🟠 Outsourcing outrage and a crisis cash crunch
Also including: What's happening at the Bendigo Bank branch in Mount Waverley?
Matthew Sims
September 17, 2025
⏱️ The 76th edition of our newsletter is a seven-minute read.
Hi there 👋
Matthew Sims here, your reporter at the Eastern Melburnian.
Our subscriber count just ticked over 12,500 - a big hello to all our new readers.
Saturday was a busy day out for me and my family, including dropping into the Rock Around the Mall event. It included vintage cars, which my daughter loved (never show a toddler any of Pixar’s Cars films), live music, rockabilly dancing and stalls from local artists.
Then, we popped over to Caribbean Gardens to check out the Dinosroar Experience. Unfortunately, I think we should have waited until my daughter was well and truly in her dinosaur phase before we went to something like this, as she was still a little scared of the dinosaur models and how they moved. It was still a great little place full of fun things to do, including uncovering a hidden dinosaur skeleton under sand and a mini golf course.
On Monday, I was one of the first people to walk through the door as part of the opening of the $1.3 million Bayswater library upgrade.
I also visited the Champion food charity hub at Temple Society Australia in Bayswater. Despite being there for work, the volunteers and locals visiting made me feel at home, offering me a cup of tea and a sit down - of course I couldn’t say no.
I chatted with Scoresby local Peter Goggins, who started popping into Champion after his wife passed away about a year ago; it wasn’t for food support but to drop in for a cuppa and a chat.
“I came here and it saved my life, gave me somewhere to come, gave me an interest in life,” he said.
On Tuesday morning dozens of Eastern Health workers rallied at Box Hill Hospital to protest moves to outsource their jobs.
I spoke with Greg, a Patient Services Assistant who has been an employee of Eastern Health for 36 years. He said he was concerned the shift to a labour hire company would remove salary packaging and create broader uncertainty for the last five or so years of his working life.
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🗞️ Here’s what the Eastern Melburnian has been up to
Only $12,684 remains in Knox Council’s $110,000 Emergency Relief Fund, despite only six successful applications since it launched in July.
WHAT’S ON THIS WEEK 🎟️
SATURDAY, 20/09/25 and SUNDAY, 21/09/25 | Dinosroar Experience
EVERY DAY, 10AM to 5PM | Tesselaar Tulip Festival
EVERY DAY, 10AM to 5PM | Blossom Festival @ Cherry Hill Orchards, Wandin East
THURSDAY, 18/09/25, 7.30PM to 10PM | Greg Champion @ Oakleigh Music Hall
SATURDAY, 20/09/25, 7.30PM to 9.20PM | Jimeoin - Pandemonium
📰 THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES
After 36 years as a Patient Services Assistant at the state government’s Eastern Health (EH), Greg still loves his job, which involves everything from general cleaning duties to transporting clinical specimens.
"We worked through Covid, we've had to deal with a lot of stressful issues during that time and you just feel forgotten,” he said.
However, in the wake of EH’s moves to outsource his role - along with those of 300-400 of his colleagues - he told the Eastern Melburnian he felt “disposable” and “undervalued”.
Greg, who spoke on the condition of only giving his first name, was one of about 50 EH employees who congregated outside of Box Hill Hospital on Tuesday, as part of a Health Workers Union (HWU) action pushing back against the proposed action.
In a statement to the Eastern Melburnian, EH said: “It is anticipated that existing employees will receive an offer of employment with the proposed provider.”
The “provider” is ISS Facility Services Australia, which referred our inquiry back to EH.
ISS has provided non-clinical support services to EH since 1999. As of August 2018, when it last extended its contract with EH, it had 450 contracted workers within EH services.
Non-clinical jobs within the hospital system - including orderlies, cleaners and food service staff - are the focus of the push for privatisation.
The outsourcing would impact workers at locations including Box Hill, Maroondah and Blackburn.
The HWU said that on August 19, with no prior warning, Eastern Health announced the proposed outsourcing. The union had started negotiations with EH on the next bargaining agreement between the workers and the state, as the previous agreement had lapsed in July.
The HWU claims outsourcing would breach part of the current Enterprise Agreement, which states that “parties are committed to preferencing secure employment and reducing labour hire within the Victorian Public Health Sector”.
According to an Eastern Health spokesperson, “consultation with staff and industrial partners is underway, and no decisions have been made”.
Will the doors at the Bendigo Bank branch in Mount Waverley's Pinewood Shopping Village ever reopen?
Local customers and business owners have been left in the dark for more than a week, and the bank is refusing to address the branch’s future.
The branch closed on September 2.
Those who came to do their banking were met with notes suggesting they take their business to the nearby Australia Post Shop, or head to the other Bendigo Bank branch in Glen Waverley. Or the one in Oakleigh. Or use online banking, phone services or the app. Those who went to use the ATM connected to the branch also found it to be non-operational.
The Eastern Melburnian contacted Bendigo Bank seeking information on if and when the Pinewood branch would reopen. A Bank spokesperson did not address the questions, instead saying the branch was “closed until further notice".
The sound of hearty laughter and the smell of many cups of tea brewing - as soon as you walk into the Champion (Community Hub and Meeting Place in our Neighbourhood) community service at Temple Society Australia’s Bayswater hub, you can tell that it’s more than just a food support service.
In 2013, Temple Society Australia community care manager Martina Eaton was couch surfing with her teenage son after fleeing from family violence and was inspired to launch Champion when she was unable to find appropriate support.
“I noticed that people were falling through the gaps in the system,” she told the Eastern Melburnian. “I figured if I can’t get help, then who else is missing out on help?”
Eaton said demand for the program’s services had increased “significantly” recently, with more intergenerational families, single parents and the “working poor” seeking help.
Champion applied for a $12,000 grant from Knox Council’s Emergency Relief Fund, with the application approved during the council’s meeting on September 8.
Knox Council has a $110,000 Emergency Relief Fund in its 2025/26 budget. A little more than two months into the financial year, only $12,684 remains.
Out of the five successful applications, three have been for the maximum $20,000 allocation. Foothills Community Care, Feed One Feed All and The Salvation Army’s Ferntree Gully each received the funding to extend their food support programs.
Speaking during the September 8 meeting, Knox councillor Paige Kennett said the speed of the fund’s depletion “speaks volumes about where we’re at as a community”.
SEEN THIS WEEK 🤓
Word on the street: Are you concerned about the next fire season?
Following the recent temporary closure of the Pinewood Shopping Village Bendigo Bank branch, I decided to pop down there and have a chat with shoppers about the closure and other issues.
I asked Emmanuel if he was concerned about the upcoming fire season, and the overall direction of the world.
Thanks for catching up with us this week at the Eastern Melburnian. We hope you enjoyed this issue, and we’d love to hear your thoughts. We’ll be back on Friday to shine a spotlight on the under-reported issues in our patch, so stay tuned!
Cheers,
Matthew and the Eastern Melburnian team