Wednesday, 1 May 2024

Motions

Medically supervised injecting facilities

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (11:13): I move:

That this house:

(1) notes the Allan government’s decision to back down on its commitment to construct a second medically supervised injecting room (MSIR) within Melbourne’s CBD;

(2) expresses concern at the government’s conflicting positions on the location of MSIRs, noting:

(a) the Lay report, in which he states he was merely asked to ‘talk to key stakeholders about the proposed siting and implementation of an injecting service in the City’;

(b) since 2020, when Mr Lay was first commissioned to consult on a second MSIR, the waitlist for drug and alcohol services in Victoria has increased by 40 per cent;

(c) the Labor government wasted four years by under-delivering much needed services;

(d) the Premier’s 23 April 2024 comments that ‘We have been unable to find a location that strikes the right balance between supporting people who use drugs with the needs of the broader community’ are inconsistent with the decision to set up an injecting facility next to a primary school;

(3) further notes that despite several reviews into the efficacy of the existing North Richmond MSIR, a February 2023 review by Mr John Ryan noted that ‘determining the suitability of the current location of the MSIR was not within the scope of the Review Panel’; and

(4) calls on the government to immediately review the North Richmond MSIR site in light of the Premier’s comments regarding feedback from the broader community within the CBD.

My motion goes on to talk about the Lay report – and I will speak to that – and also the Ryan review, and that is really what the crux of the motion is, because what we have seen over the past few years is that this has been a very contentious issue. As we know, the Lay review started some four years ago. Ken Lay was asked to look into the CBD injecting room after the North Richmond trial and what had been occurring in that area, and then there seemed to be review after review. The last review, which concluded around 12 months ago, took some time, and of course last week we saw what the government did. They released the Lay report in relation to the decision.

We had been asking questions in this house for many, many months. Where was the Lay report? Why hadn’t it been released? The government continually said they would release it after consideration. During that time of course we had a conga line of ministers taking on the role of mental health. This has been a nice excuse, a convenient excuse, for the ministers to say, ‘Oh, well, I’m a new minister. I’m not across it. I’ve got to take my time to look into these things.’ That, frankly, is completely unacceptable when so many people were wanting to understand exactly what was in the Lay report.

We had the initial discussions around an injecting site at the Queen Victoria Market site. Cohealth were going to manage that. Then there were great concerns from the traders about what that would actually mean. You have to have a lot of sympathy for the concern that came from those traders around the Vic market. What would it mean? They were watching what had happened to North Richmond, what happened to Bridge Road. That once vibrant area, which was buzzing with a whole range of Vietnamese grocery shops and other shops: restaurants and –

Melina Bath interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: Yes, Ms Bath. A lot of us would go down there and shop there. I know that there were terrific grocery shops down there. I know people that would specifically go and shop there. Also, those restaurants that many, many people would frequent – a lot of those restaurants have closed down. It is now a ghost town. It is awful. You drive down it and it is awful. You quite literally have to dodge drug-affected people at times as they meander across the street and down the paths. People no longer feel safe – that is a fact. I will come to that point in a minute in relation to what we know the Police Association Victoria and others have said around crime in the North Richmond area.

The Vic market – that site – was then kiboshed. We had a series of former ministers arguing that we needed to have an injecting room site in the CBD because of the number of drug-affected people in the city. The Yooralla building obviously was bought by the government years ago for over $40 million. Now the government has come out and said that that will be a health hub where they will provide various services to people needing support for their drug addiction. I welcome those supports. I think that is clearly what we have been calling for. The hydromorphone trial will be run out of that site. That is a policy we took to the last two elections in terms of having more support services to break the cycle of drug addiction. We were really wanting people to be able to access opioid replacement therapies. Our view was that it should be very well supervised and co-located within a hospital setting, not in the middle of the city. I know that when my colleague the Shadow Minister for Mental Health, Emma Kealy, and I were talking to the residents and talking to the traders down on Flinders Street and Degraves Street when the government first bought the Yooralla building, it was clear they were going to put an injecting room in there. It was absolutely clear. Those residents and traders quite rightly had huge concerns about what that would mean for their amenity. Clearly we had concerns around the gateway to the city opposite Flinders Street – what a terrible look to have what we see happening in North Richmond at our iconic Flinders Street.

