Wednesday, 1 May 2024

Motions

Medically supervised injecting facilities

Debate resumed.

David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (14:10): With some reservations, I will be supporting this motion. I am willing to take the opposition’s statement in good faith that this is not some secret plan to try and undermine the North Richmond room. However, I do not think anyone would argue that there are not some amenity issues with the injecting centre in North Richmond, and a review may help provide some insight and maybe even some potential solutions for that. One potential solution – and I would like to commend the government for some of the work that they have done on this – which was announced over the last week, was the introduction of the hydromorphone trial. I think that this is an excellent thing. We have been pushing for this for years now, so I am glad to see that the government is taking action on that.

I note that one of the biggest concerns for residents around the North Richmond medically supervised injecting room (MSIR) is drug dealing outside the premises, and yes, this is a concern. We have people who are connected to organised crime dealing drugs on the streets, and no-one wants that, including me. One potential way to help deal with that and alleviate that amenity problem would be to allow the hydromorphone trial to be conducted at the injecting room in Richmond, which would help undermine organised crime and would help stop dealing on the streets. I think that that would be definitely something worth investigating. I have spoken with residents around the area, and many of the ones I spoke with, although they had concerns about the amenity and things that were happening, did not want it shut down; they just wanted some action to try and alleviate these concerns. So I am supportive of looking at ways that we can improve amenity at the very least.

The Parliamentary Budget Office report that I initiated looked at the size of the heroin market, and it is around about $200 million a year in Victoria. If we think about that, for every person that we can get off heroin and onto pharmacotherapy, such as buprenorphine, methadone, hydromorphone or whatever it may be, that is more money coming out of organised crime, undermining organised crime and the subsequent effects.

The other issue with this money that is being spent on these drugs is where the money is going. Not many people talk about it, but there must be large money laundering operations happening for illicit tobacco, illicit drugs and vaping, which are all controlled by the black market in Victoria, and this money cycles through Lord knows what sort of money laundering and then goes off to places overseas, where Lord knows what is done with it over there as well. I have very big concerns about that. I think if we can get people out of the hands of organised crime and drug dealers and into the medical system, and things like hydromorphone will help do that, then this is an excellent outcome. Hopefully after a period on pharmacotherapy they will find themselves in a position where they stabilise their life and they can finally get clean and get away from this terrible affliction that affects so many people in our state.

I urge the government to continue with these reforms. I stated publicly last week that I was very happy with the government’s announcements. I know that in my area in Frankston we have had big problems with pharmacotherapy. It has been an absolute mess. I think if you talk to anyone in the sector, they will agree that pharmacotherapy is an absolute mess across the state. There has been lots of talk from people like the Greens, arguing about the second injecting room. Well, I do not see how that will help anyone in Frankston and in regional Victoria. I think what the government has done in setting up a large number of small centres all over the place is much more sensible than having one big centralised place in the city. I think it makes much more sense and has much more probability of helping the people of South-East Metro, especially Frankston, which for years now has had this problem with the continuation of pharmacotherapy services, because not many doctors are providing it.

I am also hoping that the federal government steps up. I have spoken about this a number of times. I acknowledge that it will take some time to implement. But making prescriptions for pharmacotherapy more widely available and easier to get, including potentially by allowing practitioner nurses to prescribe these medicines, would make it much more available to people who want to try and get their life back under control. It is right what the government has done to focus on providing services to people who are trying to get their life back on track and providing more options, such as hydromorphone, which hopefully will be an attractive option for people who have potentially tried other pharmacotherapy drugs and have failed with those. Maybe this one will work for them; I hope it does. I hope that the people who take part in this trial benefit from it. If it does prove to be beneficial, then I hope that it can be expanded to help more people.

