Reason Party leader Fiona Patten has conceded defeat in the upper house after last month’s state election, two days before the Victorian Electoral Commission is expected to declare final results for the Legislative Council.
Patten, who has been a champion of social reforms in Victoria, has represented the Northern Metropolitan region for eight years, since the 2014 election.
Reason Party leader and upper house MP Fiona Patten has conceded defeat in the 2022 state election.Credit:Justin McManus
“I’d like to congratulate the successful candidates for the region and indeed all successful candidates in the November 26 Victorian election,” Patten said in a statement on Monday.
“Sadly, I will not be joining them in the 60th parliament.”
Final results for the upper house were initially expected on Tuesday, but candidates have been informed results will be tallied from 10am on Wednesday.
Ousted Labor MP Adem Somyurek, who moved to the Democratic Labour Party after The Age reported on allegations of branch stacking, is on track to take the final seat in the Northern Metropolitan region.
Patten’s re-election in 2018 seemed unlikely, but she was narrowly returned to parliament after the distribution of preferences.
In the days after the 2018 poll, Premier Daniel Andrews told the ABC he would offer Patten a job if she was not re-elected because her absence would be such a loss to parliament.
Somyurek on Monday said it was too early to declare victory or concede because the upper house was notoriously difficult to predict.
“Whilst it’s gracious of candidates to concede before the counting is concluded, I’d urge caution. [Legislative Council] counts are complex. Every point of elimination may throw up surprises which change the dynamic of a count. I’ll wait till the button is pressed before I claim victory,” he said.
Patten has been key to social reforms in Victoria over the past eight years. She championed buffer zones for abortion clinics to keep protesters away from patients and staff, and backed the supervised injecting room and voluntary assisted dying laws.
“My biggest regrets were that I could not get legalisation of cannabis over the line, and that my bill to outlaw preference harvesting did not succeed,” Patten said on Monday.
She thanked Reason Party staff and volunteers.
“They share in the legislative changes achieved, as do so many outside my office. I am forever grateful to the many organisations and individuals who campaigned for change in Victoria alongside us. We have a lot of which to be proud.”
Patten said she had “homework” for the successful candidates.
She said the parliament needed to change the recital of the lord’s prayer to be more secular, review caps on electoral expenditure, establish a portfolio to end loneliness and respond to the parliamentary inquiries into the criminal justice system, the use of cannabis and homelessness.
Patten, who revealed she had been diagnosed with kidney cancer two months ago, said she would continue advocating for those changes.
“While the official result is disappointing for me, it has been such an uplifting, enlightening privilege to serve the voters of this vast and diverse population, and to have achieved progressive change. I certainly won’t die wondering,” she said.
“I would like to thank the voters for giving me an extraordinary eight years as a lawmaker. I tried every day to make things a little better and fairer. I was honoured to be welcomed to so many parts of so many communities.
“I’ll pick myself up (after a bit of rest, recovery, and a short course in chemo) and will continue to fight for decent change, in one way or another, as I always have.”
Greens leader Samantha Ratnam said it was a privilege to work with “such a hard-working, caring and clever crossbench colleague” and she was sorry to see Patten go.
“While history may not capture all the tales of working with the largest crossbench in [Victorian] history, I got to witness Fiona’s procedural prowess [and] considered collaborations, and together we made that chamber more democratic. Wishing you all the best for the future Fiona,” Ratnam said on Twitter.
Former senior Andrews government minister Martin Pakula, who left parliament at the November election, also wished Patten well on Twitter.
“Congratulations on an outsized contribution to the parliament and to the state, Fiona. Your decency and humanity will be missed, but I’m certain it will find its home in other endeavours,” Pakula wrote.
The Greens are expected to increase their representation in the upper house from just one seat to three or four, and Legalise Cannabis is also likely to enter parliament with two or three MPs.
One Nation is in with a strong chance to have one MP, Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell, in the Northern Victoria region of the upper house.
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2022-12-12 00:48:29Z
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