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Starting this Friday, women in NSW will have improved access to the oral contraceptive pill thanks to a reform from the Minns Labor Government.

The new reform enables community pharmacists to directly prescribe and supply the oral contraceptive pill to low-risk women between the ages of 18 and 39.

From Friday, there are 30 eligible pharmacists who have met approved training requirements to be able to prescribe the pill, with numbers expected to grow significantly as more pharmacists complete training over the coming months.

To boost the number of eligible pharmacists, the Minns Government is today announcing a new partnership with Family Planning Australia to develop a stand-alone training course.

This course will be subsidised by the Minns Government for 100 rural and remote pharmacists, and pharmacists in under-serviced metro areas, including time taken from their working days to attend clinics.

The course will be up and running in October 2026, and take eligible applicants around two weeks to complete.

This will give women faster access to care while reducing pressure on GPs.

The initial tranche of pharmacists available to prescribe the pill are across metro and regional NSW, including Western Sydney, the Hunter, northern NSW, the Mid North Coast, the Northern Rivers, and the Central West.  

More pharmacists are expected to come online as they complete training, with around 250  expected by the end of the year.

As part of this reform, the Minns Government will cover the cost of the first 5,000 consultations for women an with participating pharmacists across the state.

Patients will still need to pay for their medicines which may cost around $15-$60.

Already across NSW there are more than 700 pharmacies with a pharmacist who is qualified to renew the oral contraceptive pill.

This is one part of a suite of reforms by the Minns Labor Government to make healthcare more accessible and affordable for people and families including:

• Allowing GPs to diagnose ADHD and provide ongoing treatment
• Expanding the treatment services available in pharmacy including for uncomplicated UTIs and common skin conditions.

Premier Chris Minns:

“These are common sense changes, which make it easy for women to access essential medication without needing to visit a GP.

“These changes are a long overdue reform for our healthcare system, which will make it quicker and cheaper to access the pill.”

Minister for Health Ryan Park:

“For many women, the contraceptive pill is essential health care. Getting access to this care shouldn’t cost them huge amounts of time and money.

“These reforms are about bringing down barriers and improving access to care for women right across NSW, saving them time and money and making life just a little bit easier.

“The 30 pharmacists who will be able to start prescribing from Friday are just the beginning, as we begin to roll out more training to make this care even more accessible.”

Minister for Youth Rose Jackson:

“We’ve listened to women, and they’ve told us clearly – expanding access to the oral contraceptive pill is going to make a real difference to their daily lives.

“Women are juggling a lot, careers, study, family, and everything in between and finding time to book a GP appointment just to get a routine prescription is one obstacle too many. It simply shouldn’t be that hard.

“This is a practical, common-sense reform that saves women time and money, empowering them manage their reproductive health without unnecessary barriers standing in the way.”

Minister for Women Jodie Harrison:

“Making oral contraceptive pills available through community pharmacists is a real win for the busy women of New South Wales.

“Our government is focused on improving women’s health outcomes and these changes are one of the practical ways we can make a difference.”

Catherine Bronger, Vice-President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, NSW Branch:

“This is a step forward in recognising the role highly trained pharmacists can play in Australia’s healthcare system, delivering safe healthcare for women. 

“Pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare professionals in the system, this reform simply makes better use of that.”  

The Minns Labor Government will introduce laws to Parliament to create a more commonsense approach for people using lawfully prescribed medicinal cannabis, while maintaining strong road safety protections.

Under the reforms, drivers taking prescribed medicinal cannabis containing THC will no longer be automatically penalised under the current drug presence offence framework in certain circumstances.

The Government recognises these are significant changes and will implement them cautiously, with strong safeguards and road safety protections built into every stage of the new system.

There are around one million medicinal cannabis users in Australia, with up to a third (over 300,000) estimated in NSW and growing, with the number of cannabis medicines dispensed each month in NSW almost doubling in a 12 month period.

Many people rely on these prescriptions to continue working, caring for family members and going about their daily lives. The Government’s proposed changes recognise that reality, while ensuring anyone who is driving impaired by drugs or alcohol continues to face serious consequences.

To be eligible for the new system, drivers will be required to enrol as a registered medicinal cannabis user with Transport for NSW, provide proof of a valid prescription and complete an online education program about cannabis and driving safety.

The changes will only apply to NSW drivers on an unrestricted licence and excludes L or P plate drivers and commercial drivers.

The Government will introduce a measured three-strike approach for registered medicinal cannabis users, recognising some drivers may test positive to THC despite using their medication lawfully and responsibly.

Under the new system, registered medicinal cannabis users will still be roadside drug tested. If a driver returns a positive roadside test, they will continue to receive an immediate 24-hour driving ban while the sample is sent for laboratory testing.

If the laboratory result shows THC below the maximum threshold there will be no charge or further action. If the laboratory result shows THC at or above the threshold, the driver will receive a warning letter for a first or second detection within two years. This will give drivers the opportunity to adjust their dose and driving behaviour after medicine use.

A third detection above the threshold within the two year period will result in penalties, including a fine of $704 and a minimum three-month licence suspension.

If the driver has alcohol present, or the lab result shows multiple illicit drugs, or any drug other than THC, the driver will face the standard drug driving offence.

Registered users will continue to be subject to post-crash blood and urine testing following serious crashes and will still face serious charges if they are found to be driving while impaired.

These safeguards are critical to ensuring police can continue to respond strongly to dangerous driving behaviour and thoroughly investigate serious crashes.

In line with the recommendations from the Drug Summit, the new system will be reviewed after a year of implementation.

Premier of New South Wales Chris Minns said:

“This is a significant reform for NSW, but it’s one we are approaching carefully and with road safety at the centre of every decision.

“For thousands of people, medically prescribed cannabis is life-changing medication that is necessary for people to go about their daily lives.

“Our current laws enable people to safely and legally drive while taking a wide range of prescription medications but that doesn’t include cannabis prescribed by a medical practitioner.

“These changes strike a careful balance of providing a more practical approach for medicinal cannabis users while maintaining strong road safety protections for the community.”

Minister for Health Ryan Park said:

“Medicinal cannabis is allowing many people in our community to go about their daily lives.

“These reforms work to get a balance right between safety and legal use of medicinal cannabis.”

Minister for Police and Counter-terrorism Yasmin Catley said:

“Road safety remains the number one priority and these reforms do not change the ability of NSW Police to take dangerous drivers off our roads.

“NSW Police will operationalise this reform as part of their role to enforce our laws, including roadside drug testing and action against impaired drivers.

“Every driver has a personal responsibility to know what they are taking and never get behind the wheel impaired.”

Minister for Roads Jenny Aitchison said:

“At the 2024 Drug Summit we heard clearly that more consideration needs to be given to people who use medicinal cannabis while also needing to be able to drive.

“The issue is a complicated one and it’s important we strike a balance between keeping our roads as safe as possible, while also ensuring people using medicinal cannabis on prescription can drive a vehicle where they are not under the influence.

“This change does not give anyone permission to drive a vehicle while affected by cannabis or any other drug. If you are caught driving while impaired by drugs you will face the full force of the law.

“We want to give drivers two warnings, so they can manage their medicine use and driving. If caught a third time they will be charged with an offence and face penalties, including licence suspension.”      

The Minns Labor Government is boosting annual funding for GambleAware by $1.3 million to provide people experiencing gambling harm with greater access to peer support workers and services in 44 per cent more locations across NSW.

GambleAware provides free and confidential support to people experiencing gambling harm, whether from their own or someone else’s gambling.

Services offered include gambling counselling, financial counselling and peer support.

GambleAware staff also go out into the community to raise awareness of the risks of gambling and how to get support.

The extra funding will bolster the number of service locations across the state from 34 to 49, and employ five more peer support workers, bringing the total number to 16. This is in addition to the gambling and financial counsellors already providing personalised support through GambleAware service providers across the state.

In 2024-25, GambleAware services supported 4,170 people in more than 19,000 counselling sessions and the GambleAware Helpline provided more than 9,500 people with telephone crisis support.

The funding boost builds on the Minns Government’s strengthened commitment to the Responsible Gambling Fund which it supported with $20.7 million in funding in the 2025-26 Financial Year, up from $19.2 million the previous year.

A competitive tender process was recently undertaken to continue GambleAware services in 10 NSW regions to ensure essential support is available state-wide.

Contracts for three years plus a two-year extension option have been awarded to the following service providers:

• Wesley Community Services
• Regional Community Care
• Armidale CentaCare New England North West
• Mission Australia
• Uniting
• St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney.

Proud Wiradjuri man Dean Dries has been a peer support worker with GambleAware for almost a year.

Mr Dries provides care and guidance to the Northern Sydney and Central Coast regions, drawing on more than 20 years of lived experience with gambling harm and alcohol and drug addiction.

At 18, he turned to several types of gambling to escape feelings of loneliness and not belonging after being bullied at school.

