Portfolio — 29 August 2026

The Member for Mordialloc, the Minister for Local Government, Consumer Affairs and Renters, dominated the Assembly window with a concentrated run of legislative activity spanning consumer protection, family violence, and community association regulation — three distinct portfolio fronts advanced simultaneously across both chamber debate and ministerial media releases.

The centrepiece of the legislative program is the Justice Legislation Amendment (Family Violence, Coercive Control, Good Character, Risk Assessment and Other Matters) Bill 2026. In Assembly debate, the Minister framed coercive control as a defining feature of family violence and intimate partner violence and positioned the government's response as requiring sustained, multipartisan cultural engagement rather than law-and-order responses [TA-260826-vichns-9f81c0b98fb9:s078].

He cited the Orange Door network's 37 sites serving hundreds of thousands of people — including over 250,000 children — and more than $4 billion in government investment in family violence prevention as evidence of Victoria's standing as the leading jurisdiction in this policy space [TA-260826-vichns-9f81c0b98fb9:s078]. A significant amendment within the Bill removes the ability for perpetrators to rely on good character references to mitigate sentences for sexual violence and intimate partner violence, which the Minister characterised as correcting the notion that prior positive conduct could reduce culpability for harm committed.

On consumer protection, the Associations Incorporation Reform Amendment Bill 2026 appeared in both Assembly debate and a ministerial media release, giving it the strongest cross-lane presence of any instrument in the window. In the Assembly, the Minister introduced the Bill as a measure to prevent associations with industrial relations, hate-motivated, or terrorist-listed purposes from registering as incorporated associations [TA-260811-vichns-559d5117f54a:s009].

The accompanying media release sharpened the framing, describing the Bill as closing a loophole that has allowed fake unions to register as community associations and denying hate groups the legitimacy and financial benefits of incorporated association status [TA-260812-vicmed-2ec5b9e42804]. Consumer Affairs Victoria will be empowered to wind up such entities under the new regime.

The Consumer Legislation Amendment Bill 2026 rounded out the consumer protection agenda, with Council amendments including a 20 per cent cap on deferred management charges in residential parks, clearer rent-increase calculation methods, VCAT oversight of special rent increases, and enhanced property market transparency through 14-day section 32 statement availability before auction [TA-260826-vichns-9f81c0b98fb9:s061].

A separate ministerial media release announced the 'Don't Buy a Regret' campaign targeting used car fraud, responding to research showing nearly a third of sampled used cars were advertised with odometers wound back by at least 25,000 kilometres [TA-260820-vicmed-7f1fbc71ba7d]. Companion legislation advances measures to make odometer tampering easier to investigate and prosecute, require traders to check odometers before sale, and establish a single point of contact for defrauded consumers.

In district statements, the Member for Mordialloc highlighted infrastructure and service delivery within the district and surrounding areas, including level crossing removals, the new Mordialloc train station on the Frankston line, school upgrades at Mordialloc College, Parkdale Secondary College, and Chelsea Heights, early childhood centre improvements, and the Keysborough Community Hub and Keysborough Gardens Primary School upgrades [TA-260813-vichns-ff06af361824:s038].

The Member also acknowledged Lachlan McLaren, a 16-year-old killed on his birthday on 15 August 2021 after pushing his girlfriend out of the path of a car to save her life, and recognised the Lachlan McLaren Foundation established by his parents, which holds an annual walk raising tens of thousands of dollars to support young people [TA-260827-vichns-1d37da03d766:s036].

The district also drew a third-party reference from the Minister for Housing, Building and Precincts, who used an Assembly statement to congratulate St Peters Football Club on its 70th anniversary, recounting the club's founding in 1956 and its connections to prominent local figures including the Beveridge family [TA-260813-vichns-ff06af361824:s037]. The same statement preserved the recognition of Julie Cooper — the first woman councillor and mayor of Moorabbin — whose name on a pavilion at Centenary Park the Minister helped retain when Glen Eira Council proposed removing it during redevelopment.