Rachel asked a question on behalf of a constituent. Waste company Veolia have recently received a $1 million fine for breaching environmental guidelines at the Hallam Road landfill in Hampton Park. As a Hampton Park resident who has been affected by odour pollution from the landfill site, Rachel’s constituent asked what the Minister for Environment would do to ensure these breaches do not reoccur.
Rachel asked if the government would commit to supporting recommendations from Kingston Council’s ‘Better Buses for Kingston’ report.
Rachel spoke on the Voluntary Assisted Dying Amendment Bill 2025. Rachel acknowledges the evidence supporting individuals’ right to choose.
Rachel asked if the government would commit to implementing safety measures at a road accident and near miss hotspot on the South Gippsland Highway.
Today, the Victorian Government introduced a bill to improve access to compensation for victim-survivors of institutional child abuse. It is our job as legislators to get the right outcome, and we commend the government for doing what we and countless have been calling for – the removal of absurd vicarious liability loopholes.
During World Menopause Month, Rachel hosted a forum on women’s health in her electorate. The forum centred around the benefits of cannabis for managing pain symptoms from conditions including endometriosis and menopause. She noted the stigma that many women face when accessing or speaking about medicinal cannabis for pain management, as opposed to other medications such as opioids.
Rachel Payne addressed the Liberal’s ‘Safer Protest’ bill, and spoke on the Safer Protest with a Registration System and a Ban on Face Coverings Bill 2025. Rachel asserted that this bill provides no guidance on addressing the risks of violent protests by hate-groups, instead offering greater move-on powers to police: “This bill does not provide guidance on how we might respond to groups like the fascists, merely on the means to stop any protest.”
Rachel asked about family violence aggressor misidentification. With reforms underway to address misidentification of the predominant aggressor in family violence intervention order applications, Rachel inquired about data collection to track the prevalence of occurrences and success of proposed reforms.
Rachel asked if the government would consider bringing back a drug infringement trial that was previously proposed in 2022. With the guidance of an expert panel and working group, the drug infringement trial would have seen those caught with small quantities of drugs referred to education and/or treatment rather than incarceration. Not unlike the recommendations from the inquiry into cannabis law reform, this proposal has since been abandoned.
Rachel provided a written question to the Minister for Health, asking if the government will consider providing free community access to the life-saving Meningococcal vaccine.
