Three communities across Australia will be sites for the government’s two-year trial, with Canterbury-Bankstown in Sydney’s south-west named as the first trial site.

On Wednesday, Tasmanian Liberal Senator Eric Abetz called for the North-West Coast of the state to be included in the project.

“I believe a pilot site would benefit the community to see if this programme can help Tasmanians come off drugs and find employment,” he said. 

Premier Will Hodgman disagreed and said the state government would not seek for Tasmania to be a trial site for the program.  “We’d rather, while the jury is still out, get on with ensuring that we’re doing as a state what we can to support Tasmanians in need,” he said. 

Mr Hodgman said the government had put funding towards programs and support “for people who might need a home, medical support or have the prospect of a job”.

“We’re just not of a view that we would or should focus on such a trial in our state,” he added.

This week Labor’s Bass MHR Ross Hart said he would not push for a trial in his electorate.

“I don’t support that sort of thing, accusations being levelled at broad sections of communities,” he said.  “We don’t think that making a group of people, labelling them as being consumers of illicit drugs assists solving the underlying problems.”

Mr Hart said Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull should allocate money to assisting people who had drug problems. “What he should be doing is funding more mental health services, funding health services adequately within our regional communities and funding job-creating programs,” he said.  “If he addresses that, that money will be much better spent, certainly in this electorate.”

Labor and the Greens are opposed to the trials, so the government will need support from the Senate crossbench to get the program off the ground.