Speaker 1: Already and this this is the daily This is the daily.
Speaker 1: Ohs oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Thursday,
Speaker 2: the twenty first of March.
Speaker 1: I'm Zara, I'm Sam.
Speaker 2: Yesterday Queensland announced the country's first ongoing pill testing service
Speaker 2: will begin at a music festival next week. It comes
Speaker 2: just over a year after the state first announced it
Speaker 2: would move to allow for pill testing. Pill testing is,
Speaker 2: of course a highly contentious issue, but with two jurisdictions
Speaker 2: now allowing it, what can we expect to see from
Speaker 2: the rest of the country. We'll tell you everything you
Speaker 2: need to know in today's deep dive. But first, Sam,
Speaker 2: what's making headlines.
Speaker 1: Foreign Minister Penny Wong has insisted that Kevin Rudd will
Speaker 1: stay on as Australia's ambassador to the US even if
Speaker 1: Donald Trump wins the presidential election in November. This all
Speaker 1: comes after Trump called Rudd nasty during an interview with
Speaker 1: former British politician turned broadcaster Nigel Farage earlier in the week.
Speaker 1: Here's what the former president said.
Speaker 2: I heard he was a little bit nasty.
Speaker 1: I hear he's not the brightest bulb.
Speaker 2: But I don't know much about him, but if he's
Speaker 2: at all hostile, he will not be there long.
Speaker 1: When asked about it yesterday, Wong said, even Peter Dutton
Speaker 1: has expressed confidence in mister Rudd, who she called a
Speaker 1: very effective ambassador. Rudd began his role as ambassador in
Speaker 1: Washington in March of twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2: Victoria's decision to pull out of hosting the twenty twenty
Speaker 2: six Commonwealth Games has cost the state around five hundred
Speaker 2: and ninety million dollars, according to new estimates. Former Premier
Speaker 2: Daniel Andrews announced Victoria would not host the twenty twenty
Speaker 2: six Commonwealth Games in July last year. Citing budget concerns.
Speaker 2: The Victorian ordered a General's office examined the of securing,
Speaker 2: planning for, and then withdrawing from the Games. It found
Speaker 2: sixty four percent of costs were from settling the cancelation
Speaker 2: of its contract with the Commonwealth Games Federation. The report
Speaker 2: called the expense a significant waste of taxpayer money on
Speaker 2: an event that will not happen.
Speaker 1: A year's supply of contraceptives, including the pill, are now
Speaker 1: accessible without a prescription in the US state of New York.
Speaker 1: Governor Kathy Hokel described the decision, which was passed into
Speaker 1: state law. As ushering in a new era. Hochel said,
Speaker 1: any woman walking into a New York state pharmacy will
Speaker 1: be able to purchase birth control, which she described as
Speaker 1: essential healthcare.
Speaker 2: And the good news, three time Grammy winner Pink is
Speaker 2: about to make history with a new record for the
Speaker 2: most shows ever performed by an artist in Australia and
Speaker 2: New Zealand on a single tour. The US singer will
Speaker 2: play show twenty of her current leg of the Summer
Speaker 2: Carnival tour in Townsville on Saturday. That is remarkable. So, Sam,
Speaker 2: yesterday we found out that festival goers attending a music
Speaker 2: festival called Rabbits Eat Lettuce in Queensland next week we'll
Speaker 2: be able to get their pills tested by a government
Speaker 2: backed pill testing service.
Speaker 1: And Zara, when you sent me the press release about
Speaker 1: this announcement, I was trying to remember that we have
Speaker 1: seen something similar in the past.
Speaker 2: Don't lie, Sam. When I send you that press release,
Speaker 2: we were actually talking about the name Rabbits Eat Lettuce
Speaker 2: for approximately ten minuts.
