NSW Labor considering pill testing this summer

Health Minister Ryan Park has sought a preliminary report from the drug summit ahead of the coming music festival season, in a clear sign the government is considering pill testing this summer.

The Sydney Morning Herald can reveal that, at the end of last week’s summit, Park asked co-chairs Carmel Tebbutt and John Brogden to provide interim advice before their final report is tabled next year.

The Minns government is facing pressure from within its caucus to introduce pill testing ahead of the summer music festival season.Credit: James Alcock

The interim advice – which will be presented to cabinet – was requested in part due to the start of music festival season, and is likely to canvass the possibility of a pill-testing trial.

The Minns government faces increasing internal pressure to commit to a significant overhaul of drug policies, with Labor MPs including parliamentary secretary for health Dr Michael Holland publicly calling for the introduction of pill testing.

Four Labor MPs, including Holland, have put their names to an open letter calling for additional safe injection centres, an overhaul of drug-driving laws for medicinal cannabis users, and changes allowing more low-level drug users to avoid the criminal justice system.

The letter, first reported by the Herald, was co-written by independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich with backing from influential Health Services Union secretary Gerard Hayes, the Uniting Church and not-for-profit Unharm, among others.

It calls on the government to begin reforms, including pill testing, before the drug summit’s findings are presented next year, arguing this would “save lives” at summer’s music festivals.

Premier Chris Minns has previously been sceptical about pill testing. Park on Wednesday said the government was yet to decide, and he would wait for the co-chairs’ advice.

The interim advice could provide a pathway for the government to push ahead with a trial this summer.

Holland’s intervention is significant because the Bega MP, as parliamentary secretary to the health minister, essentially acts as an assistant in the portfolio responsible for the response to the summit. An obstetrician with 40 years’ experience as a clinician, Holland is well-respected on both sides of the aisle in NSW parliament.

Holland said his “in principle” support for the five points in Greenwich’s letter – which also calls for a strategy to prevent prescription drug dependence – was influenced by his professional experience.

Michael Holland with NSW Premier Chris Minns.Credit: James Brickwood

“I’ve been around long enough to witness the lived and living experience of people affected by drug use and dependence, and as an obstetrician I’ve seen the generational effect,” he said.

Holland said he believed drug checking – which he said should be made available at fixed sites in the community, not just festivals – would help both with prevention and reducing harm. He said he intended to raise the issue with Minns and Park.

“If you have an opportunity for safety checking, it means you don’t buy your drugs in the festival, where they’re likely to be unsafe, and nor do you consume just to avoid detection,” he said.

“It will also give us a big opportunity to get forward the harm-reduction messaging and give us data in the community about what is going on with drug supply and use.”

Holland said he did not think pill testing before summer was likely, despite it being “relatively easy to implement”, because of programs in other jurisdictions. Park said in a statement the government “will wait for the report from the co-chairs” of the summit.

The government has received proposals from Unharm and another not-for-profit, Harm Reduction Australia (HRA), to run pilots this summer.

HRA president Gino Vumbaca OAM said it would take only weeks to organise a service.

“We’re ready to roll now, we just need them to say OK. In a way, we just need the government to get out of the way,” he said.

Pill testing has significant backing among MPs including cabinet ministers such as Rose Jackson and Jo Haylen. Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said the Coalition had “no current plans” to support pill testing.

Former Labor premier Bob Carr has also backed its introduction, saying last week it was “better to live with that harm minimisation than deal with the news that your son or daughter has died from an impure substance”.

While Minns has previously pointed to the inability to test the purity of a substance as a reason not to support pill testing, Vumbaca said new mobile pill-testing technology had addressed this.

Other signatories to the letter from the Labor caucus include Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery, and Cameron Murphy and Anthony D’Adam from the upper house. A number of crossbench MPs have also signed.

The Greens have also called on the government to act before the summit’s final report, with MP Cate Faehrmann pointing to Victoria, Queensland and the ACT’s programs.

“Three other Labor state premiers didn’t need a drug summit to act on pill testing,” she said.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.