24/09/2026
With all due respect, Roma, before pointing to Portland, look at the people and institutions in the very part of Victoria where you are standing in that video. In my experience, some of the failures harming our community begin there. Accountability needs to begin there too.
Families need services, treatment and rehabilitation. They also need the people entrusted with public responsibility to act when preventable harm is brought directly to their attention.
Forums, procedures, rules and laws offer little protection when the people responsible for administering and overseeing them fail to act. Portland residents are then left carrying the consequences.
That includes my allegation that someone in Portland has spent decades presenting themselves as a lawyer when they were not entitled to practise as one, and that this has continued despite the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner being made aware of the issue.
Why should our community be expected to fix failures that require intervention from the authorities at your end? Where is their accountability?
I personally asked you for help to diminish the very problems you describe. I sought assistance to stop harmful conduct, secure accountability and prevent further suffering in our community.
I also approached the Premier and the Prime Minister. Both told me the matter was important and a high priority. Both directed me to the relevant minister.
By then, I had already contacted that minister three times. I contacted him again following each referral, expressly explaining that the Premier and the Prime Minister had directed me to him.
Five approaches. No response.
What practical value does calling a matter a high priority have if the person we are directed to will not respond?
Without the assistance we sought, we have continued working to restore order and pursue justice for our community ourselves. We have worked to stop harmful conduct without the practical support of the people we approached for help, including you. That work is intended to reduce the distress and damage affecting Portland - the very concerns your post calls attention to.
In my own case, I am now without my surf shop and more than $2 million worth of personal and business stock, much of it belonging to multiple people - aswell as over a year wasted on participating in attempts to seek justice. The consequences extend beyond me and into the community.
This will never break me, but you should not expect me to smile about it.
Mine is only one experience. But the entire community has been affected too. Johny Hicks’s legacy is an important part of that story and must not be forgotten.
I cannot say more about the work underway at present. There is still an organisation that is standing staunch with our community, and I am currently working with it to address the underlying harm and help diminish the problems you describe.
I have always heard you out, Roma, and I will always respect you. You are the only member of Parliament who has responded to me with integrity and care, and I will never forget that. But I cannot allow my appreciation for your response to obscure the practical help that remained missing.
Before putting the birthplace of Victoria on public display, please make sure your own backyard is in order. Scrutinise the people and institutions whose failures leave communities like ours carrying the damage.
You already know the concerns I have raised. Portland deserves services, treatment and rehabilitation. It also deserves answers, accountability and action from the people we asked to help prevent further harm.
But thank you for batting for us Roma. Your care and love deserves accolades.
You will always have my number 1 vote - unless perhaps hypothetically being bumped down a number or so, due to preference of another party.
Yours sincerely, as always.
Voyage Surf, Ski & Skate
Fwd:
Roma Britnell MP
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BxmLWexiq/
