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Dump Littleproud, install Drum – Sheed calls for a new Federal Water Minister

September 19, 2019/in Media Releases

Independent Member for Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed has called on the federal government to replace David Littleproud as the minister for water.

“Ministers who hail from the Northern Basin clearly have no idea how badly the mismanagement of water in their electorates is damaging the Southern Basin,” Ms Sheed said.

“Time and time-again Minister Littleproud has demonstrated he is more concerned with protecting big Northern Basin corporate irrigators – ignoring issues such as alleged corruption and rampant flood plain harvesting which is killing the Darling – than fixing the many problems plaguing the implementation of the Murray Darling Basin Plan.”

Replacing Minister Littleproud with the Member for Nicholls Damian Drum would go partway to addressing the chronic Northern Basin bias in the federal government, according to Ms Sheed.

“Damian has recently shown he gets the issues and is calling for change,” Ms Sheed said.

“Damian’s recent statements to the federal parliament and ABC radio about the Lower Lakes demonstrate he’s come on board and is prepared to fight on this important issue.”

Last week, both Ms Sheed and Mr Drum declared their support in their respective parliaments for an investigation into claims made by palaeoecologist Professor Peter Gell that South Australia’s Lower Lakes were estuarine prior to human intervention.

Earlier this month around 2000 disaffected irrigator farmers rallied at Tocumwal and passed a number of motions including one demanding the removal of Mr Littleproud as minister for water along with a demand to investigate Prof Gell’s claims regarding the Lower Lakes.

“To date Minister Littleproud has shown no appetite for investigating this important issue and indeed continues to insist that the plan should be delivered in full and on time, threatening our farmers with further buybacks, presumably from the southern Basin. Farmers in this region are tired of his rhetoric and lack of action and it is time that he went,” Ms Sheed said.

“I’d like to acknowledge Damian for recognising the issue of South Australia’s Lower Lakes. It is ridiculous to have open barrages flushing fresh water into the ocean just to maintain the apparent myth the Lower Lakes were never estuarine. The Barmah Choke is running at capacity, the Lower Lakes are full at a time when water conservation for critical food and fodder supplies should be the pre-eminent consideration.

“The federal government has been tolerating water ministers who put the interests of their own electorates ahead of the national interest and those of the Southern Murray Darling Basin.

“Damian Drum would have the capacity to bring a broader view and some balance back into the very troubling issues that continue to plague the Murray Darling Basin Plan.”

ENDS

Media contact

Myles Peterson 0467 035 840│myles.peterson@parliament.vic.gov.au

Click here for PDF version

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 Sheed2019-09-19 00:30:062020-02-07 02:46:09Dump Littleproud, install Drum – Sheed calls for a new Federal Water Minister

Water Policy

September 16, 2019/in Parliament

Members Statement – I would like to get up here today and talk about all the wonderful people and events in my electorate, but if I do not talk about bad water policy—about the effect that water policy is having on my region—nobody else in this place will. I attended the Tocumwal rally last week. There was not a single person from any of the major parties on the day speaking to over 2000 farmers who are in distress. We need to do whatever we can whenever we can do something that might help, and there is one thing the Minister for Water in this state could do right now. In the Goulburn-Murray irrigation district (GMID) availability of water is a critical issue. It is well-known that as a result of the modernisation of our irrigation district and the water savings that we have achieved from that modernisation there is 75 gigalitres of water that is to come back to irrigators as part of that whole operation, and it still has not happened. I am reliably advised that 60 gigalitres of that water has now been audited and that there is no reason for any delay in that water being made available by way of delivery to every water shareholder in the GMID to assist them in the months ahead. I call on the minister to take whatever steps are required to release this water immediately. There is plenty of time to investigate how it might be delivered in the future, but right now our farmers need that water. It is their water, and they should have it. Minister, do not let committees stand in the way of it.

