The Melbourne Snap⚡- Tuesday 21 January
Plans to tackle city's petrol price swings, journalist accepts $50,000 from Melbourne billionaire, 90 kids suspended every day in Victoria and the private island which can be rented in the Bass Strait
G’day and welcome back to The Melbourne Snap. If you find the Melbourne Snap useful and enjoyable please consider sharing it with a friend. Sharing The Snap really helps it grow. Here’s Tuesday’s edition.
⛽The Victorian Government has announced plans to tackle the wild price swings occurring at servos across the state.
➡️Premier Jacinta Allan yesterday announced a "fair fuel plan", which will force petrol stations to publicly reveal price changes and to lock in those prices for 24 hours.
➡️ Melbourne motorists could have saved up to $333 a year from filling up at the lowest point of fuel price cycles by securing the best deal. - Vic Gov
Correction: Yesterday I incorrectly wrote that Novak Djokovic had declined his on-court interview at the Australian Open due to being frustrated with fans. Djokovic explained he had in fact walked off in response to disparaging comments Nine’s Tony Jones made to Serbian fans. Here’s Djokivic’s video explanation. Apologies for the error.
☀️ Tuesday weather
Crime Watch
This section is dedicated to crime news. Scroll on if you want to skip to lighter news.
🔪Cops are on the hunt for up to 10 men after an 18-year-old was stabbed during New Year's Eve celebrations in the upmarket beach town of Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula. - Victoria Police
🚑 A Melbourne lifeguard has been taken to hospital after he was allegedly bashed while on duty in Narre Warren on Sunday. The 19-year-old was reportedly attacked by nine men when he asked them to follow the pool’s rules. - 7 News
🚓 Police have charged a woman and a man following a hit-and-run collision in a stolen vehicle in Melbourne’s south on Sunday night. A stolen green Toyota Rav 4 was involved in a smash with a second vehicle on the Mornington Peninsula Freeway in Dromana. No one was injured. - Victoria Police
🔥A man is expected to be charged after officers were called to reports of a fire in north-east Melbourne on Monday. It is believed that a man had deliberately lit a fire in Diamond Creek during a fire danger period in effect for the local Nillumbik Shire Council. - Victoria Police
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🥎The drama around Novak Djokovic continued yesterday as Nine News’ Tony Jones was forced to apologise after he taunted Serbian fans on Friday (which Jones said was “banter”). Jones’ apology has now been accepted by Djokovic’s camp, Nine was eager to point out last night. - Simon Brunsdon, Nine News
➡️ It has likely been an uncomfortable 48 hours for the veteran Melbourne broadcaster, who is no stranger to controversy. Nick Kyrios called his comments “putrid” and even the world’s richest man Elon Musk got involved on Twitter. And many of Nine’s rivals ran the story with just a hint of glee.
➡️ The Serbians are still not happy. The Serbian Council of Australia has called for Jones' resignation. - ABC Melbourne
🏎️ In journalism, the saying goes “never become the story”. Well, Nine has had not one, but two incidents of their journos making headlines this week. Aside from Tony Jones, the sports presenter of the Today show is in hot water.
➡️ Alex Cullen has stepped down from his role on the famous morning show, after accepting $50,000 from Melbourne billionaire Adrian Portelli (aka Lambo Guy) in exchange for helping to rebrand him on air to McLaren Guy. - Nathan Jolly, Mumbrella
➡️Upset at the media constantly ”degrading” him by calling him Lambo Guy, Portelli then offered one of his 467,000 Insta followers $5,000 to whoever could write the best troll comment about Herald Sun’s Fiona Byrne. “If journos wanna bully, let’s bully back,” he wrote.
➡️ After a torrent of what she called “disgusting” abuse that made her feel “unsafe”, Ms Byrne demanded an apology from The Block billionaire and a $50,000 donation to a local anti-cyberbullying charity. - Fiona Byrne, Herald Sun
🏛️The Bank of Queensland is closing five branches in Melbourne in a bid to “simplify operations”. The closures will take place between 7-29 February in our city and will affect the branches in Moonee Ponds, Richmond, Docklands, Hampton and Werribee. - Aisling Brennan, news.com.au
🍟A McDonald’s store in Melbourne has been fined nearly $4000 by an environment regulator for failing to properly manage waste oils. The fine was issued to the store at the corner of Bell St and Sussex St in Pascoe Vale South after it was caught dumping waste cooking oils into a drain. - Demi Huang, 7 News
👨🏼🦳Melbourne’s most exclusive members-only club remains a mystery to everyday residents of the city. The Age has explored the secrets and politics unfolding behind the closed doors at the CBD’s 147-year old, male-only, Australian Club. - Stephen Brook, The Age
🎓New figures have revealed that almost 90 students are being suspended every day at Victorian state primary and secondary schools amid a rise in schoolyard attacks. - Suzan Delibasic, Rebecca Borg, Herald Sun
➡️Mount Ridley P-12 College in Cragieburn had the highest number of suspensions in the state, with a total of 1,844 students suspended over the five years.
📢 Hundreds of St Kilda residents, tired of the famous suburb’s petty crime and “lawlessness”, took to the streets yesterday to demand action from law enforcement.
Organisers said “about three hundred” people turned out for the march. RiSK (Facebook)
🎰Only 1.5% of the money lost by gamblers in poker machines in Victorian RSLs over several years went towards improving veteran welfare, new research shows. - Guardian Australia
🍜A new generation of Vietnamese business owners in Melbourne is challenging the expectation that Asian food should always be cheap, advocating for fair pricing to reflect the labour, quality, and creativity involved in beloved staples like banh-mi. - Quincy Malesovas, Broadsheet
🏝️Tassie has long been a popular destination for Melburnians looking for a short break from the bustle of the city. Well, now you can go one step further and rent out an entire island for the ultimate retreat. The tiny Three Hummock Island off the north-west coast of Tasmania can be rented for $750 a night - all 23,000 acres of it. - Navarone Farrell, Urban List
🌊Police have recently launched a water safety crackdown following poor behaviour from jet ski owners across Melbourne’s beaches. - 3AW
🤒New cases of measles have been detected in Melbourne, including several locations in Collingwood and Abbotsford. - Health Victoria
📢Community Noticeboard📢
📌”Come and join the creative community at the end of this month (January 30th - February 2nd) at The Other Art Fair Melbourne! We are looking for volunteers to immerse themselves in the bustling atmosphere of artists and art lovers at our local Melbourne Fair, taking place at The Timber Yard, Port Melbourne on the 30th January - 2nd February. For further information or enquiries contact: sari.walker-woods@theotherartfair.com.”
Get your news, event, gathering, new business or community update here. Fill in this form.
And finally…A man riding an e-scooter was spotted on a freeway in the city yesterday. Perhaps he forgot to turn his GPS off driving mode. The law in Victoria states e-scooters are only permitted on roads where the speed limit is 60km/h or lower. - Reddit
Thank you for reading edition 45 of The Melbourne Snap. If you missed Monday’s edition you can read it again here. This newsletter is 100% independent and free for all. It’s written in the early hours every weekday morning. I look at over 100 sources of news so you don’t have to. Thank you for your continued support. See you tomorrow.
There's a side door into the Melbourne Club's grounds from Ridgway Place. Scurrilous gossip implies that this was where they smuggled in the girls in the olden times. Nowadays there is of course the underground carpark.