AUSTRALIA: CARR OPEN TO REDFERN INJECTING ROOM

NEW SOUTH WALES Premier Bob Carr has left the door open for Australia's
second legal heroin injecting room after acknowledging the state Government
must "think outside the square" in tackling the drug epidemic.

But Mr Carr said yesterday that an injecting room in the inner Sydney
suburb of Redfern would be considered only if there were unanimous support
from police and local indigenous leaders.

"A precondition would be unanimity among Aboriginal leadership and the
police that this is the way forward," Mr Carr said.

"I'm not dismissing it out of hand. We have got to think outside the square
when it comes to dealing with the awful problem that heroin dependency
creates for all of us."

Mr Carr's comments yesterday came after several days of hearings by a NSW
parliamentary committee, which focused in particular on the area in Redfern
known as the Block - now the nation's biggest drug market.

The inquiry was called after recent riots following the death of local
indigenous teenager TJ Hickey. Police have denied they were chasing him
before he crashed his bicycle and was impaled on a fence.

Damning evidence from police and indigenous leaders has emerged in the past
fortnight about the extent of the heroin problem in the area, including
people shooting up within metres of police patrol cars and a needle van
handing out clean syringes by the bagful near a children's playground.

If the state Government did eventually agree to the option, Redfern would
become the site of the nation's second injecting room, with a trial still
under way in the Sydney red-light district of Kings Cross. An assessment of
the Kings Cross trial - set up after a special drug summit - determined it
had helped to save lives.

Mr Carr's remarks yesterday came a day after Clover Moore - Sydney Lord
Mayor and the Member for Bligh, which includes Redfern - told the inquiry
of her support for heroin decriminalisation and an injecting room in Redfern.

While Mr Carr has rejected any move to decriminalise heroin, Ms Moore
warned that unless there were drastic changes, more riots could occur.

Opposition Leader John Brogden yesterday rejected the idea of a Redfern
injecting room, saying he supported the Kings Cross trial because it was
for health reasons rather than for reducing crime. He ruled out support for
the Redfern idea even if Mr Carr agreed to it.

Unanimous community support was also looking unlikely late yesterday.

Aboriginal Housing Company chief executive Mick Mundine said an injecting
room would "only worsen the problem" and advocated a rehabilitation centre
instead.

Shane Phillips, of the Tribal Warrior Association, said: "Heroin is the
devil. We can't accept defeat and we've just got to get it right away from us".