Voter dissatisfaction with the major political parties could open the door for the Legalise Cannabis party at the upcoming federal election, as senate hopeful Fiona Patten formally announced plans to prioritise a new inquiry into medicinal cannabis if she is elected.
Patten said 10 years after legalisation “a full review of the entire medicinal cannabis ecosystem is needed”.
“Australians spent close to A$1 billion on medicinal cannabis in 2024, which is a massive increase from the $230 million spent just two years earlier,” she said. “Our medical cannabis industry is booming, yet patients pay exorbitant prices while the profits go to overseas growers.
“The last senate inquiry began in 2019, three years after legalisation. Given it has been five years and counting since that review, and we are currently in the thick of a cost of living crisis, I believe it’s time for a broad senate inquiry that reviews the current regulatory scheme from top to bottom.”
Patten said any senate inquiry should analyse how Australian industry bodies could work closer together to benefit medicinal cannabis patients.
Such an inquiry would also include a review of “bad actors who prioritise their bottom line over the wellbeing of consumers”, she said.
Legalise Cannabis party hopes of securing a first senate MP are likely to rest on how many voters are swayed by the controversial policies of Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots party.
In 2021, Palmer claimed the final seat in Victoria with just over 4% of the vote. That is well within the grasp of the Legalise Cannabis party on May 3, Patten said.
The former Reason Party leader said the minor parties have been given renewed hope due to voter “disengagement” with major parties.
“Voters are tired of being ignored and they are turning away from traditional political parties as a result, but it doesn’t appear that those parties are listening,” she said.
“Werribee is Labor heartland and yet they saw a 16.5% slump in their primary vote.”
Patten said a record 31.7 per cent of votes at the 2022 federal election were for non-major parties, a trend she sees continuing.
“Both majors are stuck in the 1950s when around 98% of votes went to them,” she said. “That number was down to 68.3 per cent in 2022 and, as Bob Dylan famously sang, ‘the times they are a changin’.”
However, working against the Legalise Cannabis party is Palmer’s huge campaign budget which hit $123m in 2021, Patten said.
“We don’t have anywhere near that kind of money, but we do have a track record of getting results. In just our first term at state level, the Legalise Cannabis party has successfully changed drug-driving laws in Victoria to protect medicinal cannabis script holders from automatic loss of licence, but there is a lot more to be done.
‘That’s why we’re more than a protest vote. We’re ready to get into the federal senate, get results, and most importantly, shake things up.”
