Suzanna Sheed
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Drought Assistance

August 30, 2018/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

Adjournment

My adjournment matter is for the Premier, and the action I seek is that he offer meaningful support to farmers in my electorate who are extremely anxious about the extended dry weather conditions and fodder shortage.

A perfect storm is brewing in northern Victoria.

Queensland and New South Wales have been in drought for several years and Victorian farmers have been sending fodder north to them. As a result our fodder storages are now depleted, and the lack of rain means this year’s fodder crops could fail entirely. This is the time that farmers plan for the season ahead and how best to manage the dry conditions they are facing. We are hearing that some dairy farmers are already culling their herds because of the threat that they are facing from the impending fodder shortage. We do not want to be in a position where our farmers cannot feed their own stock because of a lack of government action.

Farmers in my community need more irrigation water to be made available to them now so they can grow out the crops that are already in the ground so as to be able to feed their own stock but also to continue to supply fodder to drought-affected areas to the north. We know that there is water in the hands of the Victorian state government, whether it is through holdings with various water authorities, the Victorian Environmental Water Holder or other savings in the system. I urge the government to establish a task force to identify what water can be made available to irrigation communities now and to devise a methodology to ensure that that water goes to those who will use it for fodder production. Too often governments wait to see what happens next rather than planning for what could be an imminent crisis, and I ask the Premier to take this on board and act now.

Click here to view this record on Hansard.

https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.jpg 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2018-08-30 05:20:442020-02-07 02:48:32Drought Assistance

National Energy Guarantee

August 30, 2018/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

Members statement

For some time now electricity prices have been steadily growing, and I am hearing widely throughout my community that this is causing distress.

While Victoria has initiated its own ambitious targets for renewable energy and energy security, at a commonwealth level years of political infighting and public posturing have left us with an absence of any long-term framework to support industry and consumers.

The policy vacuum means businesses who want to invest in renewable energies will not, because making a 15-year business decision on a moving feast of political whims does not make sense.

Rising costs are seriously affecting families, and as I go about my community I am hearing from people and having people come into my office who are facing cut-offs of electricity in their homes. In a country such as Australia this is an indignity that should not happen to people.

A framework for renewable energy is now on the table in the form of the National Energy Guarantee (NEG). Businesses need this security and the sustainable development for our communities, and that financial relief that is supposed to come with the NEG is desperately needed. While the NEG in its current form may not fulfil everyone’s ideals of a perfect system, there are worse positions to come from than the middle ground. Feedback from my community suggests that this is finally a way forward, and there is a keen desire to see us just get on with it. Governments are meeting tomorrow, and I would urge the government to put politics aside and make a decision.

Click here to view this record on Hansard.

https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.jpg 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2018-08-30 05:19:052020-02-07 02:48:29National Energy Guarantee

Shepparton early childhood and parenting services

August 30, 2018/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

Question without notice

My question is for the Minister for Health.

Minister, a KPMG report on the establishment of a mother-baby unit in the Shepparton district was commissioned and made available to your department many months ago. Could you please advise what has happened to this report and its recommendations? 

There has been strong advocacy in my community for more than 20 years for the establishment of a mother-baby unit in our district. So much work has been done to progress it with visits to Tweddle Child and Family Health Service and the unit in Ballarat. The evidence is strong in our region that access to this parenting service is needed and that interventions are taking much too long. Given that a report has been completed, I believe people in the Shepparton district deserve to know what is happening.

Ms Hennessy, Minister for Health

I thank the member for Shepparton for her question. The issues that the member canvasses around early childhood and parenting services are important ones. Our government has worked incredibly hard to try and improve the capability of our acute hospital system and also to try and ensure we are better integrating and coordinating community-based parenting services, right from the moment of early pregnancy through to birth, through to early infancy and the delivery of services in early childhood and beyond. I can confirm that the Department of Health and Human Services has received the report that Goulburn Valley Health commissioned in respect of early childhood services. They are currently working through the recommendations that it makes, and I am absolutely happy to offer a briefing to the member and indeed the community advisory committee in respect of the progress that we are making in considering those recommendations.

I would also like to commend the work in respect of the new redevelopment of the Goulburn Valley Health service that is also an important capital development that seeks to address this issue somewhat from the acute end. By that I mean it is about integrating children’s and maternity services in the hospital. The member is right to point out that better integrated community-based services, particularly for those who are having challenging experiences, are important, and to that end we will provide an update as to where exactly we are at in considering those recommendations from the KPMG report.

