2016-04-13
Colleen Hartland - Question in Parliament: My constituency question is for the Minister for Health. The Footscray Historical Society takes walking tours down the alleyway behind its building. Unfortunately it has become the latest hotspot for people injecting drugs around Footscray and has been littered with hundreds of syringes.
Local resident Bill Horrocks, who for a long time has been calling for supervised injecting facilities to be established in Footscray, does these tours, and he believes that the old laneway has now become unsafe and wants it to be safe again. Regular drug takers need somewhere to go to prevent overdoses, get health care and stop their use impacting on public spaces.
Health Works in Footscray does an amazing job of supporting this cohort of people, but there is no supervised injecting room.
My question for the government is when will it stop ignoring the evidence regarding the life-saving benefits of supervised injecting facilities and relook at its policy and decide whether Footscray and other areas need supervised injecting rooms?