Tuesday, 15 August 2023

Collingwood sobering service

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (16:41): (391) My action tonight is seeking the action of the Minister for Mental Health, and the action I seek is a commitment that the government will consult with the local community on the Collingwood sobering-up centre and explain why it is not possible to continue the existing location on Gertrude Street backing onto St Vincent’s. It feels like a bit of groundhog day speaking in this place once again about the government’s lack of consultation on initiatives that affect local communities. It was only last sitting week I was speaking about the CBD injecting room, about the failure to consult residents about that, and now the government wants to put a permanent sobering-up centre in a residential area in Cambridge Street, Collingwood, once again with no consultation with the community, with local residents or with the local council and once again next to a school. It is actually next to the Collingwood English Language School. They seem to be lumping all of these things next to schools in the seat of Richmond.

Indeed as much as the community recognise the importance of addressing public drunkenness through a health-centred approach – as I do, and I have spoken on the record about the public drunkenness laws – residents feel out of the loop on this. They do not understand why it cannot be put where it is now. There is a trial going on at the moment on Gertrude Street backing onto St Vincent’s in a health precinct – not in a residential area, in a health precinct, where people can be properly looked after. Residents were shocked to receive a letter from Cohealth just a week after the location was announced. It was announced on the same day that they were also the provider, and then within a very short time frame they got a letter out to the community trying to cool the community’s concern about this centre.

I have been speaking with local residents who feel like they have not been heard. I note another member for Northern Metropolitan Mr Erdogan likes to send out glossy pamphlets to the people of Richmond. I encourage him to speak with the community in Collingwood about this sobering-up centre and the concerns that they have. The trial, while it might have been a success, was backed onto St Vincent’s in a health precinct, where it should be. This is a far more appropriate location not only due to the hospital and easy access to public transport but because it is a non-residential area. So I call on the minister to explain why it is not possible for the sobering-up centre to continue at the trial location at St Vincent’s and to commit, please, to consulting with the local community in Collingwood. The government needs to consult rather than dropping proposals on the community without any notice.