My question is to the Minister for Public and Active Transport in relation to the Alphington link project. I ask the minister to update my community on what steps are being taken by the government to deliver on our commitment to build a safe connection for Alphington residents to the Darebin Yarra trail.

My adjournment is to the Minister for Education, and I ask the minister to join me in Northcote for a tour of some of our wonderful local schools. The inner north is of course home to the best schools in the state. Innovative, creative and compassionate, they reflect the values of our community, and it has been my absolute honour to work with them over the last five years to support their aspirations for the future.

As we wind up the year I would like to take a moment to thank my community of Northcote for what we have achieved together. Since the state election we have hit the ground running, securing funding for every single election commitment and kicking off critical projects to make our community stronger.

Victorians cherish our democracy as the foundation of a strong multicultural and multifaith community, yet as the ongoing crisis in the Middle East unfolds, we have seen unacceptable displays of hate threaten this foundation.

It gives me great pleasure to rise and speak in support of the government business program. Once again we have some very serious and substantive pieces of legislation coming before the house for debate, which speak to our Labor government’s commitment to making Victoria safer and fairer.

It pains me to speak on this incredibly serious bill, which will make non-fatal strangulation a standalone offence in Victoria, pained because violence against women still haunts us. It still permeates across our communities. It follows us into our homes, where we should be safest. I say ‘it’, but violence against women is not perpetrated by a nondescript ‘it’. Violence against women, the murder of women, is perpetrated by a ‘who’, and it is important that we are self-aware in our language, attributing the deliberate action to the perpetrator who commits it, in most cases a man known to the victim.

My question is to the Minister for Children and I ask what is the impact on communities when Councils move to increase charges, shorten leases or privatise not-for-profit early learning services?

Residents of the inner north are outraged as Darebin Council has moved to cut our 18 community centre leases to a mere two years under the guise of developing a new council-wide leasing policy.

Thank you Speaker, it’s my pleasure to rise today in support of the Environment Legislation Amendment (Circular Economy and Other Matters) Bill 2023.

This legislation is not just about policies or practices. It is about values.

The values that drive us to prioritise our environment, our communities, and the sustainable future of Victoria.

Because it’s easy to talk about climate action – but it’s quite another to do the work to get on with the real policy and legislation that will make a tangible difference.

 I am delighted to rise today to speak on this matter of public importance (MPI), which is all about our littlest Victorians – and rightly so, because though our youngest Victorians may not have the voting rights which elect us as members of this Parliament, it is nevertheless the decisions that are made here which will impact on them and their opportunities into the future.

My question is to the Minister for Public and Active Transport and I ask how is the Allan Labor Government working to deliver better and safer public and active transport options in my electorate of Northcote?

Trams, trains, buses, cycling and walking are central to our way of life in the inner north.

It is with a sense of vexation that I rise to speak in support of this bill to ban the Nazi salute in Victoria – vexation because in our modern multicultural state, a state which prides itself on equality and respect, it is nevertheless apparent that we are again having to strengthen our laws simply to ensure Victorians can live free of bigotry, hate and violence.