Sexual assault data
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (18:51): I rise briefly to speak to Mr Grimley’s motion. I think it is interesting having this motion coming off the back of the debate that we held yesterday, which really talked about the very pointy end of sex crimes. I know I said yesterday, ‘How do we reduce sex crimes? Well, we stop people committing them’. That changes culture, and I know Mr Grimley mentioned this in his introductory remarks to this motion—and it is true. Like many people in this room, I have experienced sexual assault and I did not report...
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (16:19): I am pleased to speak on the Justice Legislation Amendment (Supporting Victims and Other Matters) Bill 2020. I feel quite privileged to have been in this chamber and listened to so many of the contributions—and some extraordinarily heartfelt contributions. We know that many of the issues that this bill does cover are personal—they are very personal. For some people here they formed part of the pathway to this place. It was some of those experiences that people have shared with us today that formed who they are and formed the members of...
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (14:32): I am pleased to rise to briefly speak about the Safe Patient Care (Nurse to Patient and Midwife to Patient Ratios) Amendment Bill 2020—or 2019 because, yes, it is one that has been sitting on our pink for quite some time. Certainly I was fortunate to be here in 2015 when we first started this notion of ratios, and while the idea began in 2000 it seems that certainly we have seen ratios being taken very seriously over the last four to five years. This new tranche will provide that extra support...
Inquiry into a Legislated Spent Convictions Scheme
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (17:22): I think today is a very good day to speak about the report into a legislated spent convictions scheme—a controlled disclosure of a criminal record information framework for Victoria—because today the government introduced a bill for spent convictions. This is a very memorable day because it is a day that we have been waiting for for decades. In fact in 1987 the Australian Law Reform Commission recommended that we introduce a scheme to protect the disclosure of historical criminal records. Fifteen, 20 years ago nearly every state in Australia adopted a...
Legal and Social Issues Committee Reference
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (15:04): I do not plan to speak for long, because hopefully I will be chairing this inquiry. I think it is a very important inquiry and I thank Ms Crozier for bringing this inquiry referral to the Legal and Social Issues Committee.
It will be a quick inquiry, and the Legal and Social Issues Committee knows how to do that. We have done it with I Cook Foods. We have been able to turn it around. This will be a quick inquiry and an important inquiry.
Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:40): I would just like to say a couple of words about the Alert Digest No. 10, and while I concur with much of what Mrs McArthur has said, this has been very difficult for the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee (SARC) to produce that scrutiny in a timely fashion given the nature of these bills and the urgency with which they have been going through the house. I think some consolation can be drawn from Alert Digest No. 10 in that the amendments that were put to the COVID-19 Omnibus (Emergency Measures)...
Ronald Alexander Best
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (11:12): I would like to join this motion as well. I obviously did not have the pleasure of working with Ron Best here. Although he did not remember, we did meet while he was a member of Parliament here and I was trying to sell him on the idea of changing the censorship laws. He did not buy it at the time. But I got to meet him in my first term, the last term, and I met him as Louise Asher’s partner. I have to say I really enjoyed his...
Select committee
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (11:06): I am pleased to rise very quickly. I actually have been giving this some thought, because certainly Dr Cumming has had this motion on the paper for some time. It has been an issue that has been around. With therapeutic medicines I think we have all spoken about the benefits of them and where people have found benefits. I know that I have been reading a lot about vitamin D in regard to protection around respiratory infections, for example, particularly given the pandemic that we are experiencing now.
However,...
Police and Emergency Legislation Amendment Bill 2020
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (16:27): I am pleased to rise to speak somewhat briefly to the Police and Emergency Legislation Amendment Bill 2020. This bill does a range of things, as the previous speakers have mentioned and talked to: expanding the definition of the designated places for PSOs; enabling someone who is in jail for one reason to be questioned by the police and moved within the police station to be questioned on another offence; and certainly changing some of the abilities for sheriffs to serve applications for family violence, as well as amending some of...
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (15:29): This year has been, it does feel—many of the days feel—like groundhog day, particularly as we are coming back to debate the COVID-19 Omnibus (Emergency Measures) and Other Acts Amendment Bill 2020, which amends the legislation we debated in March, earlier this year.
Although, it was quite different last time we debated it. It did not go to a vote. In fact the whole chamber supported the bill. And frankly, I am not sure what has got in the water. I am sure our wastewater testing could probably...