SIR RUPERT'S DRUG STANCE `SAGE-LIKE'

Sir Rupert Hamer, whose support of a trial of supervised injecting
facilities embarrassed the Victorian Opposition yesterday, should be
regarded as a "wise, sage-like figure among the Liberal Party in Victoria",
according to a senior government drugs adviser.

Professor Margaret Hamilton, a member of the government's Drug Policy
Expert Committee and the director of the Turning Point Alcohol and Drug
Centre, said the opposition should listen to Sir Rupert's advice, which was
consistent with a tradition of progressive policies among Victorian
Liberals.

"He should be regarded as a wise, sage-like figure among the Liberal Party
in Victoria," Professor Hamilton said. "He is, after all, reminding them
that it (supervised injecting) could be worth a trial."

She said she understood that the opposition wanted to deliberate over the
detail of the proposed legislation on a trial of the injecting facilities
rather than make a premature decision, and was "hopeful rather than
optimistic" that the plan would the attract bipartisan political support it
needed to be implemented.

Sir Rupert's comments were generally welcomed by drug and welfare groups
yesterday, although Prime Minister John Howard's chief drug adviser, Brian
Watters, said the former premier was misinformed and misguided.

Julian Hill, Mayor of the City of Port Phillip - one of only two
municipalities to have declared support for such a trial - said he was
pleased that Sir Rupert had "acknowledged the international evidence and
the broad community support that has not been universally acknowledged by
the Liberal Party".

He said it was "very, very telling" that the Liberal Party's criticism of
Sir Rupert's remarks had not attacked the substance of his arguments, but
instead had taken issue with the fact that he had not consulted them first.

Tony Nicholson, the chief executive of Hanover Welfare Services, who has
previously indicated that Hanover is prepared to run a supervised injecting
facility at its crisis accommodation centre at Southbank, shared Sir
Rupert's support for a trial.

Mr Nicholson said he had also been encouraged when a recent bipartisan
delegation, which included opposition health spokesman Robert Doyle,
inspected drug facilities in Europe and found that supervised injecting
rooms, particularly in residential settings, had worked as part of wider
strategies to cut the heroin toll in countries such as Switzerland and
Germany.

Cr Hill said if the injecting room plan received broad political support, a
facility could open in the City of Port Phillip by the middle of next year.

The other municipality to have declared its support is the City of Yarra,
but the proposal has met community opposition in Dandenong and Maribyrnong.

The Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, George Pell, has also opposed the
plan.

The founder of Family Drug Support in Sydney, Tony Trimmingham, said Sir
Rupert's support for a trial had cut through the "politicking" that had
foiled the plan in the ACT and delayed it in NSW.

"Whilst all this politicking is going on, people are dying."

"But I can understand the Liberals (in Victoria) wanting more time to get
more information, and I think it's important that the Labor Party down
there come clean with the protocols, that they make clear what the
situation is going to be with policing and so on," he said.

Sir Rupert argued yesterday that international evidence suggested that
injecting rooms would help lower the rate of HIV and hepatitis infection
among drug users, reduce the number of overdoses and drug-related crimes,
and encourage users into treatment and rehabilitation.