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

I seek leave to make a one-minute statement.

Leave granted.

I just say to the Labor Party and to all those people who have lost a loved one as a result of a drug overdose that to label support for International Overdose Awareness Day a stunt is absolutely disgraceful. When you consider that the number of drug-related deaths is now double the road toll, something needs to be done. All of the issues that we canvass in this motion, including ending the use of sniffer dogs at festivals and introducing pill testing at festivals, are based on evidence. We know that access to substitution therapies is expensive and that cost is a barrier to patients. We should have increased access to medically supervised injecting facilities. We know they work. It's about time that the Labor Party and the government understood what the evidence is actually telling us and started to show a bit of guts and stand up for people who are dying far too soon.