GAMBLING HARM Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:26): My question is for the Minister for Health and relates to gambling harm. I refer the minister to the Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing Plan 2019–2023. In Victoria the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 imposes a responsibility on state and local governments to plan for, protect and improve health and wellbeing, which is reflected in that health and wellbeing plan. Except for the cursory and only mention under ‘Improving mental wellbeing’, gambling harm is not considered in the plan, despite the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation estimating that gambling accounts for...

  Mr LIMBRICK (South Eastern Metropolitan) (12:38): Thank you, President. I appreciate your patience in allowing me to have another go at this unusual process. My question is for Ms Patten, regarding item 170 on the notice paper. This refers to her motion concerning the medically supervised injecting room. Given that this has been quite topical in the media recently and in the news a lot, I was wondering if Ms Patten could please inform the house of when she wants to bring this motion forward for debate.   Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:39): I thank Mr Limbrick for his question. It...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:12:19): My question is to the minister representing the Assistant Treasurer. The money laundering scandal that has been engulfing Westpac Banking Corporation has now forced its CEO, Brian Hartzer, and chairman, Lindsey Maxsted, to resign. The bank has been accused by the financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC of breaching Australia’s money laundering and counterterrorism financing legislation over 23 million times. Some of these transactions have been shown to involve those involved in child exploitation and sex slavery all over the world. My question to the minister is: does the Victorian government hold any accounts with Westpac, and if...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (13:11:22): My constituency question is for the Minister for Public Transport. A resident of Nicholson Street has written to me in relation to Public Transport Victoria’s plans to close Nicholson Street for 17 days in January. The residents have been told that they will have no access to the street while the tram works are underway and that all cars will need to be removed from their homes before 1 January or they will be inaccessible for the entire period. It has also been suggested that there will be no pedestrian crossing permitted along...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:13): My question is for the Minister for Local Government, Mr Somyurek, and it concerns allegations of corruption in the City of Greater Dandenong. Recently we have seen allegations of criminal behaviour by council officers in relation to the closure of catering company I Cook Foods. A whistleblower, Ms Kim Rogerson, who worked as an environmental health officer at the council, has provided a sworn statement explaining how council officers illegally manufactured evidence in order to close I Cook Foods down and that this was known by managers at the City of Greater Dandenong. Given these serious allegations...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:48:23): My question today is for the Minister for Education. Newlands Primary School is a small but important local state school that services the Preston, Coburg and Reservoir catchments. In just seven years the school has seen its population explode from 88 to 236. This is expected to increase beyond 400 by 2024. With such a growth in enrolments there are now serious capacity issues at the school. The school is having to relocate its library next year at some cost, and parents tell me that without new building works being brought forward to ensure that the capacity...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:41:26): My constituency question is directed to the Treasurer. Earlier this year I met with the Darebin group called Does Council Care. They have been campaigning to have council-run home support services quarantined from the application of national competition rules. They point out that mayor Susan Rennie wrote to the Treasurer in December last year requesting that the government exempt home support services from the application of national competition policies. These residents are encouraged that Darebin is considering a trial but are concerned that council will still have to apply fully cost-reflective pricing even if a public interest...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:20): My question is for the Minister for Health and relates to access to abortion services in the public health system in Victoria, particularly for those who cannot afford to pay for them privately. You may recall I asked a similar question last year when you were acting for the Minister for Health. You gave me a whole bunch of answers around more training at the women’s hospital, 1800 My Options and new family planning hubs. So I am just wondering: in the last year have we seen an increase in the availability of terminations in the...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:06): My question is for the Special Minister of State. The Crown allegations are not going away. On Monday we had a former employee detail instances where he had witnessed illegal activity on almost a daily basis. On Tuesday we saw footage leaked by whistleblowers within the regulator itself, the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation, showing large-scale money laundering activities at Crown. Today we have revelations of a businessman blacklisted by the United Nations and Australia because he funded a war criminal being aided by Crown into the country to gamble. I tried to force the Parliament to debate...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:56:24): My constituency question today is for the Minister for Police and Emergency Services. Recently I met with Peta Ferguson from North Melbourne. She has an acquired brain injury and is absolutely brilliant as an advocate through her work with Brain Injury Matters, which is a self-advocacy resource unit. Brain Injury Matters aims to empower people living with an acquired brain injury by providing peer support to alleviate the isolation and marginalisation experienced by people with an ABI. Peta and her colleagues are of the view that there should be more training for police, prison officers and PSOs on ABI...