Government, council in row over proposed injecting room site
The State Government says it will consider a different site to Queen Victoria Market for a proposed second supervised injecting room, but has rejected a call to set up a drugs task force instead.
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The State Government will consider another site for its proposed new medically supervised injecting room, but only if the City of Melbourne comes up with a good option.
However, Mental Health Minister Martin Foley has rejected a call by Deputy Lord Mayor Arron Wood to set up a drugs task force instead of pushing ahead with an injecting facility near Queen Victoria Market.
“We don’t need another task force to tell us what we already know — 51 people lost their lives to heroin in the City of Melbourne between January 2015 and September 2019, and it has the second highest ambulance call out rate for drug-related harm,” Mr Foley said.
Cr Wood wants council to officially reject the government’s proposed location because of potential harm to the nearby market and residents.
Mr Foley said the government had started working on a consultation process with the council based on an independent panel review of the criteria for a site.
“As we’ve said, if in our work consulting with the local council they locate a different site that also meets the criteria set by that panel, then we’ll remain open to that,” he said.
Cr Wood’s motion will be debated by councillors on Tuesday. He wants council management to look at ways the City of Melbourne could use planning controls or other powers to stop the facility going ahead in Victoria St.
Lord Mayor Sally Capp said it was vital local residents, workers and businesses had their views heard.
Former United Nations humanitarian affairs and policy adviser Nicholas McGowan has done an analysis of operations of the existing injecting room in North Richmond. “The number of heroin deaths before and after the facility opened, actually increased by one,” he said.
“The Coroner’s Court data actually showed “no observable difference in the number of people who have died from heroin overdoses before and after” the establishment of the trial.”
Mr McGowan, who worked for the previous state Coalition government, said overdoses within 1km of the Richmond facility averaged 3.2 deaths a quarter after opening, compared with the long-term average of 2.6.
“That’s a 23 per cent increase in local deaths from heroin overdose since the third quarter of 2014,” he said.
Mr McGowan said an expert panel report found a 58 per cent increase in drug use and possession offences within 1km of the room when comparing all of 2014-2015 to the first quarter of 2019-20.
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