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...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (1517) Incorporated pursuant to order of Council of 7 September: My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Health, Mr Foley, and the action I seek relates to the wellbeing of our healthcare workers. Our entire healthcare workforce is feeling the stress of working during a pandemic. The Victorian government acknowledged the pressure the workforce was under when the previous minister announced extra funding for the nursing and midwifery health program and the Victorian doctors health program. These programs offer free, independent and confidential support services for doctors and nurses who may be experiencing anxiety or depression, or have concerns about alcohol...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (1503) Incorporated pursuant to order of Council of 7 September: I am directing my adjournment to the Minister for Government Services, Danny Pearson, and it is a matter raised by Russell Huntingdon, president of the University of the Third Age’s Melbourne City campus, and on behalf of the more than 1000 people who participate in dozens of courses. They have a needless and damaging space problem. We here in this place have evident and sensible solutions—and ones with no losers and multiple winners. Ones that are apolitical. U3A’s CBD campus is literally all over the place. Pre COVID, it was...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (17:56): (1419) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Housing, and that seems very appropriate seeing that it is Homelessness Week. It concerns the really successful Geelong Project. I can see Ms Lovell here in the chamber, and Ms Maxwell. We met the Geelong Project during our inquiry into homelessness. In fact we were so impressed by the early intervention work that they did and the way that they could actually prevent homelessness amongst young people, and they did this through this really innovative work of working with schools and communities. We were so impressed...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (18:20): I think that was a great segue, Mrs McArthur, to my adjournment matter, which probably digs a little bit deeper— Mrs McArthur: Always here to help. Ms PATTEN: I appreciate that, Mrs McArthur. It is to the Minister for Creative Industries, and the action I am seeking is support packages for the artists who have fallen through the cracks. As we know, Victoria prides itself on being the arts capital of Australia, and pre COVID Victoria’s creative industries contributed more than $30 billion to the state’s economy each year. But even today—certainly in Northern Metropolitan, which I think likes...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (17:35): My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Transport Infrastructure, and the action I seek is for the minister to publish or, if she has not already done so, develop a transport plan. It is a requirement of the Transport Integration Act 2010 for the minister to prepare such a plan, but it appears since 2010 that has never, ever happened. Without this plan we do see mistakes being made or certainly our planning intentions for transport being very unclear. Land use can be ill-timed, haphazard or just miss opportunities. We need to break this...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (18:02): My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Corrections, and the action I am seeking is for the minister to work with the Minister for Housing or work with the department to solve the problem of women in prison who are on parole and cannot get out of prison because they cannot get a home. We know women are our fastest growing cohort of people going to prison. They are also one of the fastest growing cohorts of people experiencing homelessness. We know women who go to prison are not going there for violent crimes; they...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (17:24): My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Health, and the action I seek is for the minister through the department secretary to amend the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Regulations 2017 to ensure nurse practitioners, nurses and midwives are able to prescribe medical abortion medication and allow specially trained nurses and midwives to obtain, supply and administer medical abortion medication for the purposes of an early medical termination. A shortage of trained providers is a significant barrier to accessing abortion care services in Victoria and in particular in rural and regional areas, and I know;...