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Speaker 1: Already and this this is the daily This is the daily.

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Speaker 1: Ohs oh, now it makes sense.

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Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Thursday,

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Speaker 2: the twenty first of March.

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Speaker 1: I'm Zara, I'm Sam.

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Speaker 2: Yesterday Queensland announced the country's first ongoing pill testing service

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Speaker 2: will begin at a music festival next week. It comes

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Speaker 2: just over a year after the state first announced it

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Speaker 2: would move to allow for pill testing. Pill testing is,

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Speaker 2: of course a highly contentious issue, but with two jurisdictions

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Speaker 2: now allowing it, what can we expect to see from

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Speaker 2: the rest of the country. We'll tell you everything you

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Speaker 2: need to know in today's deep dive. But first, Sam,

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Speaker 2: what's making headlines.

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Speaker 1: Foreign Minister Penny Wong has insisted that Kevin Rudd will

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Speaker 1: stay on as Australia's ambassador to the US even if

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump wins the presidential election in November. This all

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Speaker 1: comes after Trump called Rudd nasty during an interview with

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Speaker 1: former British politician turned broadcaster Nigel Farage earlier in the week.

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Speaker 1: Here's what the former president said.

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Speaker 2: I heard he was a little bit nasty.

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Speaker 1: I hear he's not the brightest bulb.

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Speaker 2: But I don't know much about him, but if he's

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Speaker 2: at all hostile, he will not be there long.

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Speaker 1: When asked about it yesterday, Wong said, even Peter Dutton

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Speaker 1: has expressed confidence in mister Rudd, who she called a

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Speaker 1: very effective ambassador. Rudd began his role as ambassador in

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Speaker 1: Washington in March of twenty twenty three.

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Speaker 2: Victoria's decision to pull out of hosting the twenty twenty

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Speaker 2: six Commonwealth Games has cost the state around five hundred

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Speaker 2: and ninety million dollars, according to new estimates. Former Premier

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Speaker 2: Daniel Andrews announced Victoria would not host the twenty twenty

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Speaker 2: six Commonwealth Games in July last year. Citing budget concerns.

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Speaker 2: The Victorian ordered a General's office examined the of securing,

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Speaker 2: planning for, and then withdrawing from the Games. It found

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Speaker 2: sixty four percent of costs were from settling the cancelation

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Speaker 2: of its contract with the Commonwealth Games Federation. The report

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Speaker 2: called the expense a significant waste of taxpayer money on

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Speaker 2: an event that will not happen.

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Speaker 1: A year's supply of contraceptives, including the pill, are now

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Speaker 1: accessible without a prescription in the US state of New York.

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Speaker 1: Governor Kathy Hokel described the decision, which was passed into

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Speaker 1: state law. As ushering in a new era. Hochel said,

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Speaker 1: any woman walking into a New York state pharmacy will

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Speaker 1: be able to purchase birth control, which she described as

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Speaker 1: essential healthcare.

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Speaker 2: And the good news, three time Grammy winner Pink is

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Speaker 2: about to make history with a new record for the

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Speaker 2: most shows ever performed by an artist in Australia and

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Speaker 2: New Zealand on a single tour. The US singer will

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Speaker 2: play show twenty of her current leg of the Summer

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Speaker 2: Carnival tour in Townsville on Saturday. That is remarkable. So, Sam,

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Speaker 2: yesterday we found out that festival goers attending a music

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Speaker 2: festival called Rabbits Eat Lettuce in Queensland next week we'll

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Speaker 2: be able to get their pills tested by a government

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Speaker 2: backed pill testing service.

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Speaker 1: And Zara, when you sent me the press release about

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Speaker 1: this announcement, I was trying to remember that we have

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Speaker 1: seen something similar in the past.

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Speaker 2: Don't lie, Sam. When I send you that press release,

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Speaker 2: we were actually talking about the name Rabbits Eat Lettuce

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Speaker 2: for approximately ten minuts.

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Speaker 1: I know, and I literally have just worked out whilst

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Speaker 1: we're recording that it's because it's Easter over that weekend

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Speaker 1: and there's no Easter Bunny. And at that festival in

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Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, two people died in their tents with a

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Speaker 1: lethal cocktail of drugs in their systems. But this wasn't

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Speaker 1: the first time that Queensland had had an announcement about

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Speaker 1: pill testing, right.

