Northcote has incredible community spirit.

School fetes have been buzzing at Bell, Northcote and Wales Street primaries thanks to the immense effort of our school communities.

At St Mary’s primary Ride2School Day had kids learning lifelong healthy habits. Big thanks to principal Mary Kearney for inviting me along.

Last Saturday, in the rain, dozens of families joined our annual Easter egg hunt in All Nations Park, which I host with Ged Kearney. It was wet and fun, and the kids had a ball as we raised funds for the Good Friday Appeal.

There is no conversation right now that is more important than the one that we are collectively having on housing.

It is one of the defining challenges facing Victoria as our population grows, and it goes to the heart of how we support people right now and how we plan for the future.

My adjournment is to the Minister for Roads and Road Safety. I ask the minister to facilitate a meeting between her office, the Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) and local stakeholders to discuss traffic safety concerns in Thornbury raised through a parliamentary petition.

Deputy Speaker, last week Victorians watched the Four Corners investigation and heard allegations that were incredibly shocking.

Women seeking care for endometriosis, instead describing profound betrayal.  

These are women living with debilitating pain - seeking answers, relief, and the chance to reclaim their lives.

They placed their trust in someone to help them heal. Instead, they describe a profound misuse of power, mistreatment, and lifelong harm.

Most of us cannot fathom the depth of their anguish, nor the enormity of their courage in speaking out.

I am also really proud to be standing up in support of this bill which recognises a pretty simple truth – that is, that when a child is at risk responsibility does not neatly fit into one department or one portfolio.

Decisions made in housing, health, education, justice and transport shape the lives of vulnerable children every day, and when those systems are not aligned, families feel the gaps and children pay the price. This bill looks to close those gaps by making supporting vulnerable children and families a shared responsibility across the Victorian government.

My adjournment is to the Minister for Education. I ask the minister to provide me with an update on what the Allan Labor government is doing to combat antisemitism through the education system. This week we rose to express our deep condolences to the victims of the antisemitic attack in Bondi, to their families and to the Jewish community across Australia

I am really pleased to rise to speak on the Health Safeguards for People Born with Variations in Sex Characteristics Bill 2025. As the title suggests, the bill relates to people who are born with physical sex characteristics that do not fit typical definitions or understandings of male or female bodies. These variations are a natural part of human diversity and occur in up to 1.7 per cent of all births.

James Tsindos was 17 years old when he unknowingly ate food containing cashews and died in hospital from anaphylaxis.

His loss shattered his family, his friends, and the broader community who loved him.

In the aftermath, James’s parents Harry and Veneta, have sought answers.

And through their grief have worked to raise awareness about food allergies - which now impact around 1 in 10 babies, 1 in 20 teens and 1 in 50 adults in Australia.

I rise to speak in strong support of the Restricting Non-Disclosure Agreements (Sexual Harassment at Work) Bill 2025.

This Bill is about addressing a power imbalance and putting the voices of victim-survivors first. It is about giving people back agency and choice after experiences that took both away. It is about breaking down a culture that has, for too long, silenced those who have been harmed in order to protect those who caused that harm.

My adjournment is for the Minister for Housing, and the action I seek is that the Minister join me in Northcote to officially open the new social homes our Labor Government has built at Walker Street.

This project is a powerful example of what good government looks like in the midst of a housing crisis. For too long, the old public housing estate at Walker Street stood in poor condition - buildings more than fifty years old, cold in winter and sweltering in summer, with no proper heating, cooling or disability access.

I rise in support of the amendment proposed by the member for Kew, who has worked in very close collaboration with the member for Monbulk to put this forward. In essence, it gives consideration to the risks around allowing broader AHPRA-registered health practitioners to initiate conversations about voluntary assisted dying, as opposed to medical specialists and nurse practitioners, owing to the differentials in experience and setting in which those two cohorts operate.

My adjournment is to the Minister for Planning.

I ask the Minister to explain how community feedback on the draft planning maps for the Thornbury train and tram zone will inform the final maps, to better reflect the nuance and context of the local area.

Thornbury is one of Melbourne’s most distinctive inner-north communities – where trains, trams, cafés and creativity meet.

Speaker, when I was first elected to this Parliament, I came with some priorities.

One of those priorities was to be a voice for real action on climate change: to work within a government to advance our efforts towards clean energy, a circular economy, and critically – strong environmental protections.

It’s something felt deeply within my community of the inner north – and an ethos I’ve grown up with as a lifetime local.

Speaker, I acknowledge Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nations as the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we meet and on which the Northcote Electorate is encompassed.

I pay my deep respects to their Elders past and present; to their culture and connection to the lands and waters; to their strength, resilience and enduring spirit.

Deputy Speaker, it’s been busy in Northcote!

At Bracken Creek I joined the Merri Creek Management Committee and Friends of Bracken Creek, where fourteen of us collected 40 kilograms of litter in just a couple of hours. Hands-on, environmental care that makes a real difference of our local waterways.