Alex Greenwich MP is the Independent Member for Sydney in the New South Wales Parliament. He was elected in 2012 with the support of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore. He is committed to working towards a liveable, sustainable, and progressive Sydney for all. Alex was the co-chair of the successful YES campaign that delivered marriage equality in 2017, a movement he helped lead for over a decade. […]
ARIA Award winning indie-folk band, All Our Exes Live in Texas, is a fantasy draft of Australia’s finest singer-songwriters. On mandolin, ukulele, accordion and guitar, the Exes are a powerhouse of musical prowess, known as much for their side-splitting banter and feminist politics as their devastatingly beautiful harmonies. With a top 10 debut album and a reputation as festival favourites, they’ve had multiple sell out tours around Australia and are carving up the USA and UK. […]
Paul Harvey has worked at Hepatitis NSW for almost 25 years; he knows first-hand the importance of BBV harm reduction and wholly supports the aims of Harm Reduction Australia. He is the Information and Communications Manager at Hepatitis NSW and works primarily in digital communications.
He was the Hep Review magazine editor for 20 years, is the inaugural recipient of the Hepatitis Australia National Hepatitis C Health Promotion Award, and was a past-President of the Hepatitis C Council of NSW. […]
Jenny Heslop is currently the Manager of HIV, Sexual Health, Viral Hepatitis & Harm Reduction Programs across NSW North Coast. She has worked in these fields for over 31years and was instrumental in the roll out of Harm Reduction/NSP Services in NSW from the late 1980’s to current.
Jenny has a range of experience working as a frontline provider, policy analyst, researcher, educator and Manager maintaining her commitment to ensuring all key priority populations receive the same level of health care, access, support and acceptance as any other member of the community. […]
Gloria Lai leads on the Asia regional programme for the International Drug Policy Consortium secretariat as the Regional Director – Asia, based in Bangkok, Thailand. Prior to this role, she worked as a senior policy advisor in the Illicit Drugs Section, Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department and the Law Enforcement Strategy Division, Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, and as a lawyer for the Australian Government. […]
Charles is currently the Acting Executive Officer of Harm Reduction Victoria. Prior to commencing in this role in 2016, Charles worked in New Zealand as the National Manager of the NZ Needle Exchange Programme, spending more than 15 years improving the health and well-being of people who inject drugs nationwide. He has focussed on epidemiological evidence to improve knowledge of HIV, HCV and HBV and associated injection behaviours in NZ PWID and dedicated his entire professional career to promoting the lives and human rights of people who use and inject illicit drugs and championing drug treatment options. […]
Professor Margaret Hamilton AO – her over forty five years’ experience in the alcohol and drug field includes clinical work, education, training, research, publication and policy development.
She was founding Director of Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre (Vic.) 10 yrs; Chair of the Multiple and Complex Needs Panel (Vic) 5 yrs; an Executive member of Australian National Council on Drugs (ANCD) 16 yrs. […]
Robert Richter QC was appointed was admitted to practice as Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1970, was involved in the establishment of the Fitzroy Legal Service and the Aboriginal Legal Service in 1972 and appointed as a Queen’s Counsel in 1985.
He has been a member of the Victorian Bar Council 1975-6, 1998-9, Chairman of the Criminal Bar Association of Victoria 1986-89, a part-time Commissioner of the Law Reform Commission of Victoria 1989-1992, President of the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties (Liberty Victoria) 1994-6, was appointed as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Victoria University in 2015 and since 2016 has been the Victorian President of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation. […]
Seat belts in cars represent highly effective harm reduction policy. But seat belts don’t offer 100% protection, nor do they encourage people to drive. It’s a no-brainer.
Professor Basil Donovan is the Head of the Sexual Health Program at the Kirby Institute, UNSW Australia, in Sydney. He also practises at the Sydney Sexual Health Centre, working with vulnerable populations since 1979. […]
Dennis Altman, a Professorial Fellow in Human Security at LaTrobe University, is the author of thirteen books, since Homosexual: Oppression & Liberation was first published in 1972.
