I am pleased to speak in support of the Firearms and Other Acts Amendment Bill 2021. Thank you to the Minister for Police and the Attorney-General in the other place, as well as their ministerial offices and the Department of Justice and Community Safety.

Thank you for your participation in the Ballarat Building Safer Communities forum – the engagement, feedback, and ideas from the community of Ballarat was really exciting to see.

My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Fishing and Boating, and the action that I seek is for the minister to visit my electorate of Wendouree to meet with the Ballarat Fish Acclimatisation Society and help to stock our magnificent Lake Wendouree with locally bred trout.

Nobody ever wants to hear the news that a loved one has been diagnosed with cancer, particularly when the devastating news includes that the cancer is terminal. This was my experience when my father, Les Dickinson, was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a fast-growing and aggressive brain tumour, in January 2020.

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate in support of the Suburban Rail Loop Bill 2021. I would like to begin by thanking the Minister for Transport Infrastructure, her ministerial office and the Department of Transport for what they have done to bring this bill to the house.

My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Housing, and the action I seek is for the minister to meet with the Ballarat and District Aboriginal Co-operative (BADAC) to discuss the $5.3 billion Big Housing Build.

My constituency question is to the Minister for Crime Prevention.Ballarat is a place to live, study, work, raise a family or retire. While our city is known to be a safe and welcoming place, sometimes crime can affect some of our residents.

Congratulations to Ballarat International Foto Biennale artistic director and CEO, Fiona Sweet, the board and BIFB team for the amazing 2021 biennale, which opens exclusively to regional Victorians this week.

I am pleased to support the Racing Amendment Bill 2021 and welcome that it is being supported by the opposition.As the member for Wendouree, my electorate is home to the Ballarat and District Trotting Club and the Ballarat Greyhound Racing Club in Redan, and the Ballarat Turf Club is just out of my electorate in Miners Rest. I am a proud member and supporter of the Ballarat Turf Club and the Ballarat and District Trotting Club.

I am very pleased, and also very proud, to support the Social Services Regulation Bill 2021.I would like to begin by thanking the Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers for introducing this bill, as well as his hardworking ministerial office. Additionally, and perhaps most of all, I would like to acknowledge some very special people at the newly formed Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, for their work in crafting the legislation we have here today.

I am pleased to report on the recently tabled Legislative Assembly Economy and Infrastructure Committee Inquiry into Access to TAFE for Learners with Disability. I am incredibly proud to have been a part of this important inquiry that has identified that learners with disability face barriers to equal participation in our TAFE sector.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the many events that we have missed in Ballarat due to the COVID pandemic, and also the grace and generosity in the way the many organisers have readjusted plans and moved things online wherever possible.

I thank Ms Addison for the invitation to visit her electorate of Wendouree. I would like to acknowledge the COVID response efforts of health care workers from Ballarat Health Services and Ballarat Community Health and thank them for their dedication and hard work. 

Firstly, I wish to commend Mount Rowan Secondary College’s staff for the invaluable contribution that they make to the school community. I acknowledge their commitment to providing an exceptional learning environment where students are engaged, stimulated, and encouraged to be creative thinkers.

I wish to congratulate the current and former VCE students from schools in my electorate of Wendouree who have been honoured in the 2020 Premier’s VCE Awards. These awards acknowledge the academic excellence of the students during a year of great instability and uncertainty as a result of the COVID pandemic and remote learning. I offer my congratulations to Loreto College Ballarat dux Sarah Harrington on achieving 99.95. In recognition she has received a top all-rounder VCE high achievers award, one of only 23 in the state.

My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Education, and the action I seek is for the minister to visit my electorate of Wendouree to celebrate the practical completion of works at Mount Rowan Secondary College. The minister is no stranger to Mount Rowan Secondary College, having visited the school on several occasions to see progress of our record investment into the school’s redevelopment. The Andrews Labor government most recently provided over $3.5 million in the 2019 state budget to upgrade and modernise school facilities.

I rise to contribute to today’s matter of public importance discussion and talk about issues pertaining to women and Aboriginal Victorians in our justice system and corrections system. I am very pleased to see that we have a former Minister for Corrections, the member for Niddrie, sitting at the table, who did very, very good work in terms of the first year and a bit of this government. I really want to thank the minister for the great work and the leadership he showed in this sector in terms of crime prevention, in terms of corrections and in terms of all that he did. You were a very, very good minister, so thank you very much for that.

I am very pleased to rise to speak in support of the Commercial Tenancy Relief Scheme Bill 2021, which provides both commercial tenants and commercial landlords with protection and support in navigating the continued impact of COVID-19. It is always a pleasure to follow in the footsteps of the member for St Albans. I often stop in Sunshine for some great Vietnamese but I am yet to venture into St Albans on my way home, but now if it is good enough for Postcards, I will very much forward to it. When you think that St Albans has been described as having good people, good food and good experiences, of course they would have a very good MP. What a great contribution you have made.