'I've got a mortgage': Fiona Patten to consider job offer from Andrews
Re-elected Premier Daniel Andrews says he will offer Fiona Patten a job after her likely toppling in Saturday's election, decribing her looming defeat as a 'loss to the Parliament'.
The Reason Party leader, who entered the upper house at the 2014 election as a member of the then-called Sex Party, looks set to be ousted by either Derryn Hinch Justice Party's Carmela Dagiandis or a Labor candidate in the Northern Metropolitan Region.
When asked on ABC radio on Monday morning whether he would consider giving Ms Patten a job, Mr Andrews said there were many roles with the government that would suit her.
"I look forward to speaking with her personally in the next few days," he said.
"If she's interested, I'm sure we could find some different roles for her to play to make the place fairer and stronger."
Ms Patten was integral in some of the Andrews government's signature progressive policy decisions over the past four years, including changes to assisting dying laws, Melbourne's first safe injecting room and safe access zones around abortion clinics.
ABC host John Faine said it was ironic that Ms Patten would likely lose her seat when Mr Andrews was "boasting" about the progressive policies she championed.
Mr Andrews denied his party had been "dragged kicking and screaming" to polices such as the safe injecting room trial and euthanasia reforms, but went on to heap praise on Ms Patten.
"I think that is a loss to the Parliament," he said of Ms Pattern's likely unseating.
"She's a very good person, a very good person, who lives her values and has worked very hard these last four years."
Ms Patten told The Age she first heard about the potential job offer on radio and was not sure what kind of role Mr Andrews would be referring to.
"That is great, I was certainly looking at dusting off my CV," she said.
"I'll certainly consider it. I'll certainly be considering any role. I've ovivously got a mortgage to pay."
Ms Patten fired a shot at the so-called "preference whisperer" Glenn Druery, who organised complex preference deals for Mr Hinch's Justice Party.
"Basically he [Mr Druery] told me if I paid him money good things would happen, and if I didn't pay him money, bad things would happen. That is exactly what has happened," she said.
"Mr Druery looks like making an absolute fortune out of this election. As you know, I refuse to play the game and called it out ... It's a travesty of the electoral system."
The Age revealed earlier in November that Mr Druery faces a possible police probe into his "cash-for-votes" operation, on the back of a complaint made by Ms Patten.
Ms Patten said changing her party's name from Fiona Patten's Sex Party to Fiona Patten's Reason Party just before the election was not to blame for her likely loss. She also said her party would be working toward the 2019 federal election and possibly the NSW election, also next year.
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