Latest news with #Frankston
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘I'm not done fighting': diagnosed with MND, Victorian MP Emma Vulin still has a lot to achieve
Emma Vulin is zipping through Victoria's parliament in her motorised wheelchair, giving us a tour of her favourite spots. There's the back right-hand corner of the library, where she hides during sitting weeks, facing the window that looks out to St Patrick's Cathedral. There's the 45-year-old's office, in the members' annexe, opening on to a long hallway where MPs held a race the week she first brought her chair in to 'lighten the mood'. We reach the legislative assembly – and she stops. Black grab rails have been discreetly installed across the chamber. 'They've done it for everyone else. I'm not the odd one out,' Vulin says, her voice catching. 'This is really special.' The first set of rails were added last year, after Vulin was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND), a progressive condition that gradually robs people of their ability to move, speak and breathe. As it progresses, she's begun thinking about how long she can keep serving. But there's something she wants to do first. 'I want to speak on voluntary assisted dying,' she says. When Vulin's family migrated to Australia from the UK, they couldn't have known the political path that lay ahead. The family settled in Frankston, next door to Alan Griffin, who later became a federal Labor MP and a key figure in the party's socialist left faction. Griffin helped Vulin's mother get a job with a local state member, Jane Hill. Vulin first visited parliament in the late 1980s at an event with Hill. At a barbecue, the then premier, John Cain, offered her Fanta behind her parents' backs. 'I said, 'I'm not allowed to have soft drink'. And he said, 'I'm the premier of Victoria. Yes, you can',' Vulin says. Later, Griffin hired her mother to run his electorate office – a training ground for Labor MPs Daniel Andrews, Jill Hennessy and Julian Hill. Vulin, though, avoided politics, working in retail, a dental company and as a veterinary nurse, but joined Griffin's team after her mother retired. Then in 2016, at just 36, she had a stroke. 'It happened overnight, so when I got up in the morning, I was trying to get up and I fell to the floor,' she says. Her kids, then aged nine and seven, were downstairs. 'I had to drag myself to the top of the stairs and I was trying yell out to them but the words weren't coming out properly. Eventually they heard me and my daughter rang the ambulance,' Vulin says. Recovery was 'crap', she says, and it took eight months to walk and talk again. She returned to work in Andrews' office, who was by then premier. Though staffer to MP is a well-worn path, Vulin insists she wasn't chasing it. She says she only ran in Pakenham – the seat was created ahead of the 2022 election – because 'it was anyone's game'. 'Had there been a sitting member, had I had to fight someone for that seat, I wouldn't have done it,' Vulin says. 'I don't want to take someone's job.' She won by just 307 votes and credits the win to her local ties – her kids went to school and played basketball locally, and she volunteered with the Upper Beaconsfield CFA. 'I don't think that necessarily wins every seat, but it probably helped in mine.' Vulin had served less than half her term when she was diagnosed with MND in April 2024. 'It started as a feeling in my fingers – my hands were always numb,' she says. A neurologist noticed something was wrong and referred her to a surgeon, who initially suspected a pinched nerve. But as her arm weakened, he realised it was more serious. After a secondary diagnosis on Thursday 11 April, Vulin called the premier, Jacinta Allan. They released statements on the Sunday so her daughter could tell school friends on the Monday. Then she turned her phone off. 'The next day, I turned my phone on and I couldn't believe the amount of messages. That was probably more overwhelming than diagnosis,' Vulin says. Among them was former AFL player and coach Neale Daniher, who helped set up FightMND after his 2013 diagnosis and was named 2025 Australian of the Year. 'He said, 'Hi Emma, it's Neale Daniher, here's my number, you need to come see me',' Vulin says. So she did. Daniher gave her blunt advice: install a bidet, knobs on the steering wheel and doors, and 'all these other practical things that other people won't tell you'. 'At the time it was so confronting but it has come in handy,' Vulin says. A month later, she invited Daniher to parliament for a motion on FightMND and the Big Freeze, a fundraiser where celebrities and footy greats plunge into icy water during the annual king's birthday match. Vulin will host a Big Freeze of her own at parliament on 16 June, with the deputy premier, Ben Carroll, and the opposition leader, Brad Battin, among participants. Battin, her neighbouring MP in Berwick, has known her for years. 'When I was diagnosed he took me out for dinner near parliament and some Labor MPs came in – I was like, 'this is not what it looks like!'' Battin says they were 'both in tears' over that dinner. 'I have a lot of time for Emma and it's just one of those things in life that is so unfair,' he says. 'Why does stuff like this happen to good people?' Following Daniher's advice, Vulin began using a wheelchair to conserve energy and brought an occupational therapist into parliament, who produced a four-page report on how to make the heritage-listed building more accessible. 