Legalise Cannabis Australia (LCA), also known as the Legalise Cannabis Party (LCP) and formerly the Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) Party, is a

single-issue Single-issue politics involves political campaigning or political support based on one essential policy area or idea. Political expression One weakness of such an approach is that effective political parties are usually coalitions of faction ...

Australian political party The politics of Australia has a mild two-party system, with two dominant political groupings in the Australian political system, the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party of Australia. Federally, 12 of the 151 members of the lower house ( ...

. It has a number of policies that centre around the re-legalisation and regulation of

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...

for personal, medicinal and industrial uses in Australia. The party's headquarters were based in

Nimbin, New South Wales Nimbin is a town in the Northern Rivers area of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of New South Wales, approximately north of Lismore, New South Wales, Lismore, northeast of Kyogle, New South Wales, Kyogle, and west ...

, which is known to have a high population of recreational cannabis users and

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

History

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 statutory agency of the Australian Government responsible for the management and oversight of Australian federal elections, plebiscites, referendums and some trade union A ...

as to whether it was suitable to be added to the

electoral roll An electoral roll (variously called an electoral register, voters roll, voters list, 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 ...

– 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, 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.Cannabis article regarding name change
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State and territory affiliates

The party's current affiliates are the following:

Electoral results

LCP 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 The 2013 Australian federal election to elect the members of the 44th Parliament of Australia took place on Saturday, 7 September 2013. The centre-right Liberal/National Coalition opposition led by Opposition leader Tony Abbott of the Liberal ...

. Historically the party's best result was at the 1994 Elizabeth by-election 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 Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, Australian Electoral Division in the Northern Territory. It is largely coextensive with the Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin/Palmerston, Northern Territory, P ...

in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

. 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 The 2020 Eden-Monaro by-election was held on 4 July 2020 to elect the next Member of the Australian Parliament for the division of Eden-Monaro in the House of Representatives. The by-election was triggered following the resignation of incumben ...

and received 2.3% of votes beating out almost every other minor party. At the

2021 Western Australian state election The 2021 Western Australian state election was held on Saturday 13 March to elect members to the Parliament of Western Australia, where all 59 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly and all 36 seats in the We ...

, the Party's local affiliate, Legalise Cannabis WA, were successful in gaining two seats in the

Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...

, 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 Victorian Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly (lower house) and all 40 seats in the Victorian Legislat ...

the party had two candidates elected to the

David Ettershank David Ettershank is an Australian politician. He is a member of the Victorian Legislative Council representing the Western Metropolitan Region Western Metropolitan Region is one of the eight electoral regions of Victoria, Australia, which ...

and Rachel Payne. At the 2023 NSW state election, former Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham was elected to the

. He was the first politician in Australian history to produce a bud of cannabis during a Parliamentary session. In the 2024 Queensland by-election, LCP candidate Lindsay Melody gained a primary vote of 14.57% in the outer suburban seat of Ipswich West - a new high for the party.

Australian Senate

Elected representatives

Current

New South Wales

Victoria

Western Australia

Former

Western Australia

Notes

References

External links

Legalise Cannabis Australia
{{Australian political parties 1993 in cannabis 1993 establishments in Australia Political parties established in 1993 Cannabis culture Cannabis political parties of Australia Drug policy of Australia Law reform in Australia Political parties in Australia Single-issue political parties in Australia

History

Formation

Deregistration and re-registration

Name change

State and territory affiliates

Electoral results

Australian Senate

Elected representatives

Current

New South Wales

Victoria

Western Australia

Former

Western Australia

See also

Notes

References

External links