Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (17:45): (1875) My adjournment matter is for Minister Stitt, and the action I am seeking relates to outright discriminatory provisions built into the Worker Screening Act 2020 related to NDIS worker screening. Under the Worker Screening Act the secretary must refuse to give NDIS clearance on an NDIS category B application unless exceptional circumstances exist. Distressingly, listed as category B offences in schedule 3 of the act at section 6(k) and 6(l) are the repealed offences of buggery and attempted buggery. Until 1981 in Victoria gay men were convicted and even imprisoned for the offence of buggery....

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (20:10): (1827) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Health, and the action I seek relates to endometriosis. March is Endometriosis Awareness Month, so it is a great time to amplify the push for adequate care for women suffering from this under-recognised disease that undermines the wellbeing of so many. By the age of 44 one in nine Australian women have been diagnosed with this condition. Many cases start as teenagers. It can be debilitating. It puts life on hold around or during a woman’s period. There are a range of painful pelvic symptoms, which...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (19:44): (1790) My adjournment matter is for the Treasurer. The action I am seeking is funding for a hydromorphone trial as part of the upcoming May budget. Hydromorphone is an intervention that breaks the nexus between heroin addiction and crime and refocuses chaotic lifestyles away from trying to score drugs and onto things like finding work and reconnecting with family. At the same time it can reduce the demand for heroin, meaning less local drug trafficking. Hydromorphone is a TGA-approved medication. When used as an injectable opioid replacement therapy, a 2018 Canadian study found hydromorphone reduced mortality,...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (17:50): My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Education, and the action I am seeking today is for the minister to establish a menstrual champions pilot program in schools. It is really quite a straightforward idea. Nominated teachers are appointed menstrual champions for students to visit when they are having menstrual issues. The concept has been put to me by the Endo Help Foundation, that say that appointing several female teachers as menstrual coordinators or champions for students to seek out whenever they have a concern about their periods or pelvic pain would significantly reduce...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (1719) Incorporated pursuant to order of Council of 7 September 2021: My adjournment matter is for the Treasurer, and the action I seek is that he fund women’s health programs delivered by the Royal Women’s Hospital for a further three years. These programs are funded on a short-term basis and funding is due to expire in June this year. There are several programs. The first is the sexual and reproductive health clinical champions project. The champions project builds workforce and system capability across Victoria to provide abortion and contraception services. It provides expertise and mentorship to providers of surgical and medical abortion...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (22:30): (1691) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Health, and the action I seek is for the minister to widen the scope of the 2021–25 Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health plan to include surgical abortion and treatment for menstrual issues, endometriosis and menopause. I am really fortunate to meet with a number of stakeholders in women’s health, and they have advocated in so many areas, but many have raised concerns about the consultation paper released by the department for the SRH plan and have read the plan. I have read the plan, and I...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (18:08): My adjournment matter is for the Treasurer. The action I am seeking may not be popular. I am asking that he forgo some land tax. As chair of the homelessness inquiry, I was really privileged to hear so many community organisations talk about initiatives for solving homelessness. As we know, even with the big build and with everything we see, it is only a drop in the ocean of what we need. We are going to take decades to meet that need. One of the initiatives that we heard about, and I am sure many of...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (1618) Incorporated pursuant to order of Council of 7 September: My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Agriculture and relates to hemp. The National Farmers Federation has set a target of $100 billion farmgate production by 2030. The current production level is just above $60 billion. The director of CSIRO agriculture and food, John Manners, has said: We need to create an innovation ecosystem in Australia that can take the excellent science that our public institutions do and take it further down the commercialisation track, making it more accessible to further commercialisation by both new and established players. Industrial hemp offers an opportunity...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (21:24): (1582) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety and relates to medicinal cannabis and driving. The medicinal cannabis driving task force presented a report, and from that I would hope that Victoria is edging slowly, slowly closer towards reform in this area. That reform will reduce the stigma of being a medicinal cannabis patient, and it will stop driving chronic pain sufferers and other patients back towards other dangerous and addictive medications. And I do not know about other members in this chamber, but I am regularly contacted by people who...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (21:24): (1546) My adjournment matter is around pandemic stress leave, and it is directed to the Premier. The press conference that the Premier held on Sunday, 3 October, put nurses front and centre. Their stories were harrowing, and it sent a strong message about getting vaccinated. Our nurses, our allied health and every healthcare professional, as we know and as we have been speaking about for much of today, are doing it really tough. I had a call from a nurse who had just finished a double shift, had gone home at 3.00 am and was called back...