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...

  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...

  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...

  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...

  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...

  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...

  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...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (09:53): This month I was very pleased to launch the Reason Party’s campaign to promote Victoria’s fantastic, magnificent fashion industry. It is internationally recognised, and it is a cultural and economic gem of Victoria. We are also using this campaign to highlight the appalling, unsustainable textile waste in Australia. We launched with a panel discussion with local designers and stylists. It is called F*** Fast Fashion: buy local, buy ethical, buy less. We will be running this over the coming months with a whole range of themed events. To get Parliament into the spirit of this and...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) Incorporated pursuant to order of Council of 7 September 2021: Last Wednesday, along with Minister Leane, I was very pleased to attend the launch of the Chatty Cafe project at the Chatty Cafe at Sandy Beach Kiosk in Sandringham. The Chatty Cafe Scheme aims to get people chatting to build and encourage social connections within the local community, and to help reduce social isolation and loneliness. Australian venues that sign up offer ‘Have a Chat’ tables—a space for people to talk, whether it is for 5 minutes or an hour of good friendly conversation, while you drink a brew of your...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (14:28): I would like to echo Ms Maxwell’s gratitude to all of the staff here and congratulate you, President, and the team for managing an incredibly difficult year. I think you have done it with good humour, but also you have managed to keep us all very safe this year. On behalf of I am sure my team, but I am sure on behalf of many others here we are very grateful for that. I would also like to congratulate today the New Zealand government for legalising pill testing. In the words of the health minister Andrew...