Mr Dries said his gambling grew to be a major financial and emotional burden for himself and his family until he turned his life around with the help of GambleAware services which he is now providing to support others.

The Minns Labor Government is committed to gambling reform to reduce gambling harm in pubs and clubs, money laundering and other criminal activity

We have introduced a series of reforms, achieving more since coming to office than the previous Liberal Coalition Government did in 12 years.

The Government is committed to building on these reforms with evidence-based measures that we know will make a difference and get the balance right.

The reforms the Government has introduced include:

• reducing the overall State cap on Gaming Machine Entitlements by more than 3,000
• reducing the cash input limit from $5,000 to $500 for all new gaming machines with approximately 56% of all machines now having the $500 limit
• introducing Responsible Gambling Officers into pubs and clubs with more than 20 gaming machines to identify and support people experiencing gambling harm
• introducing mandatory gambling incident registers and gaming plans of management for all venues with gaming machines to ensure clubs and hotels actively monitor gaming in their venues and respond to gaming-related situations
• strengthening requirements to ensure ATMs are not located in areas of hotels and clubs that have gaming machines to create important breaks in play
• banning all external gambling signage at venues to protect minors and people experiencing gambling harm from exposure to gambling promotion outside the venue
• banning political donations from clubs with gaming machines to achieve parity with other gambling sectors
• revoking more than 650 outdated exemptions to the mandatory gaming machine shutdown period to restore a uniform break in play from 4am to 10am across the state
• introducing a facial recognition technology (FRT) code of practice for venues voluntarily using FRT to support self-exclusion to help ensure privacy and data is protected to the highest standard.
• committing to creating a statewide exclusion register and introducing a third-party exclusion scheme, as well as further implementing FRT to help venues identify players who may be breaching self-exclusion.
• banning gambling advertising on Transport for NSW owned and controlled assets, including internal and external advertising on trains, metro, buses, light rail, train stations and ferry terminals.

Information about GambleAware services, plus resources and support information are available at www.gambleaware.nsw.gov.au

Call the 24-hour GambleAware Helpline on 1800 858 858 for free and confidential support. In-language support is also available for those from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Minister for Gaming and Racing David Harris said:

“The Minns Labor Government is laser focussed on preventing and responding to gambling harm which can have a devastating impact on the relatively small number of people it impacts, along with their loved ones.

“GambleAware is an important gambling harm minimisation service that provides a range of access options to ensure people can get confidential help any time in the way they feel most comfortable.

“An independent evaluation of GambleAware services found that the system is operating well and delivers high-quality, safe, efficient and effective services but could do with increased funding for community engagement, peer support and operational costs.

“That’s why we have responded with a funding boost of $1.3 million for the coming year.”

GambleAware peer support and person with lived experience of gambling harm Dean Dries said:

“Recovery is not easy, I had to learn how to retrain my brain and if you’re aware of your actions, you can take action and walk away.

“I’ve got my kids back today and I’ve got a great job and I’m doing something I’m very passionate about.

“I want to give back to the community and let them know they’re not alone, there are people who care about them and there is hope.

“The hardest part is to reach out. It’s okay to ask for help and it takes a lot of courage.

“I understand what they’re going through, as I’ve been there myself. It’s about supporting little wins and connections you build with clients – listening and open and honest conversations without judgment and letting people know they’re not alone.”

The Minns Labor Government is investing $2.3 million to plant thousands of trees, shrubs and bush tucker gardens to help combat urban heating in more than 150 schools over the next four years.

We’ve also expanded the Cooling the Schools program to the Illawarra–Shoalhaven, Hunter and Central Coast regions because urban heating is an issue beyond Greater Sydney.

This expansion will give thousands more kids a chance to benefit from cooler, green spaces in schools for learning and play.

The program is increasing tree canopies in schools while also giving thousands of students the opportunity to learn firsthand about the environmental and cultural benefits of planting native trees for urban cooling, biodiversity and First Nations cultures.

The Cooling the Schools program has to date planted more than 70,000 native trees and shrubs across 306 schools, benefiting over 20,000 students.

It has also run close to 100 Cultural education sessions helping students connect with Country while learning about sustainability.

The Cooling the Schools program is funded by the Minns Labor Government and delivered by Greening Australia in some of the hottest areas of metropolitan NSW with cooler outdoor spaces and hands‑on learning opportunities.

