Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (09:59:07) — This week I met with a number of leaders from the South Sudanese community in Victoria. They shared with me some really intelligent insights, love and respect for this state, mature engagement with the issues that their community faces and, most importantly, solutions. It has been a most distressing period for Melbourne's Sudanese community. In circumstances where Victoria is getting safer, truly safer, and where our crime rate has fallen, with the largest drop in 12 years and unequivocally so as reported by the Crime Statistics Agency, this irresponsible, hyper-politicised and inflammatory reporting has caused a perception of...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (10:09:31) — I would like to join many others in wishing all the staff and my colleagues here today a very merry Christmas and a great summer break. I am sure many of us need it. No doubt we have all been attending a range of Christmas and end-of-year functions over the past few weeks. Last week I went to a party of a very different kind at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. P.A.R.T.Y. stands for Prevent Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth. It is an innovative program established to reduce youth offending. It is designed to show youth, particularly...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (09:57:36) — Last weekend I had the honour of attending two events which celebrated excellence. On Friday night I was at the United Nations Association of Australia Media Awards for 2017. Each year these awards are presented to Australian journalists who have excelled in their promotion of human rights and exposure of breaches. These awards and the journalists and programs that received them are the antidotes to the fake news that has become ever so present in today's media. They bring transparency and sunlight to human rights and their breaches. The ABC won the majority of the UN awards...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — I am very pleased to inform the house that my electorate of Northern Metropolitan Region is home to the world's best beer. Last Friday I was given a tour of Hawkers Beer brewery in Reservoir, which was recently named supreme champion brewer at the prestigious International Beer Challenge in London. Hawkers was founded by Mazen Hajjar. He started with four staff in 2015, and in that year produced an impressive 3 million litres of beer. Today he employs 33 full-time staff, and this year will brew 6.5 million litres of beer to be exported worldwide, including to China, Hong Kong,...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — This week my office has had the pleasure of hosting the lovely Alishia Mason from Portland Secondary College. Alishia has made a large effort to stay in Melbourne with some friends for her week with us, which is great. Alishia is a year 10 student and has interests in economic development, women's rights and equality, to name just a few, and she has been a real benefit to our office this week. So thank you for working with us, and congratulations on working out how to get out of Parliament station this morning! Ms PATTEN — Last Friday I had...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — Welcome back to everyone. I would like to thank the Parliament for the opportunity I had over this break to travel with the Law Reform, Road and Community Safety Committee. We were able to visit Portugal, Switzerland, the UK, Canada and the US to learn how other jurisdictions are dealing with a whole range of issues around illicit drugs and prescription drugs. We got the opportunity to meet with people at the World Health Organization and the Global Commission on Drug Policy. A particular highlight for me was the fact that for the first time a committee travelled...

Ms PATTEN — Last week I got to attend the Koori Youth Council and was very pleased to be part of the Ricci Marks Awards, which recognise youth Aboriginal leadership. I would just like to congratulate Natasha Reid, who won the Rising Star Award; Tahlia Biggs, who won a Ricci Marks Award; and Zoey Marks, who also won a Ricci Marks Award. These are three wonderful women who I am sure we will see in high places soon....

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — This week I have the pleasure of hosting Kievan Van Dyke Goodman, a year 10 student from Fitzroy High School, in my office for work experience. Fitzroy High School has an innovative approach to learning, with very flexible classes and 'advisory' time, where students, under their own direction, catch up on work or work collaboratively. There is also a strong focus on engaging motivational speakers on a range of topics to provide a perspective from outside the classroom that other schools do not often enjoy. The flexibility is fantastic, but Kievan tells me that there are still challenges, particularly...

Ms PATTEN — I would also like to congratulate Northern Health for their Run Walk 'n Chalk on the weekend. Over 1000 of us attended, including my colleague Mr Ondarchie. There was $20 000 raised for the much-needed children's services and the great work that Northern Health does up there. We all came out completely covered in brightly coloured chalk. Everyone had a brilliant time, and I think this will be an annual event that we will all thoroughly enjoy....

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — I would like to congratulate Melbourne Vixens on their fantastic win on the weekend. The arena was near capacity, and it was wonderful to see the families, particularly young girls, watching their heroes. It was really wonderful just to see such a broad and large audience watching the netball. I was very lucky to be sitting with some amazing women who are basically the pioneers of netball, including Joyce Brown, who captained the Australian netball team to the inaugural Netball World Cup title in 1963. It was amazing sitting with them. I felt sorry for the coach because...