Friday, 14 November 2025

 Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (09:49): On the weekend before last I had the pleasure of hosting a stall at the Tiny Forest Market at Casey Central Park in Narre Warren South. It was a beautiful spring day and I had good engagement with a lot of constituents and locals in the area. Some of the conversations I did have were particularly around people being disenfranchised with both the government and the opposition. Conversations ensued around the importance of having local independent voices in Parliament that are able to hold government to account. Waste management and the shift to waste to energy was also a topic of conversation, where residents were concerned about the lack of transparency around what impacts this will have on the community, particularly if the proposed Hampton Park waste transfer station goes ahead. That will be seeing nine councils’ worth of rubbish trucked up to Maryvale via Narre Warren, and people were pretty concerned about what that might ultimately mean for impact on amenity. I was able to tell the community about the inquiry and they are supportive of making appropriate checks and balances available to regulators to ensure that they have appropriate oversight.

We also had some conversations about cannabis law reform, as you would expect, and the majority of the community were very supportive around the idea of police resources being appropriately used rather than criminalising people for cannabis use. We also discussed hemp as I was handing out my hemp tote bags. But the highlight for me was definitely the kids colouring-in competition. Some of the kids did some beautiful artwork, which was an image of me in Parliament. I really congratulate all the aspiring artists of the south-east, and congratulations to the winners of that colouring-in competition.