Wednesday, 22 March 2023

Bills

Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Medically Supervised Injecting Centre) Bill 2023

Second reading

Debate resumed.

Gabrielle DE VIETRI (Richmond) (14:49): I rise today to speak in support of the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Medically Supervised Injecting Centre) Bill 2023. There is overwhelming evidence to show that the medically supervised injecting room saves lives and provides pathways out of drug dependence for people who use injecting drugs. It is on that basis that the Greens support this bill, which will enable the safe injecting room to continue its work into the future. Having lived in North Richmond before the centre was established I saw firsthand the growing use of drugs in public space and often removed syringes from my doorstep. The medically supervised injecting room has since been established in response to community calls for a health-based response to the growing injecting drug use, overdoses and deaths in the area. Let me say emphatically that North Richmond Community Health has done an extraordinary job in developing and managing the centre and all of the complexity that that entails. Every time I have visited the site I have been blown away by the breadth and complexity of the service that it provides and the care, professionalism and compassion that its staff display. The medically supervised injecting room also provides critical wraparound services, including treatment for hepatitis C, long-acting opiate replacement therapy, dental care and housing, legal and employment support.

Given its incredible success in preventing overdoses it is concerning that this government now appears to be backing away from its commitment to establishing more safe injecting facilities, which will continue to see North Richmond unfairly burdened as the only supervised injecting facility in the state. Evidence shows that we need safe injecting facilities in health centres across the state, including in the CBD, in St Kilda, in Geelong and in Dandenong. In the CBD especially, drug use and overdoses show no sign of decline, and every day that we delay, more people are at risk of overdose and death. Community health providers are saying that things are as bad, if not worse, than they were before COVID. The government has bought a building for a community health service incorporating a discrete supervised injecting room, but now it is beating around the bush as to if and when that supervised injecting room will be established. This is most concerning. Studies of more than 120 safe injecting services around the world, some of which have been operating for decades now, show that they are one of the most effective tools in combating the serious harm caused by drug dependence in our communities.

Every day in Melbourne, people are risking death by injecting drugs on the streets, in parks, in laneways and in public toilets. Approximately one person a month dies after using heroin in the City of Melbourne. These deaths are unnecessary. These deaths are preventable. They are people loved and mourned by families and friends. An alliance of 120 CEOs from organisations across the health sector, unions, legal centres, social services and youth services are calling on the government for the urgent establishment of a second health centre in response to the crisis in the CBD, saying our response as a community to this health issue should be a health solution underpinned by care, support and compassion. Given the expertise on the list of signatories I can only echo their concerns and urge the government not to back away from pursuing evidence-based harm reduction in establishing more centres.

We also need to make sure that we look after the North Richmond community. They have told me that they are struggling – the residents in public and private housing and those who work in the local businesses. The government have said that they will commit to investing in the safety and amenity in North Richmond. If this government is serious about a health-led approach to drug solutions and addressing amenity issues in North Richmond, it needs to establish another centre. They need to invest in public housing and public health. They need to give our community service organisations the sustained and secure funding that they need to support vulnerable people, and we need to see a significant, sustained investment in the North Richmond precinct, with permanent community and public spaces, with streetscaping, with resident support and with investment in local business. We also need to see investment in the arts, the community and the cultural life of North Richmond. The government must make sure that safety and amenity in North Richmond are prioritised, and I ask as the member for Richmond to be part of the conversations that this government has into the future about the future of North Richmond.

Regarding the bill in front of us, the Greens do hold some concerns, including that the legislation does not follow all of the recommendations of the Ryan report regarding the need to remove barriers, expand eligibility criteria and address peer and partner injecting. The Greens look forward to constructive conversations with the government about strengthening this bill, investing in North Richmond and establishing more safe injecting rooms across the state.

Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (14:55): I too rise to speak on the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Medically Supervised Injecting Centre) Bill 2023. It is lovely to follow the member for Richmond, because I am pretty sure that Labor and this Labor government have always had the back of people in North Richmond and those constituents from Richmond under the very mighty commitment and dedication of the former member for Richmond, the Honourable Richard Wynne, who indeed did an outstanding job as that local member.

This bill has one purpose to it, and it is to end the trial period for the North Richmond medically supervised injecting room and make it a permanent program. When I looked at this bill and the conversation that was happening, particularly in the media, around the community and in my local community, it made me reflect on two things. It made me reflect on the difficult life that a particular member of my family – which I will not go into today – had, his struggle with drugs including heroin his whole life, the terrible, terrible addiction that takes hold and the impact that that has on family. But it also made me reflect on the local conversations that I have been having with some of my fabulous sporting clubs and club committee members who talk to me about the incredibly fun time that kids have out there on the sporting fields playing soccer, playing football and playing cricket over the various seasons and the very unfortunate situation where volunteers and parents have to go and do a walk around the perimeter of these facilities to clean up needles from heroin users in particular. It is something that they have to do every time they have training and before every single game, because as everyone in this house would agree, no-one wants their children to not only see the needles or step on them but have to walk over the body of someone who has overdosed and indeed died.

