Flinders Street could be the site of Melbourne’s second safe injecting room, reports AAP.
(This is just Flinders Street in general by the way, not the railway station, as some people online seem to have misunderstood.)
While Victorian health minister Martin Foley ruled out Enterprize Park off Flinders Street as the location, he says the process to choose a site is still under way.
He spoke to the ABC today:
Nothing is ruled in and nothing is ruled out…
I can say there are no plans to place the second trial at Enterprize Park.
A report in the Herald Sun on Monday said the site was now expected to be at the southern end of the city on Flinders Street, west of Swanston Street.
It was originally to be set up near the Queen Victoria Market on the CBD’s northern fringe.
Tony Doherty, the owner of Doherty’s Gym on Flinders Street, slammed the idea.
It’s a terrible place for it … I can’t think of a worse spot.
But Ben Vasiliou, the chief executive of the charity Youth Projects, told the ABC there was overwhelming evidence that a safe injecting room was needed and having it at the southern end of Flinders Street made sense.
But no one wants it in their backyard…
What we can do this time around is make sure every agency, every support system, is in place to make sure people get the support that they need.
Last week, Victorian crossbench MP Fiona Patten advocated safe injecting rooms for St Kilda, Footscray and Dandenong, as well as the proposed site and the current location in North Richmond.
But acting premier James Merlino said the government did not support expanding the program beyond a second site.
The location of the second room is currently subject to a consultation process being run by former police chief commissioner Ken Lay.
The supervised injecting centre at North Richmond, which opened in 2018, has been controversial due to its proximity to a school.
But Merlino insists the North Richmond centre is saving lives and says other initial problems have improved.
