Portfolio — 31 July 2026

The dominant discourse arc for Carrum in this window is the Attorney-General, Ms Kilkenny, driving a concentrated legislative and administrative agenda across justice and planning — two portfolios she holds simultaneously — while the district itself appears only briefly in community acknowledgements from the Assembly floor.

The legislative centrepiece was Ms Kilkenny's introduction of the Workplace Protection Orders Bill 2026, which establishes a civil order scheme enabling retail operators, transport operators, and registered employee unions to apply for court orders protecting workers from repeated unacceptable conduct including violence, sexual abuse, stalking, and threats [TA-260730-vichns-06b70b591935:s045].

Courts may impose conditions lasting up to 12 months, with breach punishable by up to two years imprisonment or a fine of up to 240 penalty units [TA-260730-vichns-06b70b591935:s043]. The compatibility statements tabled alongside the Bill are substantively significant: Ms Kilkenny acknowledged the scheme may disproportionately impact First Peoples due to their overrepresentation in criminal justice statistics, but concluded it remains compatible with both the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 and the Statewide Treaty Act 2025 when courts apply required safeguards [TA-260730-vichns-06b70b591935:s044].

The Bill also requires courts to weigh hardship, proportionality, and respondents' access to necessary goods and services — with particular regard to children and persons with cognitive impairment — when setting conditions. This built-in proportionality framework is the mechanism through which the Attorney-General grounds the scheme's human rights and treaty compatibility.

Ms Kilkenny's justice portfolio activity in the Assembly is reinforced by a run of ministerial media releases over the preceding month. She announced the expansion of Remote Custody Courts to Geelong, Broadmeadows, Dandenong, and Ringwood, and established an additional Bail and Remand Court at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court operating seven days a week until 9pm to accelerate bail proceedings and guilty plea hearings [TA-260702-vicmed-6ae28334117a].

The Attorney-General attributed a six per cent reduction in youth crime to Labor's tougher bail laws and credited the court expansion with providing the judicial and registry resources to back those laws. The pattern across Assembly speech and media releases shows a consistent focus on infrastructure that operationalises the government's bail and remand framework — the Workplace Protection Orders Bill adds a civil-order layer to a justice posture that has already been reinforced through court capacity investment.

On planning, the Minister for Planning released final planning controls for two Inner City Train and Tram Zones in Melbourne and Yarra, enabling capacity for around 35,000 additional homes across the Macaulay, Fitzroy and Collingwood, Richmond, and Alphington precincts, with building heights ranging from two to fifteen storeys in City of Melbourne areas and two to twelve storeys in City of Yarra [TA-260725-vicmed-d3c9f85d1ec7].

Ms Kilkenny stated that completion of all Train and Tram Zone planning controls unlocks capacity for over 300,000 homes close to trains, trams, and jobs by 2051. Separately, 540 homes on Arden Street, North Melbourne were approved through the Development Facilitation Program, featuring buildings of 24 to 37 storeys with fifteen per cent affordable housing [TA-260718-vicmed-34492bdfe10e].

The Attorney-General also referred serious driving laws to the Victorian Law Reform Commission to assess whether offences are sufficiently clear, penalties are sufficiently tough, and whether new aggravated or mid-tier offences are needed when negligent driving causes death or serious injury [TA-260726-vicmed-f932e045673d].

Within the Assembly, the Member for Carrum, Mr Farnham — a neighbouring district member — congratulated three students from the Carrum electorate, Cohen Cogo, Sam Richards, and Ella Clarke, who completed the Kokoda Track alongside him [TA-260730-vichns-06b70b591935:s018]. Ms Kilkenny's own community acknowledgements in the chamber extended to school captains from six primary schools in the district and the Patterson Lakes Canoe Club's 60th anniversary [TA-260730-vichns-06b70b591935:s020].

These district-level acknowledgements sit alongside, and are dwarfed in volume by, the portfolio-level legislative and administrative output that defines Ms Kilkenny's Assembly presence in this window.