Allan government refuses to hand over Ken Lay injecting room report by deadline

An independent arbiter may be called in to decide if the Allan government needs to release a long-awaited report into the city’s second drug injecting room after it missed the deadline to do so.

An independent arbiter could be called in to determine whether the Allan government needs to release a long-awaited report into the city’s second drug injecting room.

Despite persistent calls for its release, the government has been sitting on the report by former cop top Ken Lay since receiving it early last year.

The Legislative Council late last month passed a motion ordering the Allan government to release the report, giving them a deadline of March 6.

Leader of the upper house Jaclyn Symes, who on Wednesday claimed the report could not be released under an “executive privilege” defence, has been given another chance to make it public.

Earlier on Wednesday, Ms Symes said “we will be claiming executive privilege just for the purposes of responding to the motion”.

“I want to reaffirm the government’s commitment to release that report accompanied with a response from the government.”

A new motion, to be introduced by the opposition on Thursday, will require Ms Symes to table the document by 1pm on April 30.

Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes faces the risk of the opposition moving to suspend her from parliament. Picture: David Geraghty

The government has pledged to release the report but refused to provide a timeline except for sometime this year. But the opposition has argued that calls into question whether an executive privilege defence can be used.

“We don’t believe the report does satisfy the requirements for executive privilege,” Liberal upper house MP David Davis said.

Ms Symes now faces the risk of the opposition moving to suspend her from parliament for not releasing a report before its deadline.

The opposition and crossbench MPs are now in discussions about whether they push ahead with that plan.

“I haven’t been given that indication from anybody within the Legislative Council,” Ms Symes said.

“There’s past practice that this is a path that could be considered by the council.”

Mr Davis said he would request an independent arbiter be called on to rule on whether the report can be released.

Opposition Leader John Pesutto said the government had acted in contempt of parliament.

“How much more contemptuous can you be of the Victorian parliament when you ignore a document’s production motion,” he said.

Mr Pesutto said the ongoing delay was “causing enormous uncertainty around our CBD”.

A proposed site for the safe injecting room on Flinders St. Picture: Mark Stewart

Mental Health Minister Ingrid Stitt could not provide any timeframe for the release of the report on Wednesday.

“Well, I don’t think it’s helpful to sort of speculate about the exact timing,” she said.

“The reality is that we have seen some changes in drug use patterns since the pandemic … and what we have to do is make sure that the response takes a comprehensive approach to drug harm minimisation and that’s what I’ve been concentrating on.”

Labelling the upper house motion a “political stunt”, Jacinta Allan on Wednesday said ordering the release of the report does “nothing to support vulnerable Victorians”. “And that’s what we are focused on, not the political games here in the Legislative Council of the Victorian,” she said.

The Premier’s response raised questions about the government’s support for Victorians battling drug addiction whose families were awaiting the release of the report.

But Ms Allan said “a range of different programs support through our alcohol and drugs” were already in place.

She reaffirmed that the report would be released by the end of the year.

“We’re considering the advice before the government and we will make that final decision and release the report in due course,” she said.

Premier Jacinta Allan, pictured with Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes, has labelled the upper house motion a political stunt. Picture: David Crosling

CEO of the Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association Chris Christoforou said establishing another overdose prevention centre, otherwise known as a supervised injecting room, was “critical” to addressing drug-related harms, including deaths, in the CBD.

“The North Richmond medically supervised injecting facility has not only saved dozens of lives since its creation, but through a health led approach has ensured that hundreds of people who utilise the service each day, can be supported to recover from substance dependence through opioid pharmacotherapy and other treatment options,” he said.

“It is a service that, according to last week’s release of the National Drug Strategy Household Survey, enjoys increasing popular community support, with 56 per cent of Victorians now supportive of Overdose Prevention Centres.”

Salvation Army commander Brendan Nottle says he is ‘really frustrated’ by the government’s delay. Picture: Aaron Francis

Mr Christoforou, however, said VAADA “will leave the timing of the release of the Lay Report to the Victorian government”.

He backed inquiries by the government into other harm reduction initiatives in response to “a changing drug market and the risk of potent synthetic opioids such as fentanyl”.

“The risks around such substances wreaking havoc in our community is a conversation Victoria has to have,” he said.

Salvation Army commander Brendan Nottle said he was “really frustrated” by the government’s delay.

“The cold hard fact is that people that we see every day and every single night could be kept alive with those wraparound services,” he said.

“They’re exactly the same as the people in power, they’re exactly the same as the people who complain about an injecting room (because) they’re all human beings.

“I’m really frustrated because when you’ve got people still dying on the streets of our city in 2024, you start to say what is going on. We need those services dropped in the middle (of) where these people gather.”