Suzanna Sheed
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Sheed calls for JobKeeper to be extended in Greater Shepparton

June 25, 2020/0 Comments/in Media Releases /by Suzanna Sheed

Independent Member for the Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed has welcomed reports Prime Minister Scott Morrison is proposing to extend JobKeeper payments in some regional areas. Ms Sheed has called on Federal Member for Nicholls Damian Drum to argue the case in Canberra to include the Greater Shepparton region in any such extension.

“In April, my electorate reportedly had the third highest unemployment rate in the country. It is shocking to contemplate how high that rate could go if JobKeeper suddenly cuts out in September as planned,” Ms Sheed said.

Mr Morrison made the JobKeeper announcement when campaigning for the Eden-Monaro byelection on Tuesday, according to The Age.

“I would hate to think this was just a campaign election promise to be discarded after polls close in Eden-Monaro on Saturday week,” Ms Sheed said.

“The entire country is hurting but as the Prime Minister said some areas, particularly regional areas, are hurting more than others. Greater Shepparton has been badly affected. Our extremely successful events culture has been decimated doing enormous harm to our local hospitality and accommodation industries.

“Our unemployment rate has soared. To get back on our feet we need all the help we can get and the Prime Minister will find few regional areas more deserving of an extended JobKeeper program.”

The looming September economic “cliff” is very concerning, according to Ms Sheed.

“You’ll find few critics of the federal government’s JobKeeper and JobSeeker responses that have kept many individuals, families, businesses and entire regional economies on life-support during the worst of the COVID-19 lock down measures,” Ms Sheed said.

“To suddenly remove that protection in very vulnerable areas such as my electorate could invite disaster. I implore the Prime Minister to extend JobKeeper in Greater Shepparton.”

ENDS

Media contact

Myles Peterson 0467 035 840│myles.peterson@suzannasheed.com.au

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Sheed regales against Victorian Parliament closure

June 18, 2020/0 Comments/in Media Releases /by Suzanna Sheed

Independent Member for the Shepparton District Suzanna gave an impassioned speech to the Victoria Legislative Assembly on Thursday morning, demanding the Parliament resume sitting as soon as possible rather than the Andrews Government timetable of returning on August 4.

“I think we should be coming back. I think for those of us in the community who are in regional areas it is sometimes very hard to get the connectivity that you need with government,” Ms Sheed said.

Ms Sheed spoke at length about the impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on regional Victoria.

“Our communities have been plunged into the worst crisis they have ever experienced, and that has had an amazing impact … there are a lot of other people in the community who are desperate to keep going …they need their businesses to open, they need to re-employ people.

“Everyone has that fear of JobKeeper and JobSeeker finishing in a few months’ time. What will that mean? They have been incredible buffers to the reality of this absolute crisis and pandemic that we are in at the moment.”

Under such circumstances it is vital the Victorian Parliament keep sitting to allow members to bring the concerns and needs of their constituents to the government, according to Ms Sheed.

“For us to now leave this place and not come back until August, to stick to a timetable that was set in different times is to me a failure on all of us,” Ms Sheed said.

“I am not here to talk about the politics of it; I am talking about what our community would expect. They are all out there trying to cope, trying to live on what is a lot less money. We are so privileged that we are in this place and that we are fully employed and that we have the privilege of looking after our communities and our electorates.

“I think the community expects us to be in this place and to be not only seen to be working hard but to actually be working hard, because nobody else is taking holidays. We cannot go overseas; we cannot do the things that normal life would have led us to so in a time like this we need to be at work.”

ENDS

Media contact

Myles Peterson 0467 035 840│myles.peterson@suzannasheed.com.au

Click here for PDF version

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Sitting of the House Amendment Motion: Parliament return date

June 18, 2020/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

I rise to support the amendment. I think these are very dark days, that we are living through a time that none of us have lived through before. We started the year in shocking drought. We started the year with terrible bushfires. Our communities have been plunged into the worst crisis they have ever experienced, and that has had an amazing impact on our communities. I come to Melbourne and I look at the streets of Melbourne and they are pretty empty. I thought it might have just been Shepparton. I thought it might just have been Nathalia and Numurkah and my communities, but our towns are really suffering and so clearly is Melbourne, but I can only speak for my community.

