Here is the party’s announcement
We are delighted to announce our lead Senate candidates for Victoria and NSW for the upcoming Federal election.
In Victoria, Fiona Patten will be known to many of you. She was first elected to Victoria’s State Parliament in 2014 and re-elected for a second term in 2018.
During those eight years she was a champion for social justice and cannabis law reform. She established a medicinal cannabis taskforce in the first major attempt to fix the ridiculous RDT laws and then was the driving force behind the Inquiry into the Use of Cannabis in Victoria.
..and she was the first political party leader to admit using cannabis regularly to relax!
“I went into parliament in 2014 as the first MP to speak about using cannabis. Cannabis reform has always been high on my to do list and is unfinished business for me. To open up law reform in the states we need to change the federal law and I intend to do just that”. Fiona Patten
Then for NSW we have Miles Hunt, the co-founder of well-known drug harm minimisation charity Unharm. He has been a tireless and very public campaigner for drug decriminalisation and legalisation all his adult life – including on medicinal and adult-use cannabis, pill testing, and sniffer dogs. And famously came out as a drug-taking lawyer on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald.
As a lawyer he often represented people charged with cannabis possession and believes that legalisation is long overdue.
“The prohibition of cannabis has been one of the great failures of modern times. Legalisation and regulation of cannabis is necessary for a fair and just society, and when I get to Canberra I will do my best to make sure we get this done”. Miles Hunt
These are our first two Senate candidate selections after many interviews. A big thank you to all who applied and there will be more announcements soon. We imagine the Federal election is most likely next year, it must be by May, but it is possible Albo might call it early so we’re getting ready.
Meanwhile our MP’s are chipping away and getting ever closer to the freedoms we’re seeking. Here’s an interesting clip from our NSW MP Jeremy Buckingham who chairs the Senate Estimates Committee, questioning Premier Minns this week.
