Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (16:40): I rise today to speak to this Education and Training Reform Amendment (Protection of School Communities) Bill 2021. From the outset I am greatly troubled by this bill. I think the objectives of the bill are obviously commendable. The process in 2019 where there was a task force that reviewed the issues around violence in schools seemed to be an excellent process, the recommendations that came out of that task force were excellent, but this does not reflect that. It has been interesting to hear so many teachers speak today. I do not think I...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (15:33): I rise to speak on the State Taxation and Mental Health Acts Amendment Bill 2021. We could be forgiven for thinking that that is not what we were speaking about when we were listening to Mr Finn. This bill does a lot of things. It looks at first home owner grants, it looks at temporary exemptions and concessions for the transfer of new homes, it certainly looks at amending some of our land tax rates. It also looks at amending some of our stamp duty rates and, as has been predominately discussed today, it looks...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (16:55): I move: That this house:

(1) acknowledges that Wednesday, 26 May, is National Sorry Day, where we remember and recognise the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were forcibly removed from their families and communities, which we now refer to as the stolen generations; and (2) urges all members to reflect on how we can all play a part in the healing process for our First Nations peoples, our nation and for all stolen generation survivors.

I am pleased to put this motion in my name, but I am also sad that we need to put this motion...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (15:53): I am pleased to rise to speak to this bill. It has been really interesting listening to the somewhat patronising comments that have come not only in this chamber but on social media and the fearmongering that has been rampant about what I would have thought was a very modest bill—not perfect by any means. From the outset I will say that I will be supporting it, and I am supporting it because we are in a state of emergency, a climate emergency. We are in a state of climate emergency. It is not on...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (15:44): I am pleased to rise to speak to this amendment bill, the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment Bill 2020. I am pleased that we are speaking about it today, because tomorrow is International Harm Reduction Day and this bill is a harm reduction bill. This bill is not—as we normally see when we see an amendment to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981—about greater criminalisation, where we see increases in penalties and the broadening of offences under this legislation for people who use drugs. Now, people use drugs for a lot of reasons,...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (14:14): I am pleased to rise today to speak on the Cemeteries and Crematoria Amendment Bill 2021. It has been a long time coming, this bill, and there were recommendations for work like this to be done. But it was the work of Karen Williams’s family that finally made this happen, and I join with all the previous speakers in sending my sincerest condolences to that family and my gratitude for their work and their advocacy in this area to now change this law, as it should be, and to protect people from further harm, pain...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (16:48): I move: That this house: (1) recognises that: (a) the ability to petition the Parliament is a right of all Victorian citizens; (b) petitions are the only way an individual or group of citizens can directly place grievances before the Parliament; (c) petitions provide an important tool for improving community engagement with the political process; (2) notes that: (a) a petition is a citizen’s request for action, but once a copy of the petition has been referred to a minister by the Clerk, no further action is required, which is a flaw in the parliamentary system of democracy; (b) the Australian House of...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (16:05): Not surprisingly, I join my crossbench colleagues in opposing this motion. In some ways if this motion had been more nuanced, if this motion had been about how do we get the best out of the Legislative Council, how do we get the best for the people of Victoria, how do we get the best diversity of representation in this chamber, then I think it would have been a very different conversation. But the tone and the way this was taken was that for some reason under the current system, because of the current system,...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (14:49): I must say: the revolutionary talk that is coming out of this place! I mean, normally we would be expecting to try and bring down the federal government coming from the other side of the house. That was a very interesting contribution, Mr Finn. From the outset, I actually support a reduction in payroll tax, and while I do not recall 1939 and I do not recall— Members interjecting. Ms PATTEN: I am not sure whether the government side should take it as a compliment that Mr Finn wants to give the government back the right to introduce state...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (15:51): I, too, am very pleased to rise to speak to this Spent Convictions Bill 2020. When I was thinking about what to say about this bill, I actually found it quite hard to resolve where I would begin on this. Over the last few years I have had a number of opportunities to speak about the controlled disclosure system for historic convictions, many times in this house and also outside, and this bill is similar to the one that was tabled in this house two years ago—on 4 February 2019, to be precise—but, to be...