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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 13 Hansard (9 December) . . Page.. 4209 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

Ms Tucker put it very well when she said that our position was public health motivated. Public health is the thing driving many people. It is not unfounded compassion, or naivety, as I think you suggested, Mr Speaker. Rather it is something rational - public health.

Mr Speaker, you suggested that the notion of needle exchange was a lie. I would like to draw your attention to a number of shops around Canberra that call themselves book exchanges. They do not expect you to come in and exchange one for one. A needle exchange is not necessarily one for one. I understand the concept you were dealing with but, no matter what we call it, it is important to send a public health message about what happens not just to drug users but to the broad community.

Australia has been forward thinking on this issue, following the great leadership of a member of the Labor Party, Neal Blewett, who as Health Minister drove the needle exchange program. We can draw a comparison between New South Wales and New York. They have roughly the same populations. New York has been able to get a couple of needle exchanges up and running at different times for short periods. As members will be aware, needle exchanges are used extensively in New South Wales. New York now have 40,000 paediatric cases of HIV - 40,000 children who have HIV. Why do they deserve that? How many are there in New South Wales? There are a couple of hundred, almost all associated with haemophilia.

That is moving for all of us. It was made possible in Australia because of foresight, particularly from one politician who sought and got a bipartisan approach. If I remember correctly, his opposite number in the Liberal Party was then Senator Peter Baume, now Chancellor of the Australian National University and professor of community medicine at the University of New South Wales. The leadership those two men provided has resulted in a very low rate of HIV compared to other Western nations. We must not miss the importance of a harm minimisation approach based on public health.

Mr Speaker, you quoted my words - and I appreciate it - that it is the role of the courts to implement the rules. Exactly the same will happen here. The Assembly will be setting the rules - that is happening here with this legislation - and they will be implemented by the police and the Director of Public Prosecutions at arms length from us or by the courts in the individual case. On Tuesday night I went on to say that the application is in the individual case.

I was disappointed, Mr Speaker - although I understand because I have heard this language regularly - by your reference to fighting a war on drugs. It is not a war on drugs. Drugs are a chemical, something inanimate. If you are fighting a war, it is people against people. We would be fighting a war against our own people, for whom we should be showing compassion. We should be trying to work through their health issues. Addiction is primarily a health issue. I understand that that is the point on which we differ, but that is where our approach starts from. I have another quote for you, Mr Speaker. The way to hell is paved with good intentions. No doubt we will both apply that to each other.

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