T-ROOM PROMPTS CARR CRISIS MEETING

The Premier, Mr Carr, called a crisis meeting with the Police
Commissioner, Mr Ryan, and senior NSW officers yesterday in a bid to
resolve the legal impasse over the Wayside Chapel's provocative move
to open an illegal heroin injecting room in Kings Cross.

The meeting, attended also by the Police Minister, Mr Whelan,
Assistant Commissioner Ken Moroney and the Kings Cross local area
commander, Superintendent Bob Myatt, aimed to thrash out a police
response to the Uniting Church's use of the Wayside Chapel as a
sanctuary for drug users.

It is understood that police will use their discretionary powers,
effectively allowing health professionals supervising the injection
room to work unhindered.

Under NSW law, aiding and abetting the self-administration of a
prohibited drug carries a maximum penalty of a $2,200 fine, two years'
jail or both.

Before the meeting, the Attorney-General, Mr Shaw, called on the
Wayside Chapel to reconsider the trial but rejected a call by the
Opposition Leader, Mrs Chikarovski, to arrest the organisers.

"If there are breaches of the law in relation to this injecting room,
then the police should act immediately," Mrs Chikarovski said.

She said she was motivated by commitment to the rule of law and a
concern that "this stunt" would derail calm debate and goodwill at the
Drugs Summit beginning on May 17.

"You've got the Attorney-General admitting the laws are being
breached," Mrs Chikarovski said. "The Premier needs to show leadership
to enforce the laws in NSW and not enforce them selectively."

Mr Shaw responded: "My view is that Government can't and should not
direct the police in the performance of their duty ... once we go on
that path we could have the Executive Government directing the police
in all kinds of politically motivated ways."

He added: "It is a tactic well motivated but ill-conceived. I think
they ought to take a step back, reconsider their position and allow
this to be debated in a rational and coherent way at the Drugs Summit."

Yesterday, the architect of the project, the Rev Ray Richmond of the
Uniting Church, officially launched the so-called Tolerance or
"T-room", and vowed to persist in what he described as an act of
"civil disobedience".

Flanked by academics, politicians and health experts, he argued that
the church had historically battled with the State to push for change.

"Sometimes you have to run foul of the law; that is why in Western
democracies the church and State are separated ... sometimes we view
things differently and here at Wayside we have been doing things
[differently] for 30 years," he said.

"If our people are removed or intimidated, others will take their
place. If there is no response from the Government, the service will
open again. If we are closed down, we will open again."

The injection room, which will open again today, will operate for four
weeks, three days a week, two hours a day. It forms part of a
strategic move by church, health and social activists in Sydney to
place the issue on the agenda of the Drugs Summit.

The deliberate confrontation with the law has been planned at secret
meetings for more than seven months and yesterday, public supporters
at the launch included the Chancellor of the Australian National
University and Professor of Community Medicine at the University of
NSW, Professor Peter Baume, the Independent State MP Clover Moore,
Greens MLC Mr Ian Cohen and the head of the Netherlands Institute of
Mental Health and Addiction, Dr Franz Trautmann.

The project has sparked vigorous public debate with qualified support
coming from the Federal Opposition Leader, Mr Beazley, and strong
support from other Federal Labor MPs including Sydney MP Ms Tanya Plibersek.

Mr Beazley said yesterday he notionally supported harm minimisation
programs, arguing that safe injecting rooms could fall into a similar
category as needle exchange programs. However, he cautioned the
Wayside Chapel about the legal implications of its decision and called
for further debate.

Other church leaders also questioned the move, with the Anglican Dean
of Sydney, the Very Rev Boak Jobbins, and the Catholic Church's Father
Brian Lucas questioning civic disobedience as a "first step".

"It is a matter of whether church leaders should break the law and
circumvent the public debate that is currently under way," Dean
Jobbins said.