Supplementary question

Minister, we have some of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the state and we have very low levels of breastfeeding. We have high levels of disadvantage. Mothers and babies are often required to leave hospital only one or two days after delivery and they often find themselves unsupported and unable to cope. Minister, it has been 20 years that we have been lobbying for this. Will your government now commit to establishing a much-needed, seven-days-a-week residential mother-baby unit in Shepparton?

Ms Hennessy

As I said, the department is currently working through the recommendations made in the report. We are absolutely committed to trying to make sure that we better coordinate the community-based services for both pregnant women and new mothers. I think the evidence of our commitment to that can be seen in investments such as the Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies program that is running in a number of regional locations, including Shepparton, and is having fantastic results. We have also made a $30 million investment in the Cradle to Kinder program — and again there is a platform to that in Shepparton — which is having fantastic results. I am always up for advocacy and looking at what more we can do. I am very familiar with the wonderful work that places like Tweddle and the Queen Elizabeth Centre do to that end, and that is why we are considering very carefully the recommendations made in the KPMG report.

Click here to view this record on Hansard.

https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.jpg 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2018-08-30 05:14:362020-02-07 02:48:31Shepparton early childhood and parenting services

Disability Service Safeguards Bill 2018

August 30, 2018/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

Second reading

I am pleased to have the opportunity to make a contribution on the Disability Service Safeguards Bill 2018.

I am aware that there are really two major tranches of reform coming through in this bill: firstly, the establishment of an independent registration and accreditation scheme for the disability workforce; and secondly, a scheme to protect the rights of residents in special disability accommodation to enable them to exercise rights and choices that they probably have not previously enjoyed.

I was a member of the Family and Community Development Committee when we undertook the inquiry into abuse in disability residential services. That was very shortly after I entered this place, and it was quite an experience to be part of an inquiry that delved very long and hard into the issues that were put before it. While we had a scheme to deal with a range of issues that arise in relation to abuse in this field, the Four Corners report in November 2014 really highlighted the deficiency — many deficiencies in fact — that existed, and no doubt that was one of the triggers for bringing on the inquiry that followed. Similarly the Ombudsman had also undertaken a very wideranging, broad inquiry into abuse in disability services and made some very scathing comments and some recommendations — all that while we did have a disability services commissioner in place.

In relation to employment issues, we had a disability worker exclusion scheme that was run within the Department of Health and Human Services, which we learnt about during the course of the inquiry, and there was a disability worker exclusion list. The list contained details of people who posed a threat to the health, safety or welfare of people with a disability living in disability residential services. The scheme had been set up within the department to deal with issues that were clearly there. There had been a serious lack of vetting of people who were employed in these sorts of services.

Some members might remember the Kumar case — a criminal trial involving a disability service worker charged with rape. During the course of the evidence, as I understand it, it was pretty clear that not many people had done any work to work out what his previous history had been before he came into it and that had they done so, that situation would not have arisen. It became very clear during the course of the inquiry that there was a need to look into ways of improving the basic safety and needs of people in residential disability services — people who are so vulnerable and who are at the mercy of the workers. Unfortunately there were too many cases of abuse that we heard about that had clearly been going on for a very long time.

I have to say that I was extremely moved during the course of hearing evidence from parents and siblings about the absolute helplessness that they felt in the face of knowing that abuse was being perpetrated on their loved one in such a service — and not only that but the absolute inability of the system to satisfactorily deal with their complaints. In some ways that was like twisting the knife in the wound for so many of those families. They became aware of the abuse that was occurring and wanted to advocate for their family member and wanted things to be better, and they found that they were hitting a brick wall with the disability services commissioner.

The issue of the employment of appropriate people within these services really arose as being a very major factor in the course of that inquiry. The terms of reference of that inquiry included the committee looking at workforce recruitment screening, induction training and supervision, and provider registration requirements. That indeed is what happened, and strong recommendations were made around that.

This very substantial piece of legislation, the bill that is before us today, goes into great detail in dealing with those sorts of issues. It will be very pleasing and very well received by many of those families out there that have those vulnerable family members who are in so many ways at the mercy of their carers, day in and day out, 24 hours a day. While so many workers in that field are to be commended and do a great job, we do have to be wary of the fact that this is an area where perpetrators will place themselves and where in some ways they can find easy targets. So this screening and registration process is not coming too soon by any means. It is just essential that we have it.

