Wednesday, 18 March 2026

 Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Prevention of Family Violence) (12:13): I am pleased to update the house on how our pill-testing trial is saving lives and reducing drug harm. The mobile testing service saw record demand at Pitch Music & Arts Festival over the Labour Day long weekend. The service tested more than 670 samples from more than 570 attendees, a higher number than at any festival so far, and importantly, staff at the service had more than 350 harm reduction conversations about the risks of drug use, helping young people make more informed choices about the substances that they take. Concurrently, the Victorian pill-testing service continues to operate the fixed-site service in Fitzroy, ensuring that no matter what events people were attending over the long weekend, they had access to critical harm reduction advice. Today I was also pleased to announce the final event to participate in the 18-month implementation trial for pill testing, Shadows of Wonderland, on 1 May in Port Melbourne.

At the conclusion of this event, we will begin the important work of evaluating our findings to inform a permanent pill-testing model. But the results so far speak to the importance of this service to date. The mobile testing service has tested more than 2400 samples, engaged in more than 1300 harm reduction conversations and issued five notifications for potentially dangerous substances to rapidly warn festivalgoers through social media and event signage. That is in addition to the more than 2300 samples and 1300 harm reduction conversations delivered in six months at the fixed site. We are proud to be a government that gives people the critical health information they need to make safer choices.