Speaker 1: I know, and I literally have just worked out whilst
Speaker 1: we're recording that it's because it's Easter over that weekend
Speaker 1: and there's no Easter Bunny. And at that festival in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, two people died in their tents with a
Speaker 1: lethal cocktail of drugs in their systems. But this wasn't
Speaker 1: the first time that Queensland had had an announcement about
Speaker 1: pill testing, right.
Speaker 2: No, it wasn't. So we found out about a year
Speaker 2: ago that the government was going to roll out pill
Speaker 2: testing services across the state, announcing the Palichet Government's commitment
Speaker 2: to see pill testing happening across Queensland are also known
Speaker 2: as drug checking. That was the Queensland Government under of course,
Speaker 2: previous Premier Anastasia Palichet, announcing their plans in feb twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three. But it's taken until now for them to
Speaker 2: actually confirm how the pill testing will operate and what
Speaker 2: it will actually look like.
Speaker 1: Okay, so run me through what we know about how
Speaker 1: it's going to work.
Speaker 2: I will in a second, but I do just want
Speaker 2: to take a step back first and actually explain what
Speaker 2: pill testing is for anyone who isn't aware. So pill
Speaker 2: testing is a service that essentially just allows people to
Speaker 2: understand what's in a substance before they take it, so
Speaker 2: the pill is tested and then the people doing the
Speaker 2: test will tell the person who is about to take
Speaker 2: the pill what is in it, so that the person
Speaker 2: can make an educated decision about what to do next.
Speaker 2: So that's just a very broad definition of what pill
Speaker 2: testing is. But now back to how Queensland is going
Speaker 2: to go about implementing it. So the first thing that
Speaker 2: we found out is that it's going to start really soon,
Speaker 2: as I said, next week soon. We also learned that
Speaker 2: it will be ongoing, so that's a really important fact
Speaker 2: because the only other pill testing service in the country
Speaker 2: isn't ongoing in the act, it's due to end in December,
Speaker 2: so that's a key difference there. And we also found
Speaker 2: out that the government are going to commit one million
Speaker 2: dollars over two years to support the rollout. So that
Speaker 2: was all of the information that the Queensland government gave
Speaker 2: us yesterday. And as I said, that was nearly a
Speaker 2: full year after first making the announcement that we actually
Speaker 2: got that detail.
Speaker 1: And in the year since that first announcement. But also
Speaker 1: if you look around at any state or territory in
Speaker 1: the country, there's quite heated political debate about this topic.
Speaker 1: What was the Queensland government's reason for pushing ahead with
Speaker 1: this plan.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right. So we heard from the Health Minister,
Speaker 2: Shannon Fentiman yesterday and she said that it was all
Speaker 2: about harm minimization, So that's about focusing on strategies to
Speaker 2: lessen the harm that someone taking a pill might experience.
Speaker 2: To her, she said, we don't want people ending up
Speaker 2: in our emergency departments or worse, losing their life. So
Speaker 2: a very clear statement thereby the Queensland government about why
Speaker 2: they're doing it and what their hope is there.
Speaker 1: And is the Queensland government doing this with bipartisan support.
Speaker 2: Look, I'd say very little policy across the country has
Speaker 2: bipartisan support, let alone something as contentious as this.
Speaker 1: So no.
Speaker 2: When the government first announced it would be legalizing pill
Speaker 2: testing in the state last year, the Liberal National Opposition
Speaker 2: said it wouldn't support the rollout. So the Deputy Leader
Speaker 2: of the opposition said at the time there's no safe
Speaker 2: way to take drugs and the Opposition does not support
Speaker 2: pill testing in Queensland. Pill testing sends the wrong message
Speaker 2: and it hasn't worked in other jurisdictions.
Speaker 1: That's an interesting point that he said that it hasn't
Speaker 1: worked in other jurisdictions. What do we know about how
Speaker 1: it's gone in other state and territories.
Speaker 2: Well, I do think it's just one jurisdiction, so we
Speaker 2: can't use a plural there. So Australia's first and until
Speaker 2: now only fixed pill testing center launched in Canberra under
Speaker 2: a six month trial in twenty twenty two, and as
Speaker 2: I said earlier, it's been extended now to December this year.
