Bourke Street 2017: a historical mental-health commentary
The Bourke Street tragedy
By Stephen Gianni · Originally published 25 January 2017
Original article
The Clickability family would like to express its deepest sympathies to everyone affected by the Bourke Street tragedy.
The Bourke Street incident on Friday was a tragedy. Innocent people and children died, while others had their lives turned upside down.
Since Friday, everyone has been justifiably calling for a review of the circumstances that led to this point – the death of five people, injury to numerous others, and the traumatising of a community.
[Clickability update, October 2026:
The later Coroners Court inquest concerned six people fatally injured in the 20 January 2017 event. The original count reflects this early commentary, not the final toll.
]
We must conduct such a review, but my concern is where we begin. Despite a major push for the review to start with the practices around bail, I haven’t been able to look at this tragedy without wondering where else in the system this person interacted.
As a result, I’d like to make the argument that the review needs to start well before how the person was able to be bailed – specifically with how people with mental health and or addiction issues are treated and supported, and what the implications of a lack of treatment can mean.
When legislation called for institutions to be shut down in the 1980s, people with mental illness were relocated into the community. There weren’t sufficient community mental health services to support them and responsibility fell on the police to manage issues as they emerged.
Just as there wasn’t enough community support, police also didn’t have enough support or knowledge, and there was a spate of police shootings of people with mental health problems in the 1990s in Victoria.
There was a review at that time, which said that the way to support police was to provide them with access to crisis assessment teams (CAT) that would come between police and people with mental illness.
CAT have been providing clinical emergency support since then and community mental health teams have been providing preventative support to people with mental health issues. The funding of such work in the mental health sector has become confused with the advent of the NDIS, where responsibility for community mental health is returned to the Commonwealth.
The community is calling for the police to be more proactive and to use their authority in a way that prevents these sorts of incidents from happening, but the response to Friday’s incident can’t be to ask police to act on our behalf without giving them the resources to do just that.
While writing these thoughts, it is important to remain sensitive to the community that’s been hurt, but this is not a policing issue and can’t be solved by policing. It needs to be solved by community resources and support.
So how could the NDIS have prevented Friday’s tragedy?
[Clickability update, October 2026:
This rhetorical question is the author’s opinion, not evidence that the NDIS could have prevented the event. Use the official inquest material for findings, and avoid generalising violence to people with mental illness.
]
Stephen Gianni
Stephen has extensive experience across the disability and mental health sectors, including being the former CEO of VICSERV and_ _senior advocate at the Office of Public Advocate.
Use the appropriate help pathway for the situation
If this historical account is distressing, you can stop reading and seek support. Lifeline provides crisis support on 13 11 14. An immediate emergency requires 000. A routine NDIS service request is not an emergency response.
For ongoing support, ask what belongs with a clinical health service and what disability assistance may fit your plan. NDIA guidance on mental-health responsibilities distinguishes these roles. You do not need to accept assumptions about violence because of a diagnosis.
Keep service responsibilities and individual risk assessment separate
Respond to actual needs and evidence, not a broad association between mental illness and criminal conduct. Explain your role alongside clinical and emergency services and communicate relevant concerns through appropriate channels. Historical commentary should not become a claim that your support can prevent a particular crime.
Questions readers ask
Does the commentary prove the NDIS could have prevented the tragedy?
No. It presents an unsupported counterfactual, not an official finding. Official guidance
Does NDIS funding replace crisis mental-health care?
No. Clinical and emergency pathways remain distinct. Official guidance
Find ongoing disability support when you are ready
For non-urgent disability-service needs, compare providers through Clickability and clarify their role. Use clinical or emergency services for urgent health and safety concerns.
