Thursday, 10 September 2026

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:26): (1481) My question is to the Minister for Mental Health. Last week City of Melbourne councillors and CBD traders expressed their concerns regarding the hydromorphone treatment trial at the Flinders Street Community Health Hub and the potential for amenity, safety and security impacts in the surrounding precinct. Minister, what measures are you putting in place to address the safety risks to residents, traders and visitors in the vicinity of the proposed facility, given the litany of failures to protect local residents and traders from crime and antisocial behaviour around the injecting room in North Richmond?

 Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Special Minister of State) (12:27): I thank Ms Crozier for her question. There were a few assertions and dare I say a few prejudgements included in the preamble to the question. I have said in the chamber many times that the hub is part of our statewide action plan to save lives, to reduce drug harm and to give people in the CBD who are often doing it the toughest the supports and health care that they deserve. This is a facility that will be safe and practical, and it will provide that coordinated care for people experiencing substance use, homelessness, mental health challenges, family violence, social isolation and barriers to other more mainstream health service supports. There will be dedicated teams there, including primary health care, mental health, alcohol and drug treatment programs, counselling, outreach and so on, all under one roof in a purpose-built hub designed to have that wraparound support.

In terms of the issues around local amenity, we – the department and Cohealth, who will be operating the facility – have been working very closely with the City of Melbourne and with the traders through the reference group we have in the CBD to deal with some of these issues around rough sleeping and drug harms in the city. We have also done great work with the Salvos, but that is not specific to your question. We will be working on a continuous basis to make sure that the amenity and safety around that important service, when it opens later this year, are a very sharp focus for the service, and I have made my expectations very clear to them about the way that this ought to operate. The fact is that they want to be a very good neighbour and be proactive and talk with traders and residents, and I am encouraged a lot by the approach that the service is taking.

In relation to the hydromorphone trial, this is a drug treatment program. It has nothing to do with injecting drugs. This is an opioid substitute therapy for people who are resistant to other forms of pharmacotherapy. This is something that the New South Wales government have trialled on a smaller scale up in St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney. We will be operating a trial out of this hub. It will be overseen with very strong clinical governance by a tertiary hospital, and we look forward to that being able to assist some people who will be part of that trial to really turn their lives around and to break that terrible cycle of addiction. We are proud of this work, and I am very much looking forward to it opening later this year.

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:30): Thank you for that response, Minister. A working group was formed but not all traders and residents were invited to participate. You have mentioned that there was a traders reference group in the CBD that was consulted. Could you provide information on who the traders were in that reference group and what locations they were at?

 Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Special Minister of State) (12:31): In relation to Ms Crozier’s supplementary question, that CBD reference group has been operating for some time. It does not just deal with the issues around 244 Flinders Street and the hub. It has been dealing with questions around drug harms in the CBD more broadly. I am happy to provide, outside of the standing orders, a list of the members of that committee for Ms Crozier if she would like to be availed of that information. But I do want to point out that that is not the only engagement that is happening. There is assertive outreach going on via my department and Cohealth to traders and residents and other organisations that provide social services in the city and of course close engagement with the Melbourne City Council. It is happening constantly. That will be ongoing, as I said in my answer to the substantive question.