'They've done everything on the list,' she says – including installing automatic toilet doors, a new gate, filling a divot in a concrete path, accessible cabinet handles and a ramp to her friend and upper house MP Harriet Shing's office. Vulin initially refused her occupational therapist's suggestion to install rails in the chamber, saying she 'didn't want to ruin the building'. But Trish Burrows, the secretary of parliamentary services, pushed back, telling her: 'This is not just for you, this is for the people of Pakenham … If you can't get to your seat to represent your community, then we're not the parliament of Victoria.' They're now considering installing a ramp to the backbench for when she can no longer walk. How long will she keep going? 'I do have days where I'm exhausted and I think, 'do I still want to do this?' Then I wake up the next day and I think, 'no, I really do have more to give'. 'Maybe it's selfish but my community is growing and I'm not done fighting for Pakenham … It's good for them to have a voice. And for me, it gives me a purpose … [Her partner] Matt's at work and the kids are at school. If I was at home, I would just sit and cry all day.' She trains monthly on eye-gaze technology for when speech becomes difficult and plans to start using it to reply to emails. But she wants the health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, to bring proposed changes to voluntary assisted dying (VAD) laws to parliament now, while she can still speak on them. 'There's a timeline for me to be able to,' she says. Her interest in VAD began soon after diagnosis, when she met Jane Morris and Andrew Denton from Go Gentle. 'They were like, 'would you like some information on this for your constituents?' and I looked at them and said, 'I've just been diagnosed with motor neurone disease, I actually want it for myself', and then I broke down in tears.' She later learned Victoria's once-leading VAD laws had fallen behind other states and include a gag clause preventing doctors from raising it with patients – a restriction Thomas plans to scrap. Other proposed changes include extending the life expectancy limit for non-neurodegenerative diseases from six to 12 months, removing the third assessment for neurodegenerative conditions and shortening the timeframe between VAD requests. Faith leaders have written to Vulin, asking her not to support changes. 'I write back saying, as someone that's been personally diagnosed with a terminal, neurodegenerative illness, I've had the opportunity to speak to many, many people who are terminal or have lost people to terminal illnesses and … these changes are necessary,' Vulin says. 'There are barriers in place and I respect that everyone won't want to use it – no problem. But for those that do, it needs to be accessible.' Vulin has also written to the federal health minister, Mark Butler, lobbying for changes to telehealth to allow VAD services, and for better support for people with MND over 65 who aren't eligible for the NDIS. When she's not at parliament, she spends time with Matt, daughter Sienna, 18, and son Sage, 16. Sienna recently did work experience at the Florey Institute, which researches MND. 'She's more comfortable talking about it,' Vulin says of Sienna. 'Sage doesn't, but he hugs me more.'
News.com.au
01-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Why Frankston, Tarneit and Craigieburn are hot picks for Melbourne's young property buyers
Millennials and Gen Z might have a tougher road to property ownership than their parents, but experts say there are still ways to trade up to even some of Melbourne's wealthiest areas. You just need to know where to look. In Craigieburn, the 2025 median house price sits at $610,000 — six times the nation's about $100,000 average annual wage. In Tarneit, the typical house costs $645,000, with other other suburbs offering a more affordable starting point including Wyndham Vale, $607,000, Pakenham, $590,000, Werribee, $610,000, and Frankston, $715,000. And with access to infrastructure, lifestyle amenities and growing populations, there's potential for those prices to grow. Ray White Frankston agent George Devic said demand was strong in the Frankston area, particularly from younger buyers and investors. 'If you stay sub-$850,000, you're seeing a lot of first-home buyers and both local and interstate investors in the market,' Mr Devic said. 'Buyers are active, and we're seeing the whole suburb remain attractive, from entry-level homes to blue-chip pockets.' PropTrack senior economist Eleanor Creagh added that while buyers entering the market today were unlikely to see the same exponential gains as their parents, real estate was still a powerful long-term investment. 'Getting into the market remains a crucial first step, and with the right purchase in the right location, there's certainly potential to build wealth over time,' Ms Creagh said. 'Even if the journey looks different, the principle of long-term equity growth still holds true.' The concept relies on a relatively affordable investment gaining value over a long period of time. If a person can acquire multiple homes it could eventually allow them to sell the group of more affordable residences to fund a home in a much pricier neighbourhood. M R Advocacy director and buyers' agent Madeleine Roberts said young Australians were finding new ways to build wealth, from rentvesting to buying in future lifestyle suburbs. 'I grew up in Rye, back then it was a sleepy beach town. Now it's a million-dollar suburb,' Ms Roberts said. 'It shows how much potential lies in lifestyle-driven areas that were once overlooked.' The buyer's agent added that younger buyers were 'more investment-minded' than previous generations. 'They know the dream home isn't going to magically land in their lap,' she said. 'They're using property as a wealth-building tool, it's about being strategic from the start and understanding how to make the market work for them.'
