Tuesday, 18 November 2025

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:26): My question is for the Minister for Mental Health. The mayor of the City of Yarra has called the medically supervised injecting room in Richmond (MSIR) ‘the greatest public policy disaster in recent Victorian history’. Hundreds of residents rallied again over the weekend against its location. Minister, why won’t you acknowledge, as the mayor has, that an injecting room next to a primary school is inappropriate?

 Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (12:26): I thank Ms Crozier for her question again on the MSIR in North Richmond, and I will say up-front that I respectfully disagree with the mayor. This is a really important service. This is a service that has saved countless lives – 63 lives in fact – and safely managed more than 11,000 overdoses. Nobody wants to see anyone struggle with addiction, but we need to take a health-led response, and that is exactly what our government has done with the safe injecting service in North Richmond. We will continue to support that service.

I would really urge anyone who has doubts about this and the power of this service to actually go and visit them. They have an open-door policy – they will take you through and show you exactly what they do in their service, because it is not just about saving lives, it is about also connecting people in with the critical services that they need to turn their lives around. Let us not forget: North Richmond has been a drug hotspot for decades, and this service was in direct response from calls in the community to make sure that we tackled things in a different way and that we provide health care to people who are struggling with addiction. Whilst I am always up for having conversations with the community and with our local government colleagues, I do respectfully disagree with the position that has been taken by the Yarra council, and I can be absolutely unequivocal: this site is an important part of our AOD system here in Victoria, and our government will continue to support it.

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:28): Thank you for that response. I note that no government MPs turned up to the rally on Sunday to listen to the residents. Residents, business owners and operators and the council have been warning the government that the injecting room is in the wrong location. Victoria Street businesses in particular have suffered a huge decline in patronage. What advice have you received as to the impacts to businesses that are already doing it tough due to high energy costs and the plethora of taxes that have been imposed on them by your government?

 Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (12:28): I thank Ms Crozier for her supplementary question, but you are conflating a number of issues here, Ms Crozier. There are separate conversations and good work being done between our government and the traders in Victoria Street. This is a really, really important part of our city. The small businesses in that part of Richmond have been working closely with a number of our colleagues, with the small business minister and DJSIR ministers, around revitalising that strip. You are making the assertion that the issues that are being confronted by businesses in Victoria Street are directly related to the MSIR, and I simply do not accept that fact, because the data and the statistics do not support that fact.