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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 1 Hansard (17 February) . . Page.. 305 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

nightclub owners. I will summarise the arguments of the Australian Hotels Association as I see them. They have been provided in written form. A fair summary of objections is that the decision to require the provision of syringe disposal units in public toilets in this very limited range of facilities was based on a lack of research and a lack of evidence of needles being found in the premises.

The association is concerned that the containers will suggest that establishments condone the use of IV drugs in their premises, and is concerned about the consequent negative impact on their business. The association is concerned about the cost of providing disposal units and possible increases in insurance because of the installation. The association then discussed other initiatives that it might consider appropriate, having regard to views of some of its members to drug taking generally, and that involves the installation, for instance, of ultraviolet lights.

The association also proposes another way of proceeding with the issue of this very difficult public health and safety issue of the discarding of syringes. It involves the identification of problems and it is more of a self-regulating arrangement in relation to establishments that might be identified or recognise that they do have a problem with injecting drug users. We then come to the Government's response to this and some of the arguments that have been mounted in this debate, particularly by the Attorney-General, in defence of the manual. They go to a claim of a need to do something about the very serious problem of disposal of syringes used generally for injecting of heroin. We all agree with that. I do not think there is anybody in this place that disagrees with the need for a coordinated, comprehensive approach to the very difficult issue of drug use generally and the disposal of syringes.

But there has been a significant leap in the Government's attitude to this in terms of identifying what is a significant problem across the whole of the community and this one single legislative initiative to deal with the problem. It may be that the placement of syringe disposal units in taverns, hotels and nightclubs is a reasonable initiative. No evidence has been produced, or advanced, to substantiate that position. There is no concrete, definitive, black and white evidence that tavern users, for instance, are injecting drug users. It has not been provided by the Government.

That is the difficulty that the Labor Party faces in supporting this particular aspect of the manual. I was very pleased to see that Mr Rugendyke amended his motion of disallowance to restrict it to this one paragraph. The Labor Party would not have supported the disallowance of the entire manual. We have no difficulty in supporting the other 99 per cent of it. It was through discussions I had with Mr Rugendyke this morning that we came to that arrangement to restrict it to this one paragraph. I make it clear that I do not want to mislead the Australian Hotels Association or any tavern, hotel or nightclub owner that the Labor Party is not concerned about the reckless disposal of syringes. I echo the comments made by Mr Kaine this morning. It may be that down the track the Labor Party would be more than happy to consider a further approach on this issue by the Government. But we are not prepared, having regard to the history of this particular initiative, to support it as it is.

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