Speaker 1: Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily Ours.
Speaker 2: Oh now it makes sense.
Speaker 1: Good morning and welcome to the Daily Ours. It's Thursday,
Speaker 1: the twenty fifth of April. I'm Lucy, I'm Billy. Earlier
Speaker 1: this week, the Victorian government announced it would not go
Speaker 1: ahead with plans to open a second supervised injecting room
Speaker 1: in Melbourne.
Speaker 3: And this issue of the location has been a key
Speaker 3: sticking point. We have been unable to find a location
Speaker 3: that strikes the right balance, to strike that balance between
Speaker 3: supporting people, supporting people who use drugs with the needs
Speaker 3: of the broader community.
Speaker 1: On today's podcast, we're going to look at why the
Speaker 1: Victorian government backflipped on its commitment, what the context of
Speaker 1: the decision is, and how the communities responded. But first, Billy,
Speaker 1: what's making headlines.
Speaker 2: Deaths on Australian roads have increased by eight point two
Speaker 2: percent in the year to March, according to new data
Speaker 2: from the Australian Automobile Association, or the Triple A. New
Speaker 2: South Wales saw the biggest increase in road deaths, followed
Speaker 2: by the NT and Victoria. The Triple A said data
Speaker 2: including the causes of fatal crashes is collected by state
Speaker 2: and territory governments, but is not made public. It has
Speaker 2: called for more transparency so crucial data can inform ways
Speaker 2: to reduce the death toll. The New South Wales government
Speaker 2: has agreed to pay two hundred and thirty million dollars
Speaker 2: to junior doctors over allegations of unpaid overtime and missed
Speaker 2: meal breaks. The class action was first launched in December
Speaker 2: twenty twenty and sought to compensate junior medical doctors who'd
Speaker 2: allegedly been underpaid in the ten years since the end
Speaker 2: of twenty fourteen. New South Wales Health has now agreed
Speaker 2: to the settlement, which is the largest underpayment class action
Speaker 2: ever in Australia. The US Senate has passed laws on
Speaker 2: Tuesday evening that will force TikTok's Chinese owners to sell
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Speaker 2: about data sharing between TikTok, who is owned by Chinese
Speaker 2: company Byte Dance, and the Chinese government. The bill will
Speaker 2: force byte Dance to sell to a company outside of China.
Speaker 2: About one hundred and seventy million Americans use TikTok, which
Speaker 2: is roughly half the country's population, and If you want
Speaker 2: more information on that, we have a full episode dedicated
Speaker 2: to that legislation that we will put in the show notes.
Speaker 1: And today's good news, the European Parliament has approved a
Speaker 1: ban on products made with forced labor. This means the
Speaker 1: European Commission will be able to investigate any suspicious manufacturers
Speaker 1: or providers and if forced labor is present in the
Speaker 1: supply chain, those providers will no longer be able to
Speaker 1: sell their products in the EU market. EU countries have
Speaker 1: three years to implement the ban.
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Speaker 4: Thank you, and now back to the deep Dive.
Speaker 1: Earlier this week, Victorian Premiere just Int Alan said the
Speaker 1: government is not going to move forward with plans to
Speaker 1: establish a second supervised injecting room in Melbourne. In announcing
Speaker 1: her decision, Alan said her government had found there was
Speaker 1: no appropriate location in Melbourne's CBD that balances the needs
Speaker 1: of people who use drugs with the needs of the
Speaker 1: broader CBD community, and therefore the proposal wasn't going to
Speaker 1: go ahead.
Speaker 2: This was really big news, especially for those in Victoria
Speaker 2: this week, where it has been a really big political
Speaker 2: issue for years. Now. Can we start the conversation by
Speaker 2: you just explaining exactly what is a safe injecting room
Speaker 2: for those who aren't familiar.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely so. A supervised injecting room is a hygienic
Speaker 1: place where a person can inject drugs under medical supervision.
Speaker 1: Health professionals ask users about what drugs they're taking and
Speaker 1: can quickly respond to an overdose if that happens. Supervised
Speaker 1: injecting facilities can also provide mental health support, treatment for addiction,
Speaker 1: and blood testing services. So the Victorian government has already
Speaker 1: set up a supervised injecting room. They set one up
Speaker 1: in Richmond in twenty eighteen, just outside the Melbourne CBD.
Speaker 1: I also should add that this isn't actually a uniquely
Speaker 1: Victorian idea. There's a supervised injecting room in King's Cross
Speaker 1: in Sydney. It opened in two thousand and one and
Speaker 1: has attended to eleven thousand overdoses. So in Sydney they've
Speaker 1: responded to eleven thousand overdoses. What about in Victoria? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so the Richmond facility has responded to more than eight
Speaker 1: thousand overdoses. That's since opening in twenty eighteen, and an
Speaker 1: independent review actually found it saved more than sixty lives.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: In June twenty twenty, then Premier Daniel Andrews committed to
Speaker 1: opening up a second injecting site in the CBD.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: So we had Dan Andrews, the former Premier of Victoria,
Speaker 2: committing four years ago to opening a new site. Yea,
Speaker 2: what has happened between then and now? That's quite a while. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So a month after Andrews promised to open a new site,
Speaker 1: his government commissioned an inquiry to look at how this
Speaker 1: would work, to consult with the relevant stakeholders. That report,
Speaker 1: led by former head of Victoria Police Ken Lay, handed
Speaker 1: down its recommendations in May twenty twenty three. But we
Speaker 1: actually only just got to read its findings this week.
Speaker 1: It's taken nearly a year for the government to make
Speaker 1: that report public, a year in which obviously Daniel Andrews resigned.
Speaker 1: In that report, it was noted there were fifty four
Speaker 1: drug deaths in the City of Melbourne area between twenty
Speaker 1: twenty and twenty twenty one, making it the deadliest site
Speaker 1: for drug use in the whole state of Victoria. And
Speaker 1: so in the end, the report recommended setting up a
Speaker 1: small supervised injecting room in Melbourne's CBD.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm a little confused. So my understanding is the
Speaker 2: government commissioned this report which was made public this week,
Speaker 2: and that recommended opening up the second site. But then
Speaker 2: also this week the government has told us that that
Speaker 2: won't be happening despite that recommendation.
Speaker 1: Is that right, Yeah, So the government has had time
Speaker 1: to consider the recommendations of this report, and basically what
Speaker 1: came out this week was new Premier just Inter Allen
Speaker 1: admitted that they couldn't find a suitable location for that
Speaker 1: supervised injecting room in Melbourne CBD, and she said this
Speaker 1: was disappointing. The government did accept Lay's other recommendations to
Speaker 1: improve healthcare responses and treatments for people struggling with addiction.
Speaker 1: So essentially they said they've accepted all the recommendations other
Speaker 1: than the recommendations related to setting up another supervised injecting
Speaker 1: room in the CBD, right, And.
Speaker 2: So what has their response been to this announcement.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, as you can imagine, pretty varied responses. So
Speaker 1: on the one hand, we've heard from the Victorian Liberals.
Speaker 1: They're the opposition who've remained really against the idea of
Speaker 1: supervised injecting rooms existing in the first.
Speaker 2: Place, so they're happy with this decision they are.
Speaker 1: Before the twenty eighteen state election, the Victorian Liberals said
Speaker 1: they would shut down the Richmond injecting room if they
Speaker 1: got in. They weren't elected, so that supervised injecting room
Speaker 1: remains open today. But that gives you kind of a
Speaker 1: sense of their position in regard to this latest announcement.
Speaker 1: The opposition said they were in favor of the government's decision.
Speaker 1: Shadow Mental Health Minister Emma Keeley said the government's decision
Speaker 1: to walk away from a second injecting room is the
Speaker 1: right outcome, and she said, quote, this long overdue decision
Speaker 1: ends years of uncertainty for residents, traders and visitors to
Speaker 1: Melbourne's CBD.
Speaker 2: I presume not everyone agrees with that position, though I'm
Speaker 2: sure there would be some people who would be quite
Speaker 2: disappointed by this decision.
Speaker 1: That's right. So on the other hand, we have the
Speaker 1: Greens in Victoria who said the decision was spineless. Newly
Speaker 1: appointed Green's leader Ellen Sandal, whose electric actually covers the CBD,
Speaker 1: said quote it leaves people who are struggling with heroin
Speaker 1: addiction to die on the streets of Melbourne. So pretty
Speaker 1: strong language from the Greens there. And the Victorian Alcohol
Speaker 1: and Drug Association, the state's peak body for services in
Speaker 1: drugs and alcohol, agreed and said the decision was disappointing.
Speaker 1: So CEO Chris Christofferu said experts had backed a second
Speaker 1: injecting room, obviously referring to the Lay report, and said
Speaker 1: quote fear and stigma continue to obstruct good public policy. However,
Speaker 1: the association did welcome the state government's plans to improve
Speaker 1: access to drug related services across the state.
Speaker 2: A really interesting discussion about harminimization. I remember hearing about
Speaker 2: this pretty much. I think my whole life I've heard
Speaker 2: about this debate about safe injecting rooms, so I'm sure
Speaker 2: it's one that we will continue to hear about. But
Speaker 2: thank you so much for your explainer today, Lucy.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me, Billy, and thank.
Speaker 2: You so much for listening. To today's podcast and as
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Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Adunda
Speaker 1: bunge Lung Chalcuttin woman from Gadigol Country.
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