In 2006, The Bulletin listed Dennis Altman as one of the 100 most influential Australians ever, and he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2008. […]
It’s undeniable that the ‘war on drugs’ has comprehensively failed. It has failed parents, families, young people, and it has failed the taxpayer. We need to change course urgently. If we are serious about saving lives we have to get serious about harm reduction. In order to help drug users, their families and the wider community we need to take drug use out of the shadows and avoid moralistic reactions. […]
I began writing about drug issues in the late 90s when the Sydney Morning Herald commissioned a number of features that brought me into contact with researchers working in the area of drugs and alcohol, parents trying to cope with their teenagers’ experimentation with drugs and with Tony Trimingham who went on to establish Family Drug Support. […]
Phillip Boulten is a senior criminal law practitioner. He appears regularly in courts at all levels of the criminal justice system. He has appeared in many high profile trials and appeals. He has a special interest in the law relating to national security, having appeared in a number of important cases involving national security issues and having represented numerous clients who have been the subject of ASIO investigations and interrogations. […]
Gino Vumbaca is the Principal of 3V Consulting Services.
Mr Vumbaca has extensive experience in the HIV/ AIDS and drug and alcohol fields both in Australia and internationally. He is a Churchill Fellow, has completed a Social Work degree and a Master of Business Administration at the University of Sydney and is a qualified Company Director. […]
Tony Trimingham is CEO of Family Drug Support which he started after receiving many phone calls from families suffering the effects of illicit drugs after he went public about the death of his son Damien from a heroin drug overdose.
He has been a counsellor and group leader for 30 years and these skills have helped him assist many families who suffer the impact on their lives of family members who use alcohol and other drugs. […]
Niki Parry has studied social sciences and has worked in the community and health sectors for approximately 15 years now, with most of this time dedicated to AOD health organisations including Hepatitis NSW as well as the Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre. Niki is currently employed by QuIHN (the QLD Injectors Health Network) where she is the Coordinator of QPAMS- the QLD Pharmacotherapy Advocacy and Mediation Service. […]
Annie is currently a PhD candidate, Community Engagement & Liaison Officer and Research Assistant at the Centre for Social Research in Health (CSRH) at UNSW. She is also a principle of 2SqPegs Consulting – a health & social policy consulting business. […]
Professor Adeeba Kamarulzaman graduated from Monash University in 1987 and trained in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the Monash Medical Centre and Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. She is presently the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya.
Professor Adeeba returned to Malaysia in 1997 and established the Infectious Diseases Unit at the University Malaya Medical Centre which has since grown to be one of the national referral and training centers for the specialty. […]
Australia, once an international leader in harm reduction, has never had a national organisation advocating for harm reduction. Harm Reduction Australia (HRA) has now been established to fill that important gap and has my full support.
Dr Alex Wodak is a physician who was Director of the Alcohol and Drug Service, St. […]
I am delighted to act with your organisation to promote harm reduction as the guiding principle of the development of policy, programs and funding by government.
