Last week the Premier reaffirmed his opposition to pill testing, stating that he continues
to rely on advice from Victoria Police about recreational drug testing.
We are in the middle of the summer festival season, and we have already seen deaths and
a number of young people harmed.
The government is sticking with the status quo, resulting in more and more young people
being put at risk.
Minister, given that drug use is a public health issue, has the government sought advice
from your department about introducing pill testing in our state, and if so, what was
this advice?
What I can say to the Member is that we have a range of harm minimisation strategies in
place.
We have, we take advice from a range of people, there's a range of views across government,
or sorry we take advice from various agencies who have views in government about any matter,
any policy matter, as you would expect.
We certainly have taken on board the concerns that Victoria Police have articulated about
these issues as well.
Our priority is to make sure we are not offering up something is a panacea to young people,
we need to ensure that we ensure the safety and minimisation of harm.
Sorry, Minister, time has expired.
Minister, thank you.
Ms Ratnam on a supplementary.
Thank you, President.
I'm concerned that my question actually wasn't answered.
My specific question was, has the government sought advice from the department about pill
testing in our state, and what the advice her department, or the Health Department,
provided to the Premier about pill testing, so that was my specific question that I don't
believe was answered in the substantial question.
My supplementary question was, speaking about advice, an increasing list of health organisations
have announced their official support for pill testing, including the Royal Australian
College of Physicians, The Australiasian College for Emergency Medicine, the Australian Medical
Association, Harm Reduction Victoria, the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre
and most recently Ambulance Employees Australia.
Minister, given that so many health experts agree that pill testing will save lives, why
are you as Health Minister choosing to ignore the many expert health voices calling for
sensible, harm reduction drug policy in Victoria?
And I'd appreciate a response to my substantial question which was, has your department provided
advice to the Premier on pill testing in Victoria?
Minister.
Thank you, and I actually did respond to that question, if you were listening at the end
I talked about how of course the government always seeks views from a range of government
agencies about any matter.
I can't speak for the advice that the Premier has received, you're asking me questions about
matters that actually sit with Minister Foley's portfolio responsibility.
What I can say to you is that Victoria Police have raised concerns with the government about
the efficacy of pill testing and we take these concerns seriously.
We need to make sure that when responding to these issues we're not offering up solutions
or so-called perceived solutions about matters that will actually give people a false sense
of security.
I know that there was a range of view that the Member referred to from non-government
agencies and can I just say that, for example Ambulance Victoria, there was an attempt to
misquote Ambulance Victoria's position in relation to this, speaking from an agency
that reports to me as Minister for Ambulance Services.
In a recent media report that was just incorrect, and the head of Ambulance Victoria was quoted
as saying.
Thank you, Minister.
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