ABC Australia reports on the huge swing garnered by the Australia Cannabis Party in Queensland
With 34 per cent of the vote counted, Legalise Cannabis Australia has so far garnered 74,972 Senate votes, a swing of nearly 5 per cent from their 2019 results.
Their candidate Bernard Bradley is within striking distance of the sixth Senate seat, ahead of high-profile minor party candidates Clive Palmer and Campbell Newman.
As the count stands, Pauline Hanson will keep her seat in the upper house, but the UAP’s chances are floundering and Mr Newman’s Liberal Democrats are behind Legalise Cannabis.
Whether they catch Senator Hanson and One Nation or not, the party has likely ensured they will receive AEC funding for exceeding 4 per cent of the Senate count in Queensland.
Party president Michael Balderstone has been involved with the party since its origins in the northern New South Wales town of Nimbin in the early 1990s.
Back then, the party was known as Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) Party.
Mr Balderstone said the decision to change the name prior to the 2022 race helped the party cut through, but getting people to publicly campaign remains a hurdle.
“Not many people want to wave their arm around and say, ‘Yeah! Yeah! I smoke weed!’ whereas, you know, old hippies like me from Nimbin, it’s expected of us,” he said.
“Generally, most of our candidates were genuine medical cannabis users and people on the ground who are campaigning have got a strong passion.”
‘It doesn’t leave you a lot of money to live’
Pain relief and the cost of medicinal cannabis are a pillar of the Legalise Cannabis 2022 campaign.
“They mocked us for a long time, you know, for saying cannabis is a medicine – we were ridiculed,” Mr Balderstone said.
“Now it’s accepted and anyone in Australia can get legal medical cannabis through their doctor, but it’s pretty much grown in Canada or grown indoors.
“We could all be growing our own medicine.”
Raylene Herd is one of the 75,000 who voted for the single-issue party in Queensland.
Ms Herd has terminal cancer and uses medicinal cannabis to ease the pain, but it is not cheap.
Read more