I think one of the other things that really struck me about the evidence that we heard was the number of elderly parents who had family members in care who were now adults, and their greatest stress was what would happen to that disabled family member once they were no longer there to care and advocate for them. Again, I think a piece of legislation such as this will provide some comfort that when they are gone and their adult disabled family member is still a part of the system and still in need of care, at least there will be standards in place that will be implemented to provide a greater level of protection and to provide places to complain to and places to have their complaints dealt with more effectively.

Over the course of time since the recommendations were tabled in this house, a range of amendments have been made to the legislation that have implemented some of those recommendations. I am pleased to see here today these particular changes which do implement many of the recommendations that were made.

In Shepparton — and I represent the Shepparton district — we have the national disability insurance scheme (NDIS) arriving in January 2019. It has been rolling out across the state, starting in Barwon, since several years ago. It has been interesting to watch the implementation of the scheme. There is no doubt that there are many problems, many difficulties, associated with it. I think, given that it is now a national scheme that is in place, there will be many challenges in sorting out what is going to be dealt with at a state level and what the federal government will be responsible for. There were many recommendations around, first of all, having a royal commission into the issue of abuse in disability services, but that is pretty clearly not happening. The march is now on to get implementation and to get all of this work rolled out on the ground.

I regularly hear, even though I am a state member, complaints about difficulties people are having in their interactions with the NDIS, and I think it really is incumbent upon the government, the federal government in particular, to make sure that there is someone at the end of a phone line and that there are enough support workers out there to help people prepare their case plans to be sure that people are able to access the services they need. It is a great plan. It was a bipartisan plan in the federal Parliament and one that everyone wanted to see happen. But it is now incumbent on all of us — state, federal and at every level, including local government, which has a role in this area to some extent — to make sure that it works and that it works for the benefit of those people who are so much more vulnerable and who are unable to advocate for themselves. I have concentrated more on that side rather than the issue of tenancy and the safeguards there, but I support those too. I commend the bill to the house.

Click here to view this record on Hansard.

https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.jpg 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2018-08-30 05:10:552020-02-07 02:48:31Disability Service Safeguards Bill 2018

Shepparton-Mooroopna bus services

August 30, 2018/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

Adjournment

My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Public Transport, and the action I seek is that she takes all steps necessary to ensure that the government undertakes, as soon as possible, a review of town bus services in the Shepparton-Mooroopna area.

After years of neglect, public transport in the Shepparton electorate is now firmly on the agenda, with $356 million committed to rail improvements. However, bus services within our region are sorely lacking, with no substantial updates taking place since 2009. Indeed, the last review was in 2006 — more than a decade ago.

Patronage continues to grow on the bus services in our region, with the towns of Shepparton and Mooroopna continuing to grow. There are new housing developments springing up to the north, south and east of Shepparton and of course around the Mooroopna area to the west. Bus services do not extend to these new areas where isolation can be quite a problem for people who do not have a motor car, and it can really raise serious issues.

The City of Greater Shepparton is forecast to grow by 24 per cent over the next 18 years, with the population expected to reach over 83 000 by 2036. With better rail connectivity between Melbourne and Shepparton and many new infrastructure projects underway or about to be thanks to funding for Goulburn Valley Health, the Shepparton Art Museum and the Shepparton education plan, as well as the redevelopments and further work at La Trobe University and GOTAFE, Shepparton is a growing city. There is also growing tourism in the area. I think it is really important that these bus services are configured to provide for that. Currently they only run between 7 o’clock in the morning and 6 o’clock at night, and that is inadequate.

Indeed, an example of that inadequacy is the fact that the first bus service in the morning arrives at the Shepparton railway station 10 minutes after the train to Melbourne leaves. Before that the 5.15 a.m. train has left. So the only two train services that leave Shepparton in the morning have no bus arriving in time for people to actually catch those trains. This is creating problems in terms of the Shepparton railway station car park. Because everyone is using motor vehicles, the car park is becoming congested and overcrowded.

There are some simple solutions. The current timetable does not align with typical work patterns and school patterns and often prevents people making use of the bus services that exist. The frequency of services is limited to about once every hour in that 7.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. time frame. It is really important that these services be aligned. Minister, it is my understanding that regional cities like Bendigo and Ballarat and towns in the Latrobe Valley have had full reviews of their bus services in recent years, so it is time that Shepparton and Mooroopna had a go too.

