Good on you Trudy.
Given the urgency of the situation re: closure of Caroline Street
needle exchange unit, phone calls are in order as well as letters.
Please everyone deluge Health Minister Andrew Refshauge's ministerial
office (02) 9391 9888 with phone calls stating your reasons for
opposition. They will try to pass you on to the Health Dept no doubt but
refuse [the decision came from the Minister, not the Dept] - insist on
speaking to Nathan Rees in the Minister's office and if he's
not available insist on your call being logged in the Minister's office
and referred to Nathan Rees's attention. Say you're writing to the press
and changing your vote etc.
Also telephone your local Member of Parliament's electorate office,
[phone numbers on p.2130 of the 98/99 L-Z White Pages] and ask that
he/she takes up the matter with Andrew Refshauge urgently.
Forward or print and pass/fax this to others. Apparently Refshauge's
office, electorate offices of individual MPs and the Health Dept are also
receiving a large number of calls in support of the decision!
Good luck!!
Sharon
On Tue, 02 Feb 1999 10:17:06 +1100
Trudy and Rod Bray <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> Below is an article in today's SMH outlining what is happening already
> in Caroline Lane. In just the two days since Health Minister Refshauge
> shut down the needle exchange in Caroline Lane, it is certain that some
> Aboriginal addicts in the area will pay with their lives as a direct
> result of his decision. The longer he waits before restoring the
> exchange, the more will receive a death sentence. This is a very curious
> thing to do for a man who is also the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.
> One could say that it is a very racist thing to do since the only needle
> exchange to be shut down was in an area where many Aboriginal addicts
> depend on it.
>
> It might be of benefit, in this election year, to point out the
> Minister's hypocritical position - that as Minister for Aboriginal
> Affairs for NSW, his action is resulting, in a very real way, in the
> continuation of the genocide of Indigenous people.
> Letters to the editors of various papers (with a copy to the Minister
> and Premier Carr would be a very good way for us Recoznetters to express
> our disgust and outrage at the Minister's actions and to urge him to
> rescind his order.
>
> Addresses for various newspapers are posted at the end of the article.
>
> Trudy
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Needles dry up and users are sharing
>
> Date: 02/02/99
>
> The Sydney Morning Herald
> Feb 2, 1999
>
> By GREG BEARUP
>
> In Redfern's Caroline Lane yesterday the effects of the decision by the
> Minister for Health, Dr Refshauge, to withdraw needles was immediate:
> the needle supply had dried up and users were sharing.
>
> When the Herald went to the lane at 3pm six people were injecting
> heroin; one of them didn't have a needle and was waiting to use his
> friend's "dirty fit".
>
> The man who was about to use the dirty needle was handed a clean one by
> Ms Anne-Marie Weatherall, from the NSW Users and Aids
> Association (NUAA), who had taken the Herald down the lane.
>
> "I was gunna clean it," the man said of the dirty needle. "I was gunna
> wash it."
>
> Normally there are boxes of clean needles left in the lane but following
> the publication of a photograph in a Sunday paper of a boy (who turned
> out to be 16 rather than 12 or 13, as reported) the minister stopped the
> service.
>
> Caroline Lane is a desperate place, used by the Aboriginal heroin users
> living in the semi-derelict section known as "The Block" and others who
> visit to score and then use.
>
> Those users have now been told that to get needles they have to walk
> more than a kilometre to the Redfern needle exchange in Pitt Street - a
> journey that few are making.
>
> Joe, a well-dressed and articulate young Aboriginal man, who was
> injecting heroin in Caroline Lane yesterday, put the situation simply:
> "They have taken away the needles but do they really think that will
> stop kids using heroin? I can't believe how naive they are."
>
> A Caucasian man lifted his head as he tightened the tourniquet around
> his arm. "I was down here last night and people were scratching around
> for the cleanest dirty fit they could find."
>
> He plunged the needle into his arm and said: "Hey, if people want to get
> on they will; they won't wait for clean needles."
>
> A spokesman for Dr Refshauge said yesterday that the Health Department
> had been at Redfern over the weekend to inform the users of other
> services.
>
> "We are trying to ensure that the sharing of needles doesn't take place
> and to inform people of the other options," the spokesman said.
>
> Privately, drug health workers are seething at their minister, who they
> feel has let them down and initiated a policy shift that will lead to a
> spread of HIV and hepatitis.
>
> Under the Department of Health policy all users are to be given fresh
> needles, but those users suspected of being under 16 are to be reported.
>
> "This is the most appallingly stupid political decision that I have
> seen, a trade-off where people will die of AIDS to buy a few votes," one
> health worker said.
>
> The health workers spoken to by the Herald said they had been given a
> directive that they were not to speak to the media about drug issues in
> the lead-up to the State election.
>
> Ms Weatherall, who had worked at the Redfern needle exchange and now
> works for NUAA, said: "The thing is that distributing needles to users
> is a bit like fishing; you have to go where the fish are, they won't
> come to you."
>
> Dr Raymond Seidler, a Kings Cross doctor who has worked with drug users
> for many years, said NSW was "operating in a policy vacuum" when it came
> to drugs.
>
> He said that while the Government continued to ignore the
> recommendations of Justice James Wood's royal commission and refused to
> allow safe injecting rooms, the situation would continue.
>
> "I think Dr Refshauge should get out of his government car and walk the
> streets a bit more," Dr Seidler said. "There have always been young kids
> using heroin but that doesn't mean that you turn around and punch the
> victim again."
>
> Injecting boy, 16, to be offered counselling
>
> The 16-year-old boy photographed injecting heroin in Caroline Lane,
> Redfern, has been found by the Department of Community Services but had
> not been interviewed by welfare workers late yesterday.
>
> A spokesman for the Minister for Community Services, Mrs Lo Po', said
> two departmental officers visited the boy's Mt Druitt home yesterday and
> spoke to his mother. The boy was not at home. The DOCS officers plan to
> visit the home again and offer counselling services.
>
> Police have confirmed the boy is 16 and not 12 or 13 as suggested, which
> means DOCS cannot force the boy into care or treatment services.
>
> "Because of his age, there is a limit to what we can do," the spokesman
> for Mrs Lo Po' said.
>
> This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying
> or mirroring is prohibited.
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Remember:
>
> --Date the letter
> --Include your name, home address and phone number
>
>
> The Australian (Nat) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> The Sydney Morning Herald <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> The Age <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> The Daily Telegraph <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> The Herald Sun (Vic) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> The Courier-Mail (Qld) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> The Sunday Times (WA) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> The Advertiser (SA) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> The Mercury (TAS) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> Send a copy of your letter to:
>
> The Hon. Dr Andrew Refshauge MP
> Deputy Premier, Minister for Health
> and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs
> Member for Marrickville
> 20 Station Street
> Marrickville 2204
>
> Ph. 9558 9000
> Fax. 9558 3653
> Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> ^^^^^^^^^
> The Hon. Robert John Carr MP
> Premier, Minister for the Arts and
> Minister for Ethnic Affairs
> Member for Maroubra
> Suite 501, Level 5
> 806 Anzac Parade
> Maroubra 2035
>
> Ph. 9349 6440
> Fax. 9349 4594
>
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>
/\ /\ Sharon Byard [EMAIL PROTECTED]
( o o ) Clovelly, NSW, Australia
>>Y<< "I myself have never been able to find out precisely
/ \ what feminism is. I only know that people call me a
/ \ | | feminist whenever I express sentiments that
|____ |__ / / differentiate me from a doormat." -- Rebecca West
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