We have so many people out of work at the moment, and companies are coming to me talking about the loss of further jobs and what that will mean for some of these big companies. It is very distressing to hear what is going on out there. We also have a whole lot of people in our community, older people, people over 65 and 70, who are very afraid. They are afraid of the disease, they are afraid of the opening up, they are afraid of many of the changes that are coming, and they are afraid that they may have to stay locked up for a very long time. They are starting to feel like they are the forgotten people. They are the ones who will have to stay behind closed doors and have deliveries come to them, for how long?

Now, there are a lot of other people in the community who are desperate to keep going, and they need to get going. They need their businesses to open, they need to re-employ people. Everyone has that fear of JobKeeper and JobSeeker finishing in a few months time. What will that mean? They have been incredible buffers to the reality of this absolute crisis and pandemic that we are in at the moment.

For us to now leave this place and not come back until August, to stick to a timetable that was set in different times is to me a failure on all of us. I am not here to talk about the politics of it; I am talking about what our community would expect. They are all out there trying to cope, trying to live on what is a lot less money. We are so privileged that we are in this place and that we are fully employed and that we have the privilege of looking after our communities and our electorates.

I think we should be coming back. I think for those of us in the community who are in regional areas it is sometimes very hard to get the connectivity that you need with government. Coming into Parliament, seeing ministers around, being able to catch them in a corridor, have a cup of coffee, have a meeting, these are really important aspects of being a local member of Parliament. It is really I think compelling that we should be sitting more during the course of this year, during a year like that we have never, ever seen before and may never see again. Let us hope we never see it again.

I support the amendment for the very reason that I think we should be in this place. I think the community expects us to be in this place and to be not only seen to be working hard but to actually be working hard, because nobody else is taking holidays. We cannot go overseas, we cannot do the things that normal life would have led us to so in a time like this we need to be at work, so I support the amendment.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Racing has moved the sitting of the house motion. The Leader of the Opposition has moved an amendment to it to omit words and insert an alternative return date. The question is:

That the words proposed to be omitted stand part of the question.

Therefore members supporting the Leader of the Opposition’s amendment should vote no.

House divided on question:

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Justice Legislation Amendment (Drug Court and Other Matters) Bill 2020

June 17, 2020/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

I am pleased to rise to speak to the Justice Legislation Amendment (Drug Court and Other Matters) Bill 2020. There are certainly some significant matters in this bill, many of which could be spoken about at some length. First of all there is the protecting of privacy of vulnerable Victorians by introducing confidentiality provisions applying to cases heard before VCAT under the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017, and I think all of us who were here in the last Parliament well remember the very long journey we went on to achieve an outcome in relation to that really momentous legislation here in the state of Victoria.

It is a small amendment but necessary in relation to protecting the privacy of those people. It improves access to justice by victim survivors of institutional abuse, who signed up to settlements that would now perhaps be seen as almost unconscionable, given what we now know from the royal commission and the Betrayal of Trust report here in this Parliament as well. The bill also allows the Attorney-General to delegate some powers under the Charities Act 1978 and give permanent effect to reform relating to the positions of chairpersons and alternate chairpersons of the Youth Parole Board.

But of particular interest to my electorate is the aspect of the bill that deals with the drug courts. This bill primarily is about extending the drug courts into the County Court, and I think that is something to be welcomed. It is done on the back of what has been seen as a successful rollout of drug courts in the Magistrates Court, first of all in New South Wales going back to about 1999. I understand Dandenong was about 2002. We are lucky enough in Shepparton to be going to have a rollout of a drug court there as well as in Ballarat. Sometimes these sorts of reforms take a fair while. The evaluation has been done, and it seems to be showing that this is an investment in justice that is worth making.