We know the harms from heroin, as have been spoken about earlier. Preventing brain damage was one of the things that really struck me when I went on a tour of the injecting room in North Richmond. Lots of people talk about overdoses and death, and that is tragic when it happens, but what is not talked about very much is brain damage from overdoses, which is far more common and can cause lifelong disability. Once someone suffers severe brain damage, the chances of reintegrating into society, getting clean, getting a job and becoming a productive member of society again diminishes very, very much. Anything that we can do to prevent that is good, and that includes therapies such as oxygen therapy, which I know they do at the Richmond injecting centre. I note the government also expanded naloxone availability to try and reverse overdoses. I thought that the vending machine idea was fairly innovative, and I look forward to seeing how that goes. Certainly making naloxone more widely available means that when someone suffers an overdose, someone else can help them with it. Naloxone and other drugs like that are certainly very helpful.

Also, I am not sure how it will work; I do not really understand it. But the idea of ‘Don’t use alone’ – I know the government was talking about that. That was an interesting idea. One of the greatest risk factors is when someone uses drugs like heroin alone. If they do have a problem, no-one is there to help them. If there are ways to make sure that people do not use dangerous drugs like heroin alone and that someone is there with them to help give them naloxone or call an ambulance or whatever it may be, I think that is very good.

Nevertheless, despite some scepticism from the government and the Greens on this motion, I do think it is worthwhile reviewing amenity and looking at what we could do to improve amenity for the people of North Richmond, because clearly there are problems there that need to be looked at.

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (14:18): It is with great pleasure that I rise today to support motion 383 – Georgie Crozier’s motion – regarding a review of the North Richmond site for the injecting room. I want to take this motion bit by bit and expand on little bits of it that I think are incredibly important.

I want to start by taking up a comment that was made by Minister Stitt in regard to this motion. She mentioned that the opposition, in putting this motion forward, has lost connection to humanity. I want to take exception to that. That is absolutely the opposite of what this motion is all about. It is a ridiculous comment to make, because this motion is all about showing our humanity and connection to the community and the people whose lives are being impacted by the Richmond North injecting room. This is not about whether there is a need. We are not debating whether there is a need or there is a service being provided here, but rather that there needs to be a review conducted, because the government is proposing that this is a holistic approach, and clearly the residents do not think it is a holistic approach. Clearly the primary school children and the families who send their children to the school that is only 50 metres up the road do not think it is a holistic approach, and the businesses that have been impacted do not see this as a holistic approach. This is impacting the lives of many, many people, and to be so arrogant as a government to say they will not even entertain the idea that they need to move this injecting room is just appalling, because it shows and it demonstrates to the public that they do not care. You absolutely do not care about the people that it is impacting on a holistic basis.

I also want to talk about the fact that Ms Stitt mentioned the validity of the health service. This is not about the validity of the health service. This motion is focused on the actual site of the North Richmond injecting room. And I do also want to reiterate that the coalition also has a tremendous desire to see more funding for rehabilitation. I am of the understanding that the waiting list for drug rehabilitation is currently up at five months. For somebody that wishes to suddenly come off heroin to be told ‘I’m sorry, you’ll need to wait five months. Come back in five months. We’ll put your name on a waiting list’ is appalling. I do not see how we are helping people who have an addiction that want to actually find a way out if we have a five-month waiting list. So I do take exception to some of the comments that have been made in this chamber today about this particular motion, because it exposes the fact that this government is not doing enough. It is simply not doing enough. This is an inquiry that needs to happen, and it is appalling to think that the government, the Greens and others might decide that they are not going to support such a motion.

Let us take it point by point:

That this house:

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

which is obviously very well laid out in the Lay report here, on which I have taken many notes. I notice that this particular report put forward the position that it was going to impact businesses, it was going to impact the community’s lives. Yet Richmond people have not been given the same courtesy. That is the first point. Number 2:

expresses concern at the government’s conflicting positions on the location … noting:

(a) the Lay report …

as I have just said. They talked to key stakeholders about the proposed siting. One has to wonder what key stakeholders were consulted in Richmond North and why the government is so reluctant – in fact it is pushing back entirely – on the idea of having a review.

Since 2020, when Mr Lay was first commissioned to consult, we discovered that there was a waitlist for drug and alcohol services in Victoria. This has now increased under this government by 40 per cent. That is outrageous. What are you doing with the funding that you are giving to people who are on drugs? You have wasted four years not delivering much-needed services.

