On Friday, the NSW Coroners report following the festival drug death inquest was finally, properly made public. Thanks to the support of people like you, I was glad to be there in solidarity with the families involved.
The coroner has made many, detailed recommendations that I am confident will make a huge improvement if - or when - they are implemented. Now it’s time for the Premier to listen.
The coroner has recommended drug checking at music festivals, starting this year. She’s recommended a drug summit to develop drug policy that is evidence based and focussed on minimising harm. And she’s recommended changed police practices to reduce fear. As a parent, this is important given we’ve recently heard the government advocating for strip searching children.
We need to make sure people aren’t afraid to approach police when they are in trouble. If there are changes we can make to reduce the fear, and help people make more careful decisions, then I think that’s a step we should take.
For five years I’ve been working to elevate the voice of families so that people understand the impact of unintentional drug-related deaths. In this inquiry the coroner has worked hard, and listened to all the evidence - including the parents, with empathy and commitment. That’s important because they are the people who are going to be affected forever.
My work is about making sure other families don’t have to go through what I have experienced and what the families involved in this inquest have experienced.
This inquest was for six beautiful souls. Their names are Callum Brosnan, 19, Diana Nguyen, 21, Joseph Pham, 23, Alex Ross-King, 19, Joshua Tam, 22, and Nathan Tran, 18. I do not speak for them, or their families. Their stories are varied and diverse, and they all deserve to be told in the manner in which their families feel is appropriate. I do speak their names to keep the memory of them alive, as I keep saying the name of my only son, Daniel, who died at a music festival seven years ago.
In October, Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame had her draft report leaked. We don’t know by who and we don’t know why, but perhaps we could see by the intense, oppositional response from certain corners of the media, politicians, and police, that the leak had its intended effect. Grahame was subject to violent threats after the report was leaked to the media.
The important work being done by the Deputy State Coroner was undermined before she had the opportunity to present her findings, forcing experts, grieving families, and others to defend her draft recommendations.
Julie Tam, whose son Josh died last December at the Lost Paradise festival (he was just 22) was forced to come out and comment on the draft recommendations: "It's not to say that every suggestion or recommendation is going to be perfect or palatable for everybody,” she remarked. Julie, who I have had the honour of meeting and whose grief, along with all the parents attending this inquest, I appreciate and empathise with, should not have been placed in this position.
The families now have the final report, a document that contains some answers, some new information, and looking ahead - some hope. Hope that what has happened to too many families might be avoided in the future.
"I would hate to think that we've lost Josh for no reason,” Julie said last month. “But if we get something different, if we get some new approach and some changes that save one other child's life, then that's the very best we can hope for.”
When my Daniel died, I didn’t get to attend a coronial inquest. I received some paperwork in the post, that was the sum total of the investigation into his passing. Sitting there in the Coroner’s Court, I was conscious of what these parents must be going through. Hours upon hours of hearing evidence, telling their stories of grief, and unimaginable loss. This was their moment, a necessary step in the road towards some sort of healing.
Those who have lost a child know that journey never ends. “Healing” is something you never fully do, but you keep walking forward. Some days, the steps are heavy, on others you can take a leap forward. But the road ahead is endless. As an advocate for safer festival practices and harm reduction, my mission is to walk alongside other families already on that long road - but more importantly, it is to do all we can to prevent other parents from being forced to take that first painful step.
We have the tools to curb these festival deaths. Now, we need politicians who have the courage to use them. Those who do not are just condemning more parents to live a lifetime of preventable grief.
Who would wish that upon any mother?
PS Thanks again for supporting this campaign. With Unharm I have started a fighting fund in the aim of bringing together other families and friends to speak out for change. Mothers in QLD, NSW and WA, as well as friends, siblings, lawyers and police chiefs have all spoken out in support of pill testing - our vision is to create a coalition that can show our leaders what sensible drug policy looks like. We can’t do it alone, please chip in to our pill testing fighting fund so that together we can make sure everyone gets home safe from music festivals.