By Rachel Eddie

Photo credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

Fitzroy North locals are fighting to stop an alcohol ban at the popular Edinburgh Gardens, after neighbours complained of drug use, overflowing rubbish and faeces in the streets.

Reason Party leader Fiona Patten on Thursday threw her support behind a community campaign to keep the park open, calling on the state government to help pay for toilets and other infrastructure because the gardens are so widely used by people from across the city…

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Read full article on The Age’s website.

MATT TAYLOR

Picture: Carmel Zaccone

THE Victorian Government has vowed to take steps next year to fix the massive country-city rates disparity.

In response to a question from Reason Party leader Fiona Patten in the Legislative Council on Tuesday, Minister for Local Government Shaun Leane confirmed Premier Daniel Andrews had told him to tackle rural council sustainability.

“Rural council sustainability is an area that I am very keen to do some work on in the new year,” Mr Leane said.

“The Premier has asked me to actually do work on that … I think there is some good work we can do.

“I am keen to fulfil the Premier’s request that we do some real work on this, not a review. It is an issue.”

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Read the full article on Sunraysia Daily’s website.

Victorian crossbencher Fiona Patten has rated the 2020 performance of several colleagues, herself, and 3AW Mornings host Neil Mitchell.

The Reason Party leader gave report cards for the Premier, Opposition Leader and the vocal member for Kew, but withheld a grade for the Police Minister.

Press PLAY below for more.

Leader of the Reason Party Fiona Patten @FionaPattenMLC joins Macca and Tass to discuss the coalition with independent Mildura MP Ali Cupper @AliCupper, and the proposed legislation to ban Conversion Practises.

Click PLAY below to listen

By Richard Willingham

Victorian independent MP Ali Cupper has struck a unique coalition with Fiona Patten’s Reason Party, in a bid to boost the duo’s influence in state politics.

The MPs have dubbed themselves a “coalition of independent women”, pledging to work together in the Victorian Parliament and carve up portfolios as part of a “Reason coalition”…

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“Who says that politics has to be done the same way as the major parties?” said Ms Patten.

“Why can’t Ali and I have a coalition of reason but still retain our independence as well?”

“It is up to us to decide how we approach the task of better advocating for change.”

The outspoken MP said the party would build on the under-represented similarities between Melbourne and regional communities…

Read the full article on the ABC’s website.

MATT TAYLOR
📷: Carmel Zaccone

MEMBER for Mildura Ali Cupper will join forces with influential Victorian Upper House MP Fiona Patten in a new
coalition to “change Victoria for the better”.

In a bombshell announcement, Ms Cupper will today become the Deputy Leader of Ms Patten’s Reason Party as she does “whatever it takes” to “score the biggest wins I can for Mildura”.

Ms Cupper insists she will maintain her independence in a power play that will make her become the party’s voice on transport infrastructure, agriculture and other regional issues. It will also give Mildura an unprecedented say on key policy reforms in the Upper House, where crossbenchers including Ms Patten, the Member for Northern Metropolitan Region, hold the balance of power…

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Read the full article on The Sunraysia Daily

By Noel Towell
Photo by Paul Jeffers

They might look like a political odd couple; independent MP Ali Cupper from far-flung Mildura and the Reason Party’s uber-urban leader Fiona Patten.

But the two state MPs say the deal they have struck, for Ms Cupper to join Reason as the minor party’s deputy leader, will pay off for both town and country…

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“The loss of our passenger train is not only a huge practical inconvenience for us of course, but the consequence of that have made us more Adelaide-facing than Melbourne facing,” Ms Cupper told The Age.

“The train issue, on top of the practical problems, has huge emotional significance.

“When the train was taken away, that’s when we felt that we ceased to be Victorians, when we stopped being part of the state.”

Ms Patten, who is right behind the push for the train to be restored, said a win on the issue would demonstrate why the new political alliance between the two women was less odd than it might appear

“It’s almost a beautiful analogy, of the joining of Mildura and Melbourne and of Ali and myself joining forces,” the party leader said.

“Hopefully that’s what we can do in partnership – bring that train back – but also recognise that Mildura is a modern city, that is sometimes seen as this far away little place but which is a modern city with the same modern issues as everywhere else.”

Read the full article on The Age’s website.