When we have the Premier having to talk about striking a balance in supporting people who use drugs with the needs of the broader community, this is the whole point – what about the people of North Richmond? What about the families who send their children to that school? It really bothers me as a mother of four to think of what it might be like. And I would say to all of the members across the other side of this chamber and even on the crossbench, if you have kids, why don’t you send your kid to that school to demonstrate how much you really feel this is the right location for an injecting room? If you feel so strongly about it, pull your kids out of the school they are in and send them to that school, and see how you feel and whether you still feel as strongly about the location.

I will go on to mention the things that I know Ms Crozier has mentioned in her speech about the explicit sexual acts that are taking place in the street. I do not know any family that would be wanting to expose children or residents of any kind to explicit acts in the street that they do not wish to see. What is more, we have the continued issue with the increase of syringes in the area. We already know that primary school children have been collecting syringes and that many parents have talked about this at meetings within the schools, but we now have an increase in inappropriately discarded syringes. I believe Mr Mulholland quoted that it has gone up to about 14,000. Fourteen thousand syringes are being discarded inappropriately in and around this injecting room. I mean, what is this government doing?

This motion is incredibly important. It is important to anyone that cares about the wellbeing of any community. It is also incredibly important, not just to the people of North Richmond but to us as a state, to get this right for those people who are currently using so they have the opportunity to feel safe as well, because they are not safe. But what is the big issue? We are only calling on the government to review the North Richmond site in light of the Premier’s comments. It is your Premier that made these comments. In light of the fact that the broader community needs to be consulted – well, what about the people of North Richmond?

In my closing remarks, what I do want to say is this: we are very, very concerned about the fact that this government is not doing enough for people who currently require services, and we are very, very pleased that the government is considering what we went to the state election with – our proposal to have the hydromorphone trial. I do not think there would be anyone here saying that is not a good idea. We are concerned about how we are impacting people’s lives with the methods that we are using for drug rehabilitation and drug use. We do not want people to unnecessarily die, but at the same time, it is just inappropriate to have this near a primary school, to have this in a community that has not been consulted and to have it near businesses. It is just not working. The fact is this government is so arrogant that it is out of touch with its local people and is not prepared to consult them or even consider how this impacts their lives. I just see this as total hypocrisy. I am very pleased to support this motion. I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to speak on it.

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (14:27): I rise to speak on Ms Crozier’s motion. Once again, I am rising in this place to make a contribution about the important role the North Richmond medically supervised injecting service – the facility, the injecting room or however you want to characterise it – is making to the community in North Richmond, particularly for those who are drug users.

I think the fundamental point that we have made before, that the minister made in her earlier contribution and that others have made in previous contributions and today is that this service is doing a lot of good for the injecting drug user community. It is saving lives. It is reducing harm. It is preventing overdoses. They are fundamentally good things that we should be supporting and are supporting, because when we look at the efficacy of this service we know, one, that it is in the location it is in because North Richmond, that part of Richmond, has been a part of and subject to the drug trade and drug use for decades. Local residents are no strangers to people overdosing on the streets or injecting in their yards, because that part of the community, for a range of reasons, has been a place where injecting drug use has occurred for a very long time.

What has happened since the medically supervised injecting facility was opened and what the reports that are the subject of some of this debate have demonstrated is that since the opening of that facility lives have been saved, overdoses have been prevented and things which were previously occurring on the streets are now occurring in a supervised environment where appropriate treatment and support services can be provided to those individuals who are injecting drugs in the area. We make no apologies for defending the efficacy of this service, because it is absolutely saving lives, reducing overdoses and reducing the number of ambulance call-outs.