Click here to view this record on Hansard

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Rail Safety Legislation Amendment (National Services Delivery and Related Reforms) Bill 2019

September 16, 2019/in Parliament
I am pleased to make a contribution on the Rail Safety Legislation Amendment (National Services Delivery and Related Reforms) Bill 2019 currently before the house. It appears that there is very little controversy about this bill, and it is aligning the regulatory responsibilities of Transport Safety Victoria and the federal Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator in a way that is prudent and that the government has decided finally to do, Victoria being one of the last to come to this position and to hand over that responsibility to the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator.
Rail safety is obviously a really important issue, and we have seen some significant tragedies over a long period, really. The two that spring to mind are the Southern Aurora accident near Violet Town and of course the Kerang one more recently. That train crash, when a truck ran into a passenger train, was a devastating event, and they always are. Rail safety where you have got so many people in a constrained space in carriages are always shocking. I often remember that I was at home packing on the day of the Granville train disaster, and as the news rolled out you just had that awful feeling of something very big and very tragic having happened. There is a sense in which you get on a train, you do not really think about safety. When you are behind the wheel of a car, you are very conscious about a whole range of things because you are in control, you are doing the driving, you are responsible. You hand all of that over when you get on a train and yet the need for government to ensure that trains are truly safe is a huge responsibility, and fortunately in this country we have had few terrible incidents and we want it to stay that way. Much of the work that gets done is often behind the scenes. I know in my electorate people often complain about the fact that they will show up to the station to get a train and there is a bus waiting, and very often the reason for that is because necessary works are being done on the tracks somewhere between Shepparton and Seymour or Seymour and Melbourne that are required to ensure ongoing safety.
People love to talk about trains—I know I do. I got elected on the back of a short campaign in 2014 and one of the major platforms that I had was to improve passenger rail services for Shepparton—faster, better and more of them. It was a long, hard campaign, but I am very pleased to say that by 2018 much of what we had asked for was funded. I have often travelled on the train between Shepparton and Melbourne, and as the train stops at a particular railway station you will be advised to make sure that you move to the carriage at the front because the platforms are simply not long enough for the train and you do not want to step out on to the ground where there is no platform. You would sustain a serious injury. I recall back in 2015 we had a demonstration where people from my community dressed in their pyjamas and got on the 6.30 train from Shepparton all the way to Southern Cross. They marched up Bourke Street to the steps of Parliament, where we met with the Minister for Public Transport to make the point about, one, the lack of services; two, how slow they were, how early you had to get up and even if you got up that early and got on a train you were not going to make it to Melbourne in time for any sort of 9 o’clock appointment. So there were a number of points that we sought to make, and over the ensuing years and with the strong advocacy coming out of our community we convinced the government that Shepparton did need better services. I am pleased to say we have now got a fifth service running every day. We have got many more bus services connecting us between Shepparton and Seymour, where there are 20 trains a day, and Seymour even has a few VLocity trains from time to time on it.
 

It is still a pretty second-rate service in that the trains that we have between Shepparton and Seymour are the very old classic fleet. Once upon a time they would probably have been thought of as just fabulous trains, but 50 or 60 years later they are slow, they rattle around, they are really not what anyone else across the state experiences, except I think those on the Warrnambool line and perhaps the Bairnsdale line. So we see when we stop at Southern Cross station the new trains that are going to Geelong, to Bendigo, to Ballarat—the VLocity trains that are new and modern, they have quiet carriages, they have free wi-fi—and we look longingly at those. The situation is that there is something like $356 million that has been allocated by the government to invest in our rail upgrades and that will include the additional services we have. There is already the stabling at Shepparton station that enables an extra train, the fifth service, to stay overnight and be secure. There is a lot more work to be done and this includes signalling, which I understand to be a very expensive part of any upgrade of rail; lengthening the platforms, as I have mentioned; track work; something like 58 level crossings just between Shepparton and Seymour. Now, a lot of those are cattle/sheep crossings. Some of them are on farms and some of them are on side roads so they all present challenges and they will all have to be dealt with. Some of them will have to be maintained. Some of them will need boom gates on them when they are on more significant roads, but it is all those sorts of things which slow our trains down. So whenever the train comes towards any level crossing such as that, it has to slow down very significantly. There are very few parts of the state where the capacity of a VLocity train is actually able to be demonstrated, and I am told there is some area between Melbourne and Bendigo where a VLocity train can actually reach 160 kilometres an hour just for a little while.

