High risk Victorians who pose a threat to the community will be tracked as part of the state’s response to two vehicle attacks in Melbourne.
The Fixated Threat Assessment Centre was announced in October, and Premier Daniel Andrews says it will help prevent car attacks on crowds like those in Bourke Street and Flinders Street.
‘The same model has been deployed in other parts of the world, it’s been very, very effective,’ he told reporters on Sunday.
The new centre will track 300 people in its first year once it starts operating.
His comments come after former Australian of The Year Patrick McGorry called for a radical overhaul of the state’s mental health system, which he says has been in crisis for a decade and has led to preventable murders, violence and suicides.
‘In the next 12 months we will see several murders which are preventable, committed by poorly treated psychiatric patients and we will see hundreds of suicides, which are mostly preventable,’ Prof McGorry told AAP on Friday.
On Thursday, driver Saeed Noori, who has a history of mental illness and drug use, allegedly tried to kill 18 pedestrians by running them down in Melbourne’s CBD.
Police allege Noori drove a white 4WD and ploughed through pedestrians at the intersection of Flinders and Elizabeth streets.
The Afghan refugee and Australian citizen held his head in his hands as he sat in court on Saturday, while his emotional mother tried to approach him but was told to stay seated.
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H/t reader kevin a.
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