Hobart City Council endorses pill testing at festivals but Tasmanian Government reaffirms it does not

The first government authority in Tasmania has endorsed pill testing – but what does it mean and will it have any effect on whether the controversial policy is rolled out.

THE first government authority in Tasmania has endorsed pill testing but it is unlikely to have any effect on whether the controversial policy is rolled out.

Hobart City Council voted 6-3 to provide in-principle support for drug analysis services at major events and festivals held in its municipality.

COUNCIL TO VOTE ON PILL TESTING

Any pill testing services would need State Government sanctioning to be implemented — and it has reaffirmed its stance hasn’t changed.

“We do not support pill testing,” a Government spokeswoman said on Monday. “There is no safe use of any illicit drug and our concern is that a testing service indicating an illegal drug is free of certain contaminants sends a mixed and risky message.

“Our focus must be on what we can do to further reduce the use of drugs. We have a number of preventive initiatives aimed at reducing harm and the Tasmanian Government will be continuing to work on the issue of substance abuse.”

Hobart City Council Councillor Holly Ewin. Picture: MATT THOMPSON

The council will lobby the State Government to change this view and allow a pill testing trial in Tasmania after the findings in a current coronial inquest into six music festival deaths in New South Wales are released.

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Coroner Harriet Grahame attended a pill testing demonstration over the weekend at the popular Byron Bay music festival Splendour in the Grass.

Cr Holly Ewin — who brought the motion to council — said its purpose was to advocate for positive changes in the community based on expert evidence.

Acting Lord Mayor Helen Burnet said it was a “bold motion” and spoke to a demographic that previously would not have been engaged in council decisions.

“It speaks to a group of the community and says ‘yes’ the City of Hobart does care about what we do and listens,” Cr Burnet said.

Associate Professor David Caldicott is an emergency consultant at Canberra Calvary Hospital and has 20 years experience in festival medicine. He is also an advocate for pill testing and was the designer of Australia’s first government-sanctioned pill testing program. He set up a demonstration at Splendour in The Grass 2019.

Aldermen Marti Zucco, Tanya Denison and Jeff Briscoe — who all voted against the motion — raised concerns pill testing wasn’t in the core business of the council.

Will the council’s motion actually achieve anything?

Essentially, no. It needs the State Government to change its stance, which it has indicated it will not do.

Alcohol, Tobacco and other Drugs Council Tasmania chief executive Alison Lai said the strong advocacy by one of Tasmania’s biggest councils would be helpful in pushing for that change.

Dark Mofo creative director Leigh Carmichael, left, Alcohol, Tobacco and other Drugs Council Tasmania chief executive Alison Lai and president of Harm Reduction Australia Gino Vumbaca. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

“Hobart City Council is being very responsive to community attitudes and how we tackle risky illicit drug behaviours,” Ms Lai said.

“From our perspective there is a very strong demand coming from the community for the introduction of these types of services and strategies to combat risky illegal drug use.”

A poll of 900 Mercury online readers showed 57 per cent support for pill testing at festivals in Tasmania.

How would it work in Tasmania?

Ms Lai said the State Government would need to set up an advisory committee to enable government departments, such as police, health and justice, to work together and with event organisers and service providers like Pill Testing Australia to design the trial.

She said it would be based on the same model used in the ACT over the past two years.

Ms Lai said the trial could happen without any legislative change but government support was essential to create the necessary environment and procedures to operate a pill testing station as a health service without concern of consequences from law enforcement.

The Alcohol, Tobacco and other Drugs Council has previously offered to the State Government to independently lead the establishment of this committee.

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