We can reduce harm and save lives.
We can reduce costs to the criminal justice system and in acute health care.
We can reduce stigma.
We can intervene early to change the trajectory of a person’s life.
We can do this by treating drug use as a health issue with a health solution, not a criminal one.
That is what this bill will achieve by one simple mechanism.
Of drug arrests in Victoria, 93.5 per cent are consumer arrests, as compared to 6.5 per cent supplier arrests.
Of the 32 860 drug arrests in Victoria last year, 26 195, or just on 80 per cent, were for the offences...
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (21:15): I am very pleased to speak somewhat briefly and somewhat specifically to the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Child Protection) Bill 2021, which as we have heard from Ms Bath just now, is an omnibus bill with lots of features and tendrils to it. But I would like to focus my attention on part 19. Two years ago I introduced the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Out of Home Care Age) Bill 2020. Back then in Victoria exit care planning for kids in foster and state care began at 15 years of age, and every...
Sex Work Decriminalisation Bill 2021
Feb 10, 2022
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (14:46): I am pleased to speak to the Sex Work Decriminalisation Bill 2021—2021. We first started fighting for the decriminalisation of sex work in Victoria in the 1980s, so it has been nearly 40 years in the making. We have gone through many iterations. We have had two steps forward, a couple of steps back—forward, back—but I hope today we will finally see a bill that decriminalises sex work in Victoria passed.
I have been around since the 1980s in this debate, and I have seen a lot of this debate from a lot of areas, so...
Ombudsman referral
Feb 9, 2022
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (16:31): I am not sure I am pleased to speak on this motion, but I must say I have listened to this with interest. I am sure Mr Somyurek has too. This has certainly been quite a change from the chorus that he normally would have got from that side of the house. This road to Damascus that Mr Somyurek has found has obviously profoundly affected many of the members in here—Mr Finn in particular, it would seem.
This motion has been described to the media numerous times—in fact even as late as this afternoon—as this being...
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...
Loneliness
Nov 17, 2021
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...
Family violence
Nov 17, 2021
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...
Pairing arrangements
Nov 17, 2021
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...