Police sniffer dogs to patrol Midnight Mafia festival despite drug summit recommendation

Australia Broadcast Center

30-04-2025

Sniffer dogs will patrol a Sydney music festival where pill testing is set to be trialled this weekend, with the Minns government again refusing to act on a key recommendation of its drug summit.
Police say drug detection dogs will be deployed "throughout the precinct" of the Midnight Mafia festival at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday with a "focus on detecting supply".
Earlier this month,
While the government is yet to officially respond to the report, NSW Premier Chris Minns has expressed a reluctance to implement that advice.
"I'm not prepared to say in relation to this big music festival, 'Look it's a big green light, if you're going to ingest drugs, the police aren't going to be there'," Mr Minns said on Wednesday.
"I think that that would send the wrong message, and I think it would have the unintended consequence of seeing more people take and ingest the drugs — not less."
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The report was criticised for not going far enough, including by the Redfern Legal Centre and Greens MP Cate Faehrmann, who called for drug detection dogs to be banned permanently rather than merely during the trial.
At the time, Ms Faehrmann said there was no excuse not to act on the recommendations, which she labelled "politically palatable".
The report found "considerable support" for scrapping sniffer dogs at music festivals, with concerns their presence led to "panic consumption" and increased the risk of overdose.
But it noted the law enforcement view that withdrawing dogs "may increase organised crime at events".
Critics also pointed to the low accuracy of drug dogs.
Critics have pointed to the low accuracy of drug dogs.
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AAP: Dean Lewins
)
In 2019, an inquest into music festival deaths found that drugs were discovered in just 24 per cent of personal searches of people that dogs had indicated were carrying drugs.
The organiser of Midnight Mafia, HSU Events, has warned festivalgoers to expect a police operation involving drug detection dogs.
"HSU Events do not condone the possession or use of illegal drugs," the company said in a social media post this week.
Pill testing trial for festival
Midnight Mafia will be the second festival to participate in the state's pill testing trial, after NSW Health debuted its drug checking service at the Yours and Owls event in Wollongong in March.
Pill testing will take place at the festival.
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ABC Illawarra: Mikalya McQuirk-Scolaro
)
About 100 attendees submitted their drugs for testing at Yours and Owls, with 10 per cent of samples turning out to be a different substance.
Sniffer dogs were present at the festival too,
At the same event, 23 people were charged with drug possession offences.
Pill testing was also amongst the summit's recommendations, but a trial of it was announced months before the report's release.
The premier indicated that police would not be targeting those using the drug checking service at Midnight Mafia, which is expected to draw a crowd of 23,000.
"Obviously it would be counterproductive if you had a tent … where drug testing took place, or pill testing took place, and then the individual was immediately nabbed as they walked out of the tent," Mr Minns said.
"The protocol is very clear in relation to that, and police won't be enforcing that aspect of law enforcement," he said.