My advocacy for reform of drug laws has been based on noting:
1. the war on drugs has failed;
2. drug use requires health and social policy responses;
3. […]
As the Executive Director of the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), I am delighted to be a Harm Reduction Advocate supporting the work of Harm Reduction Australia in calling for increasing investment in harm reduction interventions and opposing the criminalisation and incarceration of people who use drugs, and disproportionate penalties for drug offences in particular the death penalty. […]
Harm reduction is supported around the world because of its effectiveness and humane approach to drug use. In the Asia-Pacific Region, Australia has a deserved reputation for innovation and leadership on drug policy which is why the establishment of a national harm reduction organisation and the influence it can have on the region’s approach to drug use is so important and welcomed. […]
It was in 1970 that I first began working with drug addicted people in Kings Cross, Sydney, Australia. So, for the past 45 years, I have been working, day after day, with people affected by alcohol and other drugs, both legal and illegal. Also, along with Reverend Ted Noffs, I helped create Life Education Centres. […]
Bill Bush has been distressed that in contrast to the harms associated with particular drugs, those attributable to drug policy have been largely overlooked. The evidence is there that drug policy itself not only stimulates the drug trade, but is implicated in Australia’s most intractable and serious social problems. Bill looks forward to the prospect of Harm Reduction Australia successfully promoting better drug policies that, in addition to alleviating the plight of drug users and their families, will make so many other things better and save the taxpayers megabucks. […]
Robert ‘Bob’ Debus was born in Sydney and educated at The University of Sydney. Before serving two terms in the New South Wales parliament (1981/88 and 1995/2007), he worked as a solicitor, publisher and ABC radio broadcaster, producing Radio National programs including the first editions of the program Background Briefing. […]
Harm reduction works because it is driven by affected communities and science. It is compassionate, pragmatic and non-judgmental as it accepts people for who they are, where they are at and listens to what people need. Harm reduction is effective and cost-effective health, social and economic policy.
Carrie Fowlie is a systems advocate who promotes evidence-based policy, public health, social justice and Reconciliation. […]
The evidence is clear. In terms of rights, dignity, families, economics and lives – harm reduction is a no-brainer. I support Harm Reduction Australia so we can bring sophisticated, mature and evidence-based change to the way drugs and the people who use them are considered in our society.
Professor Carla Treloar is Deputy Director and Head of the Hepatitis Research group at the Centre for Social Research in Health at The University of New South Wales. […]
Harm reduction has been proven to be the most effective strategy for addressing the problems of drugs in our society. The scientific evidence and the personal testimonies to its success simply cannot be denied.Old fashioned strategies such as the now universally discredited “war on drugs” have proved to be nothing more than a war on drug-users and the origins of the wars for drugs, with all the misery and criminality associated with both. […]
I wandered into the field of addiction medicine as a country GP in Nimbin, NSW in the 1980s. Following an outbreak of Hepatitis B, I established the first rural needle and syringe exchange in NSW. Shortly after I established the first rural methadone clinic in NSW. In 2000 I helped establish Riverlands, a regional drug and alcohol service in Lismore covering Northern NSW between Tweed Heads and Grafton. […]
I am delighted to lend my support Harm Reduction Australia, having to remind myself that in Australia in the 21st Century, we still have to push for Harm Reduction to hold the place of pre-eminence that it should, in any modern National Drugs Policy. As a simple emergency physician, I see those who object to harm reduction in the same light as those who object to immunizations, blood transfusions, or gravity- scientifically without foundation, & forwarding personal opinions that should never be let within several kilometres of being able to influence national policy. […]
David Stanley is a public health communications practitioner. David has been involved in more than 110 international, bilateral, national and state public health programs. David is published in policy, program and educational texts – all relating to public health information and education programs. In 1984 David founded Convenience Advertising and developed a narrowcasting communication solution with a strong focus on development and implementation of public and preventative health communication programs. […]
As a Harm Reduction Advocate I am delighted to be part of HRA’s initiative to raise the salience of drug harm reduction in Australia and abroad. Australia’s achievements in harm reduction are commendable. Unfortunately, the strong community support for harm reduction (demonstrated in population surveys) is not adequately matched by the policies, funding priorities and other actions of governments. […]
Dr David Jacka was appointed Addiction Medicine Specialist at Monash Health in early 2013. He has worked in the area of public health for many years and in Alcohol and Illicit Drug misuse and Harm Reduction since 1993. Between 2006 and 2012 he worked with the World Health Organization as a drug treatment specialist and advisor on HIV prevention programming for IDU and other risk groups in Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia and Viet Nam. […]
I whole-heartedly support the aims of Harm Reduction Australia (HRA). Although some progress has been made in the minimisation of alcohol and other drug related harm, much remains to be done. In particular, we need work in genuine partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and organisations to reduce the disproportionate level of alcohol and other drug related harm suffered by their communities. […]
Associate Professor Ted Wilkes is a Nyungar man from Western Australia. He is Associate Professor of Aboriginal Research Programs at the National Drug Research Institute, Faculty of Health Sciences at Curtin University. Previously Professor Wilkes worked as the CEO of the Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service (DYHS), and as Associate Professor, Centre for Developmental Health, at the Telethon Institute of Child Health (TICHR). […]
Fiona Patten is the founder and leader of the Australian Sex Party and a Member of the Victorian Legislative Council for the Northern Metropolitan region.
