Drug harm reduction
Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:11): (999) My question today is to the Minister for Mental Health. Just yesterday we saw a Coroners Court report reveal that overdose deaths in Victoria are now at their highest level in a decade and that three-quarters of the deaths were in metropolitan Melbourne. 584 people died in 2024 from a drug overdose – that is 37 more than the previous year. Each one is a person, is a life tragically lost – a family member or a loved one. These are 584 unique people with lives and stories that came to an abrupt end, which is absolutely devastating. I say this noting the government’s statewide drug strategy, noting what is included within it, and that my colleagues and I are supportive of these initiatives. Things like naloxone vending machines, pharmacotherapy, outreach services and more are all important tools. Minister, can you outline to the house what modelling you have to show that the current policy settings in this strategy will reduce these increasing overdose death rates in Melbourne?
Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (12:12): I thank Mr Puglielli for his important question. Of course at the outset I do want to acknowledge the incredibly painful impact that any death by drug overdose has on the immediate family and indeed the broader friendship group and community that that individual comes from. We have seen a steady increase in the number of Victorians who have tragically, and I think preventably, died from overdose, which is why when I came into this portfolio I was absolutely focused on all of the measures that our government can take to try and reverse this trend.
You touched in the preamble to your question on a few of the initiatives that we are implementing, but what I would say about the approach that I have tried to take is that I have listened closely to those that work in the AOD sector day in and day out and deal with some of the most complex examples of addiction. As we know, many people who suffer from serious addiction, particularly opioid or methamphetamine addiction, also have other challenges going on in their lives. So it is important that we listen to those on the front line working with these Victorians to come up with a suite of initiatives that are going to not only address and reduce risk but also wrap other supports around people.
We do have our statewide action plan. That has got a number of important initiatives in it. We will be trialling some innovative and new ideas, including the overdose prevention hotline, which will be an Australian first. We will be, when we open the community health hub at 244 Flinders Street, running a trial of hydromorphone for those that are resistant to other pharmacotherapy treatments. We have been developing an AOD 10-year strategy for our state, which is a first. I think that once that strategy is publicly launched you will see that it is quite detailed in terms of some of the areas that we know we have to improve. But our government is absolutely committed to that work, and –
Aiv Puglielli: On a point of order, President, the question was about modelling – just on relevance.
The PRESIDENT: I think the minister was relevant. I will ask her to continue.
Ingrid STITT: I was moving on to talk about the types of data that my department share with me, the important work of other agencies, including of course the coroner, who regularly reports on these matters, and also the data that we have access to via those frontline services that deliver AOD – (Time expired)
Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:16): Thank you, Minister, for that response. I look forward to future conversations with you about this data. Minister, if a plane crashed in our city and the number of people that I have just mentioned – 584 people – died, I think about the amount of attention from media, for example, and action that we would see immediately occur following that event. That would be understandable because it is a horrific loss of life. I think this is a stark reminder of the real-world implications that stigma around drug use is having in the real world – stigma which costs lives and in my opinion has seen limited government action to date. Why else would we not already have a medically supervised injecting centre in the City of Melbourne? We know that these centres save lives. We can look to North Richmond for the prevention of loss of life that we have seen in that facility. Melbourne needs a supervised injecting centre. We know the lives it will save. Minister, have you received any advice advising you to reverse your government’s position on this issue?
Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (12:17): There was a lot of commentary in that supplementary question, really based on your opinions, and the difficulty I have got with it is that it implies that somehow we are not taking these issues seriously. I have just gone through for a good 3 minutes, or as quickly as I could, all the reasons why it is so important that we continue our efforts here, and reducing stigma is a huge part of that. It is embedded in all of the different initiatives that we are implementing in the statewide action plan, and we have a specific project on how we reduce stigma for some of the most marginalised people who use drugs, particularly in the CBD and other parts of the city, where it is often combined with homelessness. That harm reduction is really at the heart of all the work that our government is pursuing, and we have been very clear about our position on the medically supervised injecting room.