I was very moved by hearing the member for Morwell speak of personal experience, and I think it always lends something to any debate to hear from someone who really knows about these things. It is an agony for a parent to have to deal with such a situation. Whenever we think of these people going before the Drug Court we need to remember that they are individuals, they do have families, they often have wives and children of their own—many other people who are so detrimentally affected. Probably just over a year ago I spoke with a group of barristers who were having lunch up in Shepparton on the Family Court circuit. The comment was, ‘Oh, so many of these cases are here because of ice’. That is the predominant reason why these families are in dispute while there are fights over where children should go.

When I was an independent children’s lawyer so often the underlying cause of so much of that sort of family law confrontation arose out of drug taking. In regional areas we all know that ice is just so prevalent and so easily available. I recall sitting in court on one occasion when a judge looked at me and said, ‘Ms Sheed, would you take these children home?’, because both parents were drug takers. Judges are sometimes faced with these really invidious decisions they have to make between two children. That was in a time when there was not a choice of the department unless other proceedings were taken at another time.

It has certainly brought home to me over the years the need for drug rehabilitation. Really just in the last few years we have fought hard to get one of the residential drug rehabilitation centres located in the Shepparton region. Ultimately it went to Wangaratta and another one went to Gippsland, and I am sure they are equally needed there, but I was very disappointed that one of the reasons we did not perhaps achieve the outcome we wanted as a community was that there was such a strong sense of ‘not near me’. No-one wanted that drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre to be near them. We searched endlessly to try and find a suitable location to put such a centre and build our case to the government, but in the end it just seemed that the opposition to having it near people and residents and other people who thought that those people would be so dangerous to them, even though they were in rehabilitation, was too great.

I personally take the view that if someone is in rehabilitation, they are probably a lot less dangerous than the ones walking down the street past your house. It was very disappointing to me that we found ourselves in that situation, but I do not think we will be giving up, because the need in our region is indeed still great. In the last two or three years we have had an organisation called The Cottage, which is set up in Shepparton. It has similarly faced this enormous upheaval in terms of neighbours not wanting it in their region. It was ultimately successful before VCAT, and it is now established.

Sitting suspended 1.00 pm until 2.02 pm.

Business interrupted under sessional orders.

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Before I finished earlier I was talking about the fact that there was a time when we were hoping to be able to persuade the government to build an alcohol and drug residential facility in my region but there had been a lot of opposition to the locations that had been proposed and we lost that opportunity. I then moved on to the fact that we have had The Cottage establish itself, a place for people to integrate themselves back into the community effectively. They will have been detoxed, they will have had some rehabilitation and they will then be looking to continue accessing a whole range of drug and alcohol services but also be preparing themselves to move back into the community.

I also had the opportunity several years ago to visit the Odyssey House facility at Molyullah up in the hills beyond Benalla and meet a number of people there who were in that live-in environment on a farm. To see what is achieved in a place like that is very humbling, really, because they are facilities that provide an opportunity for people to get their lives back together again. Sometimes they leave that place, they fall back into drug taking and they come back again, but that facility is there for them.

The announcement of the Drug Court program extending to Shepparton is very welcomed. I have spoken to local lawyers about it who are very pleased to think that our region will have that facility, because the need is great. The Shepparton district rates very low on all socio-economic factors. The Shepparton electorate is in the lowest 20 per cent of electorates across all four indexes, having one of the highest levels of disadvantage compared to the state average of other electorates. So there has long been a need within our community. The expansion will assist in meeting the needs of a particular group of entrenched offenders, and it should reduce demand on our corrective and social services and provide greater access to services.

It was very interesting to read the KPMG evaluation report of 2014. It demonstrates that there is a continuing and demonstrable need for a court-based response to particularly serious systemic offenders with significant drug and alcohol issues. The evaluation shows that 40 per cent of people complete the program. There was a 31 per cent drop after 12 months, a 34 per cent drop in recidivism two years post the drug treatment order, a 90 per cent cut in trafficking offences, a 54 per cent cut in violence with weapons and improved mental and physical health and community connectedness. I think figures were put on reduced recidivism, with an annual cost per participant of around $26 000 compared with what can be well over $110 000 for a person in prison each year. Magistrate Tony Parsons, who headed the Drug Court program in Dandenong and Melbourne, said that the alternative was simply people getting locked up, and we know that that does not work in terms of long-term recovery.

