LIBERALS REJECT INJECTING ROOMS

VICTORIA will not get heroin injecting rooms, with the Liberal Party
scuttling the Bracks Government's plan.Opposition Leader Denis Napthine
said four months of consultation had convinced him Victorians did not want
the controversial injecting rooms, and they would wrongly condone drug use.

Instead, the Liberals offered an $80million policy to attack drugs, in an
election-style document covering a range of measures.

The party's decision was met with anger and disappointment from drugs
expert Prof. David Penington, Premier Steve Bracks, community groups and
councils keen to try the rooms.

The announcement broke an undertaking the Liberals made to Prof. Penington
two weeks ago to wait until October to decide.

Dr Napthine said his 59-strong team voted unanimously against injecting
rooms at yesterday's party meeting, a claim supported by party sources.

He said he was concerned the government could raise the issue for debate
when parliament resumed next week and he wanted to make the party's
position clear now.

"This issue is so important that Victorians who have never written to a
politician before have written literally in their thousands to me and many
of my colleagues, expressing concern about this radical social policy,"
said Dr Napthine.

More police, more detoxification beds, compulsory treatment for overdose
victims, a drug court and minimum sentences for drug traffickers are
central to the Liberals' drug strategy, which they would fund from the
state surplus.

A bitterly disappointed Mr Bracks accused the Liberals of wasting community
groups' time with a sham consultation period.

"This bunch of Liberals show no backbone, no foresight, have no ideas and
simply pander to the lowest common denominator and overturn something which
could have saved lives in Victoria," he said.

He ruled out a backdoor approach to introducing injecting rooms by
regulation instead of legislation, saying police needed legal backing for
the rooms.

However, he pledged to raise the legislation in parliament and to continue
to push the plan publicly.

Prof. Penington said he knew some Liberal MPs supported heroin injecting
rooms and accused them of playing political games.

"I know there were a significant numbers of members of the Liberal Party
who would personally take the view that the legislation should be
supported," he said.

Much of what the Liberals proposed in their alternative strategy covered
directions already being taken by the government, he said.

The National Party has already announced its opposition to injecting rooms.
The plan would now need nine Liberals to cross the floor in the upper house
to pass.

Opposition health spokesman Robert Doyle said he had undertaken "a very
difficult intellectual journey" but was wholehearted in his rejection of
injecting rooms.

Open Family Australia CEO Nathan Stirling said it was unethical of the
Liberals to knock back the rooms when two councils wanted to test them.

"Their decision will ensure more people die of overdoses because they're
shooting up alone and in strange places."