‘Beds sit empty while people who are too drunk are turned away,’ Opposition mental health spokeswoman Emma Kealy says

The state government has budgeted $79m to run the facilities in Collingwood, St Kilda and Shepparton but new figures highlight a major concern.

Construction at the Collingwood sobering up centre.

The Victorian government’s multimillion-dollar sobering up centres continue to operate mostly empty, with an average of fewer than three people checking in on any given night in their first year of operation.

The Collingwood and St Kilda centres boast a combined 26 beds, and the Allan government has opened at least one other small regional centre in Shepparton.

However, the sites, which collectively have been budgeted $79m to run over three years until mid-2026, are barely being used.

Figures show from November 7, 2023, to October 30, 2024, 1040 visits to the sobering up facilities were recorded, an average of 2.9 per day over the period, and a utilisation rate of just 11.5 per cent.

The facilities had 2.9 visits per day, on average.

On New Year’s Eve last month, one of the busiest days for emergency services, only nine people were checked in.

The outreach program connected with the facilities was more successful, providing support on more than 24,600 occasions in its first year.

Opposition mental health spokeswoman Emma Kealy said the centres were wasting resources. “Clearly, it’s not working,” she said.

“Victoria’s sobering-up centres have been so badly managed by Labor that beds sit empty while people who are too drunk are turned away.

The opposition has criticised the centres for wasting resources.

“In just 18 months, Premier (Jacinta) Allan has blown almost $40m on sobering up centres that are barely used. That eye-watering amount would be better used reducing long rehab waitlists or fixing the health crisis.”

A Victorian government spokesperson said: “Victoria’s public intoxication services are making sure people get the care and support they need.

“Over New Year’s Eve, outreach services were in place to ensure people who were intoxicated in public could get the help they needed, whether that was just some water on site, help getting home, or to be supported at one of our sobering centres.”

The sobering-up centres were created after public drunkenness legislation was abolished in November 2023.

The change stripped police of their powers of arrest. Instead, people would be referred to the outreach programs or the intoxication centres. Police data released in February 2024 showed that of 1136 incidents since public drunkenness legislation was repealed, just 72 people, or 6 per cent, were handed over to outreach services.

More than double that were handed to Ambulance Victoria while 15 per cent were put in a taxi or on public transport.

Other sites have been promised for Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Mildura, Swan Hill, the Latrobe Valley and East Gippsland, but are yet to open.

In total the Victorian government has invested nearly $120m to establish the new law and program.