Mum’s nicotine liquid kills toddler
GEELONG Council is set to approve a 10-year plan to fix cricket in the region, amid declining participation rates and an abundance of dangerously worn-out training net facilities.
Tonight councillors will vote on a recommendation to adopt the G21 and Cricket Victoria Barwon Regional Cricket Strategy, created to guide the future planning and development of cricket across the Barwon region to 2028.
The strategy report revealed a 3.6 per cent drop in participation rates across the region’s five cricket associations between 2015/16 and 2016/17 — with a 20.6 per cent drop in participation from players aged up to 11-years-old.
“It is identified within the draft strategy that cricket in G21 has experienced a decline in participation in recent seasons which is in contrast to the rest of Victoria,” the report noted. But the report suggested more recent statistics had shown “some positive change” in participation levels.
The report also found a third of all training net facilities in the region posed potential safety issues, such as “worn areas on pitch surface, pitch surface lifting and cracks in concrete base”.
It noted about 85 synthetic pitch surfaces across the region would need to be replaced by 2022, due to their poor conditions.
The strategy identified improving the structure and governance of cricket in the region as a key priority, outlining five strategic priorities to achieve its goal: DEVELOP an aligned and collaborative structure to manage cricket; GROW cricket, its range of activities, club capacity and profile across the Barwon Region; MAXIMISE the capacity and activation of existing sites and align facilities with future need and demand; DELIVER and activate a Regional Cricket and Community Centre at Kardinia Park; and, SECURE stakeholder support for strategy implementation.
The State Government pledged $102 million in 2018 for Stage Five of the Kardinia Park redevelopment, including the establishment of a new Regional Cricket and Community Centre.
“The scope of the redevelopment is still being established, but will include indoor training facilities, new change rooms, meeting rooms and function spaces,” the G21 and Cricket Victoria Barwon Regional Cricket Strategy report noted.
Councillors will tonight to consider adoption of the strategy. meet the A MELBOURNE mum turned away from her 19-month-old son for only a short time, but it was long enough for the youngster to accidentally consume a fatal dose of liquid nicotine.
The child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, died in June 2018 after consuming the potent substance his mother had poured into bottles of vape juice as she tried to quit smoking, the Coroners Court was told yesterday.
She had turned around to put some of the bottles away at their northwestern suburban home before finding one of them open and in her child’s mouth. The woman washed the boy’s mouth and called an ambulance but he died in hospital 11 days later from nicotine toxicity.
Coroner Phillip Byrne said it was not a case of neglect but a “momentary lapse of vigilance” by the mother.
He noted the child had been much loved and well cared for, and his family were shattered by his death.
Everything possible had been done to save the boy’s life, Mr Byrne added. The mother had imported the liquid nicotine from the United States 18 months earlier.
Liquid nicotine, extracted from tobacco, is the fluid used in e-cigarettes. The substance is classified as a dangerous poison in Australia and its sale is banned. However, it is legal to import up to three months’ worth of liquid nicotine for therapeutic use — such as quitting smoking — with a prescription.
The inquest received submissions from health experts and the Commissioner for Children and Young People, including information about whether liquid nicotine should be legalised. It has also heard from the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association, which wants to see the ban on vaping nicotine overturned.
Mr Byrne will hand down his findings into the boy’s death at a later date.