Melbourne church leaders are heaping pressure on the Victorian government to make good on its pledge to establish a medically supervised drug injecting service in the heart of the city.
Members of Collins Street Baptist Church, Wesley Uniting Church, St Michael’s Uniting Church and St John’s Lutheran Church have written to Premier Jacinta Allan and Mental Health Minister Ingrid Stitt to express the urgent need for the service.
"In just 12 months, we have lost 24 people to drug overdoses in our churches' immediate neighbourhoods," the letter reads.
"The City of Melbourne has the highest number of heroin deaths of any Victorian local government area.
"The call-outs to ambulance services in response to overdoses here has increased nearly 30 per cent in the last year."
The letter is signed by Reverend Dr Simon Carey Holt, Reverend Rachel Kronberger, Reverend Dr Margaret Mayman and Pastor James Winderlich.
Victoria's first injecting room in North Richmond was opened in June 2018 under a trial and made permanent in May after a review found it safely managed almost 6000 overdoses and saved 63 lives.
A medically supervised injecting room trial in the CBD has been mooted since 2020, with the government buying a building near Degraves Street and a Salvation Army hub on Bourke Street flagged as a potential site in July.
The religious leaders acknowledged debate surrounding a second facility had become "highly political" but said there was no controversy about the scientific evidence.
"In our view, we cannot pretend any longer that the need to provide appropriate care to those in the trip of addictions and related mental health challenges does not exist, nor that this need can be hidden or pushed elsewhere," the letter reads.
"We cannot imagine our city as one that welcomes only those who are healthy and well-resourced and leaves others on its edges."
A trio of advocate groups for a CBD injecting room welcomed faith leaders' intervention.
"You don’t need to follow a faith to understand that vulnerable people need compassion and support, not judgement," Keep Our City Alive spokeswoman and CBD resident Jill Mellon-Robertson said.
In 2020, the government hired former Victoria Police boss Ken Lay to map out drug-taking patterns in the Melbourne CBD and provide advice on establishing a medically supervised injecting service trial in the city.
His report was handed to the state government at the end of May last year but it has refused to release it until a response is finalised.
A decision has not been made on the location for a Melbourne service.
"Ken Lay's report highlights the complexity of this matter and we're taking the time required to get it right," a government spokeswoman said.
Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes claimed executive privilege to fend off a deadline set by parliament's upper house to release the long-awaited report by March 6.
The Victorian opposition plans to move another motion demanding Ms Symes provide a copy of the report to an independent arbiter to rule on whether the executive privilege claim is justified.
