MARK COLVIN: The Federal Government is fending off allegations that its tough-on-drugs stance has fuelled an epidemic of Hepatitis C infections. The claim is made in a special report the Government had prepared by its own Health Department, a report it's been sitting on since last November.

The Australian newspaper today quoted the leaked report as predicting half a million cases of Hepatitis C in Australia by the year 2020, and as saying that "the urgency of this situation cannot be overstated".

It also linked the looming epidemic to the Government's zero tolerance drug policy which it says has "contributed to increased transmission rates". Health Minister Kay Patterson is defending the zero tolerance policy, but refusing to release the report.

Gerald Tooth reports.

GERALD TOOTH: Peter is a Vietnam veteran in his fifties. He's a heroine user and has Hep C. It doesn't stop him shooting up in the company of his young girlfriend.

PETER: At my age, we have trouble getting my veins, so we have blood everywhere. Sometimes it looks like there's been a slaughter. She has to hold my arm, I hold her arms and that's how Hepatitis C is spread, blood to blood.

And okay, we may have clean needles and all that now, but we haven't got the clean, hygienic facilities to hit up in. Only very few people hit up in a nice clean house.

GERALD TOOTH: Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus that has a grip on the intravenous drug using community. It's estimated that there is a new infection every 32 minutes. It comes as little surprise then, that the Federal Government's own Health Department is predicting half a million Australians will be infected within 20 years.

What is a surprise though, is that a special Health Department report is pointing the finger at the tough on drugs policy for contributing to that. For Health Minister Kay Patterson it's a link that's difficult to explain away. In fact, it seems almost the whole Government frontbench is needed to come up with an answer.

KAY PATTERSON: The reports were to inform Government policy and the next strategy, and we will have a response to that as a whole of Government. It's only appropriate that the Attorney-General and all the other ministers who need to consider the report, consider the implications of the report, need to have time to do that.

GERALD TOOTH: What the minister is saying is don't expect this report with major public health implications to be released any time soon.

KAY PATTERSON: We'll respond to the report in due course, which will be our response to the next strategy, and we're setting up a new committee, a new structured committee and it's only appropriate that committee has time to look at those reports and also respond to the Government's response on that.

GERALD TOOTH: So while the Government is happy to have a conversation about Hepatitis C with itself, the question of it's tough on drugs stance having health implications won't be something they'll be talking about publicly.

Health officials however, are saying the tough on drugs stance is having an impact, particularly when it comes to the implications of harm minimisation programs, such as needle exchanges.

Doctor Graham McDonald is a senior lecturer at the University of Queensland's medical school and is an expert in Hepatitis C. He says zero tolerance encourages a police attitude that doesn't help harm minimisation programs.

GRAHAM MCDONALD: The zero tolerance does have an impact then on things like police behaviour. So we do occasionally have reports of stake-outs by police and media at needle syringe programs, which is clearly going to limit the effectiveness of that.

I mean you're not going to go get your sterile syringes and disposal packs if you think there's something there who's recording you. The anonymity of those environments needs to be preserved, so there are some flow-on effects from zero tolerance, potentially.

GERALD TOOTH: Doctor McDonald, however, is reluctant to make the strong link made in the leaked report between zero tolerance and massive increases in Hepatitis C infections.

GRAHAM MCDONALD: I haven't seen the report so I can't see how they reached that conclusion.

GERALD TOOTH: Well, what's the medical point of view?

GRAHAM MCDONALD: The medical point of view?

GERALD TOOTH: In terms of the success of harm minimisation compared with a policy of zero tolerance?

GRAHAM MCDONALD: Look, I'm sorry Gerald, my area of expertise is the management of Hepatitis C and I'm not involved medically in harm minimisation. The harm minimisation is the approach that we'd like to take and we've still got some way to go with that. There's still some intolerance with regard to things like needle and syringe programs.

MARK COLVIN: Hepatitis C expert Dr Graham McDonald of the University of Queensland, and that report from Gerald Tooth.