She came to politics after 20 years of lobbying for the rights of organisations involved in the sexual rights movement – including small businesses, sex workers, HIV/AIDS organisations, adult media and online anti-censorship groups. […]
Superintendent Frank Hansen APM commenced his career in the NSW Police Force in1970. At the time of his retirement at the end of 2010 he held the position of Local Area Commander, Rosehill.
Following 15 years in drug law enforcement Superintendent Hansen was promoted to Superintendent in 1994. He then occupied various positions including Local Area Commander, Cabramatta for 2 years (2001/2); and Commander, Drug and Alcohol Coordination, State Crime Command (8 years) before his last position on retirement. […]
Garth Popple is the Executive Director, We Help Ourselves (WHOS) and Director of WHOS International. He currently holds the following honorary positions: Deputy Chair (ex officio past President) Australasian Therapeutic Communities Association (ATCA); and recently Executive Member of the Australian National Council on Drugs (ANCD) for the past 13 years; a recent Past President – International Federation of NGOs. […]
Good public policy requires good values and respect for the evidence. Today this principle is under challenge from fundamentalism and populism and needs strong advocacy in the community generally and within the corridors of power.
In the field of drug policy, harm reduction has been shown to be effective and enabling for all concerned – the drug users themselves, health workers and the wider community. […]
The War on Drugs is likely the single biggest policy failure in the post-war period, with disastrous consequences ranging from near-failed narco states to ballooning prison populations across the globe. The only blue sky has been the dedication of thousands of people who support and work tirelessly promoting harm reduction in a world where drug taking has always been – and will always be – a fact of life. […]
I fully support Harm Reduction Australia and believe that its formation is much needed and long overdue. I believe Harm Reduction Australia should endorse and promote harm reduction as a policy approach, an area which has been significantly neglected over recent years despite its cost effectiveness and strong evidence base. Harm Reduction Australia is well placed to advocate for programs that seek to reduce the impact of illicit drugs to both individuals and communities. […]
Greg Chipp is a director of Drug Policy Australia, a newly-established public health NGO primarily concerned with drug policy advocacy and with promoting new legislative approaches to minimise the harms associated with the use of psychoactive substances.
Greg has been actively involved in politics and public policy development for several decades, beginning with his involvement in the Australian Democrats, a political party he helped establish in the 1970’s. […]
We live in a world where people are imprisoned and executed for drug related crimes as part of the ‘war on drugs’. It is time for leaders at all levels to recognise the futility of this approach and focus instead on strengthening harm reduction efforts as the most cost-effective and humane approach to drug use in our society. […]
Primum non nocere (above all do no harm) is a basic principle in medicine.
In treating cancer, heart disease or diabetes, the harms of disease are balanced against the harms of intervening – mastectomy, amputation, chemotherapy and the side-effects of medicines. Minimising harm is the everyday work of a doctor.
