All Nations Park – Northcote
May 22, 2018
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (20:00) — My adjournment matter is really for a number of ministers but I will direct it to the Minister for Local Government, and it is in regard to funding for improvements to All Nations Park in Northcote, which I know the minister is familiar with, and I know my colleague Mr Ondarchie has also raised this issue as a constituency question. It is a real issue. This is a wonderful park that actually has all nations of people going there, and every single range of dog that you could ever imagine visits All Nations Park.
But...
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (17:43:55) — My adjournment matter is for the Special Minister of State. The action I seek relates to the petitions that we receive in this house. As you know, in 2016 we agreed to e-petitions. This had been a long process; I think it started in 2005 when this issue was first discussed. As I presented a petition this morning, it occurred to me: what happens after we table that petition? Absolutely nothing.
Honourable members interjecting.
Ms PATTEN — Very, very little happens. It is tabled, it is put into Hansard. I take it from Mr Davis that possibly the minister may be made...
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (22:04:33) — My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Training and Skills. The action I am seeking is for some government support to help build a community workspace at the Merrilands Community Centre in Darebin, where they are doing a lot with very little.
I was there last week. I met Italian pensioners. I saw some English lessons and a range of classes for people with disabilities. Plus, numerous sporting and social clubs use that facility for games and functions. Amongst those are women who are on correction orders. As I have learned in my time here, these...
Revoke the Nicotine ban on Vaporisers
Mar 6, 2018
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (19:52:14) — My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Mental Health, Minister Foley, and the action I seek is an immediate end to the ban on nicotine for use in personal vaporisers. Currently we are the only country in the world that has such a ban. According to the Victorian government's own website, nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) works, is safe and easy to buy. Currently NRT, as it is known, comes in the form of patches, chewing gum, lozenges, mouth spray and inhalers, but the juice that people use in their vaporisers is still illegal.
When I visited...
Cannabis decriminalisation
Feb 21, 2018
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (17:35:45) — My adjournment matter is for the Attorney-General. We saw in a Herald Sun front page this week an estimate that the trade in illegal cannabis in Victoria has now topped $8 billion a year. While we are spending millions of dollars on policing this, the criminals are making billions in profits. I did some back-of-the-envelope calculations on this. If we were to legalise and regulate the sale of cannabis and tax it at 30 per cent, that would be $2.4 billion that could be invested in schools, roads, hospitals and public transport, but more importantly it would be $8 billion removed from...
Elevation of Upfield train line
Feb 8, 2018
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (23:03:23) — My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Public Transport, and the action I seek is in relation to the elevation of the Upfield train line through Melbourne's inner north, which is my region. As the minister is aware, the Upfield line has a very high concentration of level crossings. In fact there are 12 level crossings on that line. In relation to that, the government has announced that it will remove three of those level crossings — that is, three out of 12 on the Upfield line. However, the scale and scope of these works present a...
Upfield Line Level Crossing Removals
Feb 8, 2018
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (23:03:23) — My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Public Transport, and the action I seek is in relation to the elevation of the Upfield train line through Melbourne's inner north, which is my region. As the minister is aware, the Upfield line has a very high concentration of level crossings. In fact there are 12 level crossings on that line. In relation to that, the government has announced that it will remove three of those level crossings — that is, three out of 12 on the Upfield line. However, the scale and scope of these works present a...
YACVic Young Thinker in Residence program
Dec 12, 2017
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (20:31:19) — My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Youth Affairs, Ms Mikakos. The action I am seeking is in relation to the Youth Affairs Council Victoria (YACVic) Young Thinker in Residence program. This program was an initiative of YACVic. They employed two young people aged between 18 and 21 to spend two days a week thinking on a social or political topic of their choice. The program ran for 16 weeks during this year, and it offered the young thinkers a desk at YACVic headquarters to develop their projects, along with full support and guidance from the YACVic...
‘Do not disconnect’ elderly people
Nov 16, 2017
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (11:42:45) — My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, but I think this could also be relevant to the Minister for Health. The action I am seeking is in relation to Victoria's 'do not disconnect' register. In the heatwave of 2009, 361 mainly elderly residents died of heat stress during blackouts and brownouts. Fortunately since that year we have had fewer hot spells and good electricity supply, but that could change this summer, with speculation around what will happen with the closure of Hazelwood.
Nowadays we have smart meters. One of the benefits of...
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Consumer Affairs, Gaming and Liquor Regulation. The action I am seeking is in relation to Victoria's liquor licensing and responsible service of alcohol training. Last week I had the pleasure of meeting a really impressive woman, Nikki Keating, who founded Respect Is the Rule, a campaign around protecting hospitality staff from sexual harassment in the workplace.
When we come to work, we do so with pretty strong confidence that we are going to do that fairly safely, but a staggering 89 per cent of young women working in hospitality report...