Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (09:48): I would also like to make a comment about the WA election and congratulate my sister party the Legalise Cannabis Western Australia Party for winning their first seat in the Legislative Council in Western Australia. I very much look forward to working with them and sharing our knowledge.  

Fiona Patten MP Leader of Reason Member for Northern Metropolitan Region Members statement 17/3/21

  ...

  Ms PATTEN: On Monday I was so proud to be one of the tens of thousands of women who came together across the country for the Women’s March 4 Justice to say, ‘Enough’. It was an emotional day, but there was such a strong feeling of solidarity. We saw women from the second wave joining women from the third wave of feminism, women from the second wave wondering why we are still marching for equality and why we are still marching to be safe in the streets. We are simply sick of having to highlight these issues. We are entitled...

  Ms PATTEN: I would also like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Maria Spadaro, who died tragically after being struck by a car on Aberdeen Street in Reservoir on 16 February. She had lived in Reservoir since migrating from Italy in 1965. She is deeply missed and was a stalwart at the Preston Market as well as the Broadway markets. After her grandmother’s death, Teresa Hermence was stunned by the outpouring of grief for Maria. I never realised how loved she was until I went to the street where the accident happened and someone from every single house came...

  Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (09:49): Today I rise to congratulate the Penington Institute, Australia’s leading independent voice of reason on drug policy, on the launch of their new community and peer education campaign to address the evolving health risks faced by people who use drugs in the context of COVID-19. The campaign, delivered in collaboration with Harm Reduction Victoria, has been developed following extensive consultation with people who use drugs, frontline workers and research experts. The first set of resources launched has a focus on GHB, an increasing source of drug-related harm around Australia. Education is the key to reducing...

 

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (10:09): I rise today in support and praise of protesters from Stand Together for Justice and other groups who have been instrumental in helping gain the release of 26 refugees from detention here in Melbourne. These legal refugees spent a year in a hotel in Preston and many years prior to that in detention before being transferred to a city hotel where each night at 5.00 pm protesters met to rally for their cause. At the end of January all men were granted bridging visas, finally.

There have, however, been...

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.