Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (10:07): Today marks International Overdose Awareness Day. As the coroner reported, 500 Victorians died from an overdose in 2020–21, so today my heart goes out to the friends and families of those poor people who died from an overdose. Let us not forget that countless other people—thousands of other people—have overdosed and survived, but quite often with an acquired brain injury and other lifelong disabilities. We can do more. We must do more.

The Burnet Institute today put out a release calling on us to decriminalise the use and possession of drugs. We must do this. This is supported by the AMA. In fact I do not know a single organisation that does not support the decriminalisation of drugs to reduce the deaths from overdoses. There is a mural in North Richmond that says, ‘You talk we die’, and that mural is still there, because it is true.

I was fortunate early on Friday night to go to a wonderful example of harm reduction at a life-saving centre. It was a fixed drug testing centre in Canberra. I would encourage people to look it up. We could do that here.

Fiona Patten MP
Leader of Reason
Member for Northern Metropolitan Region
Members statement 31/8/22

Ms PATTEN: I would also like to let members know about another film that is coming to their inboxes very soon, Some Happy Day.

It was filmed in St Kilda and directed by another wonderful Victorian, Catherine Hill, and it follows the life of two people sleeping rough in St Kilda. This film has a happy ending, hence its name, so I encourage you to see it.

You will also receive an invitation to attend a special showing for MPs coming up in the next few weeks.

Fiona Patten MP
Leader of Reason
Member for Northern Metropolitan Region
Members statement 18/8/22

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (10:02): I would like to congratulate the team at the Melbourne International Film Festival on another successful year—in fact their 70th year. I also want to alert members to a really terrific film that premiered at MIFF last weekend called Under Cover.

It was produced by Adam Farrington-Williams and the wonderful Sue Thomson, and it follows the lives of five women over 50 who have found themselves without homes. This is the fastest growing cohort of people in our society who are finding themselves homeless.

It is around gender inequality, and this film beautifully shows the fragility, the economic fragility, of many women in our society. I really commend the film, and I encourage you all to see it.

Fiona Patten MP
Leader of Reason
Member for Northern Metropolitan Region
Members statement 18/8/22

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (10:31): I do not know about others, but the last six weeks has been pretty busy. I was invited to Europe, Poland exactly, to share what not to do in regard to tobacco harm reduction. We used to be good on harm reduction and in some areas we still are: needle exchanges, naloxone and supervised injecting rooms all save lives. But we are woefully blind when it comes to preventing the deaths of smokers.

Almost every country has taken a different path. The UK and New Zealand are exemplars of tobacco harm reduction, and their reduction in smoking rates attest to that. I also had the pleasure of visiting the Maltese Parliament while I was there and meeting with Ms Rebecca Buttigieg, the minister overseeing the rollout of quite unique cannabis legislation.

Last weekend I attended a conference in Malaysia on harm reduction. Although they prefer the term ‘sustainable recovery’, Malaysia is set to decriminalise the use and possession of drugs—Malaysia! That is right. Malaysia will soon be more progressive than us on drug policy.

We credit ourselves in this state as being progressive, but sadly we are falling behind the rest of the world.

Fiona Patten MP
Leader of Reason
Member for Northern Metropolitan Region
Members statement 4/8/22

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (09:47): I would like to congratulate Victoria Street Alive!, a terrific initiative in North Richmond. It has been run by the tireless Judy Ryan and Greg Hordacre, who have just been working so hard behind the scenes. Victoria Street Alive! opened the inaugural medically supervised injecting room artists exhibition, My Community, on Friday, 3 June, and its official opening will be tomorrow. The objective of Victoria Street Alive! has been to amplify the voices and achievements of young artists and the disadvantaged through a program of arts and cultural events and activities. This exhibition marks the end of their first successful year of community activation.

The people who visit the supervised injecting room are assisted to reduce the harms of injecting and are offered a range of clinical and social supports that are tailored to each client. This has given clients the opportunity to create art while at the centre, and it is that art that will be on exhibition tomorrow. The artwork will be offered for sale by silent auction, with the proceeds going directly to the artists. There are three Victoria Street Alive! events in June in North Richmond: the My Community art exhibition; the second makers market at Abbots Yard on 19 June; and an installation of street posters designed by our young residents in workshops held at the Richmond housing estate throughout May, and that commenced last week on 1 June. Well done.

Fiona Patten MP
Leader of Reason
Member for Northern Metropolitan Region
Members statement 8/6/22

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (09:45): Last week was International Face Equality Week, and this year’s theme was ‘Face equality is a human right’. I was really fortunate to meet with Carly Findlay OAM, writer, speaker and appearance activist, who highlighted the Face Equality International report, and I would encourage all members to have a read of it.

The report shows that the global experience of disfigurement and facial difference is one of inequality, marginalisation, being hidden away and human rights violations. Wherever in the world someone with facial difference might be, the impact of stigma and prejudice towards facial difference can have a profound impact upon mental health and wellbeing.

Change can start with the language we use: ‘facial difference’ instead of ‘disfigurement’, and this goes to the heart of the anti-vilification bill that I introduced into this house in 2019 that would have protected people from vilification based on gender, sexuality or disability. The bill was referred for a parliamentary inquiry. The inquiry made favourable recommendations, including that the government will carefully consider extending anti-vilification protections to additional groups of people, including all those groups protected by the current Equal Opportunity Act 2010.

So on behalf of Carly and many others, I urge the Attorney-General to hasten on that reform.

Fiona Patten MP
Leader of Reason
Member for Northern Metropolitan Region
Members statement 25/5/22

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (09:55): On 20 April, also known as 4/20, around the world people gather peacefully to have picnics to rally for cannabis law reform. This has been happening in Melbourne for decades. This month, when people went down to Flagstaff Gardens to peacefully rally around drug law reform and call for changes to cannabis laws in this state, they were met with police on horses, they were met with sniffer dogs and they were wrestled to the ground and stripsearched.

They were meeting peacefully for a picnic in Flagstaff Gardens. It was an extraordinary sight. It was a frightening sight. It was totally out of step with the police strategy and with the government’s own position that we treat drug use as a health issue, not a criminal one. I have no idea how much this action cost. I expect it cost tens of thousands of dollars. It was just outrageous. These were young people. In fact one man who was tackled to the ground for being in possession of medicinal cannabis had a prescription for his cannabis on his person.

This was in the same week as the budget, which saw the alcohol and drug services sector lose $40 million. We can do better.

Fiona Patten MP
Leader of Reason
Member for Northern Metropolitan Region
Members statement 11/5/22

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (09:58): I have been asked to use my members statement call on members and to encourage members to remember Bob Keeper. Father Bob has relaunched his Bob Keeper appeal for this Easter, and this year he is hoping to expand his open pantry project, which is out at Banksia Gardens in Broadmeadows. Currently it helps 400 families fill their pantries twice a week. He is hoping that this year his appeal will be able to extend that assistance to another 100 families. These families are largely refugee families, largely from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Lebanon.

Father Bob is also providing funds for soccer scholarships with the Melbourne City Football Club academy. Last year he was able to provide three scholarships, which was wonderful, to Ali, Mumtaz and Sajjad. They really were so grateful for the opportunity. And what it does is it provides this fantastic protective factor and it provides this great protection for these young kids, many of whom have grown up with disadvantage and escaped war-torn areas. So on behalf of Father Bob, I would like to encourage us all to support Bob Keeper and give generously in 2022.

Fiona Patten MP
Leader of Reason
Member for Northern Metropolitan Region
Members statement 6/4/22

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (09:50): Medicinal cannabis is the only prescription medication that if taken by a patient excludes them from driving. It is not because it is more dangerous. In fact with many CBD medicines that is quite the opposite. It is because of stigma and misunderstanding—like the misunderstanding that the average medicinal cannabis patient in Victoria is a 52-year-old woman with a chronic illness for which conventional medicines have not worked.

Now, I am not suggesting we should allow people who are impaired to drive, I am saying that people who have been prescribed a legal prescription medication and can drive safely should be allowed to drive. This is how we treat every single other prescription medication. Too often Victorians who would benefit from medicinal cannabis are forced to choose a less effective or more dangerous and addictive medication, such as an opioid or a benzodiazepine, simply because driving with a residual amount of THC could mean the loss of a drivers licence or criminal penalties. We must find a path forward.

The path I propose is a discrete trial of maybe 100 Victorian medicinal cannabis patients. Let us measure the effects of this medicine on them and track their driving performance. Let us show it is safe.

Fiona Patten MP
Leader of Reason
Member for Northern Metropolitan Region
Members statement 23/3/22

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (09:50): I was very pleased to attend Her Place on Monday, and this was part of International Women’s Day. Her Place is actually a museum. It is in the old Menzies building. It is down on Clarendon Street, and it is a beautiful little hidden gem. But I was there to look at solutions for women’s homelessness, and we know that particularly older women are the fastest growing cohort of people experiencing homelessness. We know that COVID hit women harder than our male colleagues, and that was in employment and that was in earning capacity, but it was also in homelessness. We know that family violence is the leading cause of homelessness in our state.

The conference on Monday at Her Place was actually about solutions, and we heard from some really terrific people: Jocelyn Bignold from McAuley Community Services for Women, who is also part of the Women’s Housing Alliance; and Robert Pradolin from Housing All Australians, who talked about the fact that while the government are investing in their big spend there is more that needs to be done and everybody needs to be involved, and that is the private sector as well. We saw some great social enterprise initiatives—Shared Lives Australia and a whole range of them. But my question is to the government: where is the response to the homelessness report? We have been waiting months for it.

Fiona Patten MP
Leader of Reason
Member for Northern Metropolitan Region
Members statement 9/3/22