Click here to view this record on Hansard.

https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.jpg 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2018-08-30 05:09:372020-02-07 02:48:30Shepparton-Mooroopna bus services

Justice Legislation Miscellaneous Amendment Bill 2018

August 30, 2018/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

Second reading

I rise with a heavy heart to speak on the Justice Legislation Miscellaneous Amendment Bill 2018.

It is heavy for a lot of reasons, one being that it appears that nobody on that side of the house is going to speak up for so many people in our community, and it is the same on this side.

We have got an agenda driven by the Herald Sun that is really concerning to me.

I will not touch on many aspects of what is in this bill today because I am not in opposition to much of it.

However, I am strongly opposed to mandatory sentencing and cannot countenance being a member of this place and not speaking about my concerns.

 

Let me start by saying I have great regard for emergency services workers in this state. They do very difficult and demanding work, which many of us would be disinclined to do. Indeed over the years I have known many people who have worked in these areas, particularly in hospitals, and they have been the victims of perpetrators who have been violent towards them. There are many laws in place to deal with these offenders, and they are dealt with.

I have been a member of the legal profession for over 40 years. I have read widely on this topic and spoken to many people at the coalface in our court system. Many of their views will be reflected in my contribution. Court users agree that the courts of this state are underfunded and understaffed. The Herald Sun — which I hate quoting — today refers to the fact that every cell in the state is presently full. Our prisons are full. Every cell across this state is full of people who are now unable to be dealt with. So many people are now being held on remand. Many of these people will subsequently be found innocent of any charges, but there it is.

The causes of these problems include funding cuts by successive governments but also a growing animosity among political participants towards the judiciary and its officers. This animosity is worrisome because an independent, adequately funded and respected judiciary is central to the maintenance of the rule of law and the separation of powers — two principles upon which continued peace and prosperity for our society absolutely rely.

The Magistrates Court in this state bears the burden of this animosity. Far from being in ivory towers, magistrates live and work in the city, in the suburbs and in our regional centres, where their workloads increase and where they continually face growing criticism about their ‘soft sentencing’. This is a fictitious phenomenon never actually reflected in the statistics that record their work or in the courtroom. It would be very salutary for many of the people in this place to go and sit in a Magistrates Court, look at the number of cases magistrates have to deal with on a daily basis and then continue to criticise them for the decisions they make.

The lessons of history will tell us that a degraded and politically meddled-with judiciary assures us of bad and unfair outcomes caused because sentences are imposed without thought, without regard to proportionality, without aim, without purpose and without a considered and objective mind. A Parliament that cuts and criticises the judiciary and then complains about its capacity is thinking only of using its basest instinct and about the next election. This arises from a hot and fleeting temper to do retribution to those it sees as bad.

It is not a Parliament concerning itself with what really works. Mandatory sentencing laws are bad laws, and they have proved to be so in so many other jurisdictions. They have been repealed in other jurisdictions. They will prove to be bad here.

The Law Council of Australia, the Law Institute of Victoria and the Victorian Bar Council all stand against this legislation, as do so many of our community legal services. They are the people who see this in operation every day. So many other organisations also do. Much has been written about this, and I acknowledge John McPherson from Bendigo, a solicitor who has written an excellent paper on this topic that summarises it particularly well.

While mandatory sentencing may be great for electoral politics, it is simply bad policy. All of the organisations I have mentioned regard it as bad policy and say that it leads to individual unfairness and negative outcomes. It fails to make the community safer — there is no evidence that it does that. Mandatory sentencing brings about unjust and anomalous, disproportionate sentences. Why should judges not have discretion? They have all the facts before them. They are the only ones who can make a considered decision on an individual basis that will provide justice for the people involved. I do not doubt that sometimes they might get it wrong. Who doesn’t? Who does not make mistakes in our society? Is there anyone here who can say they have never made a mistake in the role and duties that they undertake?

Mandatory sentencing results in higher imprisonment levels. Our prisons are full. New beds are coming online, and they were announced recently, but mainly for the worst offenders. Again, our prison cells are full. All the cells at our police stations today are full. This is just a situation that a law like this will do nothing to help. It will increase the load on the prison system, and it will not improve. In Victoria nearly 45 per cent of prisoners released from jail return within two years, while 25 per cent of people within the community corrections punishment system come back within two years. The difference between the two is amazing, and I think a properly functioning community corrections system is actually shown to be much more effective. It is much more likely to be able to bring into place rehabilitation and hook people into the services in the community that they need. In a situation where people are spending a mandatory six months in jail they are unlikely to get any access to rehabilitation in that time.

