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