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Speaker 2: No, it wasn't. So we found out about a year

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Speaker 2: ago that the government was going to roll out pill

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Speaker 2: testing services across the state, announcing the Palichet Government's commitment

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Speaker 2: to see pill testing happening across Queensland are also known

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Speaker 2: as drug checking. That was the Queensland Government under of course,

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Speaker 2: previous Premier Anastasia Palichet, announcing their plans in feb twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty three. But it's taken until now for them to

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Speaker 2: actually confirm how the pill testing will operate and what

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Speaker 2: it will actually look like.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so run me through what we know about how

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Speaker 1: it's going to work.

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Speaker 2: I will in a second, but I do just want

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Speaker 2: to take a step back first and actually explain what

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Speaker 2: pill testing is for anyone who isn't aware. So pill

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Speaker 2: testing is a service that essentially just allows people to

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Speaker 2: understand what's in a substance before they take it, so

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Speaker 2: the pill is tested and then the people doing the

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Speaker 2: test will tell the person who is about to take

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Speaker 2: the pill what is in it, so that the person

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Speaker 2: can make an educated decision about what to do next.

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Speaker 2: So that's just a very broad definition of what pill

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Speaker 2: testing is. But now back to how Queensland is going

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Speaker 2: to go about implementing it. So the first thing that

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Speaker 2: we found out is that it's going to start really soon,

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Speaker 2: as I said, next week soon. We also learned that

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Speaker 2: it will be ongoing, so that's a really important fact

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Speaker 2: because the only other pill testing service in the country

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Speaker 2: isn't ongoing in the act, it's due to end in December,

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Speaker 2: so that's a key difference there. And we also found

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Speaker 2: out that the government are going to commit one million

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Speaker 2: dollars over two years to support the rollout. So that

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Speaker 2: was all of the information that the Queensland government gave

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Speaker 2: us yesterday. And as I said, that was nearly a

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Speaker 2: full year after first making the announcement that we actually

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Speaker 2: got that detail.

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Speaker 1: And in the year since that first announcement. But also

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Speaker 1: if you look around at any state or territory in

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Speaker 1: the country, there's quite heated political debate about this topic.

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Speaker 1: What was the Queensland government's reason for pushing ahead with

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Speaker 1: this plan.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right. So we heard from the Health Minister,

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Speaker 2: Shannon Fentiman yesterday and she said that it was all

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Speaker 2: about harm minimization, So that's about focusing on strategies to

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Speaker 2: lessen the harm that someone taking a pill might experience.

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Speaker 2: To her, she said, we don't want people ending up

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Speaker 2: in our emergency departments or worse, losing their life. So

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Speaker 2: a very clear statement thereby the Queensland government about why

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Speaker 2: they're doing it and what their hope is there.

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Speaker 1: And is the Queensland government doing this with bipartisan support.

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Speaker 2: Look, I'd say very little policy across the country has

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Speaker 2: bipartisan support, let alone something as contentious as this.

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Speaker 1: So no.

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Speaker 2: When the government first announced it would be legalizing pill

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Speaker 2: testing in the state last year, the Liberal National Opposition

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Speaker 2: said it wouldn't support the rollout. So the Deputy Leader

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Speaker 2: of the opposition said at the time there's no safe

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Speaker 2: way to take drugs and the Opposition does not support

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Speaker 2: pill testing in Queensland. Pill testing sends the wrong message

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Speaker 2: and it hasn't worked in other jurisdictions.

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Speaker 1: That's an interesting point that he said that it hasn't

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Speaker 1: worked in other jurisdictions. What do we know about how

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Speaker 1: it's gone in other state and territories.

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Speaker 2: Well, I do think it's just one jurisdiction, so we

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Speaker 2: can't use a plural there. So Australia's first and until

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Speaker 2: now only fixed pill testing center launched in Canberra under

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Speaker 2: a six month trial in twenty twenty two, and as

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Speaker 2: I said earlier, it's been extended now to December this year.

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Speaker 2: This pill testing center has found some fascinating results since

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Speaker 2: it's launched. They've discovered a new recreational drug dubbed cambra

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Speaker 2: ketamine and also a new variant of bath salts, so

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Speaker 2: that's a group of synthetic chemical drugs that can be fatal.