There is a lot to be done in this area because people who have got addictions need to be supported to get off their addictions. I am afraid the government has failed in that endeavour. As I have said, since 2020, when Mr Lay was first commissioned to consult on the second injecting room, the waitlist for drug and alcohol services in Victoria has increased by 40 per cent. So in the last four years that waitlist has increased by 40 per cent. These are huge numbers, and they are affecting not only those individuals but their families, their friends and their communities. We really do not want to be known as the heroin capital of Australia – or any other drug capital. But clearly we have got a real problem here in this state because of the government’s lack of action.

The government has failed in the delivery of these much-needed services. In rural and regional areas where rehabilitation and withdrawal beds are needed, just like they are needed in the city areas, the government has consistently failed. If you go out into the regions, they will absolutely tell you the same stories. Again I commend my colleague Ms Kealy, who understands this extremely well, for prosecuting the case. She is a regional member of Parliament, and she understands exactly what is happening in and around Victoria.

I want to get back to the site and the government’s decision and I want to talk about the Premier’s comments, because I think the inconsistency is a frustration for the residents of North Richmond when they see the Premier stand up and say – this was just last week, on 23 April:

We have been unable to find a location that strikes the right balance between supporting people who use drugs with the needs of the broader community …

I would argue that that is completely inconsistent with the decision-making around North Richmond. Yes, there was a community health centre. I acknowledge that; I know people that worked in that centre, and they tell me all the time what goes on there. Let me tell you, it is not that pretty. They have concerns and they have had concerns around safety measures. They had concerns around the numbers of people who were coming in to use that service with drug addiction too. I am not denying that people with drug addiction would come into that service and require that service, quite rightly – it is a community health centre. All of those staff in that centre are doing a tremendous job in supporting all of their community. I have been to community meetings. In fact I was the only MP to go to the first community meeting when this was mooted years ago – not even the local members of Parliament turned up to those meetings. Those former sitting MPs who supported the drug-injecting room were not there to hear the community’s concerns, and that, I think, is shameful.

The frustration for those community members is quite real and justified, because what they see and what I have seen through the videos that have been sent to me from residents and others working in and around the area is completely unacceptable. I am not going to go into specific detail about what I have seen, but I will say to you that these residents with young children do not want their children to be witnessing what is on these videos. They are of explicit sexual acts in the street, outside where people live and where their children play in the area. It is just quite distressing for them, and it is not a one-off occurrence; it has continued over the years. They see that, they see drug injecting happening in the streets, they see drug dealing, they see people with drugs, trading drugs – this all happens outside their homes. It is not acceptable, yet the government has turned a blind eye to the concerns of these residents.

The traders will tell you, as I have said, what has happened to their trade. It has gone. Like Bridge Road, as Mr Mulholland knows – Victoria Street, I should say; Bridge Road is having its own challenges, but I did mean Victoria Street. Earlier I think I referenced Bridge Road – I meant Victoria Street. My apologies. But they will tell you exactly what has happened with their trade and with their businesses, and it has been devastating. We have argued consistently that putting an injecting room next to a primary school was the completely wrong location. We still hold that view on this side of the house, and so do many of the residents around the area. They still hold that view too, because they know that their children go to that school with the security guards that are in the school, and what has occurred in and around the school with drug-affected people is just not acceptable. Those parents and those communities have every right to be concerned.

To go back to the Premier’s comments, when she said, ‘We’ve been unable to find the right location that strikes the right balance,’ that is what this motion is about – the right balance about where an injecting room location could be. We all know that it is politics with the CBD decision. There is a council election coming up in a few months time. But the traders and the restaurateurs in the CBD – and the residents – quite rightly have got concerns about what was mooted too. Whether it was going to be here in Bourke Street, just down the road from the Parliament, where we have got an entertainment precinct, we have got restaurants, we have got schoolchildren coming into the Parliament – that would not have been a suitable location. So I commend the government on not putting a drug-injecting room in or around this area, because of those areas where you have got families coming in and schoolchildren coming in to this precinct, and you have got world-renowned restaurants in and around this area of the CBD. And let us not forget what has happened through the CBD through the multiple lockdowns that were applied in Victoria because of Labor’s decisions, which have smashed our city and smashed our state. We are paying for it now. We are paying for it in spades. We are paying for it because of what is happening in this state with investment and confidence. As we all know, we have got a horror budget coming up next Tuesday, and it is incredible – the number of taxes to pay for the woeful decisions the government made not only during COVID and lockdown but for the entire administration of the last 10 years.