This is a really important bill, and it is a really important conversation. I have been watching it unravel this morning and this afternoon, and I have to say it has been disappointing listening to those on the other side of the chamber really dredge up that fearmongering narrative around ‘What about our children? You’re encouraging our kids to do drugs. You’re exposing our children to these terrible things that are happening in our community.’ Indeed, that has been what they are saying here in this chamber today, and I see it across the media, with shock jocks typically saying, ‘Think about the children.’ This is a really difficult conversation that people in the North Richmond community have been having. The government, the service itself, the leadership of the school and the school principal have been working really closely together to try and do something about this. We know that it is working, which is exactly why we have introduced this bill into the house. In 2017 our government committed to implementing, on a trial basis, the North Richmond medically supervised injecting centre. This came from years and years and years of advocacy from residents in North Richmond. In mentioning that, I also want to highlight the advocacy of Judy Ryan, who has been fighting for this very important facility since 2016. Judy’s community advocacy has helped make this possible. Yet this facility, we know, is not the first of its kind in Australia. That has been mentioned here in this house previously today. It is not unprecedented. There has been one operating in Sydney since as early as 2001, and in fact if I recall correctly, the Bracks government attempted to follow suit and would have if that proposal had not been blocked by the other place. Nevertheless, in 2017 the Andrews Labor government made this facility a reality.

As I speak on this bill, I will acknowledge that I am not an inner-city MP, and I take a great deal of pride in that. I do not represent areas like Richmond, where this facility is located, although I do visit there, or the CBD, where indeed another one is carefully being considered. We know that this trial has been successful. The reason we know this is by the statistics, and it is really important to highlight them here today. Since 2018 the service has received nearly 350,000 visits. I had to read that a couple of times – 350,000 visits. That is a hell of a lot of people, whether they have attended once or multiple times, since 2018 that have used this service. There is obviously a need for the service. The location of the service has enabled these people to attend. Nearly 6000 overdoses have been safely managed at this facility, and at least 63 people have had their lives saved. That is 63 people that would otherwise have passed away. Of course it is not just about substance abuse. The service has also helped provide more than 112,000 people with health and social support services on site and an unprecedented 2500 people with homelessness care and successfully treated nearly 300 cases of hepatitis.

Early on in my career I worked in the criminal justice system. I worked for a firm that was a family and criminal law firm. We would go out to the prison, and I will never forget someone who sticks in my mind time and time again when I talk about the importance of giving people opportunity. I remember going and visiting this particular man who was in prison, sitting there awaiting trial on remand. He was a sex worker. He had hepatitis C, and he was a heroin addict. He had lost all of his teeth; his gums were black. I cannot remember what happened at the sentencing of this man – and he was a particularly young man – but what I do remember thinking was that if he had been caught by one of the services that exist in our society to be a safety net for people like him, he may not have found himself in prison. I have no doubt that he would have been back there and inside for a lot longer.

This injecting facility is more than just somewhere to go and safely inject these drugs, it is somewhere to go and receive support and assistance without judgement. We know that this is working – 112,000 people are being delivered health and social support services on site. That is amazing. They are people who otherwise may not have sought assistance and may have found themselves either dead or in prison. That is why we have done this. We have done it to save lives and to change lives. After two independent reviews, including the most recent review handed down by Ken Lay, it is recommended that we make the medically supervised injecting room in North Richmond a permanent fixture, taking it off its trial basis. I am pretty sure this trial has shown that it works.

Over the past few years and definitely in the last couple of weeks we have heard a lot from folks across the community about this facility and the role that it fulfils, and a lot of the commentary has centred on the fact that the injecting room is located next door to Richmond West Primary School. Those on the other side of the chamber have been talking a lot about that today, and they have conveniently ignored the fact that the Richmond West school community is vastly in support of this site. Do you know why? Because as a school they are sick of having to clean out needles from their playgrounds because people living in that area were shooting up on the school grounds. That is exactly what they were dealing with in their backyard. Not only is this something that is changing lives and saving lives, it is also helping to clean up drugs in that area so kids can go to school, get a great education, not have to walk over needles on their way to school and not be at risk of having to see bodies on the ground of people who have overdosed or indeed died on their way to and from school. That is certainly something that I think every single parent in this chamber would agree with.

This is a really important bill. The contributions in this house from this side of the chamber, I am very pleased to say, have been very respectful. Indeed I think that folks on this side of the house really do understand the importance of this site, how the close collaboration with the school and the facility and the government has indeed changed lives and saved lives.

Jess WILSON (Kew) (15:05): I rise to support the reasoned amendment from the member for Lowan. The reasoned amendment provides:

That all the words after ‘That’ be omitted and replaced with the words ‘this bill be withdrawn and redrafted to prevent a medically supervised injecting centre from operating in near proximity to schools, childcare centres and community centres’.

I start by making it clear that Victorians struggling with drug addiction deserve our support, and we on this side of the house believe an approach from government that prioritises the health and mental health of affected individuals, their families and the wider community is absolutely paramount. That is why at the last election the coalition took a comprehensive policy to help treat drug use and break the cycle of addiction.

Our policy is to establish an Australian-first hydromorphone program that would treat serious drug addiction based on European best practice and would offer the best possible treatment to reduce crime and end the cycle of illicit drug addiction. This policy would shift Victoria’s approach to drug addiction to a true health-based model by introducing a supervised injectable opioid treatment at a major metropolitan hospital in Melbourne.

Looking at the recent Ryan review, which we have all spoken about in the house during this debate, it notes, on the issue around treatment and the issue around how to break that cycle of addiction, the importance of hydromorphone. I quote from the Ryan review:

In the context of Victoria’s current under-supply of pharmacotherapy services, offering a greater diversity of effective medications such as hydromorphone may help relieve pressure on a system that struggles to meet demand. Evidence from overseas shows that hydromorphone is a safe, effective option for treating addiction among people for whom these other medications haven’t been successful.

