QLD Schoolies Pill Testing To Go Ahead

Despite the new LNP government’s determination to scrap pill testing in Queensland, the initiative will still go ahead at this year’s Schoolies event in the Gold Coast.

According to the ABC, Health Minister Tim Nicholls' office said that the Schoolies pill testing clinic would go ahead due to a contract signed by the previous Labor government. 

"Our position remains that there is no safe way to take drugs, and pill testing sends the wrong message," a spokeswoman for Nicholls said. "After taking advice so close to the event, the only short-term option is for the Department of Health to honour the contract for this year's event."

This is not an unexpected announcement, with Premier David Crisafulli reluctant to answer questions on the LNP’s promised ban of pill testing recently. 

“We said we don't support pill testing, and I'm not walking away from that, but the question was asked about Schoolies which is in three weeks' time,” Crisafulli said in a press conference, according to ABC. “We're not talking about in the future, I'm talking about this event here and I've asked for some advice. I want to take some advice on that and I'm going to do that in a deliberate way.”

Despite this, former LNP leader and Member for Surfers Paradise John-Paul Langbroek has doubled down on his party's pre-election vow to scrap testing, saying that pill testing sends the wrong message to young people .

“I know this is a very complex issue. Schoolies is such a big part of my electorate," Langbroek told the ABC. "I believe it sends the message that doing some sort of drugs is okay and I don't believe doing drugs is okay at all." 

Schoolies is set to run in Surfers Paradise from November 16 to December 8, with an estimated 20,000 school leavers set to visit.

Under the previous Labor government, pill testing was a priority, with the first ever state-operated pill testing clinic at the Rabbits Eat Lettuce music festival in March - which was deemed a success. They later opened two permanent clinics in Bowen Hills and on the Gold Coast, making QLD the first state to do so.

Down south, Victoria recently legalised mobile pill testing, passing the legislation in late October.

According to Victorian Greens MP Aiv Puglielli, “Starting this summer, there will be 10 mobile testing sites at festivals across the state and a fixed testing site in Melbourne close to nightlife hot spots.”