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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (9 May) . . Page.. 1279 ..

Mr Kaine: I notice that you are being prompted by the Attorney-General.

MR MOORE: Thank you. I did ask the Attorney-General to look at the act and it actually does refer to the Canberra drug users study and their networks and HIV, which was the name of this study at the time. The act actually identifies the one being conducted by Dr Dance. I have to say to Mr Kaine that he supported in exactly the same way as I did the coverage of this study by the epidemiological studies act, as indeed he rightly should. Remember that it was a study that was established under somebody's PhD. It was peer reviewed. It went through all those processes including, I presume, the ethics parts and so on. I think it was a worthwhile study. I must say that I am very pleased that it was covered by the epidemiological studies act. Indeed, as you would be aware, if I could say this as an aside, the supervised injection room trial also should be covered by the epidemiological studies act to ensure that we get the best possible outcome from these studies so that we can get more and more information on the study of drug issues, which are incredibly difficult to study because of the nature of their illegality.

MR KAINE: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. I presume that the Oswaldians, whoever they were, provided their own illegal drugs. Assuming that that was so and that they were carrying out illegal activities, were they carried out with the knowledge of the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Customs Service or without it?

MR MOORE: It was hardly a secret study. It was here in our act. I certainly know that the police-

Mr Kaine: Is the answer to that confidential?

MR MOORE: No, nothing is confidential about it. I am sure that Dr Dance will be delighted to give you a briefing on the outcomes and the intricacies of her particular study. It is interesting to note that quite a number of people, as they grew older, did move away from the Oswaldians and did give up using heroin. But the overriding thrust of the study was that it was addictive, that people do become addicted even though they think they are not going to. I should also say in answer to Mr Kaine's specific question about whether the illegal substance they used was provided by themselves, it was not provided through the study. It was a style of study where Dr Dance was observing the actions of these people, not participating in them.

Ms Carnell Or encouraging or accepting them.

MR MOORE: Or encouraging them, yes.

MR QUINLAN: My question is to the minister for housing. Minister, I recently received a copy of the ACT Housing newsletter "Autumn Edition". It is a fairly small publication, being of a few pages, but of high quality. Minister, this publication contains six photographs, three featuring you. This publication includes several articles, most featuring you. This publication has a crossword at the back and you feature in the

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