So we have a lot of challenges just in our landscape and in the way our countryside was developed in terms of roads, level crossings and the like that really stand in the way of getting the speeds that even our existing trains are capable of. Again, all that slowing down is part of the issue around safety. It is not only the safety of the people who may be in vehicles or moving animals or whatever on the ground, it is also about the fact that many of the train lines are old, the trains themselves are old, and they have to be at constrained speeds to run. So it really impacts on the regional services that we have. I think we look to a future when rail will be very significantly different, and for those who have travelled overseas we have seen what the future can hold in terms of speeds, in terms of trains that are just outstanding in their design and capacity, and we hope that one day we will get those. It would transform regional Australia to have those sorts of trains available to us because we are seeing a situation where populations are living in metropolitan areas. Many of our regional areas are losing population. This is a real challenge, and we hear people talk about decentralisation at great length, but little is being done to turn that around. Every election cycle we hear grand plans for fast rail services, but none of them have eventuated. Now, having the capacity to do that would be amazing. A fast train between Melbourne and Shepparton, for instance, along with the regular commuter service which you always have to have would transform Shepparton in terms of moving population there, people being able to commute from there, developing all the services within that town, and of course it takes pressure off your metropolitan areas. That is something that I think governments are very conscious of, but they do not how to persuade people to go there. People will not go to regional areas, and it is so difficult to recruit people to those areas unless they know that the education of their children will be well taken care of and that health services will be available and that their connectivity will be good. So these are all things that stand out about rail in regional Victoria.

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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 Sheed2019-09-16 04:03:382020-02-07 02:48:36Rail Safety Legislation Amendment (National Services Delivery and Related Reforms) Bill 2019

Primary Industries Legislation Amendment Bill 2019

September 16, 2019/in Parliament

I feel a sense of deja vu in speaking on this bill because I did so in 2017. Indeed my speech seems vaguely familiar to me when I read it. This is an omnibus bill that makes amendments to numerous pieces of legislation, some of them are minor and others are of a more significant nature. I would like to just refer to a few in particular that are obviously interesting to me as a regional representative in this Parliament. The Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994 will be amended to enable the secretary of the department to recover costs for carrying out certain works. The situation is that while it is possible to recover costs in civil proceedings, this amendment will now extend the capacity of the secretary to recover the costs during the course of criminal proceedings that might be taken against a person for failure to comply with the legislation. So if they have not performed a task that they have been ordered to undertake, the catchment authority may go in and undertake that work and may incur costs in doing so. So wrapped into the one proceeding will be the capacity to not only deal with the criminal aspect but also recover the costs of the work that was undertaken—an eminently sensible amendment I would have thought.

The Dairy Act 2000 is being amended by this bill. Under this act Dairy Food Safety Victoria is established as the licensing body and regulator. Currently the act only applies to milk from cows, sheep, goats and buffalo. Clause 5 of the bill amends the definition to cover milk from any milking animal excluding humans. It will amend the definition of ‘dairy farm’ to include premises where an animal is kept or milked for the purpose of producing milk for sale. There has been a lot of talk around camel milk in previous contributions. I would just like to let the house know that at the Shepparton saleyards in 2015, 200 camels that had been rounded up in outback Australia were sold in response to a growing interest in the production of camel milk. There are now a number of properties in the Goulburn Valley that produce camel milk and certainly others more broadly across Australia. Feral camels have been deemed to be a huge problem in outback environments. They have been very difficult to manage. They are in very large flocks as they travel across the country, and there have been a number of methods that have been used to try to control them. So to provide an opportunity for some of them to be farmed for some financial gain and the production of milk that is actually popular and sought after is a great opportunity.

