Pubdate: Mon, 29 May 2000 Source: Australian, The (Australia) Copyright: News Limited 2000 Contact: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/ Author: Misha Schubert 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck