Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (09:46): Last week I joined the member for Mildura, Ali Cupper, in her electorate to announce a new way of doing politics in Victoria. As is well understood, this house makes decisions that affect all Victorians, and I think we can all agree that it is good to have friends. Under our new coalition agreement, Ali will be the deputy leader of Reason and will mould our new Reason for the Regions policy platform. She will now represent the evidence-based facts-first policy approach of the Reason Party in the Legislative Assembly and in turn her voice, still vehemently independent for the people of Mildura, will now be heard in this place through me on all regional policy and other matters facing her electorate. It is not a hard partnership to understand, and we would welcome other like-minded Independent MPs and MPs from parties both large and small to discuss making alliances with us that can benefit the communities we represent. After all, isn’t that what we were all elected to do?