In the Ryan review, John Ryan was emphatic in this point – that the facility was achieving its core aims. He found that this incredible service had saved 63 lives and safely managed more than 6000 overdoses. That is a figure that we now think is more than 8000. The review spoke with local residents, local businesspeople, people who are drug users, police and those who work in the area and used all of this evidence to arrive at his conclusion. I think what is important is also that the Ryan review noted that the benefits of the service extended far beyond the lives that it saved inside its walls. It noted that the service had resulted in a decrease in ambulance attendances and a decrease in overdose-related admissions to the nearest public emergency department at St Vincent’s, and notably that trend was different to comparable emergency departments. It has reduced the spread of bloodborne viruses, and it has been making referrals into support and care pathways. I think, most importantly, that due to legislation passed through the Parliament last year that facility is now a permanent feature of the response that the state government has to the harms that are caused through injecting drug use and is a part of our attempt to make these facilities safer.

Following these reports, we have enhanced the model of care. We have brought in to partner with North Richmond Community Health the team at St Vincent’s Hospital, Your Community Health and Access Health to strengthen the operations of the centre. Importantly, that facility, one of two in Australia, now sits alongside a quite comprehensive statewide action plan to reduce harm, which the minister and the Premier announced last week, I think it was, and which has both statewide support through things like the increased use of pharmacotherapy, an $8.4 million investment, the creation of an overdose prevention helpline and the quite significant life-saving potential of the naloxone dispensing units that are to be rolled out in various parts of the state. In addition to that, there are some increased and targeted support services within the CBD, where we know there is need for more support, a new community health service, some inreach services at the Salvation Army just down the road and an important trial of hydromorphone in the health hubs using these new pharmacotherapy treatments to try and reduce and prevent overdose and overdose-related harm.

It is very clear to see from the contributions that the minister has made in the course of this debate and that others have made, but also by actually reading the reports that are in front of us – by seeing what the experts have had to say – that not only is the North Richmond facility achieving its aims in saving lives and reducing harm but that the government is taking these matters seriously in other parts of the state and other parts of Melbourne, and we absolutely welcome these supports.

David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (14:33): We will not be supporting this motion. The opposition are not interested in reviewing the North Richmond medically supervised injecting room (MSIR) site in light of the recent comments by the Premier regarding feedback from the community, as stated in the motion. They want to close it down, not find a more suitable site. The lack of courage shown by the government – the outright dismissal of the recommendations not only of Mr Ken Lay but of multiple eminent authorities to establish a safe injecting facility in the CBD – is deeply disappointing and far from being a win for traders or the community in the CBD. Typically, the opposition have used this opportunity to drum up fear and spread misinformation. It is the same dog whistling and scare tactics we have unfortunately come to expect from the opposition on this issue.

There have been multiple reviews of MSIRs in general in Victoria and of the North Richmond MSIR in particular. They all conclude that supervised injecting rooms work in saving lives and, more importantly, in helping people move towards recovery. Both in Richmond and in jurisdictions across the world it has been proven that these places save lives and the wraparound services they provide deliver a pathway to recovery and rebuilding lives, allowing people to deal with their trauma, their homelessness, their mental health and their broken relationships.

These are the facts: people suffering from addiction will use drugs whether there is an injecting room available or not. We know from research that heroin users will typically consume their drugs within 10 minutes of buying them. The most suitable location for a safe injecting room, therefore, is close to where the drugs are being sold, and like it or not, long before the safe injecting facility was established in North Richmond, people were buying and selling drugs there. As Mr Batchelor noted, it was and it remains a hotspot for the heroin trade.

Point (2)(d) of this motion is particularly egregious – that the Premier’s comments about being unable to find a suitable location are inconsistent with the decision to set up an injecting facility next to a primary school. Well, as an aside, we dispute the Premier’s assertion that they were unable to find a suitable location in the CBD but in relation to the school next to the North Richmond safe injecting facility Richmond West Primary School was one of the facility’s greatest advocates. Why? Richmond West sits in between the towers of the Richmond housing estate. On a daily basis children were being exposed to the sight of people injecting just over the other side of the school fence or, worse, the terrifying spectacle of people dying from drug overdoses before their eyes. This is what they told us.

Members interjecting.

David ETTERSHANK: I do not know if you have actually been out there. I have. I have spoken with people, and this is the truth of their reality. This is what they are living with, and this is what the MSIR is seeking to address. Make no mistake, there were people overdosing and dying within view of those students on a regular basis. Without a safe place to inject drugs, people will continue to inject in alleyways, in car parks and in the unoccupied spaces behind primary schools. When there is a safe place to inject, a safe injecting facility, they will use that.

Instead of reviewing Victoria’s only safe injecting facility with, let us face it, the intention of shutting it down, we should be looking to have more of these facilities where they are needed. There is need for such facilities in places like Footscray, Brimbank, St Kilda, Frankston and Dandenong. This need is manifest. We should be pressuring the government to show some moral fortitude, some courage and some leadership to follow the evidence and the recommendations of Ken Lay, of Professor Margaret Hamilton, of Professor Alex Cockram and of Mr John Ryan, along with the countless harm reduction advocates who have worked in this area. Safe injecting rooms save lives and support people to access recovery and gain back their lives.

Sheena WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (14:38): I want to say, as we all know, the North Richmond community has confronted the often devastating impacts of drug harms for a long time. That is why the transformative effect the North Richmond medically supervised injecting room, or MSIR as it is known, has had on the area cannot be overstated. The location of this life-saving service was chosen precisely because it is located within the centre of those harms. The service is where it needs to be. We all know that the North Richmond medically supervised injecting room has been doing exactly what it set out to do, and that is saving lives and changing lives. This means that fewer people are overdosing in Richmond’s streets, it means fewer ambulance call-outs and it means lives saved. Because the service is able to connect people who use drugs to vital wraparound health and social support services, it means lives changed.

The most recent review of the service, the Ryan review, was handed down to government in March 2023. The CEO of the Penington Institute John Ryan found that the North Richmond medically supervised injecting room was achieving its core aim: saving lives. He found that this incredible service had indeed saved 63 lives and safely managed more than 6000 overdoses, a figure that we know is now more than 8000. The trial’s positive result makes a strong case for continuing the services offered by the North Richmond MSIR indefinitely. As a result, the Labor government properly took steps to ensure the MSIR became a permanent fixture, and I recall that debate here in this place.

The Ryan review recognises North Richmond Community Health’s undeniable success in curbing overdoses and drug-related harms during the trial period, and of course we are excited to announce that North Richmond Community Health in collaboration with St Vincent’s Hospital, Your Community Health and Access Health and Community will continue to provide this vital service. This new partnership aims to expand access to care and improve referral pathways for those in need, building upon the existing success of the North Richmond initiative. In response to the local community and business needs, North Richmond Community Health has received support to expand its assertive outreach services within community, and this outreach service, which began in September 2023, operates outside regular hours on weekends. It is staffed by really a diverse team of professionals, and can I take a moment to acknowledge them and their work and thank them so very much for being on the front line. Our medical professionals are quite incredible, and I have had the good fortune to meet a great number of them over the last little while. This important program means that people who use drugs are able to receive care and support where they are while also keeping the North Richmond community cleaner and safer.

It is not all we are doing – that is worth saying. As part of our ongoing commitment to the North Richmond community and people who use drugs, we are also funding a homelessness outreach worker to assist clients to access housing, funding the operations of the Richmond youth hub, continuing the Supporting Tenancy at Yarra program in partnership with St Vincent’s, supporting the operation of the Victoria Street community space, upgrading the entrances to the MSIR and North Richmond Community Health more broadly and improving coordination between the security providers in the region. We are committed to supporting those who use the MSIR service and the entire North Richmond community. There is also significant innovation within the alcohol and other drug (AOD) space, with new contemporary methods of saving lives and treating addiction.

I just want to say that pharmacotherapy is the most effective treatment option available for opioid dependence and is an absolute lifesaver. I know that we have discussed that a great number of times in this chamber. Pharmacotherapy is an evidence-based, effective treatment option available to people with opioid dependence, reducing the intensity of withdrawal symptoms, drug cravings and the likelihood of use. The Ryan review identified that Victoria’s pharmacotherapy system is not meeting the needs of the community as people struggle to access the drug treatment medication that would help them cease or reduce their drug use. To maintain and strengthen access to opioid pharmacotherapy, the Victorian government will work to enhance community health service prescribing and address prescriber shortages, which I know has been raised in here, by investing $8.4 million to expand the public pharmacotherapy footprint.

