Ms PATTEN: I would also like to take this moment to thank everyone in the Council for what has been an incredibly difficult year. I hope that you all have some really good downtime over Christmas, over the holidays. Your communities will all be hoping to do the same. I hope that my community in the Northern Metropolitan gets a good break because, jeez, 2020 has been tough, and I look forward to 2021.

Fiona Patten MP
Leader of Reason
Member for Northern Metropolitan...

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...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (09:57): On 25 November 1960 three sisters of the Mirabal family were assassinated in the Dominican Republic on the orders of the then Dominican ruler, Rafael Trujillo. In 1981, 25 November was designated as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women by the UN General Assembly in their honour. We must continue to rally around this cause, more than ever. In Australia, two in every five women have experienced violence since the age of 15, one in three has experienced physical violence and one in five has experienced sexual...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (10:32): Melbourne’s iconic Festival Hall was already a place where people came to worship. They worshipped Johnny Cash, Rage Against the Machine, the Living End, Oasis, even Frank Sinatra, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Powderfinger and the Beatles. Also known as the house of stoush, Melburnians also made their way to Festival Hall to worship at the feet of the gods of boxing, like Lionel Rose, Anthony Mundine, Lester Ellis and Barry Michael. For the 1956 Olympics the sporting gods took over. It also hosted those who worshipped consumerism, being the...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (09:54): I was very delighted this morning to read an email from a constituent, 83-year-old Rosalind, who shared a meal with a friend last night, the first meal that she has shared for months. For anyone interested, it was roast lamb followed by baked apples.

And that is what so many Victorians are doing. They are quietly going about their business. They are quietly working under these restrictions. They are doing what they can to keep their families happy. They are doing what is needed.

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan):

Quickly on another matter, this state is being tested in a way we have never been before. This lockdown is hard for everyone.

It is those we rely on the most that are turning up day in and day out who we owe a debt of gratitude to.

I want to thank every worker on the front line of this pandemic—the nurses, the doctors, the ambulance officers, the police officers, the shelf stackers and package delivery drivers. Every one of them...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan)

It is fitting today that I mention the name of a young girl for the very first time in this Parliament, who may very well be sitting on these red benches one day.

Scarlett Blake Chipp was born at 12.02 pm on Friday, 31 July—just a tiny one weighing in at only 2.6 kilos—to extremely proud parents, Andrew Shears, chief of staff in my office, and his lovely wife, Laura Chipp.

It is Scarlett’s grandfather though that I feel would be most proud of this little bundle of...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan): The COVID-19 pandemic has deeply affected everyone, and I offer my sincere condolences, especially to all those grieving the loss of a loved one or a friend.

This virus doesn’t discriminate; it can strike down anyone, at any time, of any age. While some recover quickly, it can have lasting consequences for our long-term health.

The way that my community has responded has been unbelievable. The best of our humanity has been on show.

In my electorate nurses, doctors and other healthcare...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (10:40): Live music venues are on life support, and Victorians would like the government to step in to support them. The e-petition ‘Support music venues’ is the largest e-petition in the history of this Parliament, with nearly 16 000 signatures, and that is because thousands of Victorians love live music.

Over 100 000 people would gather at these venues each Saturday night—a grand final every weekend. Yesterday the Premier said, ‘The best experiences are right here in Victoria’, and that is because we are the music capital of Australia. Six years ago...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (09:47): As I wandered up Bourke Street today, I was struck by the fact that in an area where I would normally come across several people sleeping rough there were none. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a trying, sometimes frightening time for a lot of people. I acknowledge many businesses are doing it tough, many individuals have lost their jobs and there are families in Victoria grieving for the loss of loved ones. But the way our state and the people who provide services to the vulnerable in our community have...