Michaela Meade
A rally held last week in Footscray to voice community opposition to a supervised injection room in the suburb has been labelled “very successful”.
Western Metropolitan Liberal MP Member Bernie Finn told Star Weekly the community has let the state government know that they are against the idea.
“To have that degree of concern shown by locals, it sends a very strong message to the government,” Mr Finn said.
“The reaction that I’ve had over the last week [since the idea was raised] is staggering.
“We’ve made it clear that [the rally] Wednesday night was just the beginning.
“We’ve now started a campaign, it’s now up to the government to decide if they want to address it.
“If they want that fight… the Footscray locals are ready.
“They can expect a fight they will not win.”
Mr Finn said the turn out for the rally was “pretty good”, with about 100 residents attending.
“We could get a lot more in the future,” he said.
“When [the danger] sinks in, particularly for businesses and families, you’re going to see a huge response from the locals.”
Mr Finn said he did not view the rally in support of the notion that took place on Saturday as a concern.
“Everybodys entitled to their opinion,” he said.
“I don’t think they’ve got a grandstand of support there.”
Mr Finn was joined by opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier, Western Metropolitan MP Catherine Cumming, Footscray Asian Business Association president Peter Nguyen, Vietnamese Community in Australia president Bon Nguyen, and Maribyrnong mayor Michael Clarke at the event.
Speaking at last week’s council meeting, Cr Clarke said drug use was a “non-issue for this council”.
“There’s no question about the fact that the health needs of this cohort need to be attended to, but when you’re looking at [the statistics]… it doesn’t warrant that level of response.
“I can’t see why we would take it up [the injecting room].
“It’s not an issue in the community today.
