ABBOTT HEROIN REMARK PROVOKES ANGER

Heroin addiction was a state almost akin to death which could not be
solved by supervised injecting rooms, a federal minister said last
night.

Employment Services Minister, Tony Abbott, said heroin addicts were
"dead to the world while still appearing to be with us".

Mr Abbott was responding to a remark by human rights advocate Joseph
O'Reilly, who said heroin injecting rooms being considered by the
Victorian Government could save lives.

"It's better to be alive than dead, even if you're a heroin addict,"
Mr O'Reilly said.

It was at this point that Mr Abbott said that heroin addiction was a
kind of death.

Mr Abbott, a panelist at last night's The Age Vision 21 forum on
youth, drew an angry response from an audience of about 500 mainly
young people who listened to debate on issues ranging from employment
to Aboriginal reconciliation.

Mr Abbott said the debate about supervised injecting rooms was
distracting attention from other more important issues around drug
use.

He reiterated the Federal Government's strong stance against
supervised heroin injecting rooms later when he said: "Why should we
tolerate people filling themselves with poison? ... It sends the wrong
message."

Later, leading drugs policy adviser, Dr David Penington, said Mr
Abbott lacked understanding of the issue.

"I think it's very sad," Dr Penington said.

"If I could introduce him to a few people who have recovered from
their heroin dependency to get their lives together, maybe he'd
realise that it's not just black and white."

Mr Abbott also reacted to questions from the audience about issues
including the work-for-the-dole programs, youth suicide and
reconciliation.

Indigenous woman Dameeli Kirra Coates, 23, one of the panelists,
criticised mandatory sentencing policies in the Northern Territory and
Western Australia, saying it was a barrier to reconciliation.

"They are locking up young people because of cultural
misunderstanding," she said.

On education, Mr Abbott said: "Without the ability to read and write
you are not fully human in modern society."

But Ms Coates said the emphasis on English literacy sometimes
threatened to rob young Aboriginal people of their indigenous
languages and detract from the immense amount of knowledge about
Aboriginal culture.

Chaired by comedian Red Symons, the panel also included Reverend Tim
Costello, director of the Collins Street Baptist Church, a 22-year-old
university student Janice Lim and SeaChange actress and VCE student
Cassandra Magrath.

Rather than, as Age publisher and editor in chief Steve Harris put it,
fiddling with the notion of youth in the name of marketing, the
panelists also discussed issues such as the modern relevance of
marriage to young people and the impact of globalisation on young
people's lives.