Patrick poses for a photo with a local constituent.

Patrick's Electorate

The seat of Parnell comprises several suburbs north-west of Melbourne: Pascoe Vale West, Essendon East, Strathfield and Airport South.

Parnell is perhaps best known as the seat with the largest number of really good chicken shops in all Victoria, a fact of which Patrick is highly proud. Parnell residents often make the local, state and even national news with their creative exploits in the areas of automotive design and income reappropriation, among other things.

At one time, the area that is now Parnell was nothing but untouched scrubland, good for nothing but Aboriginal settlement. Happily, in 1836, a man of pioneering spirit soon came upon the land and began turning it around. His name was Aleksandr Pork, and he was an idealistic young immigrant from an unspecified Eastern European nation. Skilled with his hands, he constructed many of the area's first outhouses while under the employ of Francis Muzzleton, possibly Victoria's greatest construction baron. Muzzleton, who won Parnell in a pinochle game, intended to turn the harsh, boggy area into a combination turnip crop/graveyard, but Pork convinced his boss to instead construct low-cost housing on the unstable ground. Pork's prophetic words are now emblazoned on the statue of him which rests in the centre of Strathfield:

"They'll live in those houses until they sink -- and when they've sunk, they won't be around to complain!"