But to get back to the motion, I want to now move to the last part of my motion, which talks about the Ryan review. This was a contentious report where we asked for the full details to be released, and they never were. We got a selected part of the Ryan review. Here it is: it has got a few pages and a few recommendations, but there is no appendix. There is nothing so much as a true report, which should be provided to the public. It is another cover-up by this government. But I do want to make note of what Mr Ryan said in his review. He highlights the terms of reference around the panel, which were to consider the injecting room in North Richmond’s operation and use and its advanced goals as set out in the legislation, and to provide advice to the government on any changes. That is basically what the terms of reference said, but as he says himself:

While determining the suitability of the current location of the MSIR was not within the scope of the Review Panel, we did hear from many in the North Richmond community and other stakeholders that they held deep concerns around this issue, especially the proximity to Richmond West Primary School and the general impact on residents and other clients attending NRCH –

the North Richmond Community Health centre.

I think that is a very significant point that Mr Ryan makes in his review, and he is right, because he has been speaking to those residents, stakeholders, businesses and others who have spoken to me, whether they have come out of the public housing towers – they will tell you the most horrific stories – whether it is workers within the North Richmond Community Health centre or whether it is those traders in and around Victoria Street and the residents of the North Richmond area. As I have said, many of them have spoken to me about what they do. They spend a lot of their time picking up discarded syringes, and I am not just talking about one or two. I am talking about piles of rubbish, paraphernalia and drug-use rubbish that are outside their homes and in their streets and that are a danger to them and their kids – wasted, discarded needles. How many needles have actually been dispensed, and how many have been picked up? I think there is just a massive misjudgement.

We have never got from the government the rehabilitation numbers – how many people have actually been successfully rehabilitated since the opening of the North Richmond injecting room? I think that is something the public would like to understand. I do not think we have ever had a thorough and proper answer to that very basic question, and I think that all Victorians would want that, because it goes to what Mr Ryan was talking about – the efficacy of this injecting room and whether its operation and use were actually meeting the legislated targets which were in that legislation, talking about support and rehabilitation. Everyone in this chamber wants these addicts to be able to break the cycle of their addiction and wants to give them the support, I have got no doubt about that, but I do not think the site in North Richmond is the right site. We have been consistent on this, and we will continue to be consistent and argue that point, because as I have said, antisocial behaviour and crime have increased since the opening of the injecting room in and around the area. And it is not me saying that; it is the Police Association Victoria, who conducted a survey with their officers, who actually came out and said that. We know that.

The government will argue that it is saving lives – and it may be, and that is a good thing. But what I am saying is there are a lot of other consequences to the location of this injecting room that were never given to Mr Ryan to look into. He made the point himself about the location, about the concerns that have been raised with him. Why is the government so belligerent in not looking at this location and reviewing it? If it is good enough for the CBD residents and traders when there was an issue around a location – as the Premier said, ‘We weren’t able to find a location that strikes the right balance’ – why is it okay that these residents and traders in North Richmond are just ignored and often ridiculed? They certainly have not been listened to by their local representatives from the government over many years, and they certainly deserve to be listened to for the government to understand the impacts to amenity. Housing prices are going down. Businesses are closing. They often live in fear – it is simply not good enough. So I ask, as the final point of our motion says, the government to immediately review the North Richmond MSIR site in light of the Premier’s comments regarding feedback from the broader community within the CBD and that they acknowledge the residents and community of North Richmond just as they have acknowledged the residents and community of the CBD.

Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (11:34): I rise to speak on this motion put forward by Ms Crozier, and I will say at the outset that the Greens will not be supporting this motion. That said, we do agree that the explanation provided by the government regarding their failure to adopt the key recommendation of the Ken Lay report and establish a second medically supervised injecting room (MSIR) is problematic, but for very different reasons. The motion once again highlights the contrast between the leadership shown when it came to the North Richmond site and the gutlessness of the government with their failure to establish a second CBD site. There were many of the same issues expressed – and that continue to be expressed – around the North Richmond centre, but the government listened to public health and expert advice and showed some leadership. They recognised that the lives of people who inject drugs are important and that doing something which has been proven to save those lives was worthwhile.

