We would like to acknowledge and thank you for the massive groundswell of support from our local community, volunteers, professionals, businesses and politicians at all levels over this last week.  9,500 people engaged with our initial Facebook post, over 4,000 people have signed the petition, people have written letters and our website has had a huge amount of traffic.

As a result, dialogue has now been opened with the VBA, but there is still a way to go before things are resolved.

We asked the VBA to bring clarity around how churches can offer shelter to the most vulnerable members of our community, without changing the classification of their buildings.

We are now awaiting their written response and details of a building practice notice which will give direction to the 79 different council authorities in Victoria.

We received an encouraging email this morning from the CEO of Bendigo Council where a common-sense approach was applied by the building surveyor. 14 churches were approved to offer shelter this year without requiring them to change their classification. “I hope that we as a local Council continue to be able to assist in achieving good outcomes for the community by providing solutions to problems, not making them harder.” - Craig Niemann, CEO