There are tradeoffs too in public health – in preventing and responding to outbreaks of infectious disease – in which the downside for individuals is balanced against preventing harms in the whole community. […]
I challenge anyone who doubts the appropriateness of the harm reduction approach to spend a day with people who inject drugs on the streets of Sydney’s Kings Cross. They should then explain how removing services that have been shown to effectively reduce the immediate harms faced while comprehensively addressing the usually complex underlying reasons that people are living in this situation, would improve things. […]
Australia can be a country where people who use drugs are treated with respect, dignity and empathy. Good drug policy will help us to achieve this. We will only have good policy however, if we share and act upon our knowledge, to promote greater understanding of harm reduction as an essential element of our health system response to drug use. […]
A/Prof James Ward is Head of Infectious Diseases Research – Aboriginal Health at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute in Adelaide. He is of the Pitjantjatjara and Nurrunga peoples from central and south Australia. James has extensive experience in sexual health and blood borne virus research, and alcohol and other drug use in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and as such is recognised as Australia’s expert in the field of STI and BBV control among these populations. […]
I am supportive of Harm Reduction Australia’s key objectives and would be happy to support the goals wherever possible.
Jill is the CEO of WANDA and has worked in the alcohol and other drug sector for over 20 years, employed in a leadership role at the Western Australian Network of Alcohol and other Drug Agencies (WANADA) since 2000. […]
Harm Reduction Australia plays a pivotal role in ensuring Australia’s drug policies and practice are evidence informed and aligned to minimise drug related harms for all people in the community.
John Rogerson has been Chief Executive of the Australian Drug Foundation (ADF) since 2008 and has over 20 years’ experience in the alcohol and other drugs field. […]
Julie is the Principal of Urban Realists, a town planning, health and safety consultancy providing advice and support to non-government organisations representing sex workers and people who use drugs illicitly. She provides specialist advice to the NSW sex industry and other stakeholders on various aspects of legislation and local government regulation, health promotion and harm reduction and research needs. […]
Reducing the harm from drugs will always be a difficult journey for individuals, families and communities. However, as many people have stated, including high level law enforcement officials, we will not arrest our way out of drug use problems. As a former Chief Minister of the ACT I understood all too well the need for innovation and providing health based responses to drug use. […]
In 1986 Professor Dolan along with several others started the first needle and syringe program in Australia, the third in the world. She evaluated the needle and syringe program in the UK for six years. Dr Dolan received her PhD from the University of NSW in Sydney in 1997.
In 2003, Kate established the Program of International Research and Training. […]
Ms. Kim Gates is currently the Executive Director of the Northern Territory AIDS and Hepatitis Council (NTAHC).
Kim is originally from Western Australia were she worked in the WA public service in the areas of Housing and Education before moving into the not for profit alcohol and other drug sector. She moved to Darwin in December 2000 to take up a position at the Council for Aboriginal Alcohol Program Services (CAAPS). […]
Larry holds a Bachelors of Arts degree in sociology from Griffith University, Qld and has had extensive involvement in the drug and alcohol field. In 1985 he worked in the Queensland methadone program during its expansion under the first national campaign against drug abuse. He then moved into the non-government sector and worked as a counsellor at Logan House in 1987, a Residential Rehabilitation centre in southeast Queensland. […]
Harm Reduction is an essential component of a balanced approach to addressing the impacts of alcohol and other drug use within our communities. UnitingCare ReGen is a strong advocate for the ongoing improvement of Harm Reduction initiatives to compliment Supply Reduction and Demand Reduction measures within Australia’s Harm Minimisation drug policy framework. […]
A superb idea which will provide a much needed platform for harm reduction in Australia. I am delighted and honoured to be invited to become a member.
Lisa Maher is a Program Head at the Kirby Institute for Infection and Immunity, Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at UNSW Australia, and a NHMRC Senior Research Fellow. […]
Matt Noffs is the co-founder of the Street Universities and CEO of the Noffs Foundation, Australia’s largest drug and alcohol treatment service provider for young people under 25. […]
Marion McConnell and her late husband Brian are the founding members of Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform which commenced in 1995.
