Richmond Medically Supervised Injecting Facility
Oct 5, 2021
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (15:05): My question is for the minister representing the police minister. I have been contacted by Fitzroy Legal Service and a private criminal law firm who are acting for multiple clients of the medically supervised injecting room who have recently been charged with drug possession offences within the vicinity of the MSIR, most within 50 metres of the facility and one immediately outside the front door. It is categorical that the entire operation of the facility is dependent on the exercise of police discretion in not arresting clients at the centre. Clients must bring their own...
Services Victoria app
Sep 14, 2021
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (1369)
Incorporated pursuant to order of Council of 7 September:
My constituency question is for the Minister for Health and relates to the Services Victoria app.
For many months now my constituent has been using QR codes to check in everywhere she goes in my electorate, believing that the purpose of doing so was to ensure that, if she was in the same place as someone who had coronavirus, the government would use that check-in data to let her know.
But having attended exposure sites at Greensborough Plaza and Ms Frankie in Cremorne, she found out the hard way that this...
Covid vaccination
Sep 14, 2021
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (11:33): My question is for the Minister for Health in the other place. The growing COVID outbreak in the north of my electorate has been hugely distressing for my community.
My office spoke to Dr Umber Rind, a GP in Craigieburn, yesterday. She is incredibly concerned that GP clinics keep getting closed down because they become exposure sites, which is limiting the government’s ability to deliver vaccines to the communities that need them most.
She said the best thing that the government could do would be to provide tents for GPs to set up pop-up vaccination clinics outside...
Covid-19
Sep 9, 2021
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (11:14): My question is for the Minister for Workplace Safety. The recent outbreak at Royal Melbourne Hospital led to hundreds of staff being furloughed for two weeks. The system at Royal Melbourne that they had to manage the communications with the staff just failed. Workers were left confused, fearful and anxious.
I have spoken to the hospital about this. They kind of recognise this and they are working on it, but much of the workforce found out about the furloughing through text messages and through text messages of text messages. It was a text messages tree for...
Pathogen reduction technology
Sep 8, 2021
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (11:17): My question is to the Minister for Small Business.
The UK has invested in pathogen reduction ventilation, and a team of engineers, scientists and medical experts have developed a system that uses high-intensity UVC light to kill airborne pathogens. It removes 99.99 per cent of COVID, and the technology is being trialled right now in Soho’s legendary 100 Club.
I am aware the Victorian government has set up a task force to improve ventilation in healthcare settings, but my question is: has the department conducted any research or sought to fund pathogen reduction technology to assist Victorian...
Coburg Station
Sep 7, 2021
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan)
Incorporated pursuant to order of Council of 7 September:
My constituency question is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety.
Our constituent reports a number of pedestrian and cyclist safety concerns with the new pedestrian crossing under the recently elevated Upfield line at Coburg station on Bell Street.
It appears that not all drivers are seeing the red light at the Bell Street crossing and are driving straight through it. My constituent hypothesises that the bright orange rail overpass may be making the red light less distinguishable than it would otherwise be.
We simply do not want a tragic accident...
Mental health support
Aug 5, 2021
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:26): My question is to the Leader of the Government. Over the pandemic we have obviously seen an increase and a spike in the need for mental health services in Victoria. We have also seen the government’s great commitment to the recommendations from the royal commission into mental health. But the union that represents the mental health workforce tells us that 10 per cent of the workforce is ready to quit. So I ask: what is the government doing to make sure that we do not see this workforce leave in droves, when it is needed...
Shirley Robertson childcare centre
Aug 3, 2021
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:28): (1288) My constituency question is for the Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Jacinta Allan. The Shirley Robertson childcare centre, just behind my electorate office in Brunswick, have had their sunlight badly affected by the level crossing removal project. Children need sunlight, while the solar panels they recently acquired will be useless in the shade. To rectify the issue they need to raise $200 000 to move the panels and the verandas into the sun. Businesses are eligible for compensation from the LXRA, but the children’s centre was denied. Will the minister step in to make sure...
Overdevelopment
Jul 15, 2021
MS PATTEN — To ask the Minister for Workplace Safety (for the Minister for Planning):
My question is for the Minister for Planning.
Many residents in the suburb of Fawkner have contacted me in recent times to make their voices heard at what they see as the continued overdevelopment of their area.
The Fawkner Residents Association has been leading this issue.
They tell me that high-density development is deliberately excluding seniors, the mobility challenged and families with disabled children. Residents say their appeals to Moreland council on these issues have been ignored.
In the last six months alone, 20...
Medicinal cannabis
Jun 23, 2021
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...