The New South Wales government has “squibbed” the opportunity for major drug reform, advocates say, after Labor announced it would ignore some recommendations of a landmark report it commissioned.
The government on Tuesday said it would continue using sniffer dogs and strip-searches at music festivals despite evidence that such high-visibility tactics increase rather than decrease the risks associated with illicit drug use.
Labor also said it would not yet legislate a medical defence for people prescribed cannabis who drive.
Last year, the Minns government hosted a four-day drugs summit with experts from across the state examining how to tackle drug-related harm.
The subsequent April 2025 report, written by summit co-chairs Carmel Tebbutt and John Brogden, made 56 recommendations.
The NSW government announced on Tuesday that it would support 36 recommendations and 15 others in principle. But advocates expressed disappointment that key reforms were not adopted.
Labor would “investigate” a medical defence for people who use medically prescribed cannabis and drive – despite the report recommending legal reform.
“We don’t need another ‘investigation’, we need the action already identified by the [separate] cannabis inquiry,” Emma Maiden, a spokesperson for Uniting NSW, said.
“They have squibbed it.”
The state attorney general, Michael Daley, said drugs and driving was a complex policy and a working group had been appointed.
Daley said there was no timeline for the working group’s findings.
“What we don’t want to do here is to create a system that makes the NSW road system more dangerous for users,” he said.
The Unions NSW secretary, Mark Morey, argued the solution was more straightforward.
“Amend the Road Transport Act to treat medicinal cannabis like any other prescription medication,” he said on Tuesday.
“Police are already highly trained to detect impaired drivers. If someone is driving while impaired by any substance, they should be off the road. But unimpaired patients following their doctor’s orders shouldn’t face court summons or potentially lose their livelihoods.
“Workers and their families can’t wait for another expert working group while they’re forced to choose between managing their medical conditions and paying their bills.”
Music festivals status quo
The police minister, Yasmin Catley, said sniffer dogs and strip-searches at music festivals were important “investigative tools for the NSW police”.
“We’re not changing it,” Catley said.
The government had – ahead of the report’s April release – committed to trialling pill testing at music festivals. The report recommended banning dogs and searches at festivals with pill testing and suggested the government consider extending that ban to all music festivals.
Catley on Tuesday was asked what advice she’d give to a young person hoping to use a pill-testing service but who then had a dog sniff in their direction.
“NSW police are working hand in hand with NSW Health,” she said. “We are genuinely wanting to do the trial of pill testing [and] get the evidence so that we are making good, sound policy decisions going forward.”
Catley was asked about a recent successful class action in the NSW supreme court that could “render thousands of strip-searches” at music festivals unlawful.
“Well, look, that’s all before the court at the moment, and we need to wait until that process continues and concludes,” she said.
Sam Lee, a senior solicitor at the Redfern Legal Centre – which was one of the firms representing the plaintiff in the strip-search class action – said the government’s response to the summit in light of the court ruling was “shameful”.
The government also ruled out expanding safe injecting clinics. The minister for health, Ryan Park, told reporters: “We’ve made a decision that we don’t think that is necessary.”
The government backed the development of a state-wide alcohol and other drugs strategy. It supported, in principle, expanding the criteria for drug diversion to people caught in possession of multiple drugs or who had a criminal history.
Park came under fire during the summit after he ruled out NSW following the ACT’s lead and decriminalising the possession of small quantities of drugs.
Tebbutt and Brogden noted there was strong support from attenders and people who made submissions to remove criminal penalties and replace them with an enhanced diversion system as part of a health – rather than criminal – approach to drugs.
However, they wrote, “in comments made prior to the drug summit, the premier made it clear he did not believe the government had a mandate for decriminalisation and it was not on the government’s agenda.”
Park, in a joint media release with the attorney general and police minister, said on Tuesday: “From a health perspective, we’ve announced almost a quarter of a billion dollars in investment in AOD support services; the introduction of five-year grant agreements to provide them with more certainty; and a 12-month trial of drug checking at music festivals.”