ABC News
29-05-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Woman charged as police find explosives, chemicals and detonators in Cranbourne home
A 26-year-old woman is in custody after police allegedly discovered large quantities of explosives during an investigation into stolen cars in the Frankston area. Police allegedly discovered 15 kilograms of explosives, more than 40kg of chemicals used to make explosives and more than 60 detonators when detectives searched a home in Cranbourne linked to Zarna Barbar on Wednesday morning. The bomb squad was called in to "render the items safe", police said. Ms Barbar appeared at the Frankston Magistrates Court on Thursday morning, charged with offences including possessing an explosive substance, possessing ammunition, theft of a motor vehicle and trafficking a drug of dependence. Her lawyer, Zarah Garde-Wilson, told the court Ms Barbar was "withdrawing from methylamphetamine and GHB". Ms Garde-Wilson said her client had also previously been diagnosed with depression. Magistrate Charles Tan remanded Ms Barbar in custody until her next hearing on June 18.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
East Texans raise money for Lake Palestine, Frankston tornado survivors
LAKE PALESTINE, Texas (KETK) – East Texans got together to remember the 2024 tornado that shook the Lake Palestine community on Friday. The people living by the lake gathered together to share their memories of that destructive storm and to raise money for those that survived it. People of Lake Palestine recovering one year after EF-1 Tornado 'We were very lucky,' Lake Palestine storm survivor Theresa Meazell said. 'But it pulled the wind shield out, a lot of water damage, and we were very lucky.' The Lake Palestine Resort held the fundraiser on Friday for storm victims in Frankston. 'It feels great,' Fundraiser supporter Luis Solorzano said. 'I mean, you meet a lot of people and just being out here and supporting people means a lot.' In early May, a tornado tore through Frankston, knocking trees onto houses and spreading debris throughout Frankston, much like the storm in 2024 in Lake Palestine. EF1 tornado displaces residents near Lake Palestine, shelters open 'It took a while to clear all the debris and really assess all the damage,' general manager for Lake Palatine Resort, Micah Wolfe said. 'And we've done our best to rebuild, and we've still got a long way to go.' According to staff at Lake Palestine Resort, 10% of kitchen and bar sales will go toward tornado relief for local families in Frankston, showing the power of community in East Texas. 'But there's still a lot of other folks, too they're struggling,' Wolfe said. 'So we're going to try to help them out a little bit tonight.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
News.com.au
22-05-2025
- News.com.au
Two people killed in separate house fires in Melbourne's outer southeast
Two people have died in separate house fires in Melbourne's outer southeast overnight. Firefighters were called to a property on Lyppards Rd, Langwarrin at about 2.10am Friday, after reports a fire had broken out. Three people were able to escape from the burning home, but a fourth person was later found dead inside a bunglaow at the rear of the property. The tragedy came only hours after crews were called to another fire in the nearby suburb of Frankston. A unit on Franklin Court was engulfed in flames when emergency services arrived at about 4pm. While trying to evacuate the property, firefighters found a person's body inside. The exact circumstances surrounding both incidents are yet to be determined, with police to attend both scenes on Friday to investigate further. Any witnesses or anyone who may have CCTV or dashcam footage is being urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 00.
