National Redress Scheme for Institutional Child Sexual Abuse (Commonwealth Powers) Bill 2018
Jun 7, 2018
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (10:49:32) — I am very pleased to rise to speak briefly to the National Redress Scheme for Institutional Child Sexual Abuse (Commonwealth Powers) Bill 2018. As the title quite clearly states, it refers state powers to the commonwealth in order to facilitate a national redress scheme; a scheme that will run for 10 years and provide eligible survivors with payments of up to $150 000, counselling, psychosocial services and a direct personal apology from the responsible institution. It also offers an alternate path to litigation.
This bill gives effect to the recommendations of the royal commission and the Betrayal of Trust...
Serious Offenders Bill 2018
Jun 7, 2018
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (16:41:21) — Thank you, Mr O'Donohue, for providing me with an audience.
Mr Finn — Not for long.
Ms PATTEN — I listened to you, Mr Finn. I rise to speak, albeit relatively briefly, on this very large Serious Offenders Bill 2018. It establishes a number of things. It expands the post-sentence scheme for existing sex offenders to include violent offenders, establishes a legal framework for placing supervising offenders into a new secure residential treatment facility, introduces new emergency detention orders to allow supervised offenders to be detained for up to seven days and provides various management arrangements for those offenders.
I understand and appreciate the reasons...
North Richmond supervised injecting facility
Jun 6, 2018
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (11:49:28) — I am actually quite delighted to rise to speak to this motion. It was such a beautiful day walking into Parliament today, and I was thinking 'It is a gorgeous sunny day, and I am going to get to speak about the supervised injecting centre today. Today is a good day'. I thank Ms Crozier for allowing me the opportunity to speak more about this very important trial that is being held in my electorate at a location that I was at yesterday.
It seems that the Liberal Party is very interested in the supervised injecting centre....
Labour Hire Licensing Bill 2017
May 25, 2018
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (14:34:14) — I would like to rise to speak to the Labour Hire Licensing Bill 2017. I will not go through the details of the bill; I think they have been very well canvassed by previous speakers in this house. Certainly in listening to the contributions and spending probably a lot more time than I thought I would on this bill, I noted that we have some really vocal opponents to this bill and we have some really vocal proponents for this bill.
I must say that I have met with a large number of those interested groups and...
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (17:02:10) — I am very pleased to rise to speak to the Legal Identity of Defendants (Organisational Child Abuse) Bill 2018. Mr Rich‑Phillips went through the bill in detail, but in a nutshell it abolishes the Ellis defence that was founded in 2007 in the New South Wales Court of Appeal. As Mr Rich‑Phillips and Ms Springle have mentioned, it was brought by abuse survivor John Ellis against the Catholic Church. That court found that church assets could not be targeted by Ellis in pursuit of compensation for the crimes he had endured within the church, because the church trustees could...
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (17:09:31) — I rise to speak to the Justice Legislation Amendment (Access to Justice) Bill 2018. I am not going to go through the entire bill, but there are just a couple of areas that I would like to touch on, in particular the changes to the Legal Aid Act 1978.
I would just like to mention that I met with Michelle Quigley, the new president of VCAT, last week. She is quite a formidable person, and I am looking forward to seeing VCAT under her stewardship and guidance. However, while we may be looking at ways for VCAT...
Charitable organisation tax exemption
May 10, 2018
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (14:37:08) — I move:
That this house notes that —
(1) many for-profit businesses are avoiding certain Victorian taxes by claiming charitable status, despite not engaging in objectively charitable work;
(2) principally, the businesses engaged in this avoidance are owned by religious institutions and take advantage of the charitable head of 'advancement of religion' to receive charitable tax exemptions despite operating as for-profit businesses and not carrying out objectively charitable works;
(3) the definition of charity for the purposes of Victorian statute should be redefined to protect genuinely charitable organisations and ensure that for-profit businesses pay their fair share of Victorian taxes;
(4) none...
Drug Harm Reduction – E-petition tabled
May 10, 2018
Legislative Council electronic petition:
The petition of certain citizens of the state of Victoria draws to the attention of the Legislative Council that urgent action is required to address an illicit drug market that is increasingly complex and hazardous.
Experts throughout Australia have warned that more deaths are expected if urgent action is not undertaken to implement dynamic and progressive drug strategies, such as drug checking, otherwise known as pill testing.
Australians are among the highest consumers in the world of illicit drugs such as MDMA (often referred to as 'ecstasy') and, in recent years, the international drug market has become significantly more...
Primary Industries Legislation Amendment Bill 2017
May 10, 2018
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (11:49:53) — I would just like to rise to speak for a few moments on this omnibus Primary Industries Legislation Amendment Bill 2017. I specifically want to speak about the amendments to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 in part 4 of the bill. This is in regard to the regulation of industrial hemp. I am pleased with the amendments because they make it a little bit easier for hemp farmers to operate in Victoria. The hemp industry is growing significantly in Victoria. There are around 30 licences now. We saw almost a doubling in licences after the...
Merri Creek Primary School – E-petition Tabled
Mar 29, 2018
Legislative Council electronic petition:
The petition of certain citizens of the state of Victoria, including of the children, parents, teachers and friends of Merri Creek Primary School (MCPS), draws to the attention of the Legislative Council the need to fund the next stage of the MCPS masterplan in the Victorian government's 2018 budget.
Merri Creek Primary School is a wonderful place with a close-knit and supportive community. But frustratingly, we continue to miss out on the facilities our students need, and have been under-entitled in terms of funding for many years. We have one of the smallest school footprints in the state,...