Mildura MP Ali Cupper Changes the Game Again

Joint Media Statement:

Fiona Patten MP Member for Northern Metropolitan

Ali Cupper MP Member for Mildura

Hailed as a ‘new coalition of independent women’, and in a move sure to change the way politics is done in Victoria, Member for Mildura Ali Cupper will now represent Reason in the Victorian Legislative Assembly and take on the role of Deputy Leader to Fiona Patten MP.

The history-making move will see Ms Cupper have a say on all legislation passing the state’s Legislative Council and become the party’s spokesperson on a wide range of issues including Regional Development, Agriculture, Transport Infrastructure, Roads and Road Safety as well as Regional Health and Sport.

“This is yet another game-changing move from one of the state’s most innovative and hardworking representatives,” said Reason Leader Fiona Patten. “I couldn’t be happier to welcome Ali to our team and help her advocate for the people of Mildura and Northern Victoria more widely. This is ‘Reason for the Regions’.”

Ms Cupper says the move will give her a larger voice to advocate for her community, in what is one of the state’s largest and most remote electorates.

“Reason takes the best conservative ideas and the best progressive ideas and melds them together,” said Ms Cupper. “In my view, they represent exactly what a modern, regional city is.

“My community knows me as an Independent. Essentially nothing will change in that regards. My coalition with Fiona and Reason will simply mean the Mallee region will have a greater say in matters that effect everyone in the state.

“It’s good to have friends and aligning with another independent woman with similar values – those of evidence, facts, science and compassion – just makes sense to me.

Ms Cupper and Ms Patten have reached agreement on a structure that will allow the newly aligned MPs the opportunity to continue to assert their independence – even if it means voting differently from time to time.

“Who says that politics has to be done the same way as the major parties?” said Ms Patten. ”Why can’t Ali and I have a coalition of Reason but still retain our independence as well? It is up to us to decide how we approach the task of better advocating for change.”

Ms Cupper said she was looking forward to playing a part in shaping how legislation could better work for people in the regions.

“Reason’s vote in the Victorian Upper House has been crucial, time and again, in deciding whether important legislation becomes law in this state,” Ms Cupper said. “They have been able to use that key vote to forward a platform of what is wonderfully described as ‘radical common sense’. Mildura will now be central in helping decide what our state looks like into the future.

Ms Patten and Ms Cupper will hold their first official Reason Coalition Parliamentary meeting on Monday afternoon at state parliament and even though it is the last sitting week of the year, both MPs say they plan on hitting the ground running.

“Important legislation is up for debate in both houses of state parliament,” said Ms Patten. “I am excited to be working with Ali on a range of issues that are in front of us right now.”

-ENDS-

By Paul Sakkal
📷: James Alcock

Micro-parties may find it more difficult to have their candidates elected under laws to be introduced to Victoria’s parliament that would ban the controversial practice of preference harvesting.

Reason Party MP Fiona Patten has drafted legislation to make it illegal for a person to be paid by multiple parties or candidates to coordinate group voting tickets, a practice that has been criticised for electing candidates that secured less than 1 per cent of the vote.

The proposed ban is targeted at Glenn Druery, the so-called “preference whisperer” who has been paid up to $50,000 by little-known candidates to harvest preferences between groups of political aspirants…

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Ms Patten said the practice amounted to “a corruption of our democratic process” and said she would seek to amend the Electoral Act to make it an offence to work for more than one candidate or party coordinating preference deals.

“People should not be able to buy their way into parliament,” Ms Patten said, “but effectively that is what has been happening.”

“Group voting tickets exist for a reason, but currently they are being manipulated for profit. This is a corruption of our democratic electoral process and does not reflect the will of voters.”

Read the full article on The Age’s website.

Paying experts to “preference harvest” in state elections will be illegal if new Victorian legislation is passed, potentially wiping out minor parties. | Alex White

Gaming the ballot box would be made illegal in Victoria in a move that if successful, could see minor parties wiped out in the state parliament…

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Reason Party leader Fiona Patten will introduce the Electoral Act Amendment (Preference Harvesting) Bill 2020 on and said it would stamp out the practice and force parties to broker their own deals and earn their seat — rather than benefiting through costly backroom deals.

“People should not be able to buy their way into parliament,” said Ms Patten.

“But effectively, that is what has been happening.

“The public are wise to it.

“The feedback I received when I refused pay money to be part of a cash for votes preferencing arrangement at the last election, was very overwhelmingly in my favour.”

Read the full article on the Herald Sun’s website.