Wagga man Tim Kurylowicz, a long-time advocate for pill testing at music festivals, is renewing his calls after two people died on Saturday night and up to 700 others were treated for drug-related injuries at the Defqon music festival in Penrith.

“I think the first thing to say is you don’t have to approve of the decisions that some people make to still be in favour of them not dying from that bad decision,” Mr Kurylowicz said.

“That’s what this is really about. The stakes are so high.

“Young people are dying from making probably a pretty trivial decision, a pretty silly decision.”

On Tuesday, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced she had established “a high level expert panel”, including police commissioner Mick Fuller, NSW chief medical officer Kerry Chant and chairman of the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority Philip Crawford, to provide advice on how to keep people safe at music festivals.

Earlier in the week, Ms Berejiklian was heavily criticised for suggesting the festival should be axed.

“We need to do everything we can to protect the safety of concert goers and people attending music festivals,” she said.

“That is why I have tasked our health, law enforcement and regulatory experts to advise government on what can be done immediately to improve safety at these events.”

Mr Kurylowicz, who has worked on the Kings Cross frontline in a homeless advocacy group, said cancelling festivals would not eliminate the drug issue.

“It’s just going to send it into people’s backyards instead,” he said.

“When they opened the safe injecting room in Kings Cross, it actually saved the taxpayers a small fortune because ambulance call-outs dropped by a quarter.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it was exactly the same here: The cost of a few pill testing kits offset by fewer young people clogging up emergency rooms.”

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A Sydney researcher has been calling for a national approach to pill testing after reviewing Australia’s national drug strategy.

Andrew Groves from Deakin University wanted to determine the suitability of pill testing, and as a result of his studies, is calling on the government to “accept the growing evidence that hardline approaches to illicit drug use are not effective”.

“The examples evaluated in this study support the idea that party-drug use requires pragmatic, evidence-based initiatives, such as pill testing, rather than criminal justice responses,” said Dr Groves, who specialises in research on alcohol and other drug use and its relationship with drug policy.