Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (14:18): I am just so pleased and it is such a pleasure to rise to speak to the Equal Opportunity (Religious Exceptions) Amendment Bill 2021. I have to say I feel like we are all on the same page. I mean, everyone is saying, ‘No, we love everyone! We don’t want to discriminate against anyone. We don’t discriminate against anyone. Everything is fine’. In that case, what is the problem? Why maintain this exception if we do not need it, as I hear from people who for some almost undisclosed reason are opposing this bill?...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (15:47): I am pleased to rise to speak to the Casino and Gambling Legislation Amendment Bill 2021. As some will recall, a couple of years ago I did bring a motion of urgent public importance to this chamber in relation to Crown. Now, it may not have been successful then—in fact it absolutely was not successful then—but it was clear at the time that there was insufficient oversight of Melbourne’s casino and it was not free from criminal influence. There was no doubt about that. It was questionable whether gaming was being conducted honestly, and it...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (14:52): I am pleased to rise—I will try and make it brief—to speak on the Windfall Gains Tax and State Taxation and Other Acts Further Amendment Bill 2021. As we know, the bill does several things, but I think one of the areas that probably I was most interested in and the Reason Party was most interested in, because it has been a policy of ours, was really working out ways to encourage build-to-rent programs in Victoria. This bill goes towards that. Build-to-rent along with build-to-buy schemes are innovative policy solutions, and I am seeing a...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (15:33): I rise to move my motion 654: That this house notes that:

(1) loneliness has emerged as one of the most serious public health challenges being faced around the world; (2) loneliness is a better predictor of premature death than physical inactivity, obesity or smoking 15 cigarettes a day; (3) lonely Australians have significantly worse health status than Australians who do not experience loneliness; (4) according to the 2018 Australian Loneliness Report, amongst Australian adults, one in four are lonely, nearly 30 per cent rarely or never feel part of a group of friends and 22 per cent rarely or never feel like...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (15:06): I am pleased to rise to make a short contribution to Ms Maxwell’s motion. From the outset I would like to acknowledge Lee, Michelle and Jana, who I have seen wandering around the Parliament today, and I certainly saw them outside this morning. I am pleased that they actually can be here today to hear us speak, probably all so passionately, about this incredibly difficult and important issue. As we know, coercive and controlling behaviour is sadly a prominent feature in almost all family violence, but it is one of the hardest things to identify. It...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (11:55): I too would like to speak to Dr Ratnam’s motion on pairing. This is something that has been missing in this chamber—the ability for the crossbench to have a pairing process—and it became so apparent last year during COVID when we were all at risk of not being able to be in the chamber. While we introduced, and I welcomed, the ability to contribute remotely, it still cut us out of any pairing arrangement or any way to have our position on a motion or on a bill recorded in this house. I note that that...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:33): As a member of the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee I take great offence at Mr Davis’s description of the work we did. But I would also just like to note that the Liberal members of SARC are rarely there. Mr Smith, certainly we have not seen him for quite some time, and Mr Burgess, I would have to note, was relatively silent on this bill. SARC discussed this bill and scrutinised this bill for 2½ hours. The report reflects that scrutiny, and I would suggest that if the opposition wants to play a role in...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (15:44): I am pleased to rise to speak on this legislation. Let us just remember—and let us be really clear—that if our government and this Parliament had done nothing about COVID, then our health system would have been overwhelmed and thousands of Victorians would have died, gasping for air, many of them doctors and nurses, many of them friends or family. I have no doubt that everyone in this chamber probably knows someone who has had COVID, is experiencing the effects of long COVID or is immunocompromised and is frightened by COVID. I have no doubt...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (17:27): I am not going to speak for long on this bill, because I think everybody has fully acquitted the legislation and there is no point repeating those words. So I would like to just focus on the amendments that I am proposing to this legislation, and they actually go to some comments that Mr Quilty just made in regard to some the restrictions on advertising. Fiona Patten’s Reason Party amendments circulated by Ms PATTEN pursuant to standing orders. Ms PATTEN: My initial amendment deals with alcohol advertising, as I mentioned. It is the use of the word ‘sexual’...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (11:16): I rise to make a few comments on this legislation. I do not often say it, but I tend to agree with Mr Quilty, unusual as that may be. I think he does make some good points. This is concerning legislation, and certainly I also echo a number of the points that Dr Ratnam made in her contribution about this. This kind of pre-emptive action does not work. It is not based on any evidence, and I think it has actually the greater threat of further radicalising people, of further isolating people. And it is that...