Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:31:44) — On Sunday I had the honour of attending and speaking at the 35th International AIDS Candlelight Memorial held at Southbank. The theme this year was ‘Reflecting on our past; preparing for our future’. I remember 30 years ago I attended my first funeral for a friend who had died of an AIDS‑related illness. In those days the treatments were not terribly effective and the discrimination and stigma experienced were horrific. Friends were disowned by families, refused service in restaurants and sacked from their jobs. A lot has changed; treatments now mean that HIV can be undetectable, and with...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:40:25) — Tomorrow we will celebrate the second anniversary of the implementation of the safe access zones in Victoria. This legislation is something that I think we should all be particularly proud of. It prevents the harassment of clients and staff outside reproductive health service clinics. These clients are often visiting the clinics under difficult and distressing circumstances, and I am very pleased that they are able to do so without fear of harassment. It has been a fantastic success, and I am delighted to note that countries like Great Britain are looking to copy this model and...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (10:07:32) — Last week I was very pleased to host Australia21, a think tank for the public good, here in this house. As a result of this round table — which obviously was not a round table because this house does not have round tables; we are far too adversarial for that — they issued a joint statement this week. It was signed by representatives of 34 organisations, including doctors, academics, sociologists and many fine ex-police officers as well. It states: We the undersigned call on Australia s federal, state and territory governments to treat drug use primarily as a health and...

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (12:50:14) — Today six Australian men will take their own life — over 2300 men each year, and this number is rising. Sadly, men aged 80 and over suicide at a rate higher than any other age group in Australia. So I was really pleased to recently visit two amazing organisations in Northern Metropolitan Region that are transforming the mental health and wellbeing of older men in my electorate. The Hume Men's Shed in Craigieburn was packed to overflowing when I called in last week. With limited resources and virtually no funding, they open a few times a week to provide...

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...