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Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has lashed a suggestion pill-testing trials should be put on the agenda for a meeting between health ministers, labeling the proposition "dangerous". Clark independent MHR Andrew Wilkie put the question to Mr Hunt in Question Time on Tuesday after a Hobart City Council vote to support a pill-testing trial at a major event or festival. Mr Wilkie said the Tasmanian Government had an ideological opposition to the harm minimisation approach and asked Mr Hunt to put pill testing on the Coalition of Australian Government Health Council agenda. Mr Hunt said pill testing was "a dangerous and unfounded course of action". He said illicit drugs could be deadly in their purest form whether they were tested or not. "The idea that we would be condoning, encouraging and supporting the expansion of their consumption is to my mind utterly unthinkable," Mr Hunt said. Premier Will Hodgman said the government would not support a testing trial as there was "no safe way for that to occur". Australian Lawyers Alliance spokesman Greg Barns said he was disappointed the state government would not budge on its opposition to pill testing. "The government has an obligation to ensure that young people are safe at festivals," he said. "Year after year young people die or suffer serious harm at music festivals and pill testing will help to minimise this. "This is a health problem not a legal problem, and the main focus of legal strategies should be to encourage positive health outcomes." Greens leader Cassy O'Connor said pill testing had support from medical professionals, senior police officers, and event organisers.

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