Wednesday, 27 November 2024

Ministers statements: pill testing

Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (12:25): I rise to update the house on the Allan Labor government’s progress on implementing pill-testing services. On Sunday I joined the Premier to announce our pill-testing service provider and to confirm that Beyond the Valley is the first of 10 events which will host this life-saving service from 28 December. Led by a team of health, harm reduction and scientific partners and deploying the best technology available, Victoria’s pill-testing services will be offered for the first time at Beyond the Valley, and we are making sure that this vital harm reduction service will be available at one of the biggest events on our calendar here in Victoria.

The experience of our service providers is significant. Youth Support and Advocacy Service has been supporting young Victorians and their families with drug use for more than two decades. The Loop Australia are joining us fresh from delivering pill-testing services in Queensland. And of course Harm Reduction Victoria are an important partner. These partners will work with Melbourne Health for medical consultancy, Youth Projects to offer wraparound care pathways and Metabolomics Australia based within the University of Melbourne to provide secondary and confirmatory testing. The introduction of these services will help keep Victorians safer while enhancing our drug surveillance capabilities.

While some in this place might want to stick their heads in the sand and others might want to go down more frivolous paths, we are getting on with the job of equipping Victorians with the information they need to make safer, more informed choices. I note that pill-testing services are about to be cancelled in Queensland by the LNP government, and just this week they detected deadly nitazenes – as recently as yesterday. We are getting on with this job, and the need for Victoria’s pill-testing services has never been more important and never been clearer.