Plans to turn the North Richmond injecting room into a permanent facility will be put to cabinet

The Victorian opposition is calling for the immediate release of the report into the North Richmond injecting room.

Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier has called on the government to immediately release the report into the North Richmond injecting room.

“Rushing legislation next week and not allowing the community to see what’s in that report reeks of a desperate government that just will keep the truth from Victorians,” she said.

“The North Richmond injecting room has been plagued with issues for many years, the anti- social behaviour that families and children have had to put up with — lewd sexual acts that are witnessed by children in the streets where they play.”

Ms Crozier said Premier Daniel Andrews’ legacy would be to establish an injecting room next to a school.

“The drug overdoses and drug dealing that is going on all the time, no child should have to put up with this,” she said.

Ms Crozier said the Coalition’s preferred policy was to help drug addicts with opioid replacement therapy.

“Get people off these heinous drugs, give them the support, give them the replacement and get them off these drugs,” she said.

The Opposition is calling for the immediate release of the injecting room report. Picture: Ian Currie

North Richmond resident Sharon Neven said the review of the injecting facility had been a farce.

“I’m angry, stunned and sad that those supposedly educated people who did the review, and the government, can actually believe that it’s okay for it to be next to a primary school,” she said.

Ms Neven said that people using the facility were not getting any help.

“All that’s happening is it’s become a honey pot for drug dealers, for drug users, and there is only one type of person that matters around here and that’s a drug dealer or a drug user,” she said.

“I have to walk past people who are affected by ice and heroin all day every day.

All that happens is that they hand the needles out, no one is really using the room, there are four needles in my street now from this morning.”

Fellow resident Christine Maynard said the injecting room had contributed to an increase in thefts and break-ins in the area.

“It’s totally insane, why isn’t anyone listening,” she said.

Ms Maynard said she had addressed Melbourne City Council meetings about the proposed injecting facility at Flinders St.

“I feel very strongly about them (the government) putting other people’s businesses under the same pressure as when you drive down Victoria St (North Richmond),” she said.

“Why do we want to subject our tourists in a wonderful laneway to this kind of behaviour and crime that comes with it?”

It comes as the Andrews government is set to make Richmond’s supervised injecting room a permanent facility.

Five years after it first opened, the Saturday Herald Sun has confirmed plans to turn the North Richmond injecting room into a permanent facility will be put to cabinet on Monday.

And legislation to make the change is expected to go to parliament as early as next week, after the government quietly received a review into the North Richmond facility.

It can also be revealed that there are now real doubts the proposed CBD injection facility will go ahead.

A security guard outside the North Richmond supervised injecting room. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

Widespread opposition and concerns in the government about the impact of a facility at the gateway to the CBD in Flinders St has stalled the push for a second injection facility.

It is understood senior government figures believe a CBD facility would be a major setback for the city’s recovery after being decimated during the pandemic.

In 2020 a panel of experts recommended setting up a second safe-injecting room in the City of Melbourne, near to an illicit drug market and wider network of services.

A site on Victoria St, between Swanston St and Elizabeth St, opposite the Queen Victoria Market was announced as the government’s preferred location.

Daniel Andrews announcing the trial of the Richmond injecting room in 2017. Picture: AAP

But the controversial decision sparked a war with the City of Melbourne over concerns it would kill the tourist mecca.

Flinders St emerged as another potential site after the government bought the Yooralla building opposite the railway station, which was listed at $45m-plus.

The council has resolved to support a safe-injecting room to be located at an appropriate CBD site.

But Lord Mayor Sally Capp has spoken out against the current proposed location.

“We do not believe the current site is the best site for a safe-­injecting room,” she said last year.

“We’ve actually agreed as a council that we understand safe-injecting rooms can save lives, but it’s very important it’s located in an appropriate place.”

It’s understood that some figures in council favour a facility in the CBD’s west in the vicinity of King St based on drug activity in the area.

City traders have also repeatedly raised concerns about the site.

There are concerns over the proposed location of a second safe-injecting room. Picture: Jason Edwards

It is understood that one proposal being considered is for the Flinders St site to be used as a community health facility, but not for injecting drugs.

Premier Daniel Andrews this week hinted that changing drug-use patterns could see the second location moved away from the CBD.

“It’s about who is coming into the city, where in the city, how many (people),” the Premier said.

“All of those things are different today than they were, and therefore choosing a site that is appropriate or indeed choosing whether there will be a site – all of that is on the table.

The North Richmond facility is set to be permanent. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

“It may well be that there are new patterns of behaviours which are directly relevant to try to deal with that community and provide the safest environment as well as pathways to treatment and therapy. This is just a commonsense approach.”

The government has confirmed it has received a much- anticipated review into the North Richmond facility, which first opened in 2018.

It is yet to be released.

Opposition Leader John Pesutto called on the immediate release of the report. “The communities of North Richmond and Victorians more generally want to know what the report, by John Ryan, says,” he said.

Former police commissioner Ken Lay was due to hand down a report into the location of a new facility in 2021.

However it is now due in the middle of the year, with Covid blamed for ongoing delays.