I just want to take a moment to acknowledge the work and dedication of the Minister for Mental Health in this place, Ingrid Stitt, and her tireless work and dedication to this issue. The fact is that she, through her work, will see lives saved and a safer Victoria for everybody. Her work is something that I think we will reflect on in the many years to come. But for me the introduction of hydromorphone does represent a significant advancement in pharmacotherapy. I have heard a little about that lately, but I have got to say it really is an alternative for cases where the traditional treatments have ultimately proven ineffective. Victoria adopting this emerging medication does truly reflect the modernisation of its approach to AOD treatment, aligning with global standards.

I know that there is so much more that I could say and reflect on about my time meeting with the service providers and the workers that I know and admire as well as the folks that use this service each and every day, so to them can I just again say thank you very, very much. Perhaps with the announcement made by the Premier and the Minister for Mental Health only last week, we will be able to firmly say that we are pressing ahead with some very significant investments here in Victoria right across the state to address overdose and drug misuse in our state. I am very happy to say that the investments – whether that is in emergency, whether that is in pharmacotherapy or whether that is in wraparound services – truly are something worth celebrating. The Allan Labor government is of course committed to saving lives, reducing harm and investing in our AOD services for those that are most vulnerable in our community so that we can not just change people’s lives but save them too. I will leave my remarks there.

Nick McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (14:45): I have very little time to go over what I was going to go over in some depth and detail, so I will try and be succinct. I think something that has not been said by many speakers today and that I want to reflect back on is the work done by the Hamilton report. In my opinion the Hamilton report is the most comprehensive document and work that has been undertaken in this space, and yet speaker after speaker today has talked about saving lives and the reductions in overdoses and so forth, and none of that is reflected in the Hamilton report at all – quite the opposite.

The other thing I want to reflect upon is the point that very often we are criticised in this place for not setting clear objectives, yet in this space section 55A of the act sets out very clearly the objectives of this act. It is a unique thing, it is something we should cherish, because what it says very clearly is: if you care about drug users, if you care about their welfare, then these are the goals we have established for ourselves to achieve. What concerns me of course is that none of the reports that followed the Hamilton report looked at the issue the Hamilton report looked at – that is, the efficacy of the project. Despite perhaps what some in this place may say, I am not against the trial and never have been. What I am against is if you have a trial and it is not working and you continue to do things the same way, so for me it is incumbent that we pivot, that we change.

I have 14 points to go over, and these originate from the Hamilton report. I will have to skip through them or miss some of them, but they are important. I have got a minute and a half to do it. What the Hamilton report found – categorically, statistically, factually – was the number of heroin deaths before and after the facility opened actually increased. The Coroners Court data showed:

… no observable difference in the number of people who have died from heroin overdoses before and after …

It is sobering. Of the 2657 overdoses inside the medically supervised injecting room, staff:

… responded to 271 extremely serious overdoses with naloxone, which, based on existing modelling, avoided …

an estimated 21 to 27 deaths.

That is where the saving lives figure comes from, the same figure that Minister Stitt time and again in this place cannot explain. She cannot explain it because it is based on modelling from the Hamilton report. They keep continuing to update that figure – yet no-one can actually justify or point to any name or person – which is currently standing at around 63. So every time we stand up in this place and say we are saving lives it is simply not true. I hope at some point we can statistically verify that, but at this point in time that is not the case.

The Hamilton report went on to document any number of things: overdoses within 1 kilometre of the Richmond facility averaged 3.2 deaths after a quarter of opening, compared to the long-term average of 2.6. I have 8 seconds to go; I have far too much to add here. I would only urge every Victorian who cares about drug users to read the Hamilton report in total.

