 Next, I'm so pleased to introduce the Honourable Gabrielle Williams, Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ambulance Services and Minister for Treaty and First Peoples. She's proudly represented her local community as the member for Dandenong and the Victorian Parliament since 2014. Minister, it means a lot to us that you can be here today as we gather in Melbourne. Welcome. Thanks Naomi for that very warm welcome and thank you also former President Modelante for a wonderful address and a very inspiring one. It's such a pleasure to be able to share a stage with you. Before I begin, please let me acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we're currently gathered. There were undrived people and to pay my respects to their elders past and present and any other elders we may have here with us today and to say those words not out of habit but to reflect on the journey that we're on here in Victoria towards truth-telling and treaty and now the national journey that we are on here in Australia towards a voice, a constitutional recognition of our First Peoples many many many years too late but so very important to achieving better outcomes for our First Nations people now and into the future. Thank you. I also want to acknowledge and welcome the many of you here today with lived or living experience of substance use as well as your your families and your supporters and commend you on your advocacy. I always reflect on the fact that it's such a profound act of generosity to share your own stories in your own experiences many of which will be negative experiences so that you can ultimately improve the lives of others and ensure that others don't have those negative experiences. It is not only a profound act of generosity but it is also one of the most meaningful acts of public service any person can give and I also want to acknowledge that I know for many in our community that process comes at a cost. It can be and it can involve reliving personal trauma all for the greater good so I wanted to spend some time acknowledging that and also I guess to acknowledge in that the impact of stigma and discrimination and how much a part of so many of your stories that will be and hopefully I'll have a chance to talk to that shortly. I also of course want to honour and recognise our former president as I have acknowledged earlier and of course her Excellency Ms Gugu Modlante as well who I had a great discussion with before coming on to stage earlier. I know we also had former Prime Minister Helen Clarkey throughout the conference which somebody who I am a huge fan of what a powerhouse she is so very pleased to to see that she was a part of this conference as well and my fellow speakers here with us today Paul Hunt and Judy Tang such a pleasure to be able to meet you both here today and other dignitaries who have been in and out of this conference over the last few days and sharing their wisdom with us. I feel like I should also acknowledge the two people who constituted my cheer squad upon my announcement earlier earlier what about half an hour ago which is of course a Fiona Patton who is down here as a former member of the Legislative Council in the Victorian Parliament and someone who will be known to many of our local delegates here and Judy Ryan who has long been an advocate especially for our medically supervised injecting here in North Richmond and I know many of you have been out to see that. I also want to extend my welcome and thanks to Victoria's talented and thoughtful leaders in harm reduction including Sione Crawford and the wonderful team at harm reduction Victoria. It is challenging work. It is challenging work. It is often in a difficult context. These are conversations that you're driving that aren't always easily had and the doors aren't always open to you but I'm very grateful for your perspective and your wisdom and your generosity particularly for me being fairly new to this role in sharing that with me so thank you. It's testament to your expertise and hard work that so many leaders I think in this field have come from around the world to Melbourne to participate in this conference. I think that says a lot about the importance of the discussions that have taken place here and also says a lot about your individual and collective contributions to these issues so thank you again. Look it's such a pleasure to be able to be here albeit on a fairly tight timeframe so if I do have to disappear quickly after this I apologise but to be here for the closing of what has clearly been such a vibrant conference the program shows such an astounding breadth and thought leadership policy debate and something very close to my heart compassion what is most apparent to me about the harm reduction community whether that be you know ordinary people practitioners advocates policymakers academics in the in these fields is the deep and abiding commitment to fairness to justice and as a conference theme explores to collaboration and I'm sure many of you here today have reflected on whether governments can truly ever be a collaborative partner with the harm reduction community but I'm here to say that I believe we can the context of drug criminalisation certainly makes for difficult conversations I want to acknowledge that at the outset but I'm sure that you'll agree that difficult conversations are the ones that really do create meaningful change I was elected to the Victorian parliament in 2014 and in the not too far off 10 years since I've seen the community in the government wrestle with some really difficult conversations and issues both inside and outside of the parliament and which have led to some big changes and some small changes and I'm sure with more to come and one of the big changes that's taken place here in Victoria has been the establishment of the medically supervised injecting room and a recent independent review of that injecting service chaired by John Ryan found that since its establishment in 2018 that service has succeeded in achieving the trials central objectives which is to save lives and that to that end there have been more than 6000 overdose events safely managed which means a projected 63 lives saved on those numbers but more than that a lot of people far more than 6000 connected to the services that they need not always directly related to their drug use sometimes things as simple as dental services health checks things that we all need to maintain healthy lives and and to feel better in and of ourselves the Victorian Labor government has committed to making this service permanent now it was initially on a trial basis and we currently have a bill before Victoria's Parliament to enact and embed that change I had the pleasure of visiting the facility yesterday morning and met with the amazing team from North Richmond Community Health who deliver that service and I know many of you here in the room in the last couple of days have taken the opportunity to tour that facility and I hope it's provided you with food for thought and I was reflecting earlier that you know education goes both ways so while it might have given you some of you some of your ideas to take back to your home countries I'm sure you've got some feedback for us as well in how things could be done better and that exchange I believe is also really important I also want to reflect on some of the seemingly smaller but hard one changes to the law relating to peer distribution of needles and syringes and naloxone Victoria's take home naloxone program will commence in in coming months and it will enable needle and syringe programs to distribute naloxone alongside other NSP supplies as well as the provision of free naloxone from pharmacies so legislative change here in 2022 thank you legislative change also enshrined the right of peers to distribute naloxone in their communities and I don't think we can underestimate the impact of that change this will save lives it will give more Victorians a chance to recover from addiction and this was a policy success truly driven by by our lived experience community recognizing the tireless work here of Jane Dicker of harm reduction Victoria with collaboration with collaboration and support of local advocates like John Ryan and academics like Paul Ditzer they work extensively with government to enact changes like these and I want to thank them and many others like them for your steadfast advocacy I also want to highlight that lived experience has been core not just to changes here around drug policy but also instrumental an instrumental voice for harm reduction through the sex workers criminalization act 2022 which is underpinned by a very simple proposition which is that sex work is work and this important piece of legislation and it's very very lovely to have Fiona Patton in the room to hear this somebody who is also instrumental in this change but this important piece of legislation seeks to destigmatize sex work and give sex workers the same rights and protections as any other Victorian worker it means that sex workers in Victoria will no longer be forced to make what is an absolutely impossible choice between working legally or keeping themselves safe and I'm so pleased that people no longer have to make that decision point taken I'd like to recognize both the National Peek Sex Worker Organization a Scarlett Alliance Victorian Peer Organization Vixen for their ongoing advocacy and also the Sex Work Law Reform Committee just a few of the voices that were part of those changes and similarly across the world drug policy is at a time of transformative change I think as this conference represents change and reform and in Victoria we're determined to ensure that we have lived and living experience at the heart of that work in recent years one of the hallmarks of the transformation underway in the alcohol and other drugs portfolio which I have the pleasure of holding is is the emphasis on a health led approach to drug and alcohol use and I know the president mentioned the importance of health approaches as well to me health led approaches mean embracing the solutions that empower people and take to take care of themselves and others supported by this by good service delivery of course and a wider community but it's also about de-stigmatization about de-stigmatizing these issues and I I'm often given cause to reflect on the fact that stigma is such a wicked wicked barrier to progress and we've got to do something about that and it's incumbent upon people like me to be involved in that process in partnership with all of you it's impossible to truly serve someone's needs without collaborating with them on what support means for them at that time it will place and in that context that they are in of their families as well in their communities that that they're a part of a health led approach is inherently collaborative so where do we see this health led approach health led approach in the policies of Victorian Government today well last year the Victorian Labor Government invested about 313 million dollars in AOD services including responding to global supply pressures for critical harm reduction products and today the Andrews Labor Government people with lived and living experience service providers workforces in the community at larger are working together to roll out health led support for people who are intoxicated in public so that we can repeal the outdated astonishingly outdated public drunkenness offence now by accepting the challenge of a health led approach we must make a commitment to doing better at a systems level and responding to people's needs and respecting their choices finally over the past few months I've heard Victoria's AOD sector talk a lot about the challenge in all the challenges as there's several of them in the opioid pharmacotherapy treatment system both locally and nationally and we are of course privileged to have the leadership of harm reduction Victoria both as an advocate and for the delivery of the pharmacotherapy advocacy and medication service phone line better known as PAMS and I'd like to take a moment to recognize the incredible work of PAMS of the PAMS team who undertake very tough and complex work connecting those who want access to opioid treatment with prescribers and pharmacists which is not always easy work so thank you to the PAMS team for making such a huge difference in people's lives and and to that end also thank you to those prescribers and dispensers who are performing such vital work we know that there is a lot more work to do and we know that there are challenges that we must confront to get a better outcomes in this area so look over coming months I hope to talk to Victoria's harm reduction community and of course the AOD sector about what needs to be done over the longer term to get more focus on this sector in order to drive better outcomes for those who depend on it earlier I acknowledge that it can be difficult for people with a lived and living experience of drug use to collaborate with government we do want to hear more from you we and and quite frankly policymakers like me and many others like me need to need to enter into those discussions in earnest and make sure that we are listening to those views and to those ideas that I know are in vast supply among you all look as a community we achieve nothing without collaboration and without these difficult conversations and I know I keep emphasizing that they are difficult because they are and it's you know part of being able to overcome that is addressing it from the outset and coming to these discussions with open hearts and open minds so thank you again for the opportunity to join you all this afternoon and for your continued work and advocacy across global harm reduction it's been such a delight to be able to join you but also so wonderful to see such a vibrant conversation happening right here in Victoria where I hope it will spark many many more conversations and hopefully some great partnerships into the future. Thank you minister for that important message about peer workforce and peer collaboration and peer leadership