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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 6 Hansard (24 May) . . Page.. 1644 ..
MR QUINLAN (continuing):
not decide what we are going to measure during this trial, if we do not start off with baseline statistics that we know of now so that we can say that there has been a change, I do not think it is a trial at all.
MR WOOD (11.55): Mr Kaine made the fairly obvious comment that this trial did not have unanimous support in the Assembly or in the community. If it were simply a matter of the use of illicit drugs, there would never be unanimous support. It is a highly contentious issue as people struggle to deal with it. Members will know that just a little while ago I attended a conference in Jersey on the drugs issue. It was organised by a harm minimisation group, so it had a particular aspect to it. I am also attending to claims by other advocates because I want to consider the whole field of opinion. We certainly hear a pretty wide range of opinion in this place.
If the community is concerned, it is entirely understandable. The drug problem is one that is creating enormous difficulties for people, communities and governments. My concerns have not been allayed by my attendance at that conference and what I heard there; I did not expect them to be. But that conference certainly confirmed me in the view that we should take this step and take other steps to diminish the harm that is caused by illicit drug use. The supervised injecting room is necessary; there is no doubt about that from what I have heard. It is necessary. A heroin trial and certain other measures are necessary.
I hear comment from time to time-from this chamber as well; not in the chamber but from members-critical of the needle exchange program. If we had to face today the proposal to establish a needle exchange program, perhaps it would arouse strong opposition. The fact that we have had a needle exchange program operating throughout Australia for many years has saved Australia and Australians from an enormous additional dreadful impact. I heard people from 51 nations at that conference. The spread of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C is an enormous problem.
HIV/AIDS has been considerably alleviated by that program. Hepatitis C is not as bad as it might be because of that program. There are other measures as well. Yet there are voices raised by people who say that we should not have this needle exchange program. I cannot believe it when I hear such things. You need to look at the damage that is caused widely because there are no needle exchange programs, no methadone programs and a whole range of other strong measures, so claimed, against drugs. A supervised injecting place is a strong measure because it needs that sort of determination to get it up and running.
I am very pleased to support Mr Kaine's proposal today. While Mr Kaine does not particularly support the supervised injecting place, it will certainly be a step towards keeping it on track. More than that, I support the supervised injecting place trial; it is an absolute necessity. It is a trial. We may find as a result of this fairly stringent evaluation that is going to occur that it does not work. We may find that; but let us get down to getting this trial up and running.
MR STEFANIAK
(Minister for Education) (12.00): Of all the issues that have cropped up in this Assembly, the issue of having heroin trials and a supervised injecting place is probably one of the biggest that we have had to face, certainly in terms of community feeling. Not a week goes by when my office does not receive some correspondence or
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