Kat THEOPHANOUS (Northcote): It is an honour to stand here as part of a re-elected Andrews Labor government to represent Northcote once again. In doing so I recognise that long before our Parliament existed, the lands and waters we now call the inner north were nurtured and protected by the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, and I reaffirm the Labor government’s unwavering commitment to walking alongside Aboriginal Victorians on the road to treaty.
Today the suburbs of Northcote, Thornbury, Fairfield, Alphington, Westgarth and Preston are a vibrant mix of creativity and culture. We are proudly diverse, we are hardworking, we are adaptive and we like to push the envelope. I have spoken many times in this place about my love and affection for the inner north, the place where I was born and raised and where I am now raising my own family. To be chosen by your local community to represent them and be their voice for a second time around is something truly special, and it is a responsibility I will never, ever take for granted – and as I reflect on the last four years I know that we never did. Each and every day our small, dedicated, hardworking team at the Northcote electorate office put our hearts, minds and bodies into supporting our community through some of the toughest years Victorians have ever faced. We took on cases big and small, gave voice to our constituents and businesses, relayed critical information, supported community groups and backed our local economy, all while we worked to deliver the major projects that Northcote needs and the critical reforms that our state deserves.
I want to thank the electorate officers who have worked side by side with me at various points throughout the last four years, including Samantha Newton, John Appleton, Johanna Sarakinis, Marion Dormer, Shanae Murnane, Sammi Turner and Campbell Hughes. You are remarkable people who care deeply about our movement, about helping people who need it most and leaving our world better than we found it. Thank you for being at my side, weathering the storms and celebrating the wins.
Our community is resilient. We showed courage, compassion and innovation at a time of great crisis, but we also felt deep impacts. We lost businesses, we lost opportunities. For some, we lost loved ones dear to us. And for a huge number of health workers in my electorate, many servicing some of Melbourne’s busiest public hospitals, the pressure was acute. We are resilient, but we are not invincible, and the impacts of the pandemic still reverberate in our suburbs.
We need to tackle inequality and cost-of-living pressure in the inner north. There are still far too many renters living in poor conditions, powerless to move. There are still far too many workers without job security, too many older people living without adequate support and too many people suffering with mental health issues as we work to reform a broken system. We need to invest in local, accessible health care. We must continue to work to build modern schools and career pathways that offer opportunity and security. We must create more livable, sustainable suburbs and work on reforms that bring better balance to our busy lives.
Across health, housing, education, transport, jobs and the environment, it has been my priority to push for initiatives and reforms that deliver real prosperity into our suburbs and change people’s lives for the better. This election was a critical one in our state’s history. Victorians had a big choice to make, and they chose comprehensively to back a Labor government and a future of hope not hate. Despite all the extreme campaigning we saw from our opponents, despite some of the awful narratives that have pervaded the last four years, Victorians chose the Labor government they know will be there for them. In an interview recently the Premier said it best: he said that as a Victorian community we are kind and generous and thoughtful, and our better selves know and understand that sometimes leadership is all about doing what is right, not doing what is popular.
The truth is that while our government worked hour by hour to overcome serious challenges and complex issues with the objective of saving lives, Victorians witnessed the conservatives busy themselves spreading dangerous misinformation while the Greens thrashed around trying to find more opportunities to solicit donations. I am not going to sugar-coat my experience of the election campaign because some of the language and behaviours that I witnessed were utterly appalling. And though it gives me great comfort to know that Victorians utterly rejected this polarising, aggressive, pessimistic outlook, I believe we owe it to our democracy and the value we place on peaceful engagement with that democracy to call some of this out.
In Northcote we faced an incredibly tough contest, contesting as we did not so much with a political party as with a marketing machine. Between the ultra right and the ultra left, we were up against vicious misinformation campaigns, hyperpersonal attacks, threats and intimidation, and outright racism. We had to take the Greens-dominated Darebin council to the Supreme Court because Victoria Police discovered they were unlawfully stealing our paid advertising billboards in the dead of night. Some of my volunteers were physically assaulted. I want to put some of these things on the record not to be negative but to highlight the vicious desperation of the effort that was pitted against us. But it did not work. Despite the Liberals teaming up with the Greens, it did not work. My community chose hope not hate. They chose action not words.
I am so proud of the Northcote Labor team, who came together with energy, passion, our shared vision and our strong values. Together we worked every day over the last four years to make real progress in the inner north, and we put forward a real offering to our community for the future – one with true reform, tangible investment and genuine opportunity. People are always at the heart of our Labor movement, and I am so incredibly grateful to all of the members and volunteers who made phone calls, knocked on doors, hosted yard signs, letterboxed our streets, handed out cards on election day and spoke to thousands of locals. Special thanks also to my campaign team, including my campaign manager Joshua Pelach and field organiser Jean-Marc Kurban, and to my family, who I have put through far too much and who somehow never waver.
In Northcote the Greens primary vote dropped by almost 10 per cent – a very clear signal that our community is not buying what they are selling. Sadly it is no surprise across Darebin and Yarra that the Greens voting record and decision-making has left my community deeply wounded. Our real-life experience under these Greens councils demonstrates time and again that they will put their own interests over issues like social housing, multiculturalism, working-class people, small businesses, local sports and even the environment. As the member for Northcote I have gone head-to-head with them on these issues, and I will continue to do that because our community deserves more. We do not deserve to see services cut, our sports clubs closed or social housing projects stall or businesses fail or the most marginalised people become even more marginalised.
