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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 13 Hansard (9 December) . . Page.. 4205 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

Regrettably, we will still see deaths at home and deaths in other places. Hopefully, this injecting room will prevent many of those, but we need to be prepared for the argument that this proposal has not worked because deaths are still occurring at home and so on. The first time that somebody dies at home, those who are absolutely opposed to this approach will be screeching that this injecting room has not worked and we should stop it now. We need to be prepared for that argument. I do not think that we should build up expectations in the community about how many lives it will save. It will save many, but it will not save them all.

Mr Speaker, as I said, the Labor Party passed a motion. We saw it as an opportunity to put pressure on the Government to provide other services which we felt were wanting. We argued for a range of rehabilitation services, including youth rehabilitation services. I had a brief discussion on that with Mr Moore a little while ago. I understand that it has been delivered, more or less, with the Government announcing a range of innovative education and disincentive programs, coming in the form of the drug education framework. I will have more to say on that in a minute.

We argued for the location of the heroin injecting place to be negotiated with local businesses. I note that local businesses have been included in the panel which will be dealing with this issue. We wanted the Government to negotiate with the state and territory Ministers. In some respects, that has become redundant because New South Wales and Victoria are moving down this path anyway, but I am sure that Mr Moore is negotiating with Ministers round the country as the opportunity presents itself. We asked that the cost not be borne by the health budget. I am told that it will come from the Treasurer's advance, as it should. We also asked that the new ACT drug strategy for dealing with heroin and other drugs be released as a priority. That has been done.

The Labor Party has for many years supported the establishment of a heroin trial as a national project with the support of the majority of the States. I think that has gone out the window for some time, regrettably. We hope that one day we will return to a debate about heroin treatment programs in this country which incorporate some sort of pilot or trial program as that will assist us in taking this debate forward. Who knows how long it will be before we find solutions to this problem that we do not know about now? But this is still a matter that many people think will be very helpful in the scheme of things. I tend to agree.

I have always thought that having a heroin treatment program was a natural way to deal with this problem. I have done so ever since I became associated with this issue in 1989 when I was the first Minister for Health in the ACT. In fact, one of the very early questions I asked of my officials, in a naive sort of way, was: "Why on earth are we not giving this stuff to these people?", but I soon learnt the difficulties with that approach. We have an obligation, too, to preserve public safety as much as we can. Putting desperate people into desperate circumstances does not do much for public safety, but that is a situation in which many drug users find themselves. I trust that the contact that will be made in this drug injecting room with people with an interest in rehabilitation will help them on the path to normality of some sort, whether it involves some sort of program where they take alternative drugs or whether it is the sort of program that the Salvation Army provides, which is based on total abstinence. That suits some people,

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