What is astounding is that the government have not had the courage to take the same approach that they did in North Richmond to the CBD. We have had multiple reviews of the role of MSIRs in Victoria, including of the North Richmond site, which ultimately led to a recommendation to make the facility permanent and also to the recommendation that other facilities, particularly one in the CBD, are pursued. The reality is that for an MSIR to be effective it needs to be located where drug use is happening. It is not going to be in an empty field surrounded by nothing; in fact it is much more likely to be in denser areas near other services, transport and amenities. Inevitably there will be neighbours. I would be surprised if there was any location that had universal support, and having been a councillor, I know that with any facility that is proposed to provide support for people experiencing alcohol or other drug issues, such as housing or health care, there are always objectors – always. This is largely due to the stigma that is absolutely pervasive in our society, so it is unlikely that there will ever be a location that will please everyone.

Ken Lay outlined a whole host of measures in his report that would assist with community engagement and dealing with the concerns of the community, and I would urge the government to think about those when it comes to addressing the concerns that are being raised by the North Richmond community. I do not trivialise or dismiss the concerns that are being raised. It should be noted that some of the issues that are arising from the North Richmond site, given that it is the only facility of its kind in the state, would be at least in part addressed if we had more MSIRs to take the pressure off that one service. But look, this motion is not about proposing measures to address the concerns of residents. It is not about providing additional resources to address the concerns of residents. It is actually about trying to move or even potentially get rid of the North Richmond facility.

We need to remember why these services exist. People inject drugs; it is a fact. 1.5 per cent of the population have injected drugs at some point in their life, so statistically speaking, that means some MPs might have. Some people do it once, some people do it occasionally and some people will become regular users. Rates of injecting drug use, particularly in those who experience addiction, are closely linked to things like poverty, lack of housing, systemic racism, family violence, childhood abuse and neglect and poor mental health, all of which are getting worse. We should be doing things to tackle those issues if we really want to address and prevent substance addiction. Until we do, but even if we do, people will continue to inject drugs. Right now it happens on our streets, in laneways, in parks and in public toilets, and people often do it alone. MSIRs like the one in Richmond provide for that to happen behind four walls with medical support available, significantly reducing the risk – not eliminating it, but significantly reducing it.

The North Richmond MSIR is a health service. It links people with treatment options for addiction like support programs and opioid replacement therapies. It can provide access to other vital healthcare services, like treatment for infection, hepatitis C treatment and connection to social supports. Several people die from a heroin overdose every week in Victoria. For every person that dies, countless more sustain life-altering brain injuries from sublethal overdoses. When ultrapotent synthetic opioids hit the streets – like fentanyl – this figure will soar. The nature of these drugs means that seconds count. Oxygen deprivation causes severe brain damage within 3 minutes. In the North Richmond MSIR people may still overdose, but they can be immediately resuscitated, avoiding that brain injury and avoiding death.

As one of the only people in this place who has worked with people who inject drugs – I worked at a clinic down the road in Hosier Lane – I am probably one of the only ones, perhaps the only one, who has prescribed pharmacotherapy and one of the only ones who has had to resuscitate someone, who has had to turn up to work and hear that yet another one of my patients has died of an overdose. I am absolutely unapologetic about my support for the North Richmond MSIR. The lives of people who inject drugs are too often overlooked due to stigma and, frankly, dehumanisation, but they matter. They are people. They are people with families and friends. They deserve to be able to access the healthcare support that they need where they need it, and that includes the North Richmond MSIR. We need more of these, not thinly veiled attempts to get rid of the only one we have got, and the only value of this motion is to once again shine a light on the government’s lack of courage in not establishing a second MSIR.

Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (11:40): I rise to speak to the motion that Ms Crozier has brought to the chamber today, and I will call out at the outset that I believe that this is another example of the coalition being quite prepared to play politics with an issue and divide the North Richmond community and stigmatise some of the most vulnerable citizens.

Members interjecting.

