Students, MPs may be next for drug tests

AUSTRALIA: Human Services Minister Alan Tudge says drug testing could well be expanded to university students and even politicians if the government’s trials prove successful.

Social Services Minister Christian Porter was to officially announce yesterday that Mandurah, Western Australia will be the third site where drug testing will be trialled for welfare recipients.

Tudge said Mandurah, like those sites already announced in western Sydney and Logan, Queensland, has a high incidence of drug use and quite a lot of drug and alcohol services already in existence. ‘‘Thirdly, it has a form of cashless income management in place as well. So that means we can leverage that existing infrastructure,’’ Tudge told ABC television yesterday.

He later told Sky News the government wants to see people off drugs and into the workplaces, dismissing criticism from Labor and medical professionals.

‘‘This is a trial in the very sense of the word where we want to try something new, evaluate it and, if it works, we might roll it out further,’’ he said.

Nor does he accept the idea that people will be psychologically damaged if they are forced into testing given that anyone can be drug tested at any time when they are out driving their car.

He said people on unemployment benefit with a drug problem are effectively excluding themselves from so many jobs where being drug-free is a requirement - such as the construction, transportation, aviation and mining industries, as well as the defence forces and emergency services.

‘‘We want people to be drug-free so they have got the best opportunity in the world to take those jobs just as any other job,’’ he said. - AAP