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<b>LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY</b> - Signing ePetition

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY - Signing ePetition - Stop over-policing of Mardi Gras

To sign the ePetition, confirm you are a resident of New South Wales and enter your title, first name and last name. Once you click ‘submit’ you will have signed the ePetition and will be re-directed to the Legislative Assembly’s ‘ePetitions open for signature’ page

Stop over-policing of Mardi Gras

To the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly, The NSW Police Force, as part of its user pay policing program, runs Operation: Mardi Gras and similar operations during the parade season. This program costs the state government and Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras millions of dollars every year, which includes the use of sniffer dogs and strip searches. Freedom of Information (FoI) requests found this came to $1.96 million in 2023 and led to 350 searches for drugs, including 34 strip searches, of which 22 used drug dogs. Subsequent class action around strip searching suggests that these strip searches may not have been lawful, despite the NSW government requiring Mardi Gras and similar organisations to pay NSW Police for these strip searches to take place. These strip searches are not only unlawful, but expensive when compared to harm minimisation strategies like pill testing, which seem to have cost the government less in one year than user pays policing at a single festival. We, the undersigned, ask the Legislative Assembly to call on Government to: - Direct NSW Police to halt the use of sniffer dogs and strip searches at Mardi Gras events - Support an extended pill testing site on Oxford Street during the Mardi Gras season to promote harm reduction

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