North Richmond residents angered by academic’s commentary on injecting room debate

A Melbourne University academic has sparked debate about “class tensions”, hitting out at North Richmond residents who don’t support the injecting room location.

Residents living in North Richmond have slammed an academic after she labelled them a “privileged noisy minority” for not supporting the location of the injecting room.

In the new edition of the book Struggletown, written by University of Melbourne social historian Professor Janet McCalman, which focuses on public and private life in Richmond, she wrote: “One brave reform and a local flashpoint has been the medically supervised injecting room.”

“Lives are being saved and the streets are being cleaned up, but while a privileged, noisy minority want the clinic moved to someone’s patch, others, including families from the adjoining primary school, have been strongly supportive.”

Prof McCalman also further labels this as “class tensions” of the 21st century in the inner city.

In the past year, the Herald Sun has reported a spate of shocking incidents near North Richmond’s injecting room including a man being found dead near the school last year, forcing the school authorities to direct students and parents away from a main entrance.

North Richmond residents have hit back after being described as a ‘privileged noisy minority’. Picture: Jason Edwards

North Richmond resident Sharon Neven, who has lived in the area for more than 20 years, said several residents, including those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, had been left angered by Prof McCalman’s comments.

“It’s just not a privileged group of people that are objecting to the injecting room’s location … I, along with many others, including the residents of community housing, users, and dealers themselves, agree that the location of the injecting room is wrong,” Ms Neven said.

“If Prof McCalman actually bothered to speak to us … she would learn that many of us do not want it on anyone else’s patch,” she said.

She said several residents never wanted to “burden” anyone else’s community with the facility.

“All we ask is that it is not located next to a primary school, we have not judged them as she has judged us.”

A drug user injecting in the streets of Richmond. Picture: Jason Edwards

Another resident, who lives in public housing and has lived in the area for more than 10 years, said he was “deeply offended” by Prof McCalman’s comments.

“To say that I or other residents are ‘privileged’ is just unacceptable. This shouldn’t be about class wars, many of us agree with the concept of the injecting room just not its location next to a primary school,” he said.

“A lot of us have also helped drug users who have overdosed and we have called triple-0 on a number of occasions, we do care about their welfare.

“But equally when children have to walk past someone that is injecting it’s very confronting for them and their families.”

Prof McCalman said she had received one critical email and a supportive email from a current councillor.

“This one resident was deeply offended by my description of opponents of the SIR as ‘privileged’,” she said.

“She is very angry, having taken my comments personally and is obviously distressed that a book has expressed support for the Supervised Injecting Centre which she so opposes.

“Other people are entitled to disagree with her position, even if they write books. I do not know her and would not say this to her personally. It is a general comment on political behaviour and a social analysis based on historical knowledge that I am entitled to make as an historian. It is not personal. I don’t know her and she is not named.”

Prof McCalman added she wasn’t sorry that she defended the Supervised Injecting facility.

“If you read the whole preface rather than a couple of sentences, you will see that these remarks are in the context of the failure of society to provide proper care for people with mental illness and substance abuse.

“At least the supervised injecting facility saves lives and provides a vital place of connection between health providers and people with mental illness and substance abuse.

“I also express support and sympathy for their neighbours in the estate who are even more exposed to this distressed, very small, but visible minority.

“As Richmond people always were by anti-social behaviour near their children etc, and which the outside world used to stigmatise them.”