Fiona Patten is a Member for Northern Metropolitan Region in the Victorian Parliament’s Legislative Council. Leader of the Reason Party, Fiona was first elected in 2014 and re-elected in 2018. Since being elected in 2014, Fiona has garnered respect from all sides of the political divide and has worked tirelessly to deliver legislative reforms that many thought impossible including drug law reform and Voluntary Assisted Dying.
Fiona is now working towards improving Victoria even further and is pushing to legalise and regulate cannabis for adult use, continuing to implement electoral reform, a greater separation between church and state, the decriminalisation of sex work, and further reform of the justice system. Fiona is the chair of the Legal and Social Issue Committee one of the parliament’s busiest committees.
By making an evidence-based case for change, Fiona has worked with the government of the day, to achieve a progressive reform agenda that many would have thought impossible.
These are some of Fiona’s incredible achievements in Parliament: • Medically Supervised Injecting Centre in North Richmond • Safe Access Zones from protesters around fertility clinics • Voluntary Assisted Dying laws – initiated inquiry that led to reform • Sex work decriminalised • A Spent Convictions Scheme for criminal records in Victoria • Uber and ridesharing legalised Pandemic Legislation for Victoria • Leaving foster and out of home care age extended from 18 to 21 years • Loneliness ministerial portfolio commitment secured • Anti-vilification legislation, including online vilification of women, coming in 2023 • Lord’s Prayer removed from Parliament for next Parliamentary term • Land tax changes applying to religious businesses • A future cap on election campaign spending via review of 2022 election • E-petitions to Parliament online • Medicinal Cannabis Driving taskforce established • Drug Use and Possession taskforce to trial response as a health issue not a criminal one • Established Parliamentary Inquiry into the legalisation of cannabis • Electric Vehicle levy waiver and incentive payment • Chair of Legal and Social Issues Committee, including reports into Homelessness and the Justice System.