Schools can check eligibility and register at: https://www.greeningaustralia.org.au/projects/cooling-the-schools

The builds on Greening Our City grants which has to date awarded $46.8 million to 164 greening projects across Greater Sydney Central Coast, the Hunter and the Illawarra-Shoalhaven to build climate resilience, improve air quality, and connect communities with nature.

Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully said:

“Planting trees in schools is one of the simplest and most effective ways combat urban heat to cool our schools, suburbs and improve the health of our communities.

“This program has already made a real difference in hundreds of schools, and we’re pleased to extend it for the first time to schools across the Illawarra–Shoalhaven, Hunter and Central Coast.”

Greening Australia Restoration Operations Hub Lead Nicola Masters:

“Kids love learning in this program, which is active, outdoors and fun! We aren’t just creating wildlife habitat and cooler schools, we are helping to build ‘GenGreen’.

“We’re teaching kids about taking local action to bring biodiversity back into our city landscapes, and there are a lot of schools, so all those local actions add up to a big impact.”

Slater and Gordon is calling on the State of NSW to stop fighting young people on money and start resolving claims, as the State appeals a landmark ruling on unlawful strip searches carried out by NSW Police at music festivals over the period July 2016 to July 2022.
  

Thousands of people went to festivals expecting a day of music and friends. Instead, many say they were ordered to undress, squat and cough, or expose their bodies to strangers in uniform. 

For many, it was their first encounter with police, and the experience left lasting humiliation and fear. 

In 2025, the Supreme Court found that lead plaintiff, Raya Meredith, was unlawfully strip searched at Splendour in the Grass in 2018, and she was awarded $93,000 in compensation. 

The Court also found police had treated strip searches at festivals as a routine tactic and identified serious failures in police training and supervision. 

These organisational failings of NSW Police mean Raya and group members are entitled to further compensation by way of exemplary damages, with those amounts yet to be quantified by the Court. 

Slater and Gordon Class Actions Associate Jordyn Keating said the State’s appeal is not about clearing police wrongdoing, assumptions about drug use at festivals or the proper exercise of police strip search powers – it is largely about reducing the compensation owed to the thousands of people unlawfully strip searched.

“This appeal is not about the police fighting drugs or saving lives. It’s about the State of NSW trying to pay less to Raya and the thousands of young people who were put through degrading and deeply invasive strip searches,”

She said this judgment was an important moment of recognition for the up to 6,000 group members in the class action who say they were unlawfully strip searched at festivals across NSW. 

“Young people should be able to go to a festival without fearing that they will be ordered to strip naked or expose their bodies without proper reason,” Ms Keating said. 

“The Court’s findings matter because they say, clearly, that this should never have become a routine policing tactic. Strip searches are amongst the most invasive powers police have, and Parliament made clear they were only to be used in serious and urgent circumstances, and only then with strong safeguards to protect the human dignity of those being searched.” 

Recent evidence to the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into the State of Live Music in NSW made clear festival policing has changed, with a move away from large-scale search operations at festival entry points. 

Superintendent Dunstan told the Inquiry that “the days of young people attending festivals and going through a gauntlet of police lined with drug dogs are behind us”.

“We welcome the move away from young people attending festivals going through, as the NSW Police described, ‘a gauntlet of police lined up with drug dogs,’ but these changes can’t undo what happened to Raya and thousands of other young people,” Ms Keating said.  

“They deserve to have their experiences be recognised and be fairly compensated.” 

Having now ceased the widescale practice of conducting unlawful searches at music festivals, Slater and Gordon calls upon the State to quickly resolve this proceeding once its appeal has been determined.
  

“We don’t want to see NSW taxpayers burdened with further litigation once these matters are resolved, and the Court system shouldn’t be clogged up with thousands of identical claims,” Ms Keating said. 

“This shameful chapter in policing history should be quickly and sensibly resolved, once the State’s appeal has been completed. The State should now focus on making this right, not on cutting back what it has to pay to the people it has wronged.” 

Samantha Lee, Redfern Legal Centre Assistant Principal Solicitor, said, “The significant class action judgment regarding strip searches, delivered by Justice Yehia, still stands. 

“The majority of this judgment will remain intact even after the appeal process concludes, as the appeal primarily focuses on the amount of damages and confined legal issues.

“Justice Yehia acknowledged the serious nature of strip searches, recognising the humiliation, degradation and trauma that people endure when subjected to them. It is time for the government to do the right thing and provide the compensation that people deserve.

“The judgment made clear these powers must be used lawfully and only as a last resort. No one should be subjected to an unlawful strip search – at a festival or outside a festival setting.”
  

You can get more information on the class action here.