This was a really important Australian-first proposal we took to the last election focusing on how we can support those struggling with drug addiction and make sure that their health and their mental health are put first not only for them but for their families and the wider community when it comes helping to break that cycle of addiction. In addition to this, we committed to delivering 180 new alcohol and drug rehabilitation withdrawal beds at six new all-age treatment centres across regional Victoria and here in Melbourne. This was in response to growing calls from local communities, from health services and of course from alcohol and drug support providers for access to additional treatment and rehabilitation services across the entire state of Victoria.

We made this announcement in response to and as a result of what was seen as a critical shortage of alcohol and other drug treatment beds under the Andrews Labor government. What we had seen here in Victoria was that Victoria had one of the nation’s worst ratios for beds for AOD treatment. That is why we took this comprehensive policy to the last election focusing on how we can help support those suffering from drug addiction and help break that cycle of drug addiction.

The amendment the member for Lowan moved today does not take away from the fact – and we have had a lot of debate around this today from those on the other side of the house – that we know those struggling with drug addiction need our support and deserve our assistance, but the injecting room at North Richmond Community Health (NRCH), and making that a permanent site, does not work in Melbourne as it does in other parts of the world, including in Sydney. In fact the framework for the drug-injecting room here in North Richmond is very different to the framework that is in place in New South Wales.

Let me just speak to that for a moment. In New South Wales the legislation directly recognises that an injecting room must have regard to the visibility of the premises, public safety and the proximity of the premises to schools, childcare centres and community centres. That is the framework that the New South Wales government has in place around the operation of safe injecting rooms. And that is the amendment that is being moved today by the member for Lowan to ensure that community safety, that children going to school, is at the forefront of our concerns when putting legislation in place. In fact this is the only injecting room in the world located next to a primary school.

We have spoken a lot around the recent Ryan review, which has informed the drafting of this bill. Unfortunately, the Ryan review has not been released in full, and we have only seen a 25-page summary of that review. But I think more critical to that review was that the suitability of the location of the injecting room was not within scope of the review panel. I do not understand how we can look at putting in place a permanent location for a safe injecting room without having a good understanding of the impact of that injecting room on the local community, on local amenities and on the safety of the local community. That surely should be at the forefront of any review of this policy. That said, the Ryan review does note, in what we have seen of the summary of the review:

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.

I think that is absolutely critical here. The panel has highlighted the deep concerns from the North Richmond community about the location of this safe injecting room. Indeed in the Ryan review summary that we have seen, one resident is quoted:

I walk my daughter to school, witness fights, brazen drug deals, drug use, drug-affected people.

This is unacceptable when children are going to school, and it is unacceptable that this is located next door to Richmond West Primary School. Children deserve to have a safe environment when they attend school. Parents expect their children to be safe when they attend school, and unfortunately the location of this site next to a primary school puts that at risk. We know over time the Department of Education and Training has admitted to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee that no risk assessment had been undertaken for the primary school, and the Department of Education and Training also admitted it had not provided any advice to the government about the location and the risk to students and teachers.

We know that there has been an increase in antisocial activity on the grounds and surrounds of Richmond West Primary School. We know that the number of needles on the streets per month has increased from around 6000 to between 12,000 to 18,000 per month. These are all of grave concern when it comes to the safety of our students in the North Richmond community and at Richmond West Primary School. We need to make sure, as the member of Lowan has put forward in this amendment, that their safety is at the forefront of everything that we are doing in this place.

Finally, I just raise a concern that has been put forward by local constituents in Kew around the 109 tram and incidents of violence and feeling unsafe because of behaviour on the 109 tram service and potential linkages to the location of the safe injecting room, and I put on record the importance of making sure that those on public transport feel safe and that the government takes the concerns into account of my local constituents. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this today. I commend the member for Lowan’s amendment to the house and ask that we always put the safety of children at the forefront of what we do.

Juliana ADDISON (Wendouree) (15:14): I too am pleased to speak in this debate today in support of the critically significant Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Medically Supervised Injecting Centre) Bill 2023. This bill will save lives. It will change outcomes. This bill will prevent deaths and it will change conversations. As a result of this bill, trajectories will be different: hearts will not be broken, the future will be different. Hope lives in this bill, and it is why I am supporting it. I support this bill for the family I know who lost their beloved dad to an overdose and for everyone who grieves a lost one to overdose. I am supporting this bill for my friend who died alone, all our friends who loved her and missed her and for everyone who wishes they had done more to support the friend who is no longer here. I am supporting this bill for those who had nowhere safe to go but now do have somewhere. I am supporting this bill because I do not want people dying on the streets. I am supporting this bill because the Victoria I want to live in and raise my family in is a compassionate and civil society, and despite our diversity and differences, we share a humanity where every person deserves to be respected, to be treated with fairness and to be valued. Importantly, everyone has the right to be seen, to be heard and to live their life with dignity, and that is what I believe is at the heart of this bill – dignity for all Victorians.

