INJECTING-ROOM FIGHT LOOMS

The State Government's supervised injecting facilities legislation will be
debated in parliament this week, instead of October as planned.

Health Minister John Thwaites said the government had brought forward the
debate because the opposition had already announced it would vote against
the legislation, "so there's no point in holding it up any further".

The government had originally agreed to a request by its drugs adviser,
David Penington, to delay the legislation until October, when he would
release his second report on the broader drugs issue.

Dr Penington had indicated to the government that the opposition also wanted
more time to consult the community.

But the Liberal Party announced this month that its members would not
support injecting facilities.

Mr Thwaites said the opposition needed to justify its stance given the high
number of drug overdose deaths.

"The disappointing thing is that the opposition's already closed their
minds," he said.

"Even the opposition members who favored injecting facilities I think will
be silent. No doubt they'll be gagged in debate."

Mr Thwaites said Dr Penington's second report was still important to the
drugs debate and the government would implement recommendations on a range
of issues.

"We are moving on a whole range of fronts apart from injecting facilities,"
he said.

"We've announced a major boost to rehabilitation, but the area we're really
going to be moving into is prevention and we're also going to be targeting
some specific groups who are at risk."

But Opposition Leader Denis Napthine said the government was bringing on the
debate for political purposes.

"They said some weeks ago they would not debate this bill in the parliament
(until October) because this bill needed to be debated in the context of the
second Penington report," he said.

"Now if they were genuine about the drug issue, that's what they would do."

Dr Napthine also said the legislation was brought forward because the
government did not have a legislative agenda.

"They don't have anything else for the parliament to debate," he said.

But Mr Thwaites said that was "just rubbish" and the government had about
eight bills to debate this week.

The Liberal Party will use its majority in the upper house to block the
legislation. The National Party and independent MPs Russell Savage and Craig
Ingram have also indicated that they will oppose the legislation.

Some opposition members have suggested the bill could still be blocked in
the lower house by Gippsland West independent Susan Davies, but she said
yesterday she would pass it.

"I do have a very strong belief that local communities should be able to
have more say in their own affairs and, given that there were at least two
local council areas that wanted them, I was intending to let the legislation
through," she said.

"I would see it as very presumptuous of somebody like me to block it when
really the problems are not obvious in my area."