The Kenny Report | 2nd April 2020
Interview with Chris Smith and Fiona Patten, Victorian Reason Party Leader. Patten describes how she became a target for abuse after voting in favour of the continuation of Victoria’s state of emergency. Patten states the big question is how Parliament can start behaving better.
Click PLAY below to watch the conversation.
Northern Metropolitan Community Grants | April 2021
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Police dig their heels in as Victoria driving reform hits road block
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Police opposition has dented immediate hopes in Victoria that medicinal cannabis patients could soon be free from prosecution if they test positive to random roadside drug tests.
But despite the setback, campaigners remain confident that driving law reform will still get across the line in the next few months.
Hopes of reform soared last October after Reason Party MP Fiona Patten tabled a bill calling for legal medicinal cannabis to be treated as other prescription medications.
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Patten remained upbeat this week, telling Cannabiz: “I still have confidence we’re going to get there in the next couple of months.
“The taskforce was one part of the process and the Government is now exploring the issue [following the taskforce report] so it’s about keeping the pressure on.
“I believe it’s a matter of when and how it’s going to be done, not if.”
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Read the full article on Cannabiz
A big problem requires even bigger solutions
When it comes to homelessness, government should prioritise implementing diverse, forward-thinking early intervention strategies, writes MP Fiona Patten reflecting on the recommendations made in Victoria’s Homelessness Inquiry.
By Fiona Patten
This is the eighth of a 12-part series from Housing All Australians exploring the role that housing can and should play within Australian society and why it is important to our economy that we house all Australians, rich or poor.
In the first week of March, I had the great privilege of tabling the report of the Inquiry into Homelessness by the Victorian Parliament’s Legal and Social Issues Committee, on which I also serve as chair.
Unsurprisingly the final document is a weighty one, given the groaning weight of the issue on our community. Homelessness is seen as the deepest expression of social exclusion in our society, a growing and seemingly intractable problem. But we cannot, and we must not, ever give up on our attempts at ending it.
We began the inquiry before the devastating 2019/2020 bushfires in Victoria and prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Homelessness was already a challenge for so many in Victoria, and these events exacerbated these difficulties for both those experiencing homelessness and those providing homelessness support. Measures put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in the CBD of Melbourne, saw many people previously sleeping rough placed in emergency accommodation, with plans for this to transition into long-term housing.
Those who live within the city area, like me, were heartened to see that something slightly good had come from the pandemic lockdowns. It showed that with sufficient will on the part of the Victorian government, it is possible to end homelessness for many people experiencing it. Whether that will remain the case is yet to be seen, but surely through this experience, we can see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel for so many and we can help get them there.
The Victorian government’s landmark Big housing build, which will see 9,300 new social housing dwellings built, about a 10 per cent increase in Victoria’s social housing stock, was announced towards the end of our inquiry. Welcomed yes, but despite the unprecedented size of the program, this will actually still not ensure that Victoria will meet the national average of social housing as a percentage of total dwellings, at 4.5 per cent. In order to increase long-term housing options, the government needs to look at, among other measures, implementing mandatory inclusionary zoning in all new major housing developments across the state.
Another crucial part of our approach to homelessness should be to intervene early in order to prevent homelessness before it occurs. Whenever I have looked in depth at disadvantage in our society it has been evident that this can get to the very cause of disadvantage and turn people’s lives around. As well as being a social issue, this is also an economic issue as the long term cost and implications to society of not preventing homelessness will be larger than the investment to migrate that cost.
This means identifying those at risk of homelessness and stepping in to provide support before they reach a crisis point. It also means a focus on education. There are many skilled and passionate people in the homelessness sector who have the capacity to do this crucial work and who should be supported to do so. Government should prioritise implementing diverse, forward-thinking early intervention strategies.
Often there is a tragic transition from institutional settings into homelessness including health, mental health, care and custodial settings. Too often, people at risk of homelessness are discharged or released into the community without sufficient planning or support to find and keep accommodation. Without a home, these individuals may soon end up back in hospital or in the justice system. For those leaving incarceration, being released into homelessness inhibits their chances at successful reintegration into the community.
Currently in Victoria, we have a homelessness sector that is overwhelmed with the need to respond to people in crisis.
I have urged the government to implement the recommendations made in the Homelessness Inquiry report. We can develop a more adaptable and flexible system of support so that the sector can focus more on early intervention rather than crisis responses.
