Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (15:46): I could say it feels like groundhog day again, but I do not want to say that, because this is different. After a number of sleepless nights and after a number of weeks of negotiations with the government on this bill, I am satisfied to support this bill. Not only that, I know that not supporting it would have been the morally wrong thing to do. To just say no would have been the morally wrong thing to do. It would have been the easy thing to do. Thank you to the Liberal Party—I received...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (14:22): I am pleased to rise today to make a contribution on the debate on the decriminalisation of public drunkenness. Let me be very clear from the outset, the Reason Party will be supporting this legislation today. We think it is a very important step to start framing substance use and misuse as a health issue and not a criminal one. But I think more importantly it is another step to reducing deaths in custody, particularly the deaths in custody of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, who we know are 10 times more likely to die...

 

 

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (14:32): I am pleased to rise to speak on the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment (Provisional Payments) Bill 2020. Let me say from the outset that the Reason Party will support this legislation. I think it goes to the idea of early intervention on mental health issues. It goes, hopefully, to the notion that help is immediate, which I think actually goes a long way to helping prevent people from going down a more serious path of mental ill health or unwellness. As previous speakers have mentioned, this bill amends the...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (14:48): We have heard today people say, ‘I oppose conversion practices and suppression practices, but’ and ‘We are against conversion practices and suppression practices. However’. There should be no buts and there should be no howevers on this bill today. This is good legislation. I thank Ms Terpstra for outlining some of the main points of the legislation and some of the misinformation that has been going on, and I might touch on that later. These laws will protect people from harm. That is probably one of the most important reasons we...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (14:25): I prepared to speak to one motion, but with the rather substantial amendment to that motion, will there be three original words in the motion now?

Mr Davis interjected.

Ms PATTEN: There will be four, will there? Right—four original words in the motion.

I do not know if I was unusual in this action, but prior to considering this motion I phoned the Ombudsman this morning to see what she thought about the motion. Much to my surprise, she was very...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (11:12): I would like to rise briefly to speak to Mr Barton’s motion, which is fundamentally a documents motion. I am never sure if my support for Mr Barton helps him or hinders him. Knowing my position on ridesharing and some of the work that I did in the previous Parliament on this, I am never sure that Mr Barton wants to hear me supporting him or if he would prefer that we stayed in opposite corners of the ring.

But this is a very sensible motion, and I am interested...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (14:17): I rise to make some brief comments on the Consumer and Other Acts Miscellaneous Amendments Bill 2020, and an omnibus bill it is. To start with, just to look at the amendments to the Gambling Regulation Act 2003 in regard to the wagering and betting of keno and the monitoring of licences, I think it actually does do some good things.

I must say most times when we have been talking about gambling in this chamber, or I have been speaking about gambling in this chamber, it has...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:28): I present the transcripts of evidence and move:

That the transcripts of evidence lie on the table and the report be published.

Motion agreed to.

Ms PATTEN: I move:

That the Council take note of the report.

It is a nice coincidence that the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee report on its inquiry into COVID-19 was tabled as well today. The Legal and Social Issues Committee inquiry into contact tracing and testing we adopted within...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:22:502:): I too would like to just make some quick comments about the SARC Alert Digest No.1 of 2021, and I completely concur with Mrs McArthur. The Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities is upheld by the role that the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee plays.

It an absolutely crucial part of the act and of the reason we have the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities. The courts can do very little, as we heard in the briefing that we had yesterday. The courts can do...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (15:58): I rise to speak to the Appropriation (2020–21) Bill 2020, and in doing so I would like to respond to the state budget. This year has been quite a year. It has been one of grief, isolation and emotional and economic hardship but also of collective resilience, and it is a year that has been described as unprecedented on an unprecedented number of occasions. So fittingly this is a pretty unprecedented budget.

Never before have we seen stimulus on this scale, but equally never before have we had...