I think it is fair to say that in many areas of regional Australia we are looking for new industries that are of high value, and that would be particularly the case where we have irrigation industries. The price of water now is so high that in any farming enterprise that relies on irrigation you need to be producing something that really gives you back the value of the water. Things like camel’s milk and other specialty products do it. And just in relation to that I would like to refer to the amendments to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 that are included in this piece of legislation. Other legislation debated later in the week will deal with various amendments about access to medicinal cannabis, but this particular piece of legislation and this act will provide an authority scheme for the cultivation and processing of low-THC cannabis—industrial hemp—for non-therapeutic purposes. Industrial hemp is grown in Victoria mainly for the production of fibre and hemp seed. But again just in terms of the developments that are taking place in regional Victoria in terms of the production of new products, new crops and new industries, Shepparton has just recently been selected as a place where medicinal cannabis will indeed be grown. The Greater Shepparton City Council has just recently approved the permit for a very large farm just outside of Shepparton, where medicinal cannabis will be grown under cover in glasshouses and really provide a very significant impetus for our community. Of course it is a way of producing a crop with very efficient water use, under cover. If you look at what has happened in other countries in terms of food production and specialty crops, there is an area in Spain where over 200 square kilometres of the countryside is under protected cropping—in other words, under glasshouses. There is the opportunity to expand industries into newer areas and to utilise more efficient ways of farming that are not only dealing with water use but also dealing with a whole range of other aspects of climate and weather that can be so damaging to crops, as we all know, in our own regions, where we have drought, storms and floods and hail that will damage fruit crops at the most unexpected times. And so this is a welcome addition to the agricultural productivity in the Shepparton region. 

Moving on to other aspects of the bill, I think it is important to note that there are amendments to the Meat Industry Act 1993. This is another amendment that in some ways creates another opportunity to grow an industry in a regional area. It expands the definition of ‘abattoir’, and the definitions of ‘general meat processing facility’ and ‘pet food processing facility’ are being amended. So, for instance, an abattoir will now include: a vehicle used for slaughter of consumable animals for human consumption … The Meat Industry Act 1993 establishes the licensing system enabling the adoption of national food safety standards for the hygienic production and processing of meat for human consumption and for pet food. It has not previously provided for the slaughter and processing of meat to be undertaken in vehicles, even though this could have occurred in compliance with the national food safety standards. So there are quite a few business opportunities which could be enabled by these changes. Firstly, there has been a decrease in the number of abattoirs across Victoria, with some closing down completely and others only operating for a small part of the year. This has led to a call on the government to enable an appropriate framework to be put in place so that small operators can kill and process meat for human consumption or for pet food. Farmers markets have also become extremely popular in recent years, and the opportunities for farmers to sell their own animal products will be facilitated by these amendments. As camel milk creates a new business opportunity, so too will farmers’ ability to use vehicles as mobile butchers, effectively. This will create diversification in the industry.

This legislation also supports the government’s implementation of the Sustainable Hunting Action Plan. It will enable hunters to use game harvested by them and also process the meat for their personal consumption. It will also make clear that the processing of wild deer that is not intended for sale is not captured by the licensing requirements. It is estimated that there are anywhere between 750 000 and 1 million sambar deer roaming in the High Country of Victoria. Hunting of the deer is seen as very important because of the population explosion and the damage that they do to the environment. They are spreading right across the state, and indeed in our own Barmah forest up on the Murray River there have been sambar deer seen to be roaming around. Given that venison has some popularity and can be consumed by humans, it is again practical to enable the killing, the butchering and the sale of that animal. It should be noted that clause 62 of the bill now provides that a person does not commit an offence if the meat processing facility solely processes game that is not intended for sale. There are many bills that have been affected by this legislation. I have chosen to refer to those which I think will have a positive impact on regional communities to the extent that they actually are creating opportunity for the development of growth in an industry or a new aspect to an industry, something that we really know that we need out there in regional communities. I commend the bill to the house.

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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 Sheed2019-09-16 03:51:482020-02-07 02:48:36Primary Industries Legislation Amendment Bill 2019

Sheed calls for inquiry to investigate Lower Lakes

September 11, 2019/in Media Releases

Independent Member for Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed has called on the Victorian Government to vigorously investigate claims made by Professor Peter Gell that the South Australian Lower Lakes were not fresh water but estuarine prior to human intervention.

“What now appears to be the case is that the whole of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was based on incorrect science provided by South Australia,” Ms Sheed said.

“What is clear is that Federal Water Minister David Littleproud will do nothing to investigate this issue. So far as he is concerned the Plan has to be delivered in full and on time. While he is busy looking after his constituents in the Northern Basin he will not consider any action to relieve the enormous stress being felt by farmers in the Southern Basin. It is now up to the Victorian Government to urgently investigate the issues raised by Prof Gell,” Ms Sheed said.