Imprisonment is extraordinarily expensive. In the 10 years to June 2017 the Victorian prison population increased by more than 70 per cent. This may not sit well with many in this house and the tabloid press, but what it represents is that instead of being soft on crime, magistrates and judges are doing the opposite and putting away people in great numbers. Mandatory sentencing does not do away with the discretion in the judicial process; it transfers it to the police and to prosecutors. So instead of judges now exercising the discretion knowing all the facts, the police will decide what charges they will lay. They will become the masters of the decision about what charges are laid, and I find that a very concerning and pretty scary prospect. It is absolutely inappropriate that they should be given that level of discretion.

Mandatory sentencing undermines public confidence in the justice system generally and in judges in particular. Why should judges be given the discretion in every other case but not in this particular situation that we are legislating on today? They have shown themselves for so long to be able to exercise their discretion appropriately, and let me tell you that evidence shows that community members, when they are informed of all the relevant facts, when they consider what the appropriate sentence should be and what is fair, often consider that what judges do is over the top. The Sentencing Advisory Council has run a number of tests on this and they have found each time that people actually are more lenient out there in the community than are our judges.

Mandatory sentencing disadvantages the most vulnerable members of our society: young Indigenous people, people with mental illness, disabled people and those more sinned against than sinners in our society. There is a serious risk that a law such as this will deter people in our community who may have family members with mental illness from actually calling an ambulance. It is just an awful situation to think that you may be dealing with someone in your home who is extremely unwell, who is impacted in some way and who might lash out, but you are too afraid to call emergency services in this state because they might lash out, because something might happen — and not because they are deliberately intentionally being violent but because they simply cannot help themselves; it is their condition. We do not live in a society where we want people treated like that.

On family violence, here we have had the Royal Commission into Family Violence. It is totally counterintuitive to now have a law such as this which will make people who are the victims of family violence anxious about calling the police, about calling others to come to their home to assist them. Why would they? So many times the last thing that person wants is for their partner to be jailed for six months mandatorily. It takes away the discretion. It is bad law; it is bad policy, and I am opposed to it.

Click here to view this record on Hansard.

https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.jpg 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2018-08-30 05:05:112020-02-07 02:48:30Justice Legislation Miscellaneous Amendment Bill 2018

Constituency question – flying fox problem

August 30, 2018/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

Constituency question

My question is for the Minister for Agriculture.

I recently met with a group of constituents involved in the horticultural industry who are concerned about the growing number of flying foxes in my electorate that are causing significant damage to orchards.

Can you please advise what action your department is taking or might be able to take in order to address this threat?

In the past flying foxes have generally passed through the region, but it appears they are now taking up residence and are nightly attacking orchards, seriously damaging fruit and causing significant economic detriment to our farmers. In May the population in Tatura alone was estimated at about 10 000. In 2014 the New South Wales government introduced a scheme to assist farmers to protect their crops with netting, and I believe that such a program could be of some assistance in Victoria. Flying foxes are listed as a vulnerable species, are an important part of the Australian environment and need to be protected, and I am of the view that it would also be prudent for this government to look into this situation.

Click here to view this record on Hansard.

https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.jpg 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2018-08-30 05:02:502020-02-07 02:48:30Constituency question – flying fox problem

Victorian Industry Participation Policy (Local Jobs First) Amendment Bill 2018

August 30, 2018/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

Second reading

I am pleased to rise and make a contribution on the Victorian Industry Participation Policy (Local Jobs First) Amendment Bill 2018.

I welcome this legislation and the direction it takes.

The purposes of the bill are to provide for governance, compliance and enforcement of the policy behind the bill.

It requires reports to be made to Parliament regarding implementation and compliance, and it mandates local jobs wherever possible.

This is such an important thing for my electorate, because never before have we seen so many projects either getting underway or being about to get underway. I note, first of all, that the new Shepparton courthouse has recently been completed. It is a major five-storey building, which I can tell you, in the middle of Shepparton, really stands out. It is an excellent facility and, as a practising lawyer, I have been in the old one for many years and bemoaned the fact that it did not suit the purposes or the needs of the local community, the local legal profession or members of the judiciary who visit on a regular basis. It is wonderful to see that building completed.