Ingrid STITT: On a point of order, President, I have been in the chamber since this debate began, and I listened silently to the contributions of Ms Crozier and Dr Mansfield. I ask for the same respect to be shown to me.

The PRESIDENT: I uphold the point of order.

Ingrid STITT: Ms Crozier, as a former health worker, I think you should be ashamed of putting your name to a motion that calls into question the validity of a health service that has saved more than 63 lives since it opened and safely managed more than 8000 overdoses.

From the outset I want to acknowledge those people in our community living with drug addiction. I would also like to acknowledge those who have tragically lost their lives to addiction and the loved ones left behind. Too many people in our state are tragically dying from drug harms. In 2022, 549 Victorians lost their battle with addiction, twice the annual road toll. Almost half of these overdoses involved heroin. That is 549 sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and friends. I would like to encourage those opposite to hold that thought in their heads, those 549 lives, when they rise to speak on this motion today, because people struggling with addiction need our care and support, not our judgement. They certainly do not need to be the subject of political stunts from a party that has totally lost its connection to humanity when it comes to this issue.

The North Richmond community understands better than most the devastation of drug addiction, as the main site for heroin use and its related harms in Victoria. For decades the residents in North Richmond have been confronted daily with this reality, whether they are on their way to work, on their way home from dinner or quite literally on their doorsteps. Richmond resident and Australian Medical Association president Jill Tomlinson reflected:

Before the safe injecting facility, I was regularly stopping on Victoria Street to help someone who had collapsed from overdose ….

This sentiment has been echoed by long-term North Richmond resident and key force behind the campaign to establish the North Richmond medically supervised injecting room (MSIR) Judy Ryan. Judy remembers when the constant sound of sirens was too great to be able to hear a conversation, and she said:

I regularly walked south along Lennox Street to Richmond station. It was common to see people injecting, “on the nod”, or overdosed in the playground of Richmond West Primary School or next door in the carpark of North Richmond Community Health … these incidents had been common place in this area for decades …

For decades Lennox Street has been a key centre of heroin consumption and, unsurprisingly, heroin harm. That is why, following two parliamentary inquiries, coronial findings and a grassroots campaign from the North Richmond community, in 2017 the Andrews Labor government committed to establishing Victoria’s first supervised injecting service, and we established this life-saving service where the experts told us it was needed – where the drug harms are. That is why this service was established on Lennox Street in partnership with North Richmond Community Health, and that is why it will stay there. The North Richmond supervised injecting room is exactly where it needs to be.

Since it opened in June 2018, the North Richmond MSIR has saved more than 63 lives and safely managed more than 8000 overdoses, many of which could have resulted in serious and permanent injury or death. Opioid overdose is a medical emergency – very clearly articulated by Dr Mansfield in her contribution – and emergency services should be called immediately.

Nick McGowan: On a point of order, President, the members of this place are required to make statements that are factual. The minister has said that it has saved 63 lives –

The PRESIDENT: Where are the standing orders that say that – in a second-reading debate?

Nick McGowan: It says in the standing orders that members may make statements on any topic. It says each member will make only one statement – ministers statements here.

The PRESIDENT: This is a second-reading debate.

Nick McGowan: Yes, but it is still incumbent upon members here, and ministers in particular in this place, to make statements that are factual. The minister is making a statement that is not factual.

The PRESIDENT: It is a second-reading debate. That is not a point of order.

Ingrid STITT: Thank you – quite an instructive intervention, I must say. Symptoms may include shallow breathing, confusion, lessened alertness and loss of consciousness. The fact that more than 8000 medical emergencies have been safely managed by this facility is reason enough for all of us to back in this service. That is 8000 overdoses that have been responded to by trained professionals, not mums and dads in the street in Richmond, not the president of the AMA while she is off duty and not Judy Ryan at her front gate.

The life-saving and life-changing benefits of the North Richmond service have been outlined in extensive detail in two reviews into the service: the Hamilton review and the Ryan review. Both reviews point to the lives saved, the overdoses managed, the decrease in public heroin consumption and the vital wraparound health service and social supports the service has been able to be a gateway for. The service has made more than 3700 referrals to health and social care. That is 3700 times that vulnerable people were connected to the services they need to find a pathway out of addiction, whether that is housing, basic health care, treatment for bloodborne viruses, mental health support or pharmacotherapy.