“If Prof Gell’s proposition is found to be correct then the target of 2750 GL to be recovered should be reset so that water is returned to our farmers in the Goulburn Murray Irrigation District.”

The call comes on the back of a response by the Victorian Minister for Water Lisa Neville to a parliamentary question posed by the Member for Shepparton.

Last month, Ms Sheed asked what measures the Victorian Government was taking to examine the validity of Prof Gell’s claims.

Minister Neville said she had taken the claims to her federal counter-part.

“My office has raised this issue with Minister Littleproud’s office and we are already calling on the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) to examine issues of deliverability, and within that context, the MDBA should look at the issue of the Lower Lakes,” Minister Neville said.

Ms Sheed said she was sceptical the MDBA or the Federal Minister would provide an adequate response.

“People in my community have no confidence in the MDBA or Minister Littleproud on this issue and it is important that the Victorian Government step in and do the work required,” she said.

ENDS

Media contact

Myles Peterson 0467 035 840│myles.peterson@parliament.vic.gov.au

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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 Sheed2019-09-11 06:34:332020-02-07 02:46:09Sheed calls for inquiry to investigate Lower Lakes

Release critical water immediately says Sheed

September 10, 2019/in Media Releases

Independent Member for Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed has called for the immediate release of 75 GL of water into the Goulburn Murray Irrigation District.

Farmers in the Greater Shepparton region are struggling under high water costs and a lack of available water despite being promised access to upwards of 75 GL returned through water savings.

“I am reliably advised that 60 GL of that water has now been audited and that there is no reason to delay it being made available to all delivery shareholders in the GMID to assist them in the months ahead,” Ms Sheed told the Victorian Parliament today.

“I call on the Minister for Water the Hon Lisa Neville to take whatever steps are required to immediately release this water. There is plenty of time to investigate other options and ways of dealing with the distribution of this water in future years. Right now our farmers need that water, it is their water and they should have it. Minister do not let a committee stand in the way of relieving what is an immediate need.”

Following a large rally at Tocumwal last week where thousands of farmers vented their frustration at the Murray Darling Basin Plan and Federal Water Minister David Littleproud, Ms Sheed said the status quo could not be allowed to continue.

Thousands of family dairy farmers have already left the industry placing unacceptable pressure on the economic health of the GMID region and its communities over the last 20 years. Associated industries are also suffering. Just last month Nestlé announced plans to close its factory at Tongala with the loss of 100 jobs, yet another blow for the region.

“We cannot allow the Murray Darling Basin Plan to continue to disrupt the very fabric of our region, closing down valuable farms and destroying parts of our environment,” Ms Sheed said.

“We must continue to take whatever steps are available to us to provide relief to our farmers who are under such great stress as a result of water shortages and high prices.”

ENDS

Media contact

Myles Peterson 0467 035 840│myles.peterson@parliament.vic.gov.au

Click here for PDF version

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 Sheed2019-09-10 03:55:232020-02-07 02:45:59Release critical water immediately says Sheed

Sheed seeks assurance over Sunshine Rail Tunnel

September 9, 2019/in Media Releases

Independent Member for Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed has written to the Minister for Transport Infrastructure Jacinta Allan seeking an assurance the proposed rail tunnel between the Melbourne CBD and Sunshine Station is not in jeopardy.

Forming a crucial part of the Airport Rail Link and potential Regional Fast Rail network, the tunnel was flagged ahead of the 2018 election.

“The construction of this tunnel is crucial to the future Regional Fast Rail network proposed for Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and my electorate of Shepparton,” Ms Sheed said.

“I am concerned by media reports last week and the uncertainty of language expressed by the Premier on ABC radio on Wednesday that the tunnel’s future is not assured.”

The critical tunnel and Sunshine hub form the backbone of a proposed Regional Fast Rail network that will revolutionise the regions and provide rapid public transport between Victoria’s regional hubs and the Melbourne CBD.

“Regional Fast Rail is a potential game changer for the regions and forms an important part of future metro and regional population policy,” Ms Sheed said.

“These projects are expensive, but they future proof the infrastructure needs of our state, lift the desirability of the regions and disperse our growing population.

