COVID INSURANCE ASSERTION INCORRECT
COUNCILLORS POOLING THEIR APPROACH BELLARINE Ward councillors have been advocating for a new pool on the north Bellarine Peninsula since the day we were first elected in late 2017.
Having long known of local residents’ wish for this facility to be built, we have worked alongside the community to confirm the need and secure the council’s commitment. The scoping study was therefore funded in the 201920 council budget, prior to the federal grant being awarded.
Both the study and our social infrastructure plan (developed with significant input from the community) confirmed the clear need and desire for an aquatic facility on the north Bellarine Peninsula— and specifically, for a 50m pool that would allow for fullscale swim training, competitions and swim meets. The 50m product for the Bellarine Peninsula also provides for more advanced learnto-swim programs.
While current government funding allows for the construction of the 50m outdoor pool initially, the scoping study did note that “future development of additional aquatic facilities such as warm water pools and water play should also be considered”.
Indeed, the council’s choice of the Drysdale Sporting Precinct as the location for the pool was made in part because it has room for future expansion. This is something the Bellarine Ward councillors will continue to advocate for.
In the meantime, the upcoming release of the concept design for the 50m pool is an exciting step forward and brings us closer to the long-held dream of an aquatic facility for the north Bellarine Peninsula.
We are appreciative of the federal government’s $10m commitment for a 50m outdoor pool to bring this dream to life.
I FEEL impelled to set the record straight from a health insurer perspective after reading Gary Oraniuk’s letter “Insurance twist to pandemic vaccine” (GA 12/4).
The assertion that Australian health insurers will not pay out on adverse effects from the vaccine because they are considered an experimental treatment is incorrect and creates unnecessary alarm in our community.
COVID vaccines are rigorously tested, approved for use by Australian authorities, and are the single most effective way that we can reduce the health, social and economic impacts of the COVID19 epidemic.
In the rare circumstances that someone is hospitalised as a result of complications from the vaccine, Australian health insurers will cover such costs as they would for any other hospitalisations consistent with their policy terms and conditions.
GMHBA encourages everybody in our community to get vaccinated because it will undoubtedly save lives and livelihoods.
READER LEFT WANTING TO KNOW MORE DETAILS
VERY sorry to read about the graphic and somewhat disturbing description by Jenny Barnes of choking on her own vomit (GA 13/4). Quite a strong and injurious bodily response to a letter daring to support a Geelong Advertiser journalist whom she accuses of having a “constant left-wing bias”.
It would be of interest to the millions of Australians, proud to be labelled “lefties”, if Jenny Barnes could detail which aspects of her so-called “left-wing bias” should trigger such a health hazard, why she considers a “right-wing bias” so much more palatable, and why she assumes the Geelong Advertiser to be left leaning.