But of course there is always more to do to make sure that this important service is the best service serving the needs of its clients as well as the local community. Last year John Ryan delivered the government his findings and recommendations following a year-long review into the North Richmond MSIR trial, and his advice was very clear: the North Richmond MSIR was doing exactly what it is there to do – save lives. He made 10 recommendations to government, many of which were progressed immediately as urgent priorities. Last week the government released its full response to the review. Two of the most urgent priorities outlined in the review were to make the North Richmond service an ongoing service in recognition that the trial had worked. On 16 May last year, the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Medically Supervised Injecting Centre) Bill 2023 received royal assent, making the North Richmond service an ongoing feature of Victoria’s alcohol and other drugs service system. Let us just be clear about that – ongoing. This service is here to stay, exactly where it is.

Another urgent priority for the government was acting on the Ryan review’s recommendations that an enhanced model of care be commissioned through a competitive tender process. The Ryan review recommended broadening the scope of the MSIR to address trauma-induced mental health issues within a strengthened harm reduction model. To facilitate this a competitive procurement process was initiated to find a new provider or consortium to deliver the enhanced service model at the North Richmond MSIR. As part of this –

Nick McGowan interjected.

Ingrid STITT: You might learn something if you listen. As part of their successful proposal, North Richmond Community Health –

Gayle Tierney: On a point of order, President, there is so much going on in this house I cannot hear the minister speak, and she is standing right next to me.

The PRESIDENT: I uphold the point of order. The minister to continue without any assistance.

Ingrid STITT: To facilitate this a competitive procurement process was initiated, and I am pleased to say the successful proposal from North Richmond Community Health will be enhanced with the model of care in partnership with St Vincent’s and two other community health care providers.

The clock is going to defeat me, I am afraid. I have got plenty more to say on this motion, but what I will say is that our government remains absolutely committed to a range of initiatives that are about reducing harm and saving lives. In closing I will make the final point one last time: the North Richmond MSIR is exactly where it needs to be, and it is staying.

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (11:50): I rise to speak on this motion. It is an important motion because the community in North Richmond – the local residents in the area and the traders on Victoria Street – have long questioned the location of the injecting room, not the efficacy of it. We heard outrageous comments from the minister slurring Ms Crozier on this. This motion is only asking for a review of the site, not criticising the health service, but we hear lie after lie from this minister in regard to what she said about Ms Crozier, which I thought was absolutely disgraceful. I think it goes to the contempt that they have shown my community in this regard.

The facility, as we know and as has been mentioned several times, is in a residential area. It is 50 metres from Richmond West Primary School. It is near a maternal health centre, and it is located in the vicinity of one of Melbourne’s most vibrant shopping strips. I remember Victoria Street when it was at its most vibrant. Victoria Street should be a place you drive to, not through, and many traders – like the head of the business association, Ha Nguyen – are deeply concerned about the viability of this much-loved shopping strip in Melbourne.

We see the CBD injecting room has been scrapped after consultation with the broader community and North Richmond services are to be expanded. Were they consulted with regard to the expansion, given that the CBD community were consulted? In its response to the Lay review the government has literally gone against a key recommendation from the Ryan review, which warned against the centralisation of services – which is exactly what it has done with the North Richmond community. The minister and this government have absolutely bungled this. They are going against their own reviews in responding to another review.

I am very, very pleased that the CBD injecting room has been scrapped; do not get me wrong. It took a long campaign. I spent days, months, sitting with traders and sitting with residents in regard to this, speaking to them and advocating on their behalf in this place and in the media as well, because a CBD injecting room would have been devastating for those businesses and for family businesses as well as for tourism in the CBD area.

I am pleased there is a small bit of bipartisanship from this government, because in responding to the Lay report they have pretty much picked up the election policy of the Liberal and National parties, which looks into hydromorphone pharmacotherapy. I am very pleased that there is bipartisanship. I know that some members on the government benches were fiercely advocating for a CBD injecting room, and I know the crossbench were as well. I think they would be pretty surprised to learn that there was indeed a Labor member meeting with residents and businesses saying that they would advocate on their behalf to make sure there would not be an injecting room. So I am pleased that there is that bipartisan support on that front.

