Chris Minns has announced dates of his major drug summit
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Well, the Sydney Morning Herald state political editor, Alexandra Smith, she broke this story and she's on the line for us. Alexandra, g'day. Hello, Chris. So I know that there's been a little bit of, how can I say, procrastination within the men's government about setting these dates. Why has it taken so long?

Well, I think part of the problem is it's going to be very tricky for Labor to hold this inquiry. Internally, there's going to be a lot of friction. We saw that with the former coalition government when they got the recommendations from the ICE inquiry. But as we know in Labor, there are some very divided opinions on how drug reform should be tackled. And he has some very prominent opinions.

Labor people who are now ministers in the Minsk government, such as the Housing Minister Rose Jackson, the Transport Minister Jo Halen, who have always led a very big charge within Labor to decriminalise drugs. That has been their long-held position. Of course, you've got some others within the party, including the Premier Chris Mintz, who is much more conservative on these sort of issues and it would not be a comfortable position for somebody like...

I would imagine, to consider decriminalising drugs or even pill testing at music festivals. So I think although they made the election promise, it was a long time coming because it's going to be difficult for them. It really is. And it's going to cause some pretty big fights internally.

When you say, I suppose, does this come to a head at state conference? Well, the big problem they've faced is that they've got their state conference, as you say, late in July, later this month. And it's a really big issue for the party, not least because it was an election promise and the members of the party want to make sure their leaders stick to election promises. But it's a very big social issue for Labor. And if Christmas

had gone to that conference and faced all those members, he would have really been monstered if he hadn't actually at least committed to a date for this summit. So it's kind of interesting. I think, you know, he had to move pretty quickly and get a date set to sort of save himself from being mauled on conference floor.

But also you had to do it because it was an election commitment. And part of the reason they did it as an election commitment was so they didn't have to finalise or formalise a position on drugs before the election, you know. And I know that Bob Carr did this all the way back in 1999. That effectively led to the establishment of the Supervised Injecting Centre at King's Cross. That was controversial. Are we expecting anything like that to come of this one?

Well, I think part of the problem the government faces is they're probably, you know, probably quite worried about what this inquiry is going to suggest. And given that we saw in the ICE inquiry, the recommendation was to decriminalise drugs, to do pill testing at music festivals.

You know, I can't imagine this summit will find anything other than those sort of recommendations. So it kind of kicks it into the long grass, I guess, a little bit for the Minsk government because then they have to deal with those recommendations down the line. Maybe they don't do it before, you know, on this side of the next election. Because like the, you know, the injecting room, it's going to be controversial. Of course. And they could just ignore it.

like you expect them but they will Alex Smith I appreciate your time as always thanks so much thanks Chris that's the Sydney Morning Herald state political editor Alex Smith so just repeating the men's government's drug summit will be held in Sydney December 4 December 5 and two days in regional New South Wales in October bit back to the future isn't it Bob Carr did it in 99 what's this one going to throw up