“I have called on the Andrews Government to recommit in full to this vital project.”

ENDS

Media contact

Myles Peterson 0467 035 840│myles.peterson@parliament.vic.gov.au

Click here for PDF version

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 Sheed2019-09-09 00:36:212020-02-07 02:46:08Sheed seeks assurance over Sunshine Rail Tunnel

Shepparton Station Waiting-room Upgrade

September 2, 2019/in Parliament

Constituency question – My question is for the Minister for Public Transport. Where is the Shepparton railway station waiting area upgrade? Numerous representations were made by VicTrack and the government in 2018 that the waiting room would be completed by November of that year. On multiple occasions in that same year it was stated that construction was underway. The project was meant to deliver a sealed waiting area to protect commuters from the elements and realign the ticketing window to make for easier access. Over 12 months later the waiting room is yet to materialise. My constituents would like to know why.

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Children Legislation Amendment Bill 2019

September 2, 2019/in Parliament

I rise to make a contribution on and to express my support for this important piece of legislation. I think there are times in this place when we come to discuss things that create a really quite overwhelming emotional response in us. I have certainly seen that today, and I feel it myself. It is quite a pivotal piece of legislation in so many ways. I could talk to the simplicity of what it tries to do: it is amending the principal act, it is introducing mandatory reporting for priests and ministers of religion and it is removing that exemption that relates to the seal of confession, insofar as it relates to the reporting of sexual abuse of children under the age of 16.

In order to achieve that outcome the bill has got to make amendments to the Crimes Act 1958 and to the Evidence Act 2008. As a lawyer, I cannot help but sit down and go through it all and understand how it all pieces together. This legislation achieves the end that we are, at this point in time, in this Parliament, seeking to achieve. I have been around for a lot longer than many. I practised as a family lawyer for over 35 years, and 20 of those were as an independent children’s lawyer. When the mandatory reporting legislation came into place back in the early 1990s it was rolled out progressively to bring in different groups of people who were working with children, over a number of years. During the course of my years as an independent children’s lawyer the Family Law Act 1975, a federal piece of legislation, was amended to compel independent children’s lawyers to also report abuse. So at the federal level that onus was placed on us.

Many people will think that as a lawyer and in a lawyer-client relationship that might be a strange thing, because it still remains one of the exemptions to mandatory reporting, generally, among other areas of the profession. But as an independent children’s lawyer your role was different to that of solicitor-client. It was that you were there, really, appointed by the court to bring to the court’s attention issues that clearly parents would not. This is in the family law context; it is adversarial. You have a mother giving evidence to suit her case and a father to suit his case. So in those really intractable custody and child cases it was really important to have someone there to bring to the court the independent and other evidence that really would be so relevant to the case. That involved subpoenaing Department of Health and Human Services files, getting access to children’s court reports and psychiatrists reports and having children assessed, but sometimes when speaking with a child it was a case of hearing a child report to you the abuse that they had suffered. I have to say, I never had any hesitation in wanting to report that and to make sure that the perpetrator of that abuse was to be known and that that evidence would be taken into account in a case.

(Sitting suspended 1.00 pm until 2.02 pm.) Ms SHEED: Before the break I was addressing the issue of mandatory reporting and how I had been mandated as an independent children’s lawyer for many years to actually report under the provisions of the Family Law Act 1975. It has come to my notice that in all the years that we have had mandatory reporting there seems to have been no-one prosecuted for failure to report. Obviously it is a very difficult offence to approve. I have to say that that does not trouble me. I think this is an important piece of legislation. The whole concept of mandatory reporting is very much about placing an onus on people to do the right thing when it comes to being aware of child abuse. So while others criticise it for that and while I believe it is important that there are mechanisms for actually prosecuting those who fail to report in circumstances where they should, the fact that it has not occurred yet does not particularly concern me. 

