The chief executive of Templestowe’s food relief charity CareNet, Kellie Wishart, said Box Divvy helps the service provide affordable and quality food to Manningham families.

“People are making trade-offs every week, and many feel priced out of fresh food,” said Wishart.

Travers-Drapes said they are opening three new hubs which will operate weekly in Victoria, but more government support would help diversify the system away from big supermarkets and reach a larger area.

“Most of our food supply is highly centralised and fragile,” she said. “I personally believe that supermarkets will be a thing of the past in 10 years.”

Childcare giant closing three eastern Melbourne centres

About 250 children will lose their childcare places when Australia’s largest for-profit provider, G8 Education, closes three centres across Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, leaving families scrambling for alternatives in an already stretched system.

On April 29, G8 Education confirmed it would close 40 centres nationwide – about 10 percent of its services – after a managed transition period, citing economic factors such as changes in demand and lower birth rates.

Twelve Victorian centres are affected, including Community Kids Bayswater Early Education Centre, Casa Bambini Blackburn and Greenwood Scoresby.

The Eastern Melburnian contacted centres in Scoresby, Bayswater and Blackburn about their enrolment demand following the announcement. A staff member at Sparrow Early Learning Centre said two children had enrolled from a nearby G8 centre in the past week, while Scoresby Village Childcare Centre reported an uptick in enquiries.

The United Workers Union (UWU) has contacted more than 2000 members and non-members to support transitions to nearby G8 centres or provide redundancy and entitlements.

UWU early education co-ordinator Ffion Evans said workers in Melbourne’s east had “expressed shock and disappointment”, describing the closures as “arbitrary” given all three centres met National Quality Standards.

“The closures further highlight the risk of leaving provision of the essential service of early education to private sector providers,” Evans told the Eastern Melburnian.

👀 DID YOU SEE?

What are the changes to Australia’s EV discounts?

Australia's EV tax perk is being wound back. If you're thinking about a novated lease, you've got until March 2027 to lock in the full benefit.

The Federal Government currently exempts electric vehicles from fringe benefits tax when bought through a novated lease, meaning employees can effectively pay for a car through their employer and cop no tax on it at all.

The policy proved far more popular than expected, blowing out to more than ten times its $90 million forecast for this year alone.

The changes: From April 2027, the full exemption will only apply to EVs under $75,000, with a reduced 25% discount for cars up to $91,000.

From April 2029, the full exemption disappears entirely and the 25% discount becomes the ceiling for everything under $91,000.

The National Account’s Archie Milligan has the rundown.

What's making houses in Victoria more affordable — and how the rest of the country can follow

Victoria has quietly become one of the more affordable housing markets in the country, much to the delight of first home buyers trying to get their foot in the door of the property market.

The National Account’s Archie Milligan chatted with Emeritus Professor Hal Pawson from UNSW's City Futures Research Centre about the state-level policy levers like taxes and tenants' rights reforms taxes that have started to shift the market, and what other states could learn from them.

If you haven’t yet, check out The National Account’s YouTube account