Today the new Koori Court in Shepparton is being opened, and what a wonderful thing that is. We have actually had a Koori Court in Shepparton, but it was a very tiny little room that made it very difficult for families and all of those people who need to be in a courtroom during the hearing of a case to be present. The newer, bigger facilities, with the latest technology, are truly outstanding. That was a project where a certain amount of local content was required and was used.

There are many projects that have been funded during my short time in Parliament by working with the government of the day. The Shepparton district had suffered such neglect for such a long time across a whole range of areas. Just to start with, the redevelopment of Goulburn Valley Health, which is our major regional health service, has been funded for the first stage and the works are now underway. That is such an important project for our region. It had languished for years. There had been master plan after master plan on the table and lobbying to try to get the funds to make it happen, so I was very pleased when the government announced in its second budget the funding to proceed with the redevelopment of Goulburn Valley Health. Lend Lease have been awarded the contract for that, the overarching major contract for that project, and it has been a pleasure to meet with them and the project managers at the hospital to see the works commencing, and to be sure that local content is being used.

Over the course of the last three weekends the whole hospital has had to have its electricity supply shut down. Something like 18 major generators have been brought in to keep the hospital functioning. It is a major piece of work, and the electricity contractor that is doing that work is a big local Shepparton firm. It is so good to see that happening. It is a firm that employs apprentices.

Part of the mandate for the development of this hospital is also that there be a percentage of Indigenous employment. That is so important in my electorate because it has the highest Indigenous population outside of metropolitan Melbourne. We have very high unemployment rates. We still struggle with young people completing education and, on that note, I would just like to mention a college in Shepparton, the Academy of Sport, Health and Education. This was set up some time ago as a collaboration between the Rumbalara Football and Netball Club and the University of Melbourne, and it has taken young students on board, assisting them all the way through their secondary education and also through their engagement with the local TAFE college. There are young people now coming out of that college and taking up jobs in our communities. It is a project that is so well worth supporting.

I might add that just in relation to our Indigenous community, the government funded this year approximately $23 million for the Munarra Centre of Regional Excellence. That is to be a very big sporting, educational and cultural building. I have seen the plans for it and they are truly impressive. Schools such as the Academy of Sport, Health and Education will move into that facility when it has ultimately been built. It will hopefully develop sporting people throughout the region a bit along the lines of the Michael Long Learning and Leadership Centre in Darwin, which is there to promote sporting opportunities for young Indigenous people. I have not had the chance to visit the Michael Long centre, but I really look forward to an opportunity to do that just to get the feel of how that operates and how we might replicate the parts that will work in Shepparton as we go forward.

Shepparton Art Museum has been housed in the civic centre for a very long time, and while it is a very lovely gallery it is unable to do justice to what we have in our community. The basement there has one of the best ceramics collections in Australia, but so much of it is just hidden underground and not on display. There is funding for the new Shepparton Art Museum, which is going to be a multistorey building on the banks of Lake Victoria as you drive into town, and those of you have been into Shepparton will know that as you drive in from Melbourne, on the left is Victoria Park Lake, which is a very beautiful part of our environment, with walking tracks and indigenous flora and fauna. On the edge of the lake the old Shell service station has now been demolished, and we are about to see the commencement of the new Shepparton Art Museum, which will be an absolute treasure and will give the old gallery the opportunity to actually bring out and display this incredible collection that we have. It is something that will cater to the whole community, with a whole range of coffee shops. There will be an Indigenous area, and there will be all these opportunities to display what we truly have in our collections in the Goulburn Valley.

Three hundred and fifty-six million dollars has now been invested in the upgrade of the rail between Shepparton and Seymour. I know all of you in this place have heard me go on and on and on about that for a very long time. It was a passion of mine long before I came to the Parliament to try and improve our rail services from what were four old, shabby services a day on the 1960s classic fleet of trains, which we will still have for a few years before we get the VLocity trains, but the work had to be done on the tracks before we could ask the government, really, to deliver the next stage, which will be the trains. That has very much been seen as part of the overall project. There are something like 58 level crossings between Shepparton and Seymour. Many of those will have to be rationalised and dealt with, but there will be a passing loop for freight trains, so our passenger train can go through, and a stabling at the Shepparton station for the trains to be able to park overnight, leading to nine return services a day. Again, this is such a great opportunity for local contractors to be able to engage in so much of the work that will be undertaken — local content, local work and local young people having job opportunities.

