Legalise Cannabis Australia, formerly the Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) Party, is an Australian political party. It has a number of policies that centre around the re-legalisation of
cannabis
''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: ''Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternatively ...
for personal, medicinal and industrial uses in Australia.
The party's headquarters are based in
Nimbin, New South Wales
Nimbin is a village in the Northern Rivers area of the Australian state of New South Wales, approximately north of Lismore, northeast of Kyogle, and west of Byron Bay.
Nimbin is notable for the prominence of its environmental initiative ...
.
History
The party has been involved in
Glenn Druery
Glenn Druery is an Australian political strategist, electoral campaigner and ultra-distance cyclist. He has played a leading role in the electoral success of various micro and minor parties in Australia since the mid-1990s.
He acquired a reputat ...
's
Minor Party Alliance
The Minor Party Alliance (MPA) is a collaborative undertaking of small Australian political parties, created by Glenn Druery's "Independent Liaison" business, which assists in organising preference meetings and negotiating preference flows between ...
.
Formation
The group was founded in 1993 by Nigel Quinlan, who ran as a candidate under the name Nigel Freemarijuana. In 2001, Freemarijuana's name was assessed by the
Australian Electoral Commission
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is the independent federal agency in charge of organising, conducting and supervising federal Australian elections, by-elections and referendums.
Responsibilities
The AEC's main responsibility is to ...
as to whether it was suitable to be added to the
electoral roll
An electoral roll (variously called an electoral register, voters roll, poll book or other description) is a compilation that lists persons who are entitled to vote for particular elections in a particular jurisdiction. The list is usually broke ...
– the Commission found that it was, meaning Freemarijuana could run as an electoral candidate under the name.
Deregistration and re-registration
In 2007, prior to the
2007 federal election
This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, although they are not elections. By-elections are not i ...
, HEMP was de-registered as a political party by the Australian Electoral Commission after a random audit of its membership. The group re-applied for party registration in February 2010, but according to HEMP secretary Graham Askey, delays in processing their application meant that registration did not proceed in time before the
2010 federal election was called. It was formally re-registered on 23 September 2010.
Name change
At the party's AGM held on 11 September 2021, a name change was proposed to change the party's name to Legalise Cannabis Australia, which was passed in a vote by party members.
[Cannabiz article regarding name change](_blank)
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State and territory affiliates
The party's current affiliates are the following:
Legalise Cannabis South Australia stood two candidates in the 2022 South Australian state election. These were lead candidate Damon Adams and second candidate Tyler Green. Neither were elected.
Electoral results
HEMP has stood candidates in several federal and state elections, since its formation.
The party received a nationwide Senate vote of 0.71 percent at the 2013 federal election. Historically the party's best result was at the 1994 Elizabeth by-election
A by-election was held for the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Elizabeth on 9 April 1994. This was triggered by the resignation of former state Labor MHA Martyn Evans, who moved to the federal seat of Bonython at the 1994 by-election. T ...
in South Australia with a 5.37 percent primary vote.
For the 2016 federal election, the (HEMP) Party fielded two candidates for the Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
in New South Wales, but only one each in the Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia. So that the candidates did not end up in the "ungrouped" column, they teamed up with the Australian Sex Party
The Australian Sex Party was an Australian political party founded in 2009 in response to concerns over the purported increasing influence of religion in Australian politics. The party was born out of an adult-industry lobby group, the Eros Asso ...
which also fielded a single senate candidate in most states. It also fielded a candidate for the Division of Solomon
The Division of Solomon is an Australian Electoral Division in the Northern Territory. It is largely coextensive with the Darwin/Palmerston metropolitan area. The only other division in the territory, the Division of Lingiari, covers the rema ...
in the House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
.
The HEMP Party scored well in the 2019 federal election with over 260,000 votes and 1.8% of the primary senate vote.
Michael Balderstone ran in the 2020 Eden-Monaro by-election and received 2.3% of votes beating out almost every other minor party.
At the 2021 Western Australian state election
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...
, the Party's local affiliate, Legalise Cannabis WA, were successful in gaining two seats in the Legislative Council, marking the first parliamentary representation for HEMP or its state affiliate parties.
At the 2022 Victorian state election
The 2022 Victorian state election was held on Saturday, 26 November 2022 to elect the 60th Parliament of Victoria. All 88 seats in the Legislative Assembly (lower house) and all 40 seats in the Legislative Council (upper house) were up for el ...
the party got two people elected, David Ettershank and Rachel Payne.
Australian Senate
See also
* Cannabis in Australia
Cannabis is a plant used in Australia for recreational, medicinal and industrial purposes. In 2019, 36% of Australians over the age of fourteen years had used cannabis in their lifetime and 11.6% had used cannabis in the last 12 months.
Austr ...
* Drug policy reform
Drug liberalization is a drug policy process of decriminalizing or legalizing the use or sale of prohibited drugs. Variations of drug liberalization include: drug legalization, drug re-legalization and drug decriminalization. Proponents of drug ...
* Cannabis political parties
Cannabis political parties are generally single-issue parties that exist to oppose the laws against cannabis.
Australia
In the 1970s, J.J. McRoach ran for parliament as candidate for the Australian Marijuana Party. He had an advertising campa ...
Notes
References
External links
Legalise Cannabis Australia
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{{Australian political parties
1993 establishments in Australia
Political parties established in 1993
Political parties in Australia
Cannabis political parties of Australia
1993 in cannabis
Drug culture
Cannabis culture
Single-issue political parties in Australia