Schoolies has kicked off on the Gold Coast with 20-thousand high school leavers celebrating this year’s major milestone.
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00:00Paramedics have praised the conduct and behaviour of schoolies, saying of that 20,000 you mentioned
00:07only 16 needed to be assessed by paramedics, mostly for alcohol-related issues, and that's
00:13a message that police have widely mirrored.
00:15There were no major incidents to report last night.
00:19That sort of behaviour trend tracks and matches what we've seen in recent years.
00:24For instance, last year there were 17 arrests at schoolies.
00:27That's compared to 500 about 15 years ago, so big changes at schoolies on the Gold Coast.
00:34And speaking of big changes, for a first this year, pill testing has been made available
00:38to schoolies.
00:40That's an initiative of the former Labor government, who was voted out of office last month.
00:44The new LNP government says that they won't be continuing pill testing at next year's
00:49schoolie celebrations, over concerns that it sends the wrong message about drug use.
00:53Nonetheless, police say at this year's event they won't be patrolling the area immediately
00:58around the pill testing site, so that they don't discourage any schoolies from getting
01:02their drugs checked.
01:04But outside of the politics and the news angle of it all, all the schoolies we spoke to last
01:10night, you just get a real sense of sheer enjoyment and happiness.
01:14Slugging away at the desk, it gets a bit hard, you know, drilling sometimes, but yeah, to
01:19come out and have a good time with the boys, nah, really good, really good.
01:22I appreciate the stuff that the Red Fox do and what they've put on for us as well.
01:25I love it, I'm having so much fun, it's so fun.
01:28Really good, the beach party's really fun, yeah.
01:32I met someone from Canberra in the mosh pit, I was like, what?
01:36Yeah, where are you guys based now?
01:38Yes!
01:39I was like, wait, you're from Canberra?
01:41I was like, no way!
01:44I can't walk!
01:50Yeah, so you can tell the mood's pretty positive here on the Gold Coast, so day one is down,
01:54there's a full week left, and hopefully the good results we've seen and the good atmosphere,
01:59the good mood, continues for the rest of the week.