Thank you to the Minister for Mental Health and her office as well as the department, not just for their work in bringing this bill to the house but for their ongoing work on the medically supervised injecting room trial since its introduction. This is a truly life-saving operation, and my wholehearted and sincere thanks go to all involved, especially the frontline workers at the North Richmond medically supervised injecting centre, who are worthy of recognition and praise. I have spoken before in this house about the importance of harm reduction, about how it can assist workers in health care and social services, about how it recognises some of our most vulnerable Victorians, but most importantly how harm reduction saves lives. Whether in the guise of needle safety or naloxone access or prescription monitoring, this government is committed to harm reduction and to reducing the damage caused by drugs.

Addressing the blight of drug addiction in our community is an incredibly complex task, and I know supervised injection facilities are not the sole answer, but they are certainly a part of the answer. There is evidence that is only growing, from other jurisdictions but also right here in Melbourne, that they can be effective in reducing deaths and in reducing health burdens while also addressing safety concerns and providing pathways towards recovery. When we talk about this, we need to remember that it is not politics, it is people and it is people’s lives. It is the lives of people here in our state who are loved by people in our state, who are a part of the community in our state. Every single life lost to drug use is a tragedy for our state, and the temptation to judge, to moralise, to demonise must be resisted because it is not helpful and it is dangerous.

Kneejerk reactions and empty rhetoric do not make it safer for users or easier for their families and friends. Repeating and reproducing ineffectual approaches does not save lives and doing nothing is not acceptable, nor the answer. We need honesty, we need harm reduction, we need holistic and multifaceted approaches. This is what our government is committed to – saving lives and changing lives. We know this now and we have known this for a while, which is why in late 2017 the government legislated for a new medical approach to combating drug-related harm. I was not a member of this place at that time, but I am proud of every single one of the 46 MPs who voted to support it, to begin Victoria’s first medically supervised injection trial. It was the right thing to do then, and it is the right thing to do now.

I would also like to acknowledge the former Minister for Mental Health Martin Foley and the former member for Richmond Richard Wynne for their compassionate leadership during the challenging times. During the trial there have been close to 6000 overdoses at the centre but no fatalities. It has involved more than 500 clients being provided with long-acting treatment for opioid dependence through the centre’s clinic, and in the City of Yarra it has led to a decrease in hepatitis C notifications. It has led to a reduction in ambulance calls in the area, and I would particularly like to single out the member for Melton for his compassionate contribution. He is such a good person, and with his life experience he understands why there was a reduction in ambulance calls in the area. In the City of Yarra there has also been a reduction in overdose presentations at nearby hospitals, freeing up those beds for other Victorians who need them after an accident or an emergency.

All of these statistics should be celebrated, but the most important modelling comes from the recent Ryan report, which has been spoken about by a number of people already in their contributions, which tells us that 63 lives have been saved by this centre – 63. It is impossible to adequately convey what this means. It is impossible to understand it in the abstract or to even get close, to bring it down to just one person or to the impact and the intrinsic worth of every single individual and then consider it again 63-fold. It is very significant by any measure. I do not envy the work of Mr Ryan and his panel or of Professor Hamilton and hers beforehand, who conducted extensive research and outreach for their reviews of this trial, but I am incredibly grateful to them, because we know that there are now likely to be 63 people who did not die, because they did not have to, that more than 6000 registered clients know they will be shown support and safety rather than callous indifference and that there have been over 3000 referrals in just a two-year period to broader services, such as drug treatment, virus testing, GPs and housing. This centre is not only saving lives but changing them for the better.

This bill proposes a series of amendments to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981, including several which will implement recommendations of the Ryan review. Most significantly, it seeks to establish the North Richmond medically supervised injecting centre as an ongoing service rather than a trial. This bill also seeks to not just request changes to wording in the act but also implement improvements stemming from what we have most recently learned from the trial being in place.

Several proposed amendments concern the licensing arrangements for the facility. It removes the current six-year trial end date and moves instead to licences requiring renewal under the purview of the secretary. It allows for more than one licence to be issued, although only one can be in force at a time, so that a new provider may take over the operation of the centre if doing so would better facilitate its aims. It also details how such transfers could be considered and facilitated, including transitional obligations to ensure the continuation of services during any changeover, and crucially it also outlines processes for licence conditions: suspension, transfer and revocation. These are essential operational clarifications which will facilitate the long-term operation of the centre.

Other amendments will allow for greater flexibility in both governance and models of care, including that the centre’s directors may also be involved as supervisors and that registered nurses can also work in a supervisory capacity, as recommended by the Hamilton review. The bill also proposes improvements to protocol management, better clarifies the centre’s relationship to planning legislation and updates the act’s wording to reflect the program’s proposed ongoing operations.

Providing it passes this place and receives royal assent, the proposed amendments will commence by 28 June this year. This bill requires that a ministerial review begin by mid-2028, addressing the centre’s aims and operations as well as recommendations for any further relevant amendments. This will be tabled in the Parliament as soon as practicable afterwards, and I look forward to speaking on it again. At the heart of this bill is our community and every single one of its people. I commend the bill to the house.

Annabelle CLEELAND (Euroa) (15:24): I rise today to speak on the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Medically Supervised Injecting Centre) Bill 2023. The purpose of this bill is to amend the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 to provide for the ongoing licensing of the operation of a medically supervised injecting centre. Alongside this main purpose is the ability in this bill to provide that more than one medically supervised injecting centre licence may be issued but no more than one such licence can be in force at any time.

