{"id":33745,"date":"2025-07-17T21:14:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T11:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=33745"},"modified":"2025-07-17T21:14:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T11:14:18","slug":"greens-call-on-act-government-to-outline-pathway-to-first-safe-injecting-site-in-territory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/07\/17\/greens-call-on-act-government-to-outline-pathway-to-first-safe-injecting-site-in-territory\/","title":{"rendered":"Greens call on ACT Government to outline pathway to first safe injecting site in territory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Opening the ACT\u2019s first safe injecting room should be a priority during this term of government, says Leader of the ACT Greens, Shane Rattenbury.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leader of the ACT Greens, Shane Rattenbury:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn cities like Sydney and Melbourne, safe injecting rooms have been operating for years. But despite Canberra at times recording the highest rate of drug-induced deaths per capita in the country, we still don\u2019t have one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA commitment to investigate a safe injecting room was hard-won by the Greens in the last Parliamentary Agreement\u2014but Labor dragged their feet for most of the term\u2013having done no work on this while holding the portfolio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t until three years in, after a cabinet reshuffle handed the drug harm reduction portfolio to Greens Minister Emma Davidson, that this critical work finally began\u2013with a review into how, not if, but how this work would happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fact is, this reform is thirty years overdue. Every delay, every review, means more preventable overdose deaths\u2014and that is simply unacceptable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re serious about saving lives, we need to treat drug use as a health issue, not a criminal one. That means backing evidence-based, community-led harm reduction services\u2014not leaving people to use alone on the streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight now we need outcomes\u2014 the Greens are flexible on location for this site, but we\u2019re absolutely clear on the need for action. No matter whether it\u2019s co-located with the fixed-site pill testing clinic in Civic or some other location that suits users, what matters is getting it done\u2013and getting it done soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Greens are really clear: today we\u2019re calling on the government to set-up a safe injecting room in this city before the end of the year. This morning I have written to the Health Minister outlining this ask, and offering the Greens\u2019 support for a collaborative, cross-party approach to making this a reality<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opening the ACT\u2019s first safe injecting room should be a priority during this term of government, says Leader of the ACT Greens, Shane Rattenbury. Leader of the ACT Greens, Shane Rattenbury: \u201cIn cities like Sydney and Melbourne, safe injecting rooms have been operating for years. But despite Canberra at times recording the highest rate of … Continue reading “Greens call on ACT Government to outline pathway to first safe injecting site in territory”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33745"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33746,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33745\/revisions\/33746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}