Sobering facilities
Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:31): (681) My question is to the Minister for Mental Health. Minister, on 19 September an extremely intoxicated person was banging on the doors and windows of the sobering-up centre in St Kilda, screaming obscenities and demanding to be let in, yet was ignored by staff. Local residents were left to call the police. Minister, given you have said the sobering centre operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and is staffed by a trained multidisciplinary team to ensure physically and culturally safe responsive and holistic service provision, why has this situation occurred where local residents were left to call the police?
Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (12:32): I thank Ms Crozier for her question and her interest in these issues. I would reiterate the importance of the reforms that the government has pursued when it comes to decriminalising public intoxication in Victoria, something that has been a long time coming and something that the First Peoples communities right across the state have been campaigning for for decades. In fact since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, this has been an issue that has been raised with successive governments, and it took until last year for our government to actually deliver on this recommendation and decriminalise public drunkenness. That is because we know that the laws as they stood before these reforms were having a disproportionate impact on Aboriginal Victorians and were causing harm.
Since changing the law we have also made sure that there is a health-led response across the community. That has included assertive outreach through a number of different organisations across the state, and it has also included our dedicated sobering services in Collingwood and St Kilda. I have actually personally been to visit the service in St Kilda, and they do an incredible job. They do outreach and they also provide a service for people who are not able to be safely returned home or to family or friends.
The services across the state, since we reformed the system in August, have helped more than 17,000 Victorians, so there are 17,000 examples of where we are getting a better outcome, a health-led response. And in our sobering centres we have assisted, so far, 863 –
Georgie Crozier: On a point of order, President, I appreciate the minister is giving some context, but the question was very specific around why the residents were left to ring the police when the sobering-up centre staff failed to do so. Could the minister be directed back to the question, please.
The PRESIDENT: I will call the minister to the question.
Ingrid STITT: As I was saying, the sobering centres have already assisted 863 Victorians to get that health-led response and to get the care that they need if they are intoxicated in public. As Ms Crozier knows, that service is 24 hours. I am not in a position to be able to comment on the specific example that she raised, but what I will say is that there is always the ability – in fact in circumstances where there are issues arising in the community that could pose a safety issue for either that individual who is intoxicated or any other member of the community, it is still the advice that people ought to ring 000 in those circumstances. But if Ms Crozier would like to provide my office with more information about the specific case that she is raising – she has probably photographed it anyway – I would be happy to follow through.
Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:35): The minister might want to give a cheap shot, but these residents have actually emailed you on a number of occasions around significant issues and you are well aware of them. Your former colleague Brian Tee has been cc’d. Councillors and local member Nina Taylor are well aware. If they are not raising it with you, then you have got a problem over there. But the question I have got is: Minister, you have failed individuals seeking help and you have failed the local residents of this quiet suburban street, who are living in fear and frequently dealing with these incidents while the centre staff are not responsive. Minister, will you review the location of the St Kilda sobering-up centre?
Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (12:36): I completely reject the premise of what you are suggesting, Ms Crozier. This is a health service, and it has been in that location on that street in that community for decades. It has been there for more than 30 years. I know firsthand from speaking to the staff of that service how committed they are to working with the local community. If there are specific issues that Ms Crozier would like me to follow up with Ngwala – who are a highly respected Aboriginal community controlled health organisation providing very important outreach services in that community to some of the most disadvantaged members of our community – and if Ms Crozier wants to be part of the solution, then by all means come forward with some information that might help with the solution. But I have always said that this is about giving people a health-led response and caring for them in an appropriate way.