This therapeutic jurisprudence of drug courts has shown that it is effective and that it deals with the revolving door of recidivism which is occurring in what have been conventional means to date. This bill that is now enabling the County Court to adopt what has been happening in a couple of Magistrates Courts and the expansion into the Magistrates Court in regional areas is most welcomed, and I support the bill.

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https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.png 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2020-06-17 09:22:412020-06-23 17:00:35Justice Legislation Amendment (Drug Court and Other Matters) Bill 2020

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

June 17, 2020/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

Question without notice – My question is to the Minister for Mental Health. Minister, will the government commit to supporting evidence-based alcohol health warning labelling recommended by Food Standards Australia New Zealand at the next meeting of the forum on food regulation to be attended by ministers of government in July 2020? Alcohol is the leading cause of preventable, non-genetic neurodevelopmental disability in Australia. Children born with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, or FASD, will experience challenges in their daily living and need support with motor skills, physical health, learning emotional regulation and much more. There is a prevalence of FASD in my community but still there is no requirement for alcohol containers to carry an effective warning about the cause of harm and the harm that alcohol actually inflicts on the foetus. Much work has been done to address this issue, and recommendations have been made. Read more

https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.png 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2020-06-17 05:28:112020-06-22 09:53:39Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

Matters of Public Importance: COVID-19

June 17, 2020/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

I am pleased to speak on this matter of public importance submitted by the member for Albert Park. First of all, I would also like to thank my community, the Shepparton district, for the amazing work, compliance and change in behaviour that they had to undergo like so many Victorians to achieve this outcome that has been a remarkable one in comparison to what has occurred in so many other places and is still occurring given that COVID-19 is in fact on a continuum rising in many other countries in the world as we speak.

It is very easy for us to in some ways start to feel a bit safer and be a bit more complacent. We have done a marvellous job, but I think we also need to be incredibly vigilant as we go forward. We see Beijing now in another wave of COVID. It has not gone away. The virus is out there. It is alive and well, and it is always looking for a host. I think we need to be wary of that but still congratulate ourselves on the great job that we have done. Just in relation to the health system, congratulations to all of those health workers who were able to just be ready. Luckily they were not called on, most of them, to do anything like the things we saw on television, things that were happening in Italy and other countries in the world, just horrendous decision-making that had to be made and numbers that were unbelievable. New York, I remember seeing a Foreign Correspondent program on what was happening in New York, and there is no doubt that in disadvantaged communities the impact where you have a poor health system is truly devastating, and that is what the United States is facing at the moment with a health system that does not give people access to the services that they need.

At Goulburn Valley Health in Shepparton a lot of work had to be done to get ready for what could have been an overwhelming number of patients that might have arrived. You will all have heard me talk about the stage 1 redevelopment that is taking place. The government were able to support a massive push to just get that whole development finished, and the new emergency department was set aside as an additional intensive care unit should it be needed. So many steps were taken and many things put in place and people ready to go. Fortunately in my community there have been 12 cases overall and one death. That has been a pretty remarkable result. Terrible for the family who lost a family member who had returned from an overseas trip, and no doubt very stressful for families of those who were ill. Most of the cases in our area were people who had returned from overseas prior to the hotel isolation being put in place.

I well remember the first briefing we got here in Parliament with the chief health officer, Brett Sutton, and the minister up in the Federation Room and just the information slowly coming out of China about what was happening. I remember him saying this could be a pandemic, it could be, and questions being asked about what a pandemic is, what does that mean. The second briefing was in the same place at a much more serious time when it was becoming clear that things were getting out of hand and that cases were appearing in other places in the world and indeed here.