In Northcote Labor has a record of achievement and a tangible plan for the future. Locally we have a commitment to opening an early parenting centre in Northcote so that parents and babies can get the support they need in those tumultuous early years. We will also open a mental health and wellbeing local in Northcote, giving residents direct access to life-saving support they need close to home. Across our community our local schools are being upgraded, and I am looking forward to seeing progress on Thornbury Primary as we deliver on a $17.6 million election commitment for that fantastic and deserving school. Free kinder, TAFE and nursing courses are generating opportunities like never before, new social housing is on the way and there are plans to make our tram and train networks more accessible. Our neighbourhood houses, which deliver such critical services to people in my community from adult education to men’s sheds, playgroups, wellbeing programs and more, will receive additional funds to continue their work.
Northcote City Football Club, one of our largest clubs in the inner north, will receive $500,000 towards female-friendly change rooms and bathrooms at John Cain Memorial Park in Thornbury, something I know the Cain family are happy to see as we look to the future of this important sports precinct. Labor will also provide a $1 million investment to upgrade the sports pavilion at Deep Rock in Yarra Bend Park to provide modern, accessible spaces for the sports teams who use these grounds, including the Fitzroy Junior Football Club and the Edinburgh Cricket Club. At Merri station we are investing $1.5 million to design and deliver a new vision for Merri Common, co-designed with locals. We will work together to create a welcoming space where the whole community can come together, socialise and stay active.
Labor has also committed to introducing planning controls to prevent inappropriate development along our creeks. Our creeks are very important to us. We will back this with a $10 million fund to create wildlife corridors, protect our waterways and restore the natural environment. My heartfelt thanks to our hardworking Friends of Merri Creek, Friends of Darebin Creek, Merri Creek Management Committee and Darebin Creek Management Committee, who worked with me and Minister D’Ambrosio to get this commitment up.
Of course there are so many more projects underway in the north and across Melbourne. Our $1 billion hospital plan for the north will deliver upgrades at the Austin and Northern hospitals. At the Austin we will expand the emergency department to support an extra 30,000 emergency patients every year, ensuring the hospital can meet the needs of our growing population. This week my own family attended the Austin emergency room when my five-year-old daughter Ariana unfortunately broke her arm. The break was more complex than usual, and she needed surgery. For any parent or child this is a distressing experience, but I am so grateful for the care she received at the Austin. The hardworking nurses, clinicians and surgeons were wonderful. They made her feel safe and comfortable, explained things clearly and gave her the best possible care. Traumatic as it was, she is now back home and adjusting to her new normal as she heals with a cast on her arm.
Our investment in Victoria’s healthcare system is vital. As Parliamentary Secretary for Women’s Health I am looking forward to bringing new focus to improving women’s access to informed, timely, quality care, because despite centuries of world-changing research and medical advancement and unprecedented investment in our health system, infrastructure and workforce, there are still far too many barriers to women seeking, reaching and receiving health care, and every day the cumulative impact of this is borne out on women’s bodies. That is why Labor will open 20 women’s health clinics across the state and expand our existing sexual and reproductive health hub network to 20 sites. These new clinics will be one-stop shops for women needing treatment and advice on issues ranging from contraception to pelvic pain, polycystic ovary syndrome, endometriosis and menopause symptoms. We will also establish a women’s health research institute and a women’s pain management inquiry to help us find new ways to identify and treat diseases like endometriosis and improve patient care. The Minister for Health and I are incredibly passionate about this policy area, and I look forward to working at her side as we progress these critical reforms.
My community is proudly climate conscious, and one of the most incredible announcements our Labor government has made is the return of the State Electricity Commission. The SEC will not just be a publicly owned power company; it will be a 100 per cent renewable energy publicly owned power company. After years of failed privatisation and out-of-control energy prices, this announcement is a game changer, delivering cheaper power bills, lower emissions and putting power back in the hands of Victorians. It should leave no room for doubt: under Labor Victoria is a global leader in climate action. When we came into government in 2014 renewables counted for just 12 per cent of Victoria’s energy generation, and the Liberals’ huge exclusion zones had ground renewable energy investment to a halt.
In just eight years under Labor we increased renewables to over 30 per cent and we have completely outstripped our initial emissions reduction targets. We are now committed to going even further, to reduce emissions by 80 per cent in 2035 and bring forward net zero to 2045. Under Labor we will run our state on 95 per cent renewables in little more than a decade. I will say it again because it is truly remarkable: in 2014 under the Liberals we had 12 per cent renewables, under Labor we will reach 95 per cent by 2035. That is an extraordinary jump, and it does not happen by accident. It happens under strong and progressive Labor governments that knuckle down and do the work to transition our economy and, vitally, bring Victorians with us, because transition cannot be for some and not for others.
As the member for Northcote I will always fight for real climate action, and I look forward to the work we will do this coming decade as we dramatically ramp up renewables, build energy-efficient homes, transition industries off gas, introduce a container deposit scheme, ban more single-use plastics, restore vast areas of wilderness, set up neighbourhood batteries, invest in electric vehicles and infrastructure and protect our biodiversity, including by ending forestry for good. Whether it be in health, education, climate or social justice, Labor is unashamedly about delivering real change, real improvement and real opportunity in people’s lives. Victorians have made their voices loud and clear – rejecting the pessimism, opportunism, extremism and tokenism, and backing a Labor government to continue delivering a positive plan for the future. Northcote is part of that story, and there are many exciting things on our horizon. I am honoured to have the opportunity to work with my community again as we make our state stronger, fairer and more livable.
Members applauded.
