Wednesday, 6 March 2024

Melbourne medically supervised injecting facility

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (12:41): (451) My question is for the Minister for Mental Health. Minister, recent reports in the Herald Sun indicate that the government is looking to replace the CBD injecting room with a pill-testing trial, with one source saying that the majority of feedback is that the injecting room is dead. Can you give CBD businesses their confidence back by confirming the proposed CBD injecting room is no longer?

Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (12:42): I thank Mr Mulholland for his question and his ongoing interest in these issues. I guess I would just want to say from the outset that language really matters. We are dealing with incredibly difficult and sensitive issues, and I am very mindful of the tragedies of loved ones lost in relation to some of the drug harm that has been going on in our city. I appreciate that Mr Mulholland is directly quoting from a media article, but I would never describe things in those sorts of terms and use that kind of language when we are dealing with the pain that many families have experienced because they have lost loved ones to overdose.

I think I have been pretty clear about the government’s work in this area. We have consistently said that we will be releasing Ken Lay’s report, but for me, I think the responsible thing to do is to release it together with a comprehensive government response to all of these questions and all of these issues, and I am personally concentrating on making sure that that response looks at some of the changing drug-use patterns in the CBD and looks at the ways in which we can reduce harm for people who are struggling with opioid addiction, and that is the focus of the work that the government is doing currently. When that work is complete and has gone through the proper cabinet processes, we will be releasing both the Ken Lay report and the government response publicly.

David Davis: On a point of order, President, the minister is saying that the government will release the Lay report –

Members interjecting.

David Davis: No, this is a serious point of order. In fact today in the chamber the government has written and claimed executive privilege. They cannot both be true.

A member: Yes, they can.

David Davis: No, they cannot. It is clear that the document is subject to executive privilege claims.

The PRESIDENT: Mr Davis, I think the minister was quite clear about a process that this particular document is about to go through. I would imagine at the moment there is executive privilege, but as the minister explained the process, there may not be.

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (12:45): Minister, reports indicate that the government is looking at pill testing in medical clinics instead of at music festivals. Are these reports correct?

Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (12:45): I thank Mr Mulholland for his supplementary question. I am not really sure how it relates to the substantive, but that aside – I know we are all a bit sleep deprived today – I will indulge him. I would advise those opposite to actually do some proper policy work rather than cherrypicking articles from the media and making wild assertions in the Parliament.

Members interjecting.

The PRESIDENT: We are all a bit sleep deprived, but that is no reason to turn into the Assembly. Let us just keep it together. We have one more question, and it is going to come from Mr Limbrick.