We saw youth unemployment as a real issue in the years before I came to this place. Together with the new Shepparton education plan and all these works that are being undertaken, there is a real opportunity for much greater employment. I hope we will attract many more people to come and live in a place like Shepparton. It is the fifth largest regional centre in Victoria and is truly a wonderful place to live and has a lot to offer, cheap housing included.

A Shepparton bypass has received some funding to undertake some of the basic work that will be needed to plan and go forward. That will mean the building of a second river crossing. That is something that I will, if re-elected to this place, work very hard with the government of the day to see happen, because it is a major project of about $300 million to get highways built and to bring in that second river crossing, which is so important. We only have one major river crossing between the east and west, and when it comes to fire, ambulance and emergency services, that becomes a real issue for us. So to have that river crossing for convenience but also for our emergency services will be excellent.

I believe that an industry participation office is going to be set up in Shepparton, and I am really pleased about that because with all of these projects underway to have our own office in Shepparton, working with contractors to help them gain work, is wonderful.

Click here to view this record on Hansard.

https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.jpg 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2018-08-30 05:00:042020-02-07 02:48:29Victorian Industry Participation Policy (Local Jobs First) Amendment Bill 2018

Racing Amendment (Integrity and Disciplinary Structures) Bill 2018

August 30, 2018/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

Second reading

I rise to make a contribution on the Racing Amendment (Integrity and Disciplinary Structures) Bill 2018.

The objective of the bill is to raise standards in this particular industry and it is really creating a new governance structure that will be independent and will provide independent oversight of the performance of the integrity-related functions of the industry regulatory bodies.

I suppose the importance of that independence is that it cannot be influenced by commercial factors and that it is intended to be a robust and transparent disciplinary framework. I think that is welcome because unfortunately we have seen many issues over the years that lead people to raise questions around integrity within the various codes.

The value of the racing industry in this state cannot be understated. It is an industry that has implications not only in metropolitan areas; country racing is something that creates a lot of value. There are many opportunities in regional areas for employment creation and a range of social and other activities to occur, all of which are of a very important economic but also social and sociable nature. In looking at the value of the industry to this state, I will just put out a few figures that have come from the annual report. It is interesting to note that Victorian racing alone attracts over 1.34 million attendees each year. It has an economic benefit of $2.1 billion to the state. There are 551 race meetings each year. There are over 68 000 owners of thoroughbred horses and 291 jockeys.

Not only are those figures relevant but it is interesting to note what racing does for the fashion industry. For many of us these racing events always present the opportunity to get really dressed up and enjoy what goes with that in terms of fashion. Racing contributes some $57 million to the fashion industry in terms of headwear, dresses, handbags, shoes, shirts and suits, so it is not to be underestimated in its impact across a much wider area.

In recent times we have been very concerned to see the nature of some of the issues in particularly the racehorse industry. Of course earlier on we had all those issues around greyhound racing and legislation was brought in during the term of this Parliament to try and address many of the problems that emerged out of the greyhound racing industry. More recently we have seen many allegations of doping of racehorses, and earlier this year eight people were accused of doping horses before races in Victoria and they are being dealt with in the appropriate and currently existing tribunals. But the opportunity to have the new governance structure in place will, I think, create a better oversight of this particular industry and of course really all three codes. Integrity and some confidence in the industry is really important because of the nature of the industry and its value to our community.

In regional Victoria there is no doubt that in country towns race meetings provide a place to meet, a place to have a lot of fun, a place to bet and of course a level of employment and the opportunity to mix. I well remember Jerilderie race days in the very small town where I used to live, and the picnic races and the ball that followed were great events and great opportunities to socialise, to bet and to watch terrific horses running around the track. It created much excitement in what were sometimes not the most active of communities. Many matches were made at race days. I am not talking about horses; I am talking about people in country communities. They were looked to as opportunities to spend time and get together and, I think, were highly valued.

Tourism is another aspect of the racing industry that I think should not be overlooked. Many people travel to country areas for race meetings. Many owners bring their horses to race meetings in country areas, and people gather. I have been at the Echuca races at times when very large crowds are there. Tents are set up. People bring their lunches. It is a long and a very enjoyable day.

