They’ve finished counting and we got half a million primary votes, actually 501,421 to be exact.
A huge thank you to everyone for their support and votes and finally we are getting noticed a little. Despite the war on drugs scarcely getting a mention in the election campaign, and despite it creating the biggest business on the planet and all that goes with it, illegal drugs.
This is compared to 262,426 votes three years ago. This means that we have nearly DOUBLED our vote in only three years! Not being allowed to grow our own medicine and not being allowed to drive has stirred the pot so to speak.
The Queensland senate vote led by solicitor Bernie Bradley got 161,899 primary votes and because at 5.37% he was well over the 4% barrier we will get electoral funding. Same in the Northern Territory where Lance Lawrence got 6.23% of the vote with 6,455 votes.
And In the only lower house electorate we ran, the hotly contested seat of Longman, just north of Brisbane, our candidate Nigel Quinlan got 6,025 votes (5.6%).
It was interesting that the Senate vote in that same seat we did even better with a vote of 8.3%. In the dozen seats between Brisbane and Townsville our average Senate vote was 7.85% and in Capricornia we got over 9%!
All in all we expect to get enough electoral funding to give us a serious war chest for the future.
Other interesting numbers from the election include NSW starting with 125,001 primary votes but ending up with 265,503 votes being the last party to be eliminated..
Overall there were about thirty five parties that ran and Legalise Cannabis came in 6th.
With a national vote of 3.33% we were only a whisker behind Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party which got 3.46% and gave Pauline Hanson a run for her money with One Nation getting 4.29%.
Primary votes ended up as follows….
Queensland 161,899 / 5.37% (5th )
NSW 125,001 / 2.6% (6th )
VIC 114,805 / 3% (5th )
TAS 10,942 / 3.03% (6th )
SA 26,235 / 2.2% (7th )
WA 51,568 / 3.38% (5th )
ACT 4,516 / 1.58%% (7th)
NT 6,455 / 6.23%% (5th)
The next focus for Legalising is the Victorian State Election in November where we are still trying to form a Legalise Cannabis Victoria Party so if you know anyone living in the Garden State do ask them to join up asap on legalisecannabis.org.au
We are already registered to run in the NSW State election next March and plan on a strong campaign there.
As well as Federally we are registered now in QLD, SA, WA and Lance is keen to start an NT Legalise Cannabis party now also.
We have had an influx of new members since the election and with the complex and ever changing Electoral rules we always need more members so do encourage your toking and voting friends to join wherever they live in Australia. It’s simple and free online
Anyone coming to Nimbin’s 30th MardiGrass which was postponed in May because of flooding and is now on September 16,17,18 weekend, please come to a Legalise Cannabis meeting there on the Saturday.
We also plan on a gathering of members camping in the Nimbin Showground over the MardiGrass weekend along with Sophia Moermond and Dr Brian Walker, our Legalise Cannabis Members of Parliament from WA.
Again, sincere thanks to everyone for the effort in the election.
Michael Balderstone
Party President
http://nimbinmardigrass.com
https://hempembassy.net/media-releases/
PