By Victoria Stone-Meadows
An Opposition MP has called on the Victorian mental health minister and Fiona Patten from the Sex Party to hold a community safety forum in Casey.
Member for South-Eastern Metropolitan region Inga Peulich raised the idea during a parliamentary adjournment debate on Thursday 23 March, calling on Minister of Mental Health Martin Foley to lead the establishment of the forum.
Her call comes following the deferment of a bill to establish a medically supervised safe injection facility in Richmond to the Standing Committee on Legal and Social Issues on which she is a member.
Ms Peulich claimed Members of the Sex Party who introduced the bill to parliament were spotted sending tweets from Kelly’s Motor Club Hotel in Cranbourne.
Ms Peulich equated this to campaigning for a safe injecting room in Casey.
Fiona Patten from the Sex Party disputes Ms Peulich’s comments, saying she has not got her facts straight.
“I don’t know what Inga’s been smoking, but she’s clearly spaced out on her facts,” Ms Patten said.
“The Herald Sun visited Kelly’s in Cranbourne as part of their ‘pub test’ and asked about my bill. The Australian Sex Party just tweeted what was in the paper – which Inga clearly didn’t read.”
In her address to the legislative council, Ms Peulich cited the rising crime rates in Casey as a reason to reject a safe injecting facility in the area.
However, overall drug offences across the City of Casey went down 8.6 per cent between 2015 and 2016.
In that time, trafficking and drug dealing dropped 25 per cent and cultivation and manufacture of drugs fell 50 per cent.
Other crimes such as theft, robbery, and burglary have increased in that time, and Ms Peulich attributed this increase to drug use in the area.
Ms Peulich said she would like to have the community safety forum before the standing committee delivers its conclusions on the bill regarding a medically supervised safe injection facility.
“I am confident that the community would reject this white flag response,” she said.
“This position on the scourge of drugs and callous disregard of the harm it causes drug addicts – who need access to rehab beds and professional help to get off drugs – their families and the harm caused to the community is not a position that is widely held by ordinary people or the Casey community.”
“Drug injecting facilities are also in conflict with our international obligations and multi-pronged national drug strategy which focuses on harm minimisation, demand reduction and supply reduction.”
Ms Patten has welcomed Ms Peulich’s calls for a community safety forum in the area, and maintains a medically supervised safe injecting facility is the best way to address this.
“Immediately after Inga’s speech to parliament, I welcomed any conversation about drug law reform strategies and benefits to the community,” she said.
“Rather than ending the needle nightmare residents are facing, she’s happier dreaming up stories about the Sex Party.”
“Inga needs to wake up and listen to the evidence. There are significant drug issues in her own region, and residents deserve policies that work, rather than more of the same, which has made no impact.”
Attempts to contact the Minister for Mental Health Martin Foley for comment were unsuccessful.