The location of the facility is a valid concern, and the government must acknowledge this. Before the injecting room opened, the Hamilton report indicated the City of Yarra was picking up about 1000 inappropriately discarded needles per month, and the Ryan report shows the city is now picking up 10,000 to 14,000 inappropriately discarded needles from around North Richmond – a 10- to 14-‍fold increase. Inappropriately discarded needles littered around the community are a valid concern. In fact any form of littering is a valid concern, let alone dangerous needles.

The primary goal of a medically supervised injecting room is to save lives. I do not think anyone would disagree with that. Similarly, I do not think you would find too many people who do not believe that saving lives is an admirable objective. The Ryan review found that the North Richmond facility saved 63 lives, but when you dig into the report you find that this claim is not based on a real-world measurement. It is not based on real-world data; it is based on modelling. This is not to say that modelling is always bad or is always inappropriate. However, the headline was simply stated, with the report only saying that the modelling was adapted from international studies and used in the Hamilton review. It does not tell us anything about the particular model that was used, what parameters were used or how it was constructed. Any of these could drastically change the model’s output, yet we hear this line over and over again from Labor members over there – from the government.

If we look at the Hamilton review, the best we can do is a footnote that states:

A number of international studies regarding modelling of overdose deaths were consulted to inform the review approach including Irvine … 2019 and Babu … 2019.

So we have no idea what parameters were used – there are no actual parameters in place – and what parameters are in the model and no idea how the model was constructed. I know the members opposite are quietly questioning the minister’s judgement on this. We do not know exactly what studies were used; we just know a couple that were used as inspiration for the model. It is just incredibly opaque.

But we do have real-world data from the coroner. The coroner’s report shows the number of fatal overdoses in metropolitan Melbourne increased from 388 in 2017 to 414 in 2022. In regional Victoria they increased from 132 to 135, which is a small increase. Digging into the heroin overdose deaths more specifically, we see that annual deaths increased from 185 in 2017 to 197 in 2022, and in regional Victoria, where there is no injecting room, annual deaths actually decreased slightly. It is fair to say, looking at this data – like many other statistics, be they on crime or be they economic – that there was a reduction during the pandemic and a commensurate uptick following the end of restrictions. However, no matter which way you look at it, it is not exactly a ringing endorsement for the primary goal of these facilities.

I will just note that in his report Mr Lay notes that he was ‘not asked to pass judgement on the merits, or otherwise, of injecting services’ but merely ‘to talk to … stakeholders about the proposed siting and implementation of an injecting service in the city’, and he was not asked to investigate site options. I think we need to do better with these reviews. We need reviews that are fully transparent, that have open terms of reference and that are not sent back to the drawing board secretly, leaked out in bits and pieces and leaked to former members of this house, who end up going around telling everyone what is in them. We need more transparency. If you are going to tell some former members of the crossbench what is in it and go out whipping up campaigns around the community, be transparent with the Victorian people, who deserve to know what is in these reports.

Locals in Richmond do not deserve to be belittled by this government for expressing reasonably held concerns. This is very important for the people in North Richmond. I know there are many surveys, which I will be going to after question time, in regard to public housing residents who are deeply concerned for their safety and the safety in the North Richmond area because of the injecting room. I have spoken to many of them. I have spoken to many traders. Georgie Crozier and I have actually met with residents on several occasions in North Richmond. They are deeply concerned about the services and about the expanded services that are coming in, which again are against a key recommendation of the Ryan review to not too heavily centralise services in one location, which is what they have done. I will finish my remarks there, but I will conclude after question time.

A member interjected.

Evan MULHOLLAND: I have got 1 minute to go. There you go. I am very, very happy to continue my comments, because as I said, the government has gone against a key recommendation in the Ryan review in responding to the Lay review. They have consulted with and responded to the broader CBD community as part of their response to the Lay review, but they have gone against a key recommendation of the Ryan review in expanding services in North Richmond without actually consulting the people of North Richmond.

The government has picked up our election policy in regard to an expanded hydromorphone service to kill the habit and get rid of the habit of drug addiction. (Time expired)

Lee TARLAMIS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:00): I move:

That debate on this motion be adjourned until later this day.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned until later this day.