As with many of the workings of this government, we are debating a bill that raises questions about accountability and secrecy. Under the principal act, the trial of the North Richmond injecting centre will cease at the end of this financial year. This is the second trial period of a medically supervised injecting centre. We have seen both the Hamilton review in 2020 and the Ryan review last month conducted into the current operations of the injecting centre. The full Ryan review has not yet been released by the government. Both reviews have unsurprisingly found the injecting room has not improved the amenity of the North Richmond area, and its proximity to a primary school is something that I know many people have deep concerns about. Publicly we have been informed that the Lay review has been seen by the government – well overdue – and has been sent to back to Mr Lay to do more work on in relation to drug use patterns around the city. The government refuses to release any interim report despite the alcohol and drug sector and CBD traders understandably seeking overdue information as soon as possible.

In terms of treatment for addiction, the Nationals are of the strong belief that more needs to be done. The member for Lowan put together some strong policies before the last election around mental health services and drug treatment, including important reform to establish Australia’s first hydromorphone treatment program for heroin addiction and to open 180 withdrawal and residential rehabilitation beds across six sites, predominantly in regional areas, with some next door to the Euroa electorate in Shepparton. I also know she has completed extensive consultation with the alcohol and drug sector in preparation for this bill before the house. The member for Lowan will be at the Seymour expo next weekend if anyone would like to discuss her extensive consultation in more detail.

Recently the Nationals hosted the Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association (VAADA) at Parliament – the peak body for funded alcohol and other drug (AOD) services in Victoria. Their presentation was incredibly informative and devastatingly alarming. We see that right across regional Victoria the rate per 100,000 people for ambulance attendances relating to substance use is significantly higher than in Melbourne, and this is the same for hospitalisations and alcohol and other drug treatments. The national wastewater drug monitoring program showed that regional Victoria rated first nationally for ketamine and second for heroin and oxycodone. Thankfully in 2021 we saw a sharp reduction in the fatal overdose rate in regional Victoria. We have seen the number of people waiting for treatment increase dramatically, and as of 2021 Victoria had the second-lowest rate of residential rehabilitation beds in the nation.

There are some significant issues in the alcohol and drug treatment sectors that will not be alleviated by safe injecting rooms in the CBD. In regional Victoria there is continuous struggle to recruit experienced workers for what can often be a demanding but immensely rewarding job. We have large distances between treatment options, and there is no equity of access to crucial treatment across the state. VAADA has made some key recommendations to support regional communities, including the investment of an interim sum of $10 million to enhance services and access, implement incentives to recruit and retain a rural workforce and resource AOD agencies in disaster-affected areas, with a 20 per cent increase to existing funding levels to support increasing demand over three years.

In my electorate we have seen significant impact from the October floods. This ranges from Seymour to Heathcote and Murchison and plenty of smaller communities in-between. People in these communities certainly need an increase in mental health support. We know the correlation between poor mental health and addiction, and flood impacted towns are still doing it tough with the ongoing recovery efforts. I am sure everyone in this chamber is of the belief that we need to do more to support people battling addiction. We need new solutions to difficult problems.

While the jury is still out on safe injecting rooms in many respects, there is something that troubles me greatly about the location of the current licensed facility. Injecting rooms have proved effective in some jurisdictions, including Sydney; however, our legislative framework is different to what is seen north of the border and in a global environment. No other injecting room is located next to a primary school, and there is absolutely no need for this to be the case in Melbourne. In New South Wales legislation gives consideration to the visibility of the premises, public safety and the proximity of the site to schools, childcare centres and community centres.

The North Richmond injecting room’s opening has seen a substantial increase in drug-related activity within the school’s immediate area. Some of these incidents have been widely reported, including sex acts, the wielding of a machete, drug injecting and dealing, needlestick injuries and even a dead body on the medically safe injecting centre grounds, in full view of students as they came to and from school. As a parent I would be incredibly angry and disappointed if a facility like this was opened next door to where my children attended school. There is no need for this. It is for this reason that I am in support of the amendment moved by the member for Lowan to ensure that legislation aligns with that which is seen in New South Wales, ensuring the centre may not operate near schools, childcare centres and community centres. In addition to this, the amendments include criteria to measure eligibility of a licensee to be a fit and proper person, including that someone with a past drug conviction must not be deemed eligible. Importantly, provisions should be included to ensure that the review period aligns with the period of licensing and must be completed before any licence is issued or extended, that the review must include community consultation and that any review must be published in full prior to a licence being issued or renewed. These are simple measures to ensure accountability and transparency and maintain confidence in the operation of an injecting room.

I want to stress that I am certainly not opposed to greater access to alcohol and drug treatment. Like many in this chamber and the broader community, I have experienced firsthand through my family the often devastating challenges, complexities and isolation that comes with loving someone with drug addiction while navigating the fractured and grossly underfunded drug treatment system. My firm belief is that we should be doing more to implement harm minimisation strategies, and the purely punitive treatment of drug use is not fit for purpose in a modern society. In saying this we must remember that the impacts of addiction should not be felt by students and families in a place like North Richmond. An injecting room should be placed in a suitable environment. It is just common sense. It is standard practice across other jurisdictions, and I hope the government can understand the importance of supporting our amendments.

