Wednesday, 29 October 2025

 Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:37): (1099) My question today is to the Minister for Mental Health. Minister, last week you announced the commencement of works at the community health hub at 244 Flinders Street. As part of this hub there is the planned hydromorphone trial. Minister, can you confirm for the house: is this an efficacy trial or an implementation trial?

 Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (12:38): I thank Mr Puglielli for his question and his interest in these matters. Of course the statewide action plan that the Premier and I announced last year is an important part of our effort in terms of tackling drug harm, and building a health hub at 244 Flinders Street was a key part of that announcement, so too was a hydromorphone trial in that facility. That trial will be a Victorian first, and I believe the size of that trial will be an important way in which to test whether, for people who are particularly resistant to other forms of treatment in opioid addiction, this can be a real game changer in terms of their recovery and their trajectory. As part of the statewide action plan, we announced funding for that trial. We will obviously take advice from the experts that will be delivering that trial. There is obviously a lot of work going on getting ready for that trial to commence, including partnership arrangements between the department, the operator of 244 and a tertiary hospital that is also part of the scope of that program. We will have more to say about the details of the trial as we get closer to the completion of that project at 244.

 Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:40): Thank you, Minister, for that response. I am sitting on that word ‘test’ that you used, and I would like to gauge the government’s intentions here. Minister, as you are aware, around two people die of heroin overdose in the City of Melbourne every single month. Overdose deaths are at a 10-year high. This trial is to support 30 people per year for two years. Does the government plan to extend the trial beyond the two years and expand the scheme to more people at the Flinders Street site?

 Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (12:40): I thank Mr Puglielli for his supplementary question. I understand where your question is coming from, and I think it is certainly coming from a good place. But I want to be respectful of the fact that we are setting up this trial. It will be a state first in terms of this particular drug and this program, and I do not want to pre-empt the outcomes of the trial. We have been very up-front that it is a trial. I would also point you to our record of being prepared as a government to do new things and to invest and innovate when it comes to treatment options for Victorians who are struggling with addiction. I am certainly committed to continuing to find ways and taking expert advice on these matters. I am about to establish the AOD ministerial advisory council, which will have that purpose, and we have already put in place the chief addiction officer within the Department of Health to continue to advise government on best practice.