Marion is very pleased that this new initiative will bring together like minded individuals and organisations who will pool their expertise and understanding to bring more just, evidence based and health focussed policies to benefit drug users, families and the community. […]
As CEO of NUAA, I support the goals of Harm Reduction Australia and their efforts to create a coalition of people and organisations to promote the health and human rights of people who use drugs. The systemic harms caused by the ongoing criminalisation of people who use drugs and the conflicting aims and methods of various levels of government in Australia has created confusion and made our harm reduction programs less effective. […]
Harm Reduction Australia will be key to achieving and maintaining best practice in harm reduction in our country. We need to work collaboratively to educate and reform and I’m proud to be involved.
Dr Marianne Jauncey was appointed to the position of Medical Director at the Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre in August 2008. […]
Meghan is the Principal Solicitor and Manager Social Action, Law Reform & Policy at the Fitzroy Legal Service. Her core work is strategic litigation, policy submissions, oversight of community legal education/community development activities, as well as overarching management of the Fitzroy Legal Service legal practice. Fitzroy Legal Service has strong partnerships with the health and harm reduction community sector through its legal practice and other work. […]
Michael John (Mick) Palmer AO, APM is a barrister and 33 year career police officer with extensive experience in police leadership and corporate governance, reform in community, national and international policing and security. He has had an active interest in human rights and illicit drug reform for many years.
Mick joined the Northern Territory Police in 1963 and having progressed through the ranks, was appointed Commissioner of the Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Services agency in 1988. […]
Michael Moore is the CEO of the Public Health Association of Australia and is the Vice President/President Elect of the World Federation of Public Health Associations. Michael is a former Minister of Health and Community Care and was an Independent member of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly for four terms from 1989 to 2001. […]
Neal Blewett has had a varied career as academic, politician and diplomat. Following studies at the universities of Tasmania and Oxford, he taught political science at the universities of Adelaide and Flinders. An opponent of Australian participation in the Vietnam War and an active civil libertarian, he entered Federal Parliament as Labor member for the South Australian seat of Bonython in 1977. […]
Professor Nick Crofts is an epidemiologist and public health practitioner who has been working in the fields of HIV/AIDS, illicit drugs, harm reduction and law enforcement for over 30 years. His major epidemiological work has been on the control of HIV and hepatitis C among injecting drug users in Australia (for which he received an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship) and globally, including almost every country in Asia, for which he received the International Rolleston Award from the International Harm Reduction Association in 1998. […]
A rational approach to the control of drugs requires measures that prioritise harm reduction. We do not presently deal with them in that way. As a minimum, policies must be developed that cease the practice of criminalising the personal possession and use of presently illicit drugs – the criminal law is a totally inappropriate mechanism for addressing the essentially health and social problems that they create. […]
Nuno M. R. Jorge is president of OFAP (Organization of the Families of Asia and the Pacific).
President Jorge, born in Macau, from a traditional Macanese Family, is a chartered architect, Past President 2007-2009 of the Architects Association of Macau, and registered accountant, received his Diploma in Architecture from the Higher School of Fine Arts in Lisbon, where he also studied Business Organization and Management, with major in Marketing, at the Higher Institute of New Professions. […]
Harm reduction programs make an important contribution to protecting Australians from drug related harms. We need to maintain and strengthen these programs at every opportunity!
Paul Haber is a physician specializing in addiction medicine and gastroenterology / hepatology. He is Clinical Director for Drug Health Services for the Sydney Local Health District and has been a consultant at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital since 1998. […]
Dr. Denning has developed specialties in differential diagnosis, psychopharmacology, psychotherapy with seriously disturbed patients, HIV, and substance use disorders. She is one of the primary developers of Harm Reduction treatments. She has written several articles as well as a book for the general public (Over the Influence: The Harm Reduction Guide for Managing Drugs and Alcohol. […]
This is a very welcome initiative. what we have been doing is not working well enough and rationality demands that we revisit the problem now. Australia could do so much more for the problems posed by illicit drugs with the present money – it is so sad that so little of it goes to harm reduction. […]
Discussion around illicit drug use is highly politicised and often overlooks the critical importance of harm reduction. I welcome the establishment of Harm Reduction Australia and look forward to supporting the goals of the organisation.