This article is part of a 12-part series from Housing All Australians, which intends to draw on a range of perspectives centred around housing and homelessness. We will hear a range of views from business, the not-for-profit sector and hopefully government, as to why they believe housing is an important social and economic building block for Australia’s future prosperity.
Read the first article, Housing all Australians – a new paradigm, here.
‘Quite shaken’: Female MP pursued by vicious, sexist attacks over emergency powers vote
By Tony Wright
Photo: Justin McManus
WARNING: This story contains content that may be distressing to some readers.
As Victorian MP Fiona Patten walked from the front door of her home at 7.30am two weeks ago, she was confronted by a young man screaming sexist profanities.
The bearded man had been riding his bike past Ms Patten’s home in an inner-city suburb of Melbourne when he saw her, leapt from his bike and began bellowing a stream of invective.
“You’re a f—ing slut,” the man yelled. “You f—ing bitch. You sold us out.”
Ms Patten, leader of the Reason Party in the Victorian Parliament, said she felt threatened, particularly because the incident occurred outside her home and because the man pursued her down the street before eventually riding away, still yelling abuse.
She has been forced to become almost accustomed to receiving a torrent of sexist and sexualised vitriol and even physical threats since she began negotiating last year with Daniel Andrews’ Labor government over extensions to Victoria’s state of emergency, which gives the Chief Health Officer powers to enforce public health orders during the coronavirus pandemic…
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Read the full article on The Age’s website.
Mildura wants positive action, not political name calling
By FIONA PATTEN
I am not going to sugar coat it. No skating around the issue here. The last couple of weeks have been tough for the new Reason Coalition. Pretty, pretty tough.
Member for Mildura Ali Cupper and I were in tense negotiations on the state of emergency extension bill.
We had said we would not vote for the bill in the form it came to us – and we did not.
In fact, Ali voted against it twice, whilst we made the decision to support the Bill in the Upper House with significant amendments. We stuck to our word. Not that you knew that if you read the paper, listened to the radio or read social media.
You certainly wouldn’t have thought we got significant amendments across the line if you listened to the Liberal National Party. They spent thousands and thousands of dollars dropping flyers across the electorate spreading misinformation about Ali and the Reason Coalition.
Despite the fact her own party wanted to extend the state of emergency, Liberal MP Wendy Lovell, not often seen in Mildura, paid for social media posts that said the Reason Coalition voted to ‘lock you in your house and destroy your business’ (at this stage please imagine I just eye-rolled significantly).
I know this isn’t what people in Mildura, or anywhere in Victoria, want to see their politicians doing.
It’s our job to represent and advocate for our constituents and that’s what Ali, Reason and I are doing. We believe that people, particularly the people we truly represent, have had enough of the negative campaigning. You are far more effective when you talk about plans to improve the lives of everyday people and society.
The backlash to the Liberal Nationals misleading flyer drop should have given them pause for thought but it would seem they are tone deaf to what Victorians really want. As to their support for small business in the Maliee region? There was no ‘going local’ for the I.NP flyers – all printing was done in Melbourne by one of their big business mates.
You won’t see Reason dropping negative flyers across Northern Victoria intended to do nothing hut denigrate our political opposition. We have better things to do with our tiny promotional budgets than to spend it on flinging crass personal insults and making misleading statements designed to scare and confuse the public.
If that’s the space the Liberal Nationals in the region want to inhabit, then go right ahead.
The Reason Coalition want to talk about the issues and concerns of Victorians everywhere, and in particular those in the Maliee region. We want to do things like lobby for a bigger hospital for Mildura; make a case for the return of a passenger rail service; fight for a desperately needed drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility for the region; get action on the vexed issue of regional rate disparity and keep pushing the government to fix country roads.
Ali and I will keep doing what we believe is the right thing for the community. The political whingers on the other side can just take a hike.
Fiona Patten MP is the Member for Northern Metropolitan and Leader of The Reason Coalition.
Homelessness: better prevention and more housing are key, says inquiry
By Homelessness is a “solvable problem”, says the inquiry chair, “we know what needs to be done, we just need the will to carry it out”.
Victoria’s homelessness policy needs to be redesigned to emphasise prevention and increase the supply of affordable housing, argues the parliamentary committee looking into homelessness.
The system is stuck in a loop of crisis response, with vulnerable people cycling between stints in short-term accommodation, found the Legislative Council Legal and Social Issues Standing Committee…
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“We really took the time to understand this complex issue and spoke with a range of people and organisations across Victoria, including people experiencing homelessness,” Committee Chair Fiona Patten said.
“Homelessness is getting worse. Now is the time we really need to turn our attention to the problem before it gets entirely out of hand.
“… We need to be smarter about where we direct our efforts. The two best things we can do are strengthen early intervention services and provide more secure, long-term housing for the homeless,”
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Read the full article on The Mandarin’s website.
Landmark Victorian Inquiry into Homelessness report: What’s in it for young people?
The Victorian Inquiry into Homelessness report was submitted to Parliament with over 50 recommendations. Associate Professor David Mackenzie and Dr Tammy Hand, who head up the Upstream Project and are co-creators of the COSS model, highlight their key takeaways.
The long-awaited Victorian Parliament Legal and Social Issues Committee report, Inquiry into Homelessness, was tabled on Thursday. Committee chair, independent MP Fiona Patten, rose to speak to the report, declaring that “this is a report that this Parliament will be proud of”. She said the inquiry epitomised “the good work that this Parliament strives to do”. Other members of the committee, Wendy Lovell (Lib), a former minister of housing, Rod Barton (Independent), Dr Samantha Ratnam (Greens) and Shane Lean (Lab) all spoke in multi-partisan support of their joint effort.
The committee, which undertook its work under the difficult circumstances wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, received more than 450 formal submissions and held 18 hearings in Melbourne and across regional Victoria.
The committee paid particular attention to the lived experience of homeless Victorians. A key message from the committee’s report is that “homelessness is one of the most complex and distressing expressions of disadvantage and social exclusion in our society and requires immediate attention by government”, with the resolve that “Victoria can solve homelessness”.
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Patten concluded with the optimist refrain: “We need to be smarter about where we direct our efforts. The two best things we can do are strengthen early intervention services and provide more secure, long-term housing for the homeless”.
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Read the full article on Pro Bono Australia’s website.
Calls for social housing to be mandatory part of new housing estates
By Alex White
A major report into Victoria’s housing crisis has warned the state is facing long-term shortages in social housing despite unprecedented government funding and is calling for more action.
The Inquiry into homelessness in Victoria Final Report, released on Thursday has called for social housing to be a mandatory requirement in all new major housing developments in the future to try and tackle the shortfall of homes for Victorians.
It also called for mapping of where housing was most needed across the state for poor and vulnerable residents and make early intervention a priority to stop people from becoming homeless.
It also warned despite unprecedented investment in housing, Victoria was still behind compared to other states.
“I acknowledge the Victorian Government’s landmark Big Housing Build, which was announced in November 2020, towards the end of the Inquiry,” said Chair and Reason MP Fiona Patten.
“The Big Housing Build will see 9,300 new social housing dwellings built, which represents an impressive 10 per cent increase in Victoria’s social housing stock. However, despite the unprecedented size of the program, this will still not ensure that Victoria will meet the national average of social housing as a percentage of total dwellings, at 4.5 per cent.
“In order to increase long-term housing options, in this report we suggest the Government looks at, among other measures, implementing mandatory inclusionary zoning in all new major housing developments across the state.”
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Access the full article on the Herald Sun’s website.
Victorian MP calls for new rules amid torrent of online abuse
Victorian MP Fiona Patten has called for a code of conduct for politicians after receiving a stream of abuse online, saying “it would not be tolerated in any other workplace”.
Victorian politicians inciting violence, death threats and sexually suggestive comments toward other politicians online needs to be addressed, according to a state MP.
Reason Party Leader Fiona Patten has endured thousands of abusive emails, tweets and messages in the past 24 hours while the debate on the state’s controversial state of emergency legislation was being held in parliament.
In some cases people have made death threats and sexually suggestive comments online, in some cases prompted by online posts by other Victorian MPs opposed to the extension.
Following the barrage of abuse Ms Patten has approached the head of the standing orders committee and government Minister Jacinta Allan about introducing a code of conduct governing MPs behaviour.
“I am pretty robust,” Ms Patten said.
“But what we have here are politicians inciting bad behaviour from the public through social media.
“It would not be tolerated in any other workplace. We don’t let footballers act like that online to other footballers.” …
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Access the full article on the Herald Sun’s website.