General News
28 July, 2026
Free needles program under fire
THE State Government must take more responsibility over the escalating rise in discarded needles in public spaces of regional communities, the Mareeba Shire Council has said.
At its monthly meeting, councillors unanimously voted to support a motion, to be submitted to the 2026 LGAQ Conference in October, calling for a complete overhaul of free distribution of needles to drug users under Queensland Needle and Syringe Program (QNSP).
Councillors heard Parks and Open Spaces officers had collected and disposed of 1,246 discarded syringes in public parks and spaces since June 2025, which did not include those put in sharps disposal containers, or those picked up by residents and community groups.
“Collection falls to local government and often to the users of parks, sporting fields and walking tracks,” Mayor Angela Toppin said.
The matter had been taken up by the council with the government, including a request to change dispensing to make users return a used needle before they could get another clean one.
“I have also personally met with various health department officials, ... and talked this through. They won’t change it,” Mayor Toppin said.
“I’ve discussed it with the Premier – the impacts on community safety, and I’ve also discussed it with our local member David Kempton.
“So we’re now at the point where we really need to move this further ahead at the state level, particularly at the state conference.”
In supporting the motion, Cr Mladen Bosnic said the matter had to be pursued in the “strongest possible terms”.
“With the State Government, I think if any organisation or local government created the problem, they would be on to us like a tonne of bricks to fix it,” he said.
“They are the ones giving out the sharps. I can’t break that down any further.”
Cr Amy Braes said the problem of used needles was affecting many councils and communities across Queensland.
“We’re hearing from community members about their children finding sharps in sports fields … the fear that it creates is absolutely real for our community,” she said.
“We have included images and case studies in the motion – it is really sobering what officers have collected in parks. That is shocking.”
The government’s QNS program offers needles and sharps to people who inject drugs to reduce the incidence of blood-borne viruses such as HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C, and injecting-related injuries and diseases for people.
It provides sterile injecting equipment, “facilitates the safe disposal of used injecting equipment”, and improves access and referrals to health, treatment and support services, its website states.
Deputy Mayor Lenore Wyatt said that the number of sharps being collected by council workers alone was “unbelievable,” as was the whole free needles concept.
“It’s illegal to take drugs, and here we are faced with a problem that they are given needles for doing something illegal,” she said.
“We have our community out there, doing the right thing, and they’re faced with this. I cannot get my head around this, there is no common sense to this.
“If people want these needles, they need to go into an establishment and actually get them, as far as I’m concerned.”
In a report outlining the motion, council heard local governments were all experiencing a very high number of discarded needles in public spaces and the community was “frustrated and anxious about discarded needles in their neighbourhoods, with many residents expressing a lack of confidence in the current harm reduction strategies”.
The motion for submission states that the LGAQ calls on the State Government to implement state-wide strategies and programs that respond to the escalating community safety risk of discarded sharps, including:
1. Conduct and publish review of the Queensland Needle and Syringe Program (QNSP) to provide free needles to intravenous drug users with a focus on improving safety for the general community.
2. Conduct and publish a review on the provision of unsupervised Needle Dispensing Machines (NDMs) and the strategies in place to link those accessing these machines with intervention strategies.
3. Allocate funding to support local governments who are burdened with the task of collecting and disposing these discarded needles.
4. Provide monthly updates on how many needles are provided from each location.
5. Place a limit on the number of needles provided to individuals on a daily basis and consider a “returns” system where used needles are traded for unused needles.
6. Allocate additional funding to intervention strategies used in conjunction with NSPs.
FACTS:
Needle and syringe programs (NSPs) supply sterile injecting equipment for the people who inject drugs.
NSPs are not funded to supply equipment for injecting medical (eg, IVF, insulin), cosmetic (botox) or therapeutic substances.
All sharps must be disposed of in a supplied sharps disposal container.
Used equipment can be returned to any NSP for safe disposal or in hospital-based NSPs, usually near the main entrance of the emergency department.