Rebecca has worked in the alcohol and other drug sector for almost 10 years and has been CEO of the Qld Network of Alcohol and other Drug Agencies since 2012. […]
Rick Lines is Executive Director of Harm Reduction International.
Rick has been working in HIV and harm reduction services, policy and advocacy since the early 1990s, and is known for his leading work in the areas of HIV in prisons, prison needle/syringe programmes, human rights and the death penalty for drug offences. […]
I am excited to be part of the new movement to more effectively champion harm reduction. Australia and New Zealand have close harm reduction histories and I’m pleased to help connect more deeply with our Aussie HR cousins.
Ross Bell is Executive Director of the New Zealand Drug Foundation, NZ’s leading alcohol and other drug public health NGO. […]
The role of an organisation such as Harm Reduction Australia will be invaluable in maintaining a clear focus on health and welfare policies that make a positive difference in our community. By focussing on endeavours that build on past harm minimisation successes the desire is to steer a progressive, non-punitive approach which enhances the lives of individuals, their loved ones and communities affected by drug use and the limited policy options available. […]
Scott Wilson is the Director of the Aboriginal Drug and Alcohol Council (SA) Inc (ADAC). ADAC is the only Indigenous organisation of its kind in Australia, and is based in Adelaide.
Scott’s experience in the areas of substance use, misuse and abuse has seen him on nearly every major governmental and non-government committee in Australia over the past 20 years. […]
Palmerston Association is a leading and respected alcohol and other drug service in Western Australia. For over 35 years, this organisation has been a leading and strident advocate of a harm minimisation approach.
The principles of harm minimisation are enshrined in our most recent strategic framework. Palmerston is committed to our needle and syringe exchange program in Mandurah which exchanges over 30,000 pieces of equipment monthly. […]
Harm Reduction and the enthusiasm and involvement of the affected communities, including people who inject drugs, saved Australia from the worst of the HIV epidemic. The provision of sterile needles and syringes, condoms, peer education and community mobilisation formed the bedrock of harm reduction, saved many, many lives and saved successive governments millions of dollars. […]
The creation of Harm Reduction Australia is a timely and wonderful step forward. Bringing together voices that come from different disciplines and experience can only help to improve outcomes in regard to drug use for all Australians. Overdue, but more relevant than ever, Harm Reduction Australia fills a vital gap in the discourse on drugs, pulling together nuanced voices for the purpose of contributing to the discussion, both here and overseas. […]
The establishment of HRA is long overdue as a platform to acknowledge Australia’s harm reduction achievements, advocate for change and an expansion of services, and recognise the people who have consistently and passionately opened themselves up to criticism in their lobbying for evidence-based policies, programs and peer-based
I fully endorse the key principles of HRA as necessary conditions for a humane and effective way of reducing the harm that all forms of drug use produce among Australians. […]
Australia’s harm minimization strategy has been a great success story of international drug policy. We’ve made great progress towards living well in this world with drugs. Yet the pragmatic principle of reducing harm is the exception rather than the norm in public discourse about drugs. Australia needs a strong coalition of voices advocating fair and pragmatic drug policy, so that we can build on the successes of the past. […]
Dorota is the Executive Officer at Harm Reduction Australia. She has worked in a number of policy positions across the Australian public service and has had extensive experience in research and policy development relating to drugs and law-enforcement. Dorota also holds a Doctorate in Politics. […]
Penny Hill is a PhD candidate at the Burnet Institute investigating the impact of health service use on opioid overdose among people who inject drugs, and works for the Centre for Research Excellence into Injecting Drug Use (CREIDU) and the National Naloxone Reference Group (NNRG). Penny has a background as a community health worker in harm reduction and needle syringe programs across Melbourne and Sydney, is the founder of Students for Sensible Drug Policy Australia, and is a Board Member of Harm Reduction Victoria, Harm Reduction Australia and is the Oceania Representative to the International Drug Consortium’s Members Advisory Council. […]
