By Brigid Harkin
BREAKING a new world record, overcoming the death of a daughter and reclaiming birth rights are among some of the hopes and wishes of Brimbank residents for 2006.
After a hellish year for Delahey couple Steve and Lillian Schembri, and Deer Park’s Bernard Reilly, 2006 can only get better.
Mr and Mrs Schembri have been living in limbo for the past three years. Born in Australia, they went to live in Malta in the 1980s and were forced to renounce their Australian citizenship.
In 2003, they returned to Australia with three children in tow, but were not allowed to reclaim their citizenships, work or even access Medicare.
After intense media pressure and lobbying, the Federal Government relented, granting them a four-year work visa, and promised to change the law when parliament sits early next year.
Mr and Mrs Schembri are both working now.
“Things have changed dramatically for us over the last couple of months,” Mr Schembri said.
“Obviously, I’d love to see my bill passed.”
For Mr Reilly, the new year promises a slow integration back into society and a reassessment of his priorities.
The former Sunshine mayor said he had a “crap year”, with people avoiding him after the death of his daughter in 2004.
His 32-year-old daughter, Emma Caccamo-Reilly, lost her battle with skin cancer on 9 December last year.
“I stopped shopping at Brimbank Central and stopped shopping locally because people kept avoiding me,” Mr Reilly said.
“This year has been a hard lesson for me, a very hard lesson that people are not what they say they are.”
The grief-stricken father said he did not expect more sympathy from people, but he certainly did not expect them to ignore him.
Next year is about getting out more and reclaiming his place in the community.
“I lost a bit of faith in a lot of things,” Mr Reilly said. “I am reviewing where I’m going and what I’m doing and reassessing what my priorities in life are.”
Brimbank’s own Evil Knievel, Julio Languiller, will spend his New Year preparing to break more world records on a scooter.
“I currently hold the 60cc, 125cc and 250cc four-strokes world record of riding them longer than anyone else in 24 hours,” Mr Languiller said.
The 49-year-old broke the previous records in April, July and October this year.
Next year, Mr Languiller said he is going to try and better his own records, but will also break a two-stroke record.
“My goal for next year, as well as breaking more records, is to do two overseas rides, one in Rome and one in Japan,” he said.
“I have got a proposition from a place in the country to promote the area they want to be the venue for a new world record.”
