Local Cricket Club and Parks Victoria
Sep 7, 2017
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — My question is for the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change. Mark Jones, the president of the Thornbury Turf Strokers Cricket Club, has contacted me outlining a number of issues regarding Parks Victoria, which reports to the minister. In 2015 Parks Victoria took control of Yarra Bend Park, which includes Corben Oval, a cricket ground used by the Turf Strokers. This ground was previously maintained by Yarra City Council, but since falling under Parks Victoria control it has not been maintained and is falling into disrepair. The ground, shared with the Richmond Cricket Club, has a...
Land Use Victoria
Sep 7, 2017
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — My question is to the Treasurer, represented in this house by the Special Minister of State, and it relates to the government's proposed sale of Land Use Victoria, also known as the land titles office. The land titles office generates $300 million in revenue annually. The office would generate significantly more than its purported $2 billion sale price in the long term were it to remain government owned. Selling this asset for a short-term gain may assist with the government's balance sheet this term, but it will create a sizeable hole in future state budgets. Will the minister release...
West Gate Tunnel; conclusion rejected?
Aug 23, 2017
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — My question is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, represented in this house by the Minister for Agriculture. Media reports this week suggest that a second expert hired by the government to review its proposed congestion-busting West Gate tunnel, Mr John Allard, was critical of the road's claimed traffic levels as modelled by Veitch Lister Consulting. Can the minister explain why the government rejected Mr Allard's conclusions?
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — Thank you, Minister. Having rejected Mr Allard's conclusions, did the government engage a further independent expert to review the modelling, and if so, why?
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Facilities for female members of local sport clubs
Aug 23, 2017
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — My question is for the Minister for Sport. Recently I surveyed sporting organisations in the Northern Metropolitan Region. In that survey several constituents, including the Brunswick Zebras Soccer Club, expressed concern about the extent of facilities for their female members. As the minister is aware, there has been a boom in female field sport participation flowing from the very successful first season of the AFL Women's competition and now the international successes of our Maltidas, including that recent victory at the Tournament of Nations. Unfortunately these clubs are short of clubroom space, change rooms and fields to...
Security for Queen Vic Market Traders?
Aug 10, 2017
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — My question is for the Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade. I have a constituent who provides fresh produce at the Queen Victoria Market. She operates one of the 700 individual businesses at the Queen Vic market, which incidentally has the highest concentration of small businesses anywhere in the country. Many of these stallholders are concerned about effects that will flow from the City of Melbourne's master plan for the market redevelopment. The plan's strong emphasis on seven-day trading and extended trading hours, and the business pressures this creates, may well mean that my constituent cannot continue...
Medicinal Cannabis not available to all. Why not?
Aug 10, 2017
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — My question is to the Minister for Families and Children, representing the Minister for Health. In October 2015 the government announced that it had accepted all recommendations of the Victorian Law Reform Commission in relation to medicinal cannabis. These included the extension of medicinal cannabis to adults with multiple sclerosis, cancer, HIV/AIDS, epileptic conditions and severe chronic pain. My question is: nearly two years after that announcement, why is medicinal cannabis treatment not yet available for these conditions?
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — Thank you, Minister; I look forward to that. I do appreciate the work that the government and...
Stripping of cladding
Jun 23, 2017
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — My question is to the Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade representing the Minister for Planning. At least 79 people are believed to have died in the inferno that engulfed the Grenfell Tower in London. Those pictures of the high-rise ablaze, I know, horrified us all. Worryingly Melbourne is not immune. In 2015 there was a fire in the 23-storey Lacrosse building in Docklands. It spread eight floors up in the building. The Melbourne Fire Brigade found the building's cladding was untested and contributed to the spread of the fire.
An article in the Age today says:
… it has become...
Counterterrorism training reform
Jun 23, 2017
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — My constituency question is to the Attorney-General. I have a significant number of licensed venues in my region as well as the training headquarters of a large private security company. They are concerned about terrorism and the training given to security guards. While more than 50 temporary concrete bollards were installed overnight across the CBD, a quick reflection on recent terror attacks across the globe shows that vehicles are not the only method terrorists use. We can see from the Orlando mass shooting, the targeting of the Ariana Grande concert and the football stadium bombings in France that...
Standing up for small businesses
Jun 22, 2017
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — My constituency question is for the Minister for Public Transport. Today I have had a number of constituents contact me regarding the closure of the Oxford Scholar Hotel on Swanston Street. It follows an article in the Age today, in which Malcolm Wulf, who has operated the pub for the past 25 years, says business has dropped by between $3000 and $5000 a week. The article says the government has offered no compensation.
Expert witness Terry Rawnsley in his Melbourne Metro Rail Project Business Impact report identified the problem when he said that environmental performance requirements were not detailed enough in regard to...
Victoria’s bail system
Jun 9, 2017
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — My question is for the Minister for Corrections representing the Attorney-General. After evaluating Victoria's bail system the Honourable Paul Coghlan, QC, recommended reforming the current show-cause threshold to a show-good-reason threshold for what could be loosely described as those middle category offences. Changes proposed by the government have gone further, reforming the test to show compelling reason. This creates a higher onus for an accused seeking bail to overcome than the show-good-reason test that was recommended by Justice Coghlan. Like the Law Institute of Victoria I am concerned that this test essentially replicates the more stringent exceptional circumstances...