The member for Bentleigh talked about the fact that a confessional that he knows about is used as a storeroom. It is my understanding that confession is no longer what we see in the movies. It is not the little dark box. It is not the gauze between two people. While that may exist in some circumstances, my understanding of confession as a sacrament now is that it is a much more open situation where people congregate within the church. They reflect on their situation, and a priest may choose to deliver what I understand is called the third rite. I do not know much about this significant change that has occurred in the church because I no longer choose to practice as a Catholic in the sense that I was brought up as a child. I think like many people there is almost a sense of betrayal in what has happened. I certainly noticed that with my mother, who passed away just earlier this year, who was a very strong woman of faith and a Catholic. All these years leading up to the disclosures about child sexual abuse and the involvement of the church and the priests in it was really I know quite devastating for her. For so many people it has created a great deal of confusion about their faith, where they go with it in the future and what it all means. I think many of us would still be happy to own up to a sense of spirituality and a desire to have some sort of understanding of that whole other world of faith, and I do nothing to in any way denigrate that. I respect other people’s rights to practise it more actively, but I also have no hesitation in supporting this legislation, which seeks to remove the exemption in relation to confession.

I have spoken to many people who are still active Catholics who also support the fact of this legislation. I was reading around this topic in preparation for this speech, and I was taken by some comments of a Dominican priest, Father Thomas Doyle, who worked with survivors of abuse by priests for over three decades. I would just like to quote what he said about the issue of child sexual abuse in the priesthood: This issue was never limited to the sexual violation of a few young boys by priests. That was both the unintended smokescreen but also the primary symptom of a much deeper and pervasive problem. The real problem of course is the manner with which the government of the institutional Catholic church and the heavily clericalized Catholic culture has responded to the reality of boys and girls, men and women from every corner of the church who come forward with chilling tales of sexual violation by clerics. … In the beginning there was no plan! The victims and their families did what they had been taught to do: rely on the ‘church’ to do the right thing. I could go on, but my time is limited. I think that expresses again that sense of betrayal—the fact that such incredible stories started to come out. While that was in the United States, we have so much seen that now emerge in our own country and in our own community, and the McClellan royal commission into institutional sexual abuse has just so opened our eyes to what is happening.

I have to say that as a family lawyer and being married to a local paediatrician who did all the forensic work for northern Victoria for 30 years for the police, these things come as no surprise. I used to really worry about how you could talk to your children about these issues and how you might be able to protect them. So I suppose in our house we did talk about our work and we let them know about things that happened to people, and hopefully it created an atmosphere whereby they could feel free to talk to us—because I think part of the problem with a lot of the abuse that took place was the secrecy around it, the fear and the domination and that sense of not being able to go anywhere with it and have the feeling that you were believed. For parents of those victims who did not have their children reveal it to them it must also be an incredibly painful thing, because what could be more important to them than their children? I see this piece of legislation as just another piece in the stream of legislation that we have had coming through this place over the last number of years responding to the royal commission and the Betrayal of Trust inquiry. On that basis I support the legislation.

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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 Sheed2019-09-02 06:25:142020-02-07 02:48:04Children Legislation Amendment Bill 2019

Murray-Darling Basin Plan concerns

September 2, 2019/in Parliament

Question without notice – My question is for the Minister for Water. Minister, the ongoing rollout of the Murray-Darling Basin plan is a cause for great concern throughout the southern basin, and there is little confidence that there will be integrity in its ongoing management, given the litany of mismanagement, questionable water purchases and fraudulent behaviour, particularly in the northern basin. More recently allegations of tampering have occurred in relation to evidence about South Australia’s scientific reports into the Coorong lakes. The ministerial council meeting last December agreed the 450 gigalitres of up-water would only be achieved if there were no negative social or economic impacts in the wider community. The importance of that socio-economic test being applied transparently and evenly across the whole basin is essential. What steps will the Victorian government take to ensure that the socio-economic test will be applied fairly and that no further water will be removed from the consumptive pool as part of all these projects? 

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Click here to view Minister’s response

Supplementary question – Minister, the inspector-general has been appointed now by the federal Minister for Water, David Littleproud. I am interested to know what role you see for him in really trying to increase that social understanding of what is going on but also to be really the policeman of the basin and to do the job that I think many of us in Victoria would hope he would do.

Click here to view this record on Hansard 

Click here to view Minister’s response

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 Sheed2019-09-02 06:14:222020-02-07 02:48:37Murray-Darling Basin Plan concerns
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