Speaker 2: This pill testing center has found some fascinating results since
Speaker 2: it's launched. They've discovered a new recreational drug dubbed cambra
Speaker 2: ketamine and also a new variant of bath salts, so
Speaker 2: that's a group of synthetic chemical drugs that can be fatal.
Speaker 2: Now we have a journal when our team, Daniel Deserto,
Speaker 2: who is the journal that has really written up all
Speaker 2: these stories. He's been chasing the Queensland government, He's been
Speaker 2: chasing the Act government, so he's really been deep diving
Speaker 2: into pill testing. He is unfortunately on leave as this
Speaker 2: big announcement from Queensland happened, but earlier in the year
Speaker 2: he did speak to the executive officer at Pill Testing Australia,
Speaker 2: who is Steph Zenitas about the recent results of pill
Speaker 2: testing in Canbra. Now, pill Testing Australia is one of
Speaker 2: the that runs the center in the Acts, so she
Speaker 2: was speaking from the personal experience of having run those.
Speaker 2: She told Daniel about a rise in demand for pill
Speaker 2: testing ahead of spilt Milk in twenty twenty three. She
Speaker 2: said it was a success, but there was a limited
Speaker 2: number of people who discarded their drugs after being checked,
Speaker 2: and I think that that is so interesting. High purity
Speaker 2: MDMA was detected at the on site pill testing center.
Speaker 2: They also observed an increase in cocaine purity, which is
Speaker 2: believed to be driven by shifting patterns of drug supply
Speaker 2: and narcotic networks here in Australia. So there were lots
Speaker 2: of really interesting findings just from that fixed center. That
Speaker 2: is a trial in the Act alone.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we know that the ACT is the only
Speaker 1: other jurisdiction that's actually got something underway. But there are
Speaker 1: conversations happening in other states, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there are, And any Keen listeners would have remembered
Speaker 2: that one of yesterday's headlines on this podcast was actually
Speaker 2: about this topic too, and that's because the Victorian government
Speaker 2: is being encouraged to introduce pill testing, and that push
Speaker 2: is coming by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
Speaker 2: That is in the wake of the Coroner's Court of
Speaker 2: Victoria last week finding that the deaths of two men
Speaker 2: were a result of mixed high dose drugs that the
Speaker 2: men may not have known they were taking. The Coroner's
Speaker 2: Court also recommended the Victoria trial a pill testing service,
Speaker 2: so similar to the one in the Act, and the
Speaker 2: story is pretty much the same. In New South Wales,
Speaker 2: there's been a pill testing trial formally recommended to the
Speaker 2: New South Wales government that was back in twenty nineteen
Speaker 2: and it was rejected. It was part of a New
Speaker 2: South Wales coronial inquest into the deaths of six young
Speaker 2: people at music festivals from twenty seventeen to twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2: But really we haven't seen much movement on this issue
Speaker 2: from those state governments, so I'd say those are more
Speaker 2: wait and watch. I don't think that we can necessarily
Speaker 2: expect for there to be any kind of major movement
Speaker 2: on these issues anytime soon in those two states.
Speaker 1: So I think the results in Queensland will definitely find
Speaker 1: their way into discussions happening in other states and territories
Speaker 1: as we get more data in this space and now
Speaker 1: we no longer have an act example to look at,
Speaker 1: but also Queensland and for experts to evaluate whether this
Speaker 1: is indeed a sustainable path forward.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean the Victorian premier said that she
Speaker 2: was going to get advice after those deaths I spoke
Speaker 2: about earlier. She did say that there was no plan
Speaker 2: to introduce bill testing, but she said she'd get advice,
Speaker 2: so I guess we'll have to see.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining us on the Daily os today.
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Speaker 1: Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bunjelung Cargotin woman
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