On the 8th of March I attended the launch of a Swinburne University of Technology commissioned report entitled ‘are we fostering enterprising young people?’, which benchmarked student aspirations within the outer east. Innovation and enterprise are the key drivers are key economic drivers for economic prosperity and it is therefore imperative that these skills are encouraged and fostered within our community.

Unfortunately it would appear that these aspirations are largely not being met within the eastern region. This is uncovered within the report, which showed there a significant gap between high school students wishing to commence further education and those that are actually undertake such education.

Likewise there were significant gaps between students wishing to seek employment within the eastern region and those that were actually able to fulfil this aspiration. The report highlights a number challenges in fostering and retaining enterprising youth within our region and I will be tabling a summary of the Swinburne findings with my delegates’ report.

On the 4th of March I attended a public rally organised by SCOOP and I would like to commend SCOOP for their ongoing advocacy in regard to the Croydon Memorial Pool. The public rally, which included a march of support for the outdoor pool, was extremely well attended and well-organised and included cooperation with the local police to ensure that all traffic and pedestrians issues were addressed.

I attended Croydon Conservation Society AGM on the 15th March. The Croydon Conservation Society has been in existence for over 40 years and is Maroondah’s leading conservation society.

The AGM featured a guest on water policy from the Department of Human Services who spoke about the potential adverse health risks that must be managed as we attempt source alternative water supplies due to our dwindling reservoirs.

It is quite clear that there is a severe gap in the current State Government framework that regulates alternative water supplies such as recycled water, storm water and bore water and it is imperative that this is rectified to ensure that as a council we are not being hamstrung by a lack of State Government guidelines in investigating and implementing alternative water supplies.

I will be tabling the rest of my report with a copy of the Swinburne University findings.