The issues of integrity within the industry are particularly important, and it is getting harder and harder to detect what is going on. The doping of horses is something that the industry is very keen to crack down on. There are many ways that horses can be interfered with, including administering of substances to improve their performance, others to depress the horse’s performance and others to disguise the pain and relieve the suffering that horses are going through so that they do have the opportunity to still race when ideally they should not. They can mask the pain of horses, and it is quite a cruel thing to see. The primary objective of doping control is to ensure as far as possible that horses do not race with any pharmacological substances in their system. The underlying principle is that there should be drug-free racing. To ensure that, we do need to have the organisations and bodies in place that can monitor, supervise and ultimately penalise those who break the rules.

I welcome this legislation. Racing is something that touches many of our lives, as I say, particularly in regional areas where we take the opportunity to use it for social activities. I have been to Melbourne Cups and I have been to Caulfield Cups, and they are great events. They are very exciting, and I think it is very important that we all feel that there is integrity, that there is good governance and that we can have some confidence in what is going on. I commend this bill to the house.

Click here to view this record on Hansard.

https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.jpg 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2018-08-30 04:58:012020-02-07 02:48:27Racing Amendment (Integrity and Disciplinary Structures) Bill 2018

Melbourne Airport rail link

August 30, 2018/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

Question without notice

My question is for the Minister for Public Transport. Minister, with the announcement of state funding for an airport rail link and four route options on the table, what consideration is being given to accessibility to the airport for regional Victorians, especially those in the state’s north-east who travel along the Shepparton–Seymour and Albury–Seymour lines?

 

Ms Allan, Minister for Public Transport

I would like to thank the Independent member for Shepparton for her question.  It was very interesting to see in today’s Shepparton News where the Shepparton News, and by extension the broader Shepparton community, understands well that there is a great opportunity here, thanks to the work that has been done by the Andrews Labor government, to connect regional Victoria into a future airport rail link. There were other options that we could have pursued — other options that were being pursued by some — that would not have given us the opportunity to leverage off the investment in an airport rail link to reach into — 

Honourable members interjecting.

As I was saying, we are only talking about the opportunity to connect regional communities, whether it is Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton or Seymour, into an airport rail link because of the work that has been done by the Andrews Labor government and the announcement that was made by the Premier in November of last year, where he made it very clear that the policy approach that we wanted to take in investing in an airport rail link was about making sure we maximised the connections for regional communities.

That stands in stark contrast to particularly those in the National Party, who have a strong record in closing country train lines. We take a very different approach.

In terms of the work that is going to be pursued from now as we move into this full business case work that needs to be done, we will be looking at how future connections can be linked in north of the airport, and that obviously brings in how we can connect communities like Shepparton, and the Seymour line and indeed the Bendigo line as well, as part of planning for the future. We will focus on delivering an airport rail link that gives us those connections into the regions in looking at how we can get faster rail to Geelong and Ballarat. But also as part of that planning work I want to make it very, very clear to the member for Shepparton, and through her to her wider community, that this will very much look at how we can connect those northern Victorian communities into an airport rail link.

The only reason we can also talk about connecting Shepparton into an airport rail link is the work we have done in improving Shepparton’s rail services: $356 million has been committed by this government to deliver VLocity trains, nine services a day, to the Shepparton community after a long, long — decades long — period of neglect by those opposite in Shepparton.

Supplementary question

Minister, with $356 million being invested in the Shepparton–Seymour line to provide for nine VLocity services a day by 2021, together with forecast population growth in my electorate, increased train patronage and the current congestion along the commuter rail corridor, how could we benefit from the new airport service, and is it possible that there is consideration for perhaps a direct link to the airport from Wallan to save people going into the CBD first?

Ms Allan

As I indicated in my response to the substantive question, we will absolutely be looking at how we can make an easy and fast connection for northern communities into an airport rail link, and I am happy to provide the member for Shepparton with a follow-up briefing with officials on the work that is being done.

As I said before, the only reason we can talk about connecting Shepparton to an airport rail link is the $356 million commitment that has been made by this government after a long period of neglect — decades of neglect — in Shepparton by the Liberal and National parties, who had in the last government two ministers representing Shepparton and they failed to represent them. Can I also say that record of failure goes on. They are now saying that they want to continue to short-change Shepparton with a paltry $77 million commitment to the Shepparton community. I can assure the Shepparton community we are going to deliver those services and do the work that is needed to improve train services to Shepparton.

Click here to view this record on Hansard.

https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.jpg 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2018-08-30 04:49:042020-02-07 02:48:29Melbourne Airport rail link
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