While on the topic of mental health and addiction and the budget creeping up in a couple of months, I would like to take this opportunity to talk about the incredible work of the Tomorrow Today foundation in Benalla, who continue to do extraordinary work in this space across the north of my electorate. Late last week I met with a woman who had battled addiction throughout her life and had benefited from the crucial work Tomorrow Today continue to do. They provide support to families and youth and have supported so many locals who are negotiating challenges with addiction, many of whom may be doing so while raising a family or being placed under a multitude of traumas or stressful events in their lives. Their funding expires in the middle of this year, and I hope the Treasurer will come to the table and continue to invest in this crucial local service. Mental health and addiction is complex. The model Tomorrow Today use to support families and youth across the region is innovative and highlights the multifaceted approach that is required to improve health outcomes for people who are going through incredibly tough times. I hope the advocacy of the community to maintain Tomorrow Today’s funding is acknowledged by the government and provided in this year’s budget.

Paul HAMER (Box Hill) (15:33): I too rise in support of the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Medically Supervised Injecting Centre) Bill 2023. As has been stated by previous speakers, the primary purpose of this amendment is to amend the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 to provide for the ongoing licence of the operation of a medically supervised injecting centre, specifically in North Richmond. I know that this debate is one that is uncomfortable for many across our community. Drug addiction in all its destructive forms is distressing and confronting. It wipes out livelihoods and robs people of their future, their health, their happiness and often their basic dignity. It exposes them to a range of other adverse outcomes such as domestic violence, physical and sexual abuse, homelessness, unemployment and poverty. Families go through hell when a loved one, more so a child, suffers from an addiction, and heroin abuse is a particularly acrid type of addiction. Comparatively it is a cheap and accessible drug. It is highly addictive and consigns the user to a miserable existence of chasing a desperate habit, which many times has to be funded through criminal activity, but that is a hard reality for thousands of Victorian families.

The objective of the government and our health authorities is to save lives. It should always be based on medical research, data and evidence. That was our approach during the pandemic, when we worked tirelessly to keep Victorians out of the ICUs with the advice from the chief health officer and his team, and we must apply the same approach to save the lives of our fellow Victorians suffering from addiction – evidence, data and research.

Everyone agrees that illicit drugs are a scourge. Everyone agrees that the production and distribution of illicit substances should be punished appropriately. But jurisdictions all over the world would also acknowledge that in a complex world legal prohibition unto itself is not a solution to save lives. The data bears out that health-led policies deliver greater positive social and economic outcomes compared to traditional justice approaches alone, and if we accept that fact then we must not turn away from such solutions. We cannot allow such a serious and complex issue as heroin addiction to be pushed back down those dark alleyways and out of the light again to where people die, and the simple fact is that the medically supervised injecting room in North Richmond has saved lives.

I want to thank the member for Melton for his contribution and describing firsthand his experiences of what he saw when he was on the job as a paramedic, and as someone who did live in Richmond for quite a few years a couple of decades ago I know that around that area of North Richmond it was not all flowers and parties down Victoria Street and surrounding the housing commission in that area. Every day you could walk past and see the impacts of what had happened, sometimes the previous evening. The supervised injecting room provides a safe and controlled environment for those with heroin addiction, and critically it provides and enables access to referrals and links to other support services, including social, general health, housing, women’s and Aboriginal support services, to name a few. It is important to remember that the supervised injecting room is located at the site of the North Richmond Community Health centre, which has provided for decades community health care to the most vulnerable people who live in North Richmond. It is located there for a reason, because it is next to the housing commission towers in North Richmond, and it is enabled then to provide that wraparound service.

It is clear that this service has saved lives. An independent review of the injecting room led by Professor Margaret Hamilton in June 2020 after 18 months of operation confirmed the facility had at that time saved 21 lives. It found that the service had managed 3200 overdoses across 119,000 visits. A subsequent review led by Mr John Ryan also confirmed that the injecting room had been successful in its central objective of saving lives. To date 63 lives have been saved – that is 63 Victorians who would otherwise have overdosed and no longer be with us who have been saved. The families of all of those 63 people have a loved one with them today. Six thousand overdoses have been managed with zero resultant fatalities, and there have been over 300,000 supervised injections since the trial began. I do want to thank and give a shout-out to the staff for their amazing work at the North Richmond Community Health centre and the supervised injecting rooms, for all of the work that they have done.

I just want to also reflect a little bit about the direction that the debate has gone here. I think observers might look at it and say ‘Well, it’s really just a debate about location’, but if they look at the history of the debate it is pretty clear that the opposition has never really supported the idea of a supervised injecting room. That is quite interesting because when there was a parliamentary committee inquiry into the establishment of a supervised injecting room back in 2017, which I believe was in fact chaired by a member of the opposition at the time, the committee report supported the establishment of a trial of a supervised injecting room. But then when the legislation came in, that was voted against by the opposition. Subsequently the supervised injecting room was opened in North Richmond in 2018, and as the member for Laverton said, much credit for that work should be given to the previous member for Richmond, Richard Wynne, and his very strong advocacy for the establishment of that centre.

But in 2018 in the lead-up to the election, the opposition leader came out very strongly saying they would shut down the medically supervised injecting room should they be elected. Within a week of being elected, that was the commitment. As the member for Mordialloc has reflected, there were signs at many polling booths warning people to stop Labor’s medically supervised injecting rooms. That was the slogan that they took to the 2018 election. I think, wisely, some of the Liberal organisers out in Box Hill, given that pre-poll was located right in the heart of the Box Hill medical and health precinct, realised that that message probably was not going to be well received. They reversed the corflute and just put in a more generic anti-Labor message, but their position was clear about what they intended to do. And then we come to the 2022 election, prior to the 2022 election.

