INJECTING POLITICS TO NEEDLE DEBATE

LEGISLATION to establish heroin injecting rooms heads into parliament this
week, increasing pressure on the Opposition to declare its hand on the
proposed trials. Until now, Opposition health spokesman Robert Doyle has
refused to support or reject the experiment, saying his side of politics
would decide a position only once draft legislation was on the table.

While the Government will present its proposals this Thursday, a detailed
response from the Opposition is still several weeks away.

Doyle plans to take the issue to a retreat scheduled for all Opposition MPs
during the winter parliamentary recess. That's when they will hear from
David Penington, head of the Government's drug policy advisory committee,
and debate the merits of the proposal.

But even ahead of that debate, there are signs the Opposition's mind is made
up for political opportunism. Take Doyle's own assessment that the tide of
public opinion has shifted against a trial.

"People who six months ago probably thought it was worth a go are now saying
the positives don't outweigh the drawbacks," he told The Australian
yesterday.

"There's probably not such strong support for it now."

Then there was the National Party's television advertising during the
Benalla by-election, which attempted to tar Labor over injecting room
trials.

Nationals leader Peter Ryan has made claims of his personal opposition to
the facility and many of his MPs share those views. Beyond that, the
Opposition's response to Penington's community consultation has been
telling.

Doyle seized on vehement local opposition in Springvale and Footscray to
argue that residents were right to be concerned about "being stamped a drugs
mecca". That's an oddly inflammatory choice of language for someone who
maintains he has no fixed public view on a trial.

If the Opposition does decide to block the bill, the spotlight will
immediately fall on Independent Gippsland West MP Susan Davies.

In the wake of Labor's Benalla win, Davies would be left with a casting vote
in a deadlocked parliament, since fellow Independents Craig Ingram and
Russell Savage have declared their objections.

She's on the record expressing qualified support for new strategies to
combat drug-related deaths and to reduce the number of syringes in public
places. But Davies won't relish the enormous pressure that will inevitably
come her way in that scenario.

Nor will she enjoy the prospect of sticking her neck out in the lower house,
only to watch the Liberals use their standalone majority in the upper house
to put the proposal on ice, if it comes to that.