It did not take long before every day we were seeing more and more news of what was happening—the closure of the borders to China. I also well remember all my staff and myself standing around watching a press conference when the Premier warned Victorians of what could be coming and feeling a chill quite frankly about what was ahead of us and what could be ahead of us. Thereafter at a federal level we saw remarkable leadership pulling together to deal with it, and quite frankly we saw the same at the local level. In a community I have to say that has been a very traditional conservative community, many places I went people would say to me, ‘The Prime Minister’s doing a great job, and so is that Dan Andrews, and I don’t really like him’.

It was a very interesting show of leadership where people stepped up and stepped in and did what was needed. I think that was very reassuring to people. The national cabinet then coming together and bringing together all the state leaders in that environment was also a really strong sign of leadership and gave the country reassurance. People felt much more confident that things would be under control, that there was a consistency across the country in terms of what was happening.

I have reflected often since that time about how while things may seem pretty ordinary at times in the political world, there is no doubt that when there is a crisis people do have the capacity to step up and look after communities. I think there are a lot of people to be congratulated for showing the leadership that they did at many levels. At a local government level I think it is very fair to say that many of our local government organisations, and the City of Greater Shepparton also, stepped in very early to come up with COVID plans to put in place a whole range of supports for businesses. They kept Meals on Wheels going and kept a range of services that they provide directly going. They still were able to facilitate face-to-face appointments for maternal and child health nurses with mothers.

I also recall Anzac Day, a day when so many people were really quite distressed that they could not get together and honour that day in the way they normally do. I know in my street we came out just before 6 o’clock and people lit candles and we played the ceremony from Canberra and were able to listen to the last post and an address. People up and down the street had their candles just sitting out the front of their house—a very moving moment. We could not be together but nevertheless people were together.

In all this isolation and separation that we have had to do, there has been a remarkable coming together and a sense of community. It is very hard to in a sense put your finger on what that means. Just a few weeks ago I did a walk up and down the streets of Nathalia and Numurkah, just to put my head in the door and say hello to some of the businesspeople there, and their sense of isolation is really very great. There is a feeling out there that is really quite sad to see in many ways. They are making the best of it, the best they can in circumstances that are really very awful—obviously not many customers coming in, businesses really suffering, so many people having lost jobs and that overwhelming sense of what is happening, where are we going? The introduction of JobKeeper, JobSeeker and a lot of other economic stimulus that we have now seen rollout again has I think given people a level of confidence that there is a way forward and that we just have to aim in a certain direction and hopefully do it together to achieve these sorts of things.

One of the concerns I do have is that for many people their mental health is particularly important and needs to be thought about and not put aside at a time like this. I am particularly concerned about people who are in vulnerable groups and people who are more aged, who will be afraid of leaving home even though things are looking better.

I would also just like to take the last minute to thank everyone who works in my electorate office, because it has been an extraordinary time for my staff. They had to close the office. They all had to go home to work and yet they fielded all the calls, and there were many calls and many emails, so many people with questions—people distressed, confused, all sorts of things. In what was a difficult time for them, when they had to look after their own families and their own wellbeing, they did a remarkable job. I would like to thank each and every one of them for pulling together, supporting me and supporting our community at a time when they were really in demand.

I think in regional areas we were often very glad that we did not live in multistorey apartment blocks in cities, because most of us had a backyard or were able to know that we could grow some vegetables if we had to. While people were starting to knit and look for sourdough recipes on the internet, all of my staff were working very hard. In my house we had three people working from home, and in some ways it was very bonding, in others we cannot wait to get back to the office. It is I think important that we find a way to re-establish ourselves in our communities and join together to be that connected community again.

