Webweave wrote:
> fyi - prepared on short notice - cheers susanne martain
> *********
> Councillors
> South Sydney Council
> Hand Delivered
> 17/2/99
> Dear Councillors
> RE: DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION - AGENDA ITEM 3 - 44-56 EVELEIGH ST REDFERN
this is the area I've just moved to.
there's a medical service going in to our street, a residential street, without
consultation. people here think it'll become a needle exchange.
'not in my backyard' literally means it here. there are countless needles
already in the street and the front yards, my flatmate had an overdose in the
front garden last year, and this is a nicer bit of the area.
redfern is a major transport hub. on a direct line to cabramatta. this area has
become a major drug dealing area. in my opinion it has been *allowed to become
this way because it's the block, because it's black.
there's a major streak of racism and lack of consultation with aboriginal people
going on here. the drugs situation here is disproportionately affecting the
local aboriginal community. this is obvious to me on daily trips to the station.
yet the solution is not to impose a worse situation on this or other streets.
people have to live here and should not have to put up with things like
discarded needles everywhere. of course we need to improve the entire area, this
isn't what's being proposed though, they just want to see more of the area
become hard to live in.
I *don't think the needle exchanges are doing a good job and it's not all about
the big bad government or carr's squirming around the issue. it's supposed to be
an exchange for one thing, not a mass giveaway. from my understanding local drug
and alcohol workers have been shut up when they've been critical and local
services which have been operating badly have been quietly dealt with. we don't
have all the information.
the residents of my street have been saying that progressive ideas like a
shooting gallery in a medical facility is the way to go. for this they have been
attacked by anonymous posters attacking 'middle class trendies'. because we
don't want our street to be fucked up! which is what will happen if there's a
needle exchange next door. [the poster's below]
whoever did that also tried to claim that we would be encouraging HIV/AIDS. I
find that the height of arrogance having worked in the area for many years. I
would imagine that whoever this is is local and not out campaigning in the west
where they're *really taking access to needles away. here there are countless
exchanges within a few miles. there local pressure groups have had many of them
moved or disappeared.
it's far easier to call us 'middle class' than do the hard yards in western
sydney or else where in the drug & alcohol area. this is very, very similar to
my experience of HIV/AIDS work with gay men where people often prefer pretty
posters to tackling ingrained barriers long term.
there would undoubtedly have been at least some HepC seroconversions because of
the withdrawal of the caroline lane service but I doubt that it would have been
very many and the context is thousands upon thousands all over the state every
year. hiv is much less of an issue in reality (though not rhetoric) but there
would be a disaster if all services were withdrawn, as happened in the
well-known instance in vancouver. the block is a small part of it. presenting
the block as the face of drug use in australia is misleading and actually
racist. even when you're talking about injecting behaviour the group is very
diverse and includes lots of 'people you'd never guess injected'. yet you never
hear about aboriginal injecting behaviour, only aboriginal dealing. funny that.
refshauge refuses to talk about what he's doing to our street, preferring to
force the situation before the election so he can have a nice photo opportunity.
local mp clover moore and labor candidate vic smith have been grandstanding. now
we have this poster.
I like this street. people are friendly and you couldn't get a more diverse
bunch. from what we see around us we'd like to keep our street the way it is and
not turn it into another warzone.
there's a progressive group in this street, they and others in the area need to
be brought in so we can collectively tell the government to pull it's finger out
and stop treating us like political footballs.
Not pushed away with yet more knee jerk reactions.
paul canning
--
poster put up next to redfern station
REDFERN NEEDS NEEDLE EXCHANGES
What a bunch of pathetic, white, middle-class homeowners.
Whining: "Not In My Backyard".
Well wake up and smell a flavour. there's junkies on your doorstep.
Redfern has got a drug problem.
The government has closed the Caroline Lane mobile needle exchange in a knee
jerk reaction to a trashy piece of press.
Needle exchanges do not bring the drugs into Redfern.
The smack and the coke will not go away if you close the needle exchanges.
Needle exchanges stop a drug problem from becoming an HIV and Hepatitis
epidemic.
Reopen the mobile exchange
NOW
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