The prime minister says a supervised drug injecting room on the edge of his Sydney electorate has been a success, days after the Victorian government baulked at opening one in Melbourne.
A Victorian coroner this week recommended the government trial a safe injecting room in the overdose hotspot of North Richmond.
Victorian Mental Health Minister Martin Foley says there are no plans to set up a supervised injecting room but the government backed holding a parliamentary inquiry into the issue.
The Uniting Medically Supervised Injecting Centre was in Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's electorate from 2007 to 2013.
He said the facility has "been more successful than not", despite plenty of complaints and concerns.
"The general consensus...is that it has been, on balance, a success," Mr Turnbull told 3AW on Friday.
Australian Sex Party Leader Fiona Patten says 34 people overdosed in North Richmond last year and she wants a room trial run at the same time as the inquiry.
She says Victoria can model its facility off the one in Sydney's Kings Cross, where drug users are supervised by medical professionals.
The centre, set up in 2001, is funded by the NSW Treasury's confiscated proceeds of crime account and run by the services arm of the Uniting Church.
Uniting says its MSIC is focused on harm reduction, "recognising that drug dependence is chronic".
