Juliana ADDISON (Wendouree) (15:14): I too am pleased to speak in this debate today in support of the critically significant Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Medically Supervised Injecting Centre) Bill 2023. This bill will save lives. It will change outcomes. This bill will prevent deaths and it will change conversations. As a result of this bill, trajectories will be different: hearts will not be broken, the future will be different. Hope lives in this bill, and it is why I am supporting it.

I support this bill for the family I know who lost their beloved dad to an overdose and for everyone who grieves a lost one to overdose.

I am supporting this bill for my friend who died alone, all our friends who loved her and missed her and for everyone who wishes they had done more to support the friend who is no longer here.

I am supporting this bill for those who had nowhere safe to go but now do have somewhere. I am supporting this bill because I do not want people dying on the streets.

I am supporting this bill because the Victoria I want to live in and raise my family in is a compassionate and civil society, and despite our diversity and differences, we share a humanity where every person deserves to be respected, to be treated with fairness and to be valued. Importantly, everyone has the right to be seen, to be heard and to live their life with dignity, and that is what I believe is at the heart of this bill – dignity for all Victorians.

Thank you to the Minister for Mental Health and her office as well as the department, not just for their work in bringing this bill to the house but for their ongoing work on the medically supervised injecting room trial since its introduction. This is a truly life-saving operation, and my wholehearted and sincere thanks go to all involved, especially the frontline workers at the North Richmond medically supervised injecting centre, who are worthy of recognition and praise.

I have spoken before in this house about the importance of harm reduction, about how it can assist workers in health care and social services, about how it recognises some of our most vulnerable Victorians, but most importantly how harm reduction saves lives. Whether in the guise of needle safety or naloxone access or prescription monitoring, this government is committed to harm reduction and to reducing the damage caused by drugs.

Addressing the blight of drug addiction in our community is an incredibly complex task, and I know supervised injection facilities are not the sole answer, but they are certainly a part of the answer. There is evidence that is only growing, from other jurisdictions but also right here in Melbourne, that they can be effective in reducing deaths and in reducing health burdens while also addressing safety concerns and providing pathways towards recovery.

When we talk about this, we need to remember that it is not politics, it is people and it is people’s lives. It is the lives of people here in our state who are loved by people in our state, who are a part of the community in our state. Every single life lost to drug use is a tragedy for our state, and the temptation to judge, to moralise, to demonise must be resisted because it is not helpful and it is dangerous.

Kneejerk reactions and empty rhetoric do not make it safer for users or easier for their families and friends. Repeating and reproducing ineffectual approaches does not save lives and doing nothing is not acceptable, nor the answer. We need honesty, we need harm reduction, we need holistic and multifaceted approaches. This is what our government is committed to – saving lives and changing lives.

We know this now and we have known this for a while, which is why in late 2017 the government legislated for a new medical approach to combating drug-related harm. I was not a member of this place at that time, but I am proud of every single one of the 46 MPs who voted to support it, to begin Victoria’s first medically supervised injection trial. It was the right thing to do then, and it is the right thing to do now.

I would also like to acknowledge the former Minister for Mental Health Martin Foley and the former member for Richmond Richard Wynne for their compassionate leadership during the challenging times. During the trial there have been close to 6000 overdoses at the centre but no fatalities. It has involved more than 500 clients being provided with long-acting treatment for opioid dependence through the centre’s clinic, and in the City of Yarra it has led to a decrease in hepatitis C notifications.

It has led to a reduction in ambulance calls in the area, and I would particularly like to single out the member for Melton for his compassionate contribution. He is such a good person, and with his life experience he understands why there was a reduction in ambulance calls in the area. In the City of Yarra there has also been a reduction in overdose presentations at nearby hospitals, freeing up those beds for other Victorians who need them after an accident or an emergency.

All of these statistics should be celebrated, but the most important modelling comes from the recent Ryan report, which has been spoken about by a number of people already in their contributions, which tells us that 63 lives have been saved by this centre – 63. It is impossible to adequately convey what this means. It is impossible to understand it in the abstract or to even get close, to bring it down to just one person or to the impact and the intrinsic worth of every single individual and then consider it again 63-fold. It is very significant by any measure.

I do not envy the work of Mr Ryan and his panel, or of Professor Hamilton and hers beforehand, who conducted extensive research and outreach for their reviews of this trial, but I am incredibly grateful to them. Because we know that there are now likely to be 63 people who did not die, because they did not have to; that more than 6000 registered clients know they will be shown support and safety rather than callous indifference; and that there have been over 3000 referrals in just a two-year period to broader services, such as drug treatment, virus testing, GPs and housing. This centre is not only saving lives but changing them for the better.

This bill proposes a series of amendments to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981, including several which will implement recommendations of the Ryan review. Most significantly, it seeks to establish the North Richmond medically supervised injecting centre as an ongoing service rather than a trial. This bill also seeks to not just request changes to wording in the act but also implement improvements stemming from what we have most recently learned from the trial being in place.

Several proposed amendments concern the licensing arrangements for the facility. It removes the current six-year trial end date and moves instead to licences requiring renewal under the purview of the secretary. It allows for more than one licence to be issued, although only one can be in force at a time, so that a new provider may take over the operation of the centre if doing so would better facilitate its aims. It also details how such transfers could be considered and facilitated, including transitional obligations to ensure the continuation of services during any changeover, and crucially it also outlines processes for licence conditions: suspension, transfer and revocation. These are essential operational clarifications which will facilitate the long-term operation of the centre.

Other amendments will allow for greater flexibility in both governance and models of care, including that the centre’s directors may also be involved as supervisors and that registered nurses can also work in a supervisory capacity, as recommended by the Hamilton review. The bill also proposes improvements to protocol management, better clarifies the centre’s relationship to planning legislation and updates the act’s wording to reflect the program’s proposed ongoing operations.

Providing it passes this place and receives royal assent, the proposed amendments will commence by 28 June this year. This bill requires that a ministerial review begin by mid-2028, addressing the centre’s aims and operations as well as recommendations for any further relevant amendments. This will be tabled in the Parliament as soon as practicable afterwards, and I look forward to speaking on it again.

At the heart of this bill is our community and every single one of its people. I commend the bill to the house.

 

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