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https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.png 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2020-06-17 04:26:072020-06-22 09:28:06Matters of Public Importance: COVID-19

Education and Training Reform Amendment (Regulation of Student Accommodation) Bill 2020

June 16, 2020/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

I am pleased to rise to speak on the Education and Training Reform Amendment (Regulation of Student Accommodation) Bill 2020. Might I say that on a day like this when there is politics rife and there are all sorts of things happening it is incredible to see how politicians and how this house particularly can come together and in a bipartisan way agree on a piece of really important legislation. Today is only a reflection of what has gone on for a very long time, and I came into this place in 2014, after the Betrayal of Trust report, when the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was still underway. I have learnt a great deal about the institutional abuse of children during that time. And I would like to acknowledge the member for Broadmeadows, who is just about to leave. I have seen his passion on this topic many times in this place and it is an absolute credit to him and so many others who took up the cause and who ensured that this went to a parliamentary committee, that the investigations were done, that the evidence was heard and that people’s voices were heard. The outcomes of that I have seen on many occasions in this place by way of what are just little bits of legislation. They are just amendments here, amendments there, but they are part of an overall package that is bringing together a framework which we hope will provide a level of protection to children throughout every aspect of their lives.

We have an absolute duty of care to protect children, and I think we all know that. I personally stand here very passionate about trying to achieve some labelling on alcohol so that pregnant women can understand the impact of what alcohol might do to their children. So it is from conception to adulthood that we have to address the issues of child abuse and their protection. I have been around a lot longer than many people in this place, and my husband has been the forensic paediatrician for northern Victoria for probably 20 years, back in the 1980s and 90s, so conversations at our dinner table were so often around his distress, their distress, the hospital’s distress, families’ distress—all the horror that goes with child abuse that is just continuing today in so many environments.

But this piece of legislation, as I say, is part of a story. It is part of a recognition and a really important step along the way. I recall watching the film Spotlight just a few years ago. Sometimes you will watch a film like that and you will be so shocked and so affected by it even though you know it has been happening, even though all that knowledge is in your head. It can be so very, very shocking to think of the level of cover-up, the power, the manipulation that has occurred in our institutions over so many years. In my family, I went to boarding school. I had five siblings and we all went to boarding school because we lived out in western New South Wales. There was no school, so homeschooling, to me, which people have been going through for the last three months, is no big deal at all. My sister was homeschooled until year 8, when she was sent to boarding school, and my brother until grade 5. We moved closer to a town when I was in about grade 3, so I only had those very early years of homeschooling. But boarding school for us was a given because there were no secondary schools close by, and we were a farming family and that is just what happened. How you got to go where you went or how it all came about is a mystery still to me, but parents make these decisions for you.

I was sent to Kilbreda College in Mentone as a border for five years from the age of 11. I cannot say it was an experience I liked, because I was homesick the whole time, but I made some great friends. I often reflect upon the fact that while the nuns, the Brigidine Sisters, who ran that institution could get pretty cranky with us at times, I never detected any sense of real abuse, so I was very lucky. On the other hand, so many of my friends had brothers at some of the other Catholic boarding schools, and nothing was ever said during those years—no indication that abuse might have happened to them. But what I have found out since is just horrendous. To think that I was in what seemed to be a safe environment, as far as I know—that was my experience—but for a number of people I know the experiences of their brothers in other institutions was truly horrendous.

One of the things I can say about being in a boarding school environment and being away from your family and that protection and that confidence you have when you are in a family situation, is that you are really vulnerable, and so you do not really have anyone to complain to. You do not go home after school. You cannot talk about what has happened in a way where you might feel confident that you will be heard. People have told me that they were not boarders, they were abused, they went home and their parents did not believe them. They just could not believe that a priest or a brother would do such a thing, so they were effectively shut down and had to live with that misery for quite a while—for a long time. Some of those are people who have subsequently come forward and given evidence and shared their pain. For those people that must be the hardest, most amazing thing to do because of all that repressed guilt, anger, and shame that they were made to feel—that they were the ones who were responsible. It has been a wonderful journey just in recent years to see that we have been able to give voice to people through the royal commission in particular. I just want to read what the letters patent tasked the royal commission with, because it just bears having it in Hansard. That was to:

inquire into institutional responses to allegations and incidents of child sexual abuse and related matters …

and in carrying out that task it was directed to focus on the systemic issues, be informed by an understanding of individual cases and make findings and recommendations to better protect children against sexual abuse and alleviate the impact of abuse on children where it occurs. This legislation is about paragraph 13.3 of the royal commission, and that recommendation says that:

School registration authorities should place particular emphasis on monitoring government and non-government boarding schools to ensure they meet the Child Safe Standards. Policy guidance and practical support should be provided to those institutions.

That is what this bill does. I certainly support it, as does everyone else I have heard speak here today. I do not think we can ever give up on this, because as I say, child abuse is rampant. Child abuse is happening every day in our communities. It is happening in homes; it is happening in foster homes. Deputy Speaker, I sat with you on the Family and Community Development Committee when we looked into abuse in disability services. I think we all took away from that the horror of people who prey on vulnerable people and how important it is that we give those people protection, and children and people with disability fall into that very vulnerable category.

Again, it is important that recommendations from these committees are adhered to, are taken up, and this is what we are doing here today. I commend the bill to the house.

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https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.png 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2020-06-16 11:19:322020-06-22 09:22:31Education and Training Reform Amendment (Regulation of Student Accommodation) Bill 2020

Shepparton District Public Housing

June 16, 2020/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

Constituency question – My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Housing. The action I seek is that the minister inform me about what is being done by the government to improve the existing social housing stock in the Shepparton district electorate. Recently the state government announced it would spend half a billion dollars to upgrade 23 000 social housing properties and deliver 168 new social housing units across Victoria.

As the minister is aware, Shepparton has the unenviable record of the highest level of homelessness in regional Victoria, indicated by ABS 2016 census data and the government’s own local area service network data. I have been undertaking an investigation into the state of social housing in my electorate. Social housing is an important investment which goes towards combating the very pressing issue of the rising cost of housing affordability, thereby preventing low wage earners and welfare recipients from the risk of becoming homeless.

I thank the minister for providing me with information in response to questions on notice regarding the state of my electorate’s social housing stock. The figures confirm that a number of social housing properties have been sitting idle and unused. There are 29 vacant as of April 2020, 21 of which have been vacant for more than 90 days or longer, with some vacant for more than two years. I have already written to the minister requesting that these vacant properties be prioritised for maintenance when distributing funds from the building works package so as to return them to use as quickly as possible.

The state of homelessness in my electorate is such that to simply maintain the current levels of social housing stock, an investment of some 25 new social housing units is required each and every year to make inroads and reduce homelessness, and that investment needs to increase to approximately 50 social housing units per year over the next decade and beyond. In my electorate, there is a lack of affordable one- and two-bedroom units, and I ask that the bulk of any future investment consider this shortfall.

The state government has been making some inroads partnering with local not-for-profits in the Shepparton region via the Social Housing Growth Fund, and I commend these efforts. The electorate with the highest rate of homelessness in regional Victoria is surely deserving of being allocated a significant proportion of any further social housing investment.

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Minister response: Thank you for raising the matter of improving the existing social housing stock in the Shepparton district. On 18 May 2020, the Victorian Government announced it is investing almost $155 million for maintenance and upgrade works and a further $110 million for renovations to public housing properties as part of its Building Works package.

This funding will include upgrade works to more than 2,100 properties and maintenance works to over 15,000 properties across Victoria, and 25 per cent of it will be allocated to regional areas. The investment will prioritise works that are able to commence in the coming weeks and months that will improve the amenity, liveability and condition of thousands of homes across the state, including homes in the Shepparton area.

As part of this Building Works package, 14 properties in the Shepparton area will be upgraded during the 2020-21 financial year, with a further 24 properties expected to be upgraded during 2021-22.

Through the Director of Housing’s annual base program of improving the social housing portfolio, an additional 19 properties in the Shepparton area will be upgraded during 2020-21, with a further 14 properties upgraded during 2021-22. By late 2022, a total of 71 home upgrades in the Shepparton area are expected to be completed.

The Victorian Government is also continuing to make significant investments to address social housing stock and homelessness across the State.

The Government’s Building New Homes to Fight Homelessness program will see at least 1,000 new public housing homes constructed by December 2022, ready to support people at risk of or experiencing homelessness or family violence. The majority of these new properties will be one- and two-bedroom homes.

Sites for redevelopment in the Shepparton area have already been confirmed that will deliver ten new homes within this program, with further sites being considered. The new homes will support people in need to gain access to safe, secure, affordable and stable housing in the local area.

Hon Richard Wynne MP
Minister for Housing

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https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.png 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2020-06-16 11:13:462020-07-01 15:56:45Shepparton District Public Housing

Sheed calls for locally led recovery

June 15, 2020/0 Comments/in Media Releases /by Suzanna Sheed

Independent Member for the Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed has asked businesses, individuals and families in her electorate to think and shop locally as the economy recovers in the aftermath of strict lock-down measures.

“We all looked after each other by following the lock-down measures in our individual ways, now it’s time to look after each other again as we return to a more normal footing,” Ms Sheed said.

“Every dollar spent locally helps local business, local jobs and the local economy through this incredibly challenging time.”

Along with calling for individuals and families to prioritise the local economy, Ms Sheed is asking businesses, both those based in the Shepparton District and those with a local presence, to look to goods and services available in the region.

“Many may be surprised what sort of professional services are on offer at our doorstep,” Ms Sheed said.

“Last year for my second term, I set about reforming and refreshing my office’s communications. The prospect was quite daunting when it appeared most of the services on offer such as website hosting and design are clustered in Melbourne,” Ms Sheed said.

“The quotes were high and, as a relatively small client, the level of attention less than ideal. I don’t have the resources of the big political parties who dictate a lot of this type of material from a head-office somewhere in the city.”

Ms Sheed investigated if the necessary communications services could be sourced locally.

“We needed a new online host with technical support, and new website design, both technically and creatively. I’m pleased to say we were able to partner with a very capable small local business for each of those services right here in Shepparton.

“I encourage every local business sourcing goods and services to look to our home region in the first instance. You may be surprised by what fantastic partnerships are available, as I was.”

ENDS

Media contact

Myles Peterson 0467 035 840│myles.peterson@suzannasheed.com.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 Sheed2020-06-15 17:00:312020-07-01 13:34:56Sheed calls for locally led recovery

Transparency is key to confidence in the water market

June 4, 2020/0 Comments/in Media Releases /by Suzanna Sheed

Irrigators need a transparent water market to level the playing field and be confident they are not being gamed, according to Independent MP for the District of Shepparton Suzanna Sheed MP.
“Water entitlements are a property right, no different to land ownership,” Ms Sheed said. “So, it should be just as easy to find out who owns what, where and how much, and the trading history.”
“Claims that animal rights or environmental activists will somehow use water ownership information to interfere with farms are overblown.”

Water entitlements are not tied to land, so do not necessarily identify farm locations, according to Ms Sheed. Water use is tightly regulated and monitored, the environment owns 28 per cent of entitlements and irrigators are highly efficient water users. Extreme actions such as farm invasions are illegal.

Ms Sheed said the Victorian Government must ensure the water market is working in the best interests of all irrigators, large and small.

Concerns about brokers abusing transparency to target vulnerable irrigators are valid, and any such behaviour should be reported and punished. Unlike real estate agents, there is minimal regulation on the behaviour of water brokers, and it is about time governments did something about this.

Ms Sheed urged the Victorian Government to look past those trying to stoke unfounded fears about water owners and users’ privacy.

“We need total transparency on entitlement and allocation accounts. It’s the only way to get the market working for everyone, and not just the big end of town,” she said.

“The risk of market failure is acute, especially in droughts. The lack of transparency on ownership and transactions just makes it worse.”

ENDS

Media contact

Myles Peterson 0467 035 840│myles.peterson@suzannasheed.com.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 Sheed2020-06-04 16:02:092020-07-01 13:36:41Transparency is key to confidence in the water market
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