13th Feb 2019, 4:16 PM – Senate Motions - Illicit Drugs - Pill testing

The majority voted against a motion introduced by Vic Senator Richard Di Natale (Greens), which means it failed.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) over the 2018-19 summer, more than five people have died or been injured as a result of taking illicit drugs,

(ii) there is a real possibility that these deaths could have been prevented and harm reduced if pill testing services had been offered at music festivals and in the community,

(iii) best-practice pill testing models involve a consultation with a health practitioner about the content of the pill, and a person's choices about whether or not to consume illicit drugs,

(iv) pill testing services give health services critical information about what has been consumed and provide people with more information about what is in the pills that they are taking than they otherwise have access to,

(v) a large number of relevant medical professional organisations have declared their support for pill testing over the summer period, including the Royal College of Physicians, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Australian Medical Association, and

(vi) members of Parliament from both the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party have expressed support for pill testing, but the leaders of both of the parties are refusing to consider these real and critically-important benefits; and

(b) calls on the Federal Government to:

(i) urgently develop and implement a pill testing policy to prevent more deaths and harm, and

(ii) work with the medical community, community groups and all state and territory governments to implement existing models which demonstrably have worked and helped save lives.