Legalise Cannabis Party National Integrity Policy Forum

It might seem like a one issue party but I’m not a single-issue person.  In 2009 when I launched the Australian Sex Party, many people saw ‘sex’ as ‘the’ issue. Fast forward to my election to the Victorian Parliament in 2014 and in the eight years I spent there as the Member for Northern Metro, holding a balance of power position, I initiated and brought home over a dozen private member’s Bills which ranged from abortion law reform, to anti-vilification legislation, voluntary assisted dying and even spent convictions.

In parliament I regularly sought the advice of the very organisations that have arranged this forum and identified the very important policies set out in their joint platform. Policies that I entirely support.

In my role as the first independent chair of the Legal and Social Issues Committee it was crucial to maintain integrity and transparency in decision making around the reports we published and the recommendations that we made. I also piloted a number of initiatives to attract greater community input. I believe that increased involvement leads to greater trust in the processes. 

My time on the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee was an eyeopener. Bizarrely, the government provides the chair for this committee. Not surprisingly it was very, very rare that the committee would not support proposed government legislation. While this does not occur to the same degree in the Federal Parliament the lack of scrutiny on issues like government grants and many other government decisions must be improved. 

In 2019 I received the backing of the upper house to allow people to submit petitions to parliament using electronic delivery systems, rather than only paper petitions. This change broadened democracy by facilitating easier access to the parliament. It also led to the requirement for petitions of a certain size to be debated in the house.

During the Covid pandemic, trust in the government at all levels split. There was a large part of the community that held a high degree of trust while another section lost trust. I think this was partly due to the lack of transparency in decision making. Concerned about the blanket and opaque powers that emergency legislation offered I insisted that specific legislation needed to be drafted. It needed to provide greater parliamentary scrutiny as well as public. With the substantial assistance of organisations such as the Centre for Public Integrity I think we achieved legislation that provided a balance in allowing governments to act swiftly but ensuring that decisions and actions can be properly scrutinised and when needed, amended.

As the founder of two small parties in the past and a Senate candidate for a third, I know the incredible financial chasm that opens up between major and minor parties every time an election is called. In this election my party is likely up against the Trumpet of Patriots which has been funded by Clive Palmer to the tune of $150 million. When I was in parliament I fought for a cap on spending. To be clear it was very different to the one passed recently federally but it would have hopefully stopped the financial arms race that is becoming far too common n our elections now. 

The criminalisation of cannabis in Australia has caused untold damage to the integrity of Australian law making and to the average Australian’s trust in the police who arrested them, the judges who sentenced them and ultimately to the politicians who created the laws in the first place. Two and a half million Australians (11%) use cannabis illegally. It’s a victimless crime and when 70,000 people are arrested each year for enjoying a smoke or a cookie, friends, families, business colleagues and online associates all feel the effect of that arrest. They know that by and large, that person’s choice of social tonic does no more harm to themselves and society than a glass or beer or wine and that prohibition does nothing to stop its use but pours $5 billion every year into the pockets of organised crime. From there, the harms to integrity and democracy are amplified ten times over. 

Both major parties support the continuing criminalisation of cannabis with the Labor/Greens government in the ACT being the standout exception. 

Peter Dutton’s election announcement of a further $355 million to the nation’s drug prohibition budget will only exacerbate the problem of illicit drug use. 

The latest polling shows that over 80% of Australians support decriminalising cannabis. The harms to Australian democracy by continuing prohibition are amplified by the fact that many of our western democratic friends have decriminalised cannabis in recent years and left us as grumpy outliers stuck in 1950s social trends. Germany, Canada, Portugal, Uruguay, South Africa, half of the US states and many more have taken the step to decriminalise.  Legislating against the will of the people when it comes to popular social tonics is always a very bad idea with terrible consequences for individuals and society. 

In closing I am entirely supportive of the platform the “Democracy Agenda for the 48th Parliament” and am hopeful that I will be able to play a part in realising these important changes.