Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I understand Senator O'Sullivan's desire to wedge the Greens on an issue like this, but Senator O'Sullivan needs a little education when it comes to the issue of sniffer dogs. Sniffer dogs do not actually work in reducing drug use. In fact, sniffer dogs get it wrong two-thirds of the time—a bit like Senator O'Sullivan himself. They have an appalling track record when it comes to recording convictions on this stuff. But here is the kicker: some serious overdoses and fatalities have been directly attributed to the sniffer dogs themselves. What happens is this. When a young person is at a festival, sees a sniffer dog and does not want to get caught, it is an incentive to ingest sometimes toxic levels of substances. We have seen people die because of sniffer dogs.