We are here today about the location. The problem with the supervised injecting room is its specific location, but if you compare it to Sydney, the Sydney location is in a strip of shops which happen to be right opposite the entrance to the Kings Cross railway station. Maybe you would say, ‘Where should that be located?’ Clearly there is an extant issue in North Richmond; maybe it should be on Victoria Street. But no, the Liberals again said that there would never be any supervised injecting room in North Richmond. For these reasons, I commend the bill to the house.

Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (15:43): Today I rise to speak about the reasoned amendment from the member for Lowan to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Medically Supervised Injecting Centre) Bill 2023:

That all the words after ‘That’ be omitted and replaced with the words ‘this bill be withdrawn and redrafted to prevent a medically supervised injecting centre from operating in near proximity to schools, childcare centres and community centres’.

I am a very practical person and a very commonsense person as well, and surely this makes sense to everyone. I am also a mother with primary school aged children, so I obviously have very strong feelings about how I would feel about an injecting centre next to my children’s school.

My main concern with this bill, as we have all said, is not the injecting room itself. We all know that those suffering from addiction need support. Obviously they do and more needs to be done. It is more about the location and amenity, being next to a school, rather than the service itself. As the member for Mildura too I would like to highlight what we agree on: that drugs and death from drugs are both a huge issue and have been a huge issue for a long, long time and that there will continue to be potentially preventable deaths from drugs. But it is not just a problem in the city. This is a problem right throughout regional Australia, right throughout regional Victoria and of course in my electorate in Mildura. In the past, Mildura has had the highest rate of suicide of any regional Victorian local government area and the misuse of substances has been found to be a contributor to this.

Last year, after lobbying since 2014 by the Nationals, the government committed to building an alcohol and other drugs rehabilitation and withdrawal facility in Mildura. The members of the AOD alliance are working extremely hard, and I have met with them on several occasions. They are working so, so hard and they are so passionate about the work that they are doing to bring this to fruition. There are some challenges based around location and other things. Unfortunately, we cannot just go and buy a building in Flinders Street and set up shop, nor can we provide an off-the-shelf solution for the Mildura community. But the alliance are working tirelessly to have that bespoke local solution that will yield real-life outcomes and actually save lives, save families and reduce the crime rate – all of those other benefits that come with helping those that are suffering addiction.

I have actually had an influx of really anxious and concerned residents contacting my office recently because of the crime rates. We saw the crime data come out last week. Mildura unfortunately had increased 11.2 per cent since the last data sets, and that is incredibly alarming. We all know the connection between drug addiction and crime. I have met with the local constabulary on several occasions, and we have started to formulate a plan of attack that I am hoping the government will work with us on to create, again, real-life, practical solutions on the ground that can really change the lives not just of those that are committing the crimes but of the whole community that are being affected by it. It is no surprise that crimes related to drugs are one of the biggest offences; they are both the offence and the cause. When our AOD rehab and withdrawal facility is functioning to the best of its ability in Mildura, I am confident that not only will death by suicide and overdose rates drop but so will our crime rate, which is one of the highest in the state.

Being regional and remote, accessing help and support when you are suffering from addiction so far from a medically supervised injecting centre like North Richmond is just another challenge that regional and rural Victorians need to overcome – and it is a very real challenge. It can mean leaving family and friends, and that is not just for a day or two, because it takes a day to get there and a day to get home; it can be for long, long periods of time. For most this is either impossible or completely unimaginable, and if these people do not get the help, their addiction continues and they continue on a downward spiral – and that is not what anybody wants.

I am going to share with you a story. Adam Thomson is a talented cricketer, a talented footballer, a friend to many, a brother, a son, an uncle and a very well-respected community member, and he manages a successful business in Mildura. Adam also nearly lost his life to an addiction to drugs. Along the way, self-admittedly, he was deceitful; he stole from those he cared for to feed his addiction. His family and friends luckily intervened after Adam attempted to end his life, and fortunately he was one of the lucky ones – the very lucky ones. Adam was in a position to make that 540-kilometre trip to Melbourne to admit himself into a 28-day program – 28 days away from his community, his family, his home. It cost the then 24-year-old and his family $10,000 a week to partake in rehabilitation. Can you imagine – 10 grand a week. But you cannot put a price on a human life.

Adam told me that rehab in Mildura is so vitally important so people can stay close to home and family support while they go through their recovery. I have also been speaking to a lot of our community Aboriginal elders who tell me that the ability to be treated on country, with family close, in family units, is the only way that members of our Aboriginal community can and will be treated. Adam said it would have made things so much easier having the emotional family support around him while he went through that rehab as well. As you can imagine, 28 days while you are going through that trauma – and it is trauma – must be horrific.

Fortunately this Saturday will mark eight years that Adam has been clean from drugs, and it has been his determination and his will that have seen him beat it. Well done, Adam. You are a champagne human being for allowing me to share your story. But his recovery has been due to the fact that he was in a position to access the support to assist him in his recovery and to travel to the city to do it. Imagine the difference we could make, the lives we could save, if this rehab and withdrawal facility promised for Mildura was made a priority and we could move things along, allowing our local community to have more involvement with its development.

