Medical director backs new Melbourne CBD injecting room

A top doctor has thrown her support behind a polarising proposal for Melbourne’s CBD that is no closer to a resolution.

A top doctor has thrown her support behind the proposed Melbourne CBD drug injecting room despite widespread opposition to the plan.

Dr Marianne Jauncey, medical director at Sydney’s injecting centre in Kings Cross, said decisions about the opening shouldn’t be reliant on people’s anecdotes.

“We have to acknowledge that we can’t magically fix everything, but we do live in the real world and have an open and honest conversation,” she told 3AW.

The possible site of an injecting room in Melbourne’s CBD is surrounded by construction work on the new underground station. Picture: Jason Edwards

“If a service can keep people alive, treat a range of illnesses and at the same time get them into treatment … to me as a clinician, I have to say, what’s not to like about that outcome?”

Dr Jauncey went on to say the centre in Sydney and similar facilities around the world were often created in response to activity already in the area.

“We’re always a response to an existing problem,” she said.

“An injecting facility can do some things extremely well (but) can it magically change the nature of heroin addiction? Can it magically change underlying social circumstances? No.”

Earlier this month, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was accused of keeping the public in the dark on the prospect of a second drug injecting room in Melbourne.

Mr Andrews said it was “unlikely” the government would make a decision on the room before November’s state election, as former Victoria Police chief commissioner Ken Lay has not completed his consultation process.

People appear to inject drugs in the streets after collecting needles from the safe injecting room in Richmond. Picture: Jason Edwards

Mr Lay was appointed by the state government in 2020 to lead the consultation process on a second drug injecting room, but his long-awaited report has not been handed down.

“I think that’s unlikely, principally because Ken Lay’s not finished his work … and I’m not certain when that work will be finished,” Mr Andrews said when asked if there would be a decision before the election.

“Everyone knows and respects Ken Lay, he’s an outstanding Victorian, he’ll finish that work and we’ll then have more to say at the appropriate time.

“Then a proposal will be put to the parliament and it will have to pass. The actual address needs to be in the law, this is not a simple process.”

The state government purchased the former Yooralla facility at 244 Flinders St early in 2021. It is believed to be the location for the second room.

But the site has been left to collect dust, with Mr Andrews reaffirming on Tuesday that a site had been bought and “that site remains”.

Melbourne’s only existing drug injecting room in North Richmond remains a controversial and polarising issue.

There have been reports of anti-social behaviour and drug taking close to the site, which is next to a primary school, while others have championed the room as a lifesaving measure.