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Speaker 2: Now we have a journal when our team, Daniel Deserto,

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Speaker 2: who is the journal that has really written up all

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Speaker 2: these stories. He's been chasing the Queensland government, He's been

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Speaker 2: chasing the Act government, so he's really been deep diving

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Speaker 2: into pill testing. He is unfortunately on leave as this

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Speaker 2: big announcement from Queensland happened, but earlier in the year

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Speaker 2: he did speak to the executive officer at Pill Testing Australia,

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Speaker 2: who is Steph Zenitas about the recent results of pill

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Speaker 2: testing in Canbra. Now, pill Testing Australia is one of

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Speaker 2: the that runs the center in the Acts, so she

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Speaker 2: was speaking from the personal experience of having run those.

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Speaker 2: She told Daniel about a rise in demand for pill

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Speaker 2: testing ahead of spilt Milk in twenty twenty three. She

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Speaker 2: said it was a success, but there was a limited

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Speaker 2: number of people who discarded their drugs after being checked,

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Speaker 2: and I think that that is so interesting. High purity

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Speaker 2: MDMA was detected at the on site pill testing center.

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Speaker 2: They also observed an increase in cocaine purity, which is

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Speaker 2: believed to be driven by shifting patterns of drug supply

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Speaker 2: and narcotic networks here in Australia. So there were lots

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Speaker 2: of really interesting findings just from that fixed center. That

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Speaker 2: is a trial in the Act alone.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so we know that the ACT is the only

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Speaker 1: other jurisdiction that's actually got something underway. But there are

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Speaker 1: conversations happening in other states, right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there are, And any Keen listeners would have remembered

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Speaker 2: that one of yesterday's headlines on this podcast was actually

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Speaker 2: about this topic too, and that's because the Victorian government

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Speaker 2: is being encouraged to introduce pill testing, and that push

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Speaker 2: is coming by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

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Speaker 2: That is in the wake of the Coroner's Court of

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Speaker 2: Victoria last week finding that the deaths of two men

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Speaker 2: were a result of mixed high dose drugs that the

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Speaker 2: men may not have known they were taking. The Coroner's

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Speaker 2: Court also recommended the Victoria trial a pill testing service,

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Speaker 2: so similar to the one in the Act, and the

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Speaker 2: story is pretty much the same. In New South Wales,

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Speaker 2: there's been a pill testing trial formally recommended to the

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Speaker 2: New South Wales government that was back in twenty nineteen

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Speaker 2: and it was rejected. It was part of a New

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Speaker 2: South Wales coronial inquest into the deaths of six young

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Speaker 2: people at music festivals from twenty seventeen to twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 2: But really we haven't seen much movement on this issue

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Speaker 2: from those state governments, so I'd say those are more

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Speaker 2: wait and watch. I don't think that we can necessarily

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Speaker 2: expect for there to be any kind of major movement

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Speaker 2: on these issues anytime soon in those two states.

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Speaker 1: So I think the results in Queensland will definitely find

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Speaker 1: their way into discussions happening in other states and territories

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Speaker 1: as we get more data in this space and now

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Speaker 1: we no longer have an act example to look at,

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Speaker 1: but also Queensland and for experts to evaluate whether this

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Speaker 1: is indeed a sustainable path forward.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean the Victorian premier said that she

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Speaker 2: was going to get advice after those deaths I spoke

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Speaker 2: about earlier. She did say that there was no plan

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Speaker 2: to introduce bill testing, but she said she'd get advice,

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Speaker 2: so I guess we'll have to see.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining us on the Daily os today.

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Speaker 1: We'll be back in your ears tomorrow. If you enjoyed

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Speaker 1: this episode, leave a comment on Spotify or give us

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Speaker 1: a rating on Apple. We really appreciate all your feedback

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Speaker 1: and support for independent media. We'll be back in your

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Speaker 1: ears tomorrow morning. Have a great day. My name is

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Speaker 1: Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bunjelung Cargotin woman

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Speaker 1: from Gadigol Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast

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Speaker 1: is recorded on the lands of the Gadigol people and

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Speaker 1: pay us respect to all.

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Speaker 2: Aboriginal and torrest Rate island and nations. We pay our

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Speaker 2: respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past

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Speaker 2: and present,