The length of time and the care in choosing the correct location for Mildura’s AOD facility are amazing. They are really taking their time. There have been many discussions. Like I said, the alliance and the committee that are working with the building authority on this are working tirelessly, and they are so passionate about it. I believe that the same consideration should absolutely be given to medically supervised injecting rooms, now and into the future, which is why I support this reasoned amendment from the member for Lowan. It just makes sense.

As my colleagues the member for Lowan, the member for Kew and the member for Euroa have all said, those suffering from addiction obviously absolutely need our support. Absolutely they do; that is not the issue. It just needs to be in the correct location, not next to schools, childcare centres or community centres. So I am more than happy to support the member for Lowan in her reasoned amendment.

Will FOWLES (Ringwood) (15:52): Boy oh boy, we have had some cognitive dissonance from those opposite today. I want to thank the member for Mildura for her contribution and indeed for her spruiking Labor’s investment in the Mildura area. That is a very, very important investment, some $36 million to establish a 30-bed alcohol and other drugs treatment facility in Mildura. It is nice when every so often you hear investments and projects and ideas of the government quite properly acknowledged by those opposite. It is refreshing. I cannot say the same for their Liberal colleagues, though, because their Liberal colleagues – boy oh boy, have they been outrageous over the course of this debate.

I will start with the member for Kew, who, apart from exhibiting great panic about users of the 109 tram perhaps knowing people who knew people who saw people who might have had someone on the tram who may perhaps have had some distant, tangential connection to a supervised injecting centre, made a range of claims that frankly do not bear scrutiny. We have made a very, very large investment into tackling alcohol and drug abuse, an investment of $2 billion since 2014 – $2 billion. We have doubled the number of residential rehab beds. I think much was made of the suggestion that there was a lack of willingness by the government to make those sorts of investments. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have increased withdrawal beds to 148 and we have implemented the Ice Action Plan and the Drug Rehabilitation Plan.

The politics of this are just so fraught for the Liberals, because in 2018 they shamelessly went out to polling booths right across the state of Victoria with corflutes saying, ‘Ban the Andrews government’s ice and heroin drug injecting rooms’. They used doctored photos and campaigned shamelessly on the issue. It was just absolutely appalling. It was shameless, and of course they are still against it. This is all about moral panic. It has got nothing to do with saving lives, and the saving of lives is what drives this government. I have to say this is yet another example of the coalition not using evidence-based policy, of choosing to turn their backs on the science.

Whether it is on climate change –

Members interjecting.

Will FOWLES: So Waldorf and Statler are frothing at the mouth over here, but in all seriousness, if I can get a word in between the two numpties to my right, the extraordinary lack of respect for scientists runs deep and broad in the coalition. It does not matter whether it is on climate change, it does not matter whether it is on vaccines and it does not matter whether it is on safe injecting centres, the reality is this lot have no compunction at all about turning their backs on reason, data, science, research and methodology, not to mention decency. They have no compunction whatsoever about turning their backs on all of that. Instead they simply bow to the craven politics of demonising those going through the very, very worst of times.

There were also some issues raised by the member for Richmond. I appreciate that this centre is in her electorate, but I what I would say is that I used to live right near it for quite an extended period of time. There was always a community health centre in the location of the medically supervised injecting centre (MSIC), and there has always been a drug problem in this precinct for as long as I have been an adult and have been living in or near Richmond. I was down there as well. I have called ambulances for people suffering overdoses on the streets of North Richmond. I have been there assisting with resuscitation activities. It is enormously confronting, and that was all in the pre safe injecting centre era. The safe injecting centre has saved lives. That is the reality; that is what we are here about today. It is not about demonising those who suffer from addiction. It is not about creating a sense of ‘Well, these centres shouldn’t be anywhere near people. Let’s stick them on an industrial estate, shall we, where no-one naturally is.’

I have been to the community health centre there. There has been a community health centre in that location for decades. There has been drug use in that location for decades. The reality is that only 6 per cent of people using the MSIC service in North Richmond for that purpose were there for that purpose alone. Most people were there for other purposes: because it is the community in which they live or it is the place where they habitually purchase drugs, or for social connections – a whole range of other reasons. So you simply have to put these facilities where they are most required.

The coalition have been jumping up and down about its proximity to a school. Well, is it really preferable to have unassisted drug use and overdoses next to a school or a service providing a pathway out of the misery of addiction? That is ultimately the choice that we face here, and those opposite seem once again to be bowing to the most craven instincts to seek to politicise this issue and to make it about ‘Oh, you know, it’s about safety for our kids.’ Well, what could be more unsafe for kids than having people overdosing on the street? Six thousand overdoses have been carefully managed in this facility and 63 lives have been saved. In the context of any investment those numbers are stunning and particularly in the context of an investment into an area – by that I mean a policy area – as difficult as this one.

I have the great misfortune today of having my speech cut into two portions. I will come back after the matter of public importance to talk a little bit about my great friend the former member for Richmond, Dick Wynne, and all the magnificent work he did in getting this facility up. But I do, before the MPI, want to say that we have invested $200 million to improve safety and amenity right throughout this precinct – new playgrounds, futsal pitches, lighting, landscaping, community rooms and additional CCTV. There are many, many things that have contributed to the positive outcomes for that community that this facility has delivered and will continue to deliver, and I will say more right after this break.

The SPEAKER: Order! The time has come for me to interrupt business for the matter of public importance.

Business interrupted under sessional orders.