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (14:48): I understand that this debate has caused a range of discussion and emotion in relation to what I have put forward in my motion, which is to ask for a review of the site given the issues around the North Richmond community. That is all it is asking, and there are speakers on this debate that have significant views around it. There are people in this community who are very supportive of helping anyone with drug addictions but understand that this is actually causing a huge issue in that area and to the amenity of North Richmond. It is not unreasonable to have a review into the site.

There are those in this chamber that are absolutely hell-bent on saying ‘No, that’s where it is going to stay.’ We have been consistent about the injecting room being next to a primary school. We do not think it is appropriate, and it is not, because there are still addicts using on the street – not using in the injecting room – and dying, which children have to walk past. The residents tell me what is going on. Some of those residents that have to take their children to school have to go past the drug using and the gross sexual acts that are occurring.

That is not reasonable either, nor is people dying, but not one of the government members told us how many people have actually been rehabilitated – not one. Not one member of the government told us how many have been rehabilitated, and the effect that it is having on the community is profound. The hypocrisy of the Premier and the government in their decision around the CBD because of the community concerns and not finding an appropriate site – but they never took into consideration –

David Ettershank interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: To take up Mr Ettershank’s accusation about me, I was down there. I do not think you heard my contribution. I was down there before the trial started and when the trial started, talking to the residents. No other MP – not one Labor MP, nor your predecessor Ms Patten – went to those –

Harriet Shing interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: No, they did not, Ms Shing. Not one of you was down there talking to the residents –

Members interjecting.

Georgie CROZIER: let me finish – in the community meetings. It is true. Not one. And your member – what was his name? Who was the former member for Richmond?

A member: Dick Wynne.

Georgie CROZIER: Dick Wynne – he was not there, the local member. Ms Patten never came down, nor did Martin Foley, who wanted this. He did not come down and speak to the residents.

Harriet Shing: He was talking to residents all the time.

Georgie CROZIER: No, not on this, Ms Shing. Anyway, through you, Acting Chair, in the time that I have left I am not going to be distracted by the government MPs that know that they did not do their diligence for the residents who were actually calling very reasonably for a thing from government to be reviewed. I will say it again, as Mr Mulholland said in his contribution: in relation to what is occurring, the data and the facts and the figures – the modelling that they used – were never substantiated in terms of where we are at now. So there are many, many questions, and we will continue to ask the questions of government, because they have failed to provide the answers.

In this motion all we are asking for is a review of the North Richmond site – a pretty simple ask. But no; they have said no. How disappointing for those residents that will continue to live with the crime, with the dreadful, dreadful antisocial behaviour that continues, with the ruining of the local amenity and with the dangers. They are putting their children, their neighbours and the community at risk with the crimes that are occurring and the ongoing drug use. Let us not forget – it is not just heroin being injected in this injecting room, it is ice, and they are very dangerous drugs. These users come out of the injecting room, get in their cars with kids and drive off, and the residents –

Members interjecting.

Georgie CROZIER: They do. I have got the videos. You laugh, Mr Ettershank. Well, go and speak to the residents, because they are absolutely furious with what is going on, and so they should be, because they are living right there and they are living it all the time. I urge all members to support my motion.

Council divided on motion:

Ayes (17): Melina Bath, Jeff Bourman, Gaelle Broad, Georgie Crozier, David Davis, Moira Deeming, Ann-Marie Hermans, David Limbrick, Wendy Lovell, Trung Luu, Bev McArthur, Joe McCracken, Nick McGowan, Evan Mulholland, Adem Somyurek, Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell, Richard Welch

Noes (20): Ryan Batchelor, John Berger, Lizzie Blandthorn, Katherine Copsey, Enver Erdogan, Jacinta Ermacora, David Ettershank, Michael Galea, Shaun Leane, Sarah Mansfield, Tom McIntosh, Rachel Payne, Georgie Purcell, Samantha Ratnam, Harriet Shing, Ingrid Stitt, Lee Tarlamis, Sonja Terpstra, Gayle Tierney, Sheena Watt

Motion negatived.