Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:20): My question today is for Minister Stitt in her capacity as workplace safety minister. Professor Johanna Maclean of Temple University in the US has just completed a landmark research paper studying the impacts of medicinal cannabis legislation on workers compensation claims. She found that there was a 14 per cent reduction in income derived from workers compensation claims in older adults, aged 40 to 62, in states that had legalised medicinal cannabis. This was in part due to a major reduction in people moving away from therapeutic substitutes like opioids. Will the minister move to...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:27): My constituency question today is for the Minister for Education. Now, whilst I was really pleased to see good funding for Lalor Primary, Lalor Secondary and Peter Lalor College—in fact they are sharing tens of millions of dollars in funding—the Northern School for Autism in Lalor, however, has yet again been overlooked. Since the beginning of this year the Northern School for Autism has had to bring in generators to provide their electricity needs. It is extraordinary in this state that we would have a school, particularly a school for children who have autism, that has...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (13:00): My constituency question is for the Minister for Planning. I have had several angry constituents contact my office after seeing reports in the media that the government-commissioned report on the North East Link has revealed the builders of the project underestimated the scale of tree loss by as much as 80 per cent. It would seem even before the project’s major construction starts later this year builders CPB Contractors have been caught bypassing the new benchmarks that were set following an extensive environmental assessment by severely underestimating the scale of tree loss. This misreporting is...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:04): My question today is for the Attorney-General. The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service stated in a recent budget submission that without adequate funding they may have to withdraw from the Victorian Aboriginal Justice Agreement and cut services, so it was disappointing to see that, despite VALS having developed their Aboriginal justice hub model in response to the Victorian government’s own priorities for integrated and tailored local services, the funding announced was woefully inadequate. The funding ask was for just over $26 million. To put that in perspective, that is equivalent to the cost of keeping 224...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:16): My constituency question is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety in the other place. Anna, a resident of Thornbury in my electorate of Northern Metropolitan, has approached my office regarding concerns about the ‘keep clear’ sign currently on the corner of Station Street and Collins Street in Thornbury. She says that the ‘keep clear’ sign is painted on the road and at a very strange angle, so it is not parallel to the road. It is impossible to read and it is actually causing blockages in that carriageway. She says it disrupts the...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:02): My question today is for the Minister for Veterans. In what is the final step towards medical approval, a major study in the US has shown that MDMA brings relief to those suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder. Those who received MDMA in a test group experienced a significantly greater reduction in the severity of their symptoms. Two months after treatment 67 per cent of the participants in the group no longer qualified for a diagnosis of PTSD, compared to 32 per cent in the placebo group. We know about 17 per cent of military veterans suffer...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:06): My constituency question today is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety. I have had representations from constituents in relation to the roundabout on the corner of Gilbert Road and Henty Street in Reservoir. In the immediate vicinity of this roundabout are three schools, a childcare centre, assisted accommodation, a sports recreation oval and of course a shopping strip. This is an extremely busy area of Reservoir, and there is no way for pedestrians to cross the roundabout safely. Families who access local childcare centre Great Beginnings find it incredibly difficult to cross the road...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:30): My question is for the Attorney-General. We have recently had a case under the voluntary assisted dying legislation where a New Zealand woman who had been living in Victoria for 20-plus years and was a nurse here was denied access to voluntary assisted dying. The reason given was that she was not a permanent resident. Now, when we went back to look at the act itself there was no definition. When we went to look at the acts interpretation act, there is no definition for ‘permanent resident’. So my question is: is there any other...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:02): My question today is for the Minister for Planning, and it comes from a concerned group of citizens in Craigieburn. The Craigieburn West precinct structure plan is one of 19 planning and infrastructure projects being fast-tracked as part of the government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis. This precinct will add around 8000 dwellings to Craigieburn. Whilst this is a welcome development, the elephant in the room is that both Hume City Council and the wider community have been trying to get the government to address the duplication of Mickleham Road. The council, while supporting the...