As many people know I have recently written to the Local Government Inspectorate outlining concerns I have about processes around the approval of a 14 storey building on Albert Street Brunswick.

A copy of my complaint is here: AlbertSt.pdf

Last Sunday saw the conclusion of the 22nd Brunswick Music Festival. There have been 22 years of a great festival which began as a festival to represent the multicultural nature of Brunswick and to produce folk music, which we now call world music. This year's festival was immensely successful. The great success was due not only to all the performers who came from all around the world but also the Sydney Road street party, at which an estimated 50 000 people participated.

This was the first year that the festival organisation was undertaken by Performing Arts Moreland, the new company entrusted with running the festival. The chair is Judy Small, who is a musician, and the director of the program was John MacAuslan, who has directed the Brunswick Music Festival for a number of years.

The festival has been very successful and this new model with a company to organise the festival will bring even greater success.

As I said, the performers came from all over the world. There was a very strong Scottish influence, which included Emily Smith, Dougie Maclean and Eddi Reader. There were also Apodimi Compania and George Xylouris from Greece; a great uilleann piper, Paddy Keenan, from Ireland; and I Viaggiatori, with Italian music performed by Kavisha Mazzella, Irine Vella, David De Santi and Mark Holder-Keeping. It is a terrific multicultural event, much loved by the people of Brunswick and Moreland.

Speech on the Transport Integration Bill

It is with great pleasure that I rise in support of the Transport Integration Bill. It is a very significant bill. It is a bill that sets out the vision, objectives and decision-making principles for government in terms of the immense transport challenges that are facing Victoria. We are dealing with a state undergoing continual growth in its regional centres and in the city of Melbourne. That brings with it issues of congestion and social isolation; it creates a whole lot of issues. We have the issues of global warming, peak oil production and the rising cost of petroleum products. We have the whole question around sustainability in transport in our cities and in our state. These are issues that are of immense importance. 

Continue reading "Transport Integration Bill"

Speech in response to the government's annual statement of government intentions

It  is with great pleasure that  I rise in support  of the annual statement of government intentions.

I want to compliment  the government and the Premier on the initiative of coming out with these statements every year to highlight and  outline future strategies so that there is transparency and clear intentions on view for the community  of Victoria  in  relation  to  what  the  government  intends  to  do, both in  its legislative program  and in  the raft of activities of state government. It is a very important  element, further demonstrating  the government's  commitment  to transparency and democracy in the state of Victoria.

Continue reading "Annual Statement of Government Intentions"

Speech on the Equal Opportunity Bill, reforming the exemptions and exceptions to Victoria's equal opportunity legislation.

I am a bit surprised by the member for Malvern and his attacks on what he says is the ideological position of this government, which he says is equality of outcome. He says he supports measures that are against discrimination, but he does not believe in this social engineering which is equality of outcome.

It probably shows how long I have been in this house, but I remember the debates of 1995 when the then Attorney-General, Jan Wade, introduced changes to the equal opportunity legislation. She introduced special measures and the idea that equality of outcome, not just equality of opportunity, was an element of equal opportunity in this state. It was a Liberal Party reform, as was equal opportunity legislation in 1977. There has been a tradition of the Liberal Party defending equal opportunity, and members have actually been reformers.

Liberal members now come here and criticise an element that was in the 1995 legislation, an element which suggests we have to find various ways to have exceptions and exemptions to the general principle of prohibition against discrimination.

One of those is in the area of equality of outcome, the idea of targeted measures, the idea that certain exemptions ought to exist so that we can have special measures for special groups that have certain attributes -- groups that are disabled, that have been discriminated against in the past, and which seek greater purpose and position in society.

Continue reading "Equal Opportunity Bill"

On 2 December 2009. the Greens had an historic opportunity to vote with the Rudd Labor Government to pass the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).  The CPRS would have reduced our nation's emissions for the first time in history.

This scheme is designed to limit Australia's carbon emissions by making polluters pay for the pollution they produce and rewarding those who reduce their carbon pollution.

This is an issue that affects all Australians.  Failure to take action on climate change today will make future change so much harder.  That's why I am asking you to sign a petition to show your support for action against climate change - by requesting all political parties to support the CPRS next time its re-introduced into the federal parliament in February 2010.

The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) does not need the support of the Liberal Party; it just needs the 5 Green Senators to support it.  Show them you support the CPRS by simply completing this petition.

PS - The Brumby Government supports the Rudd Federal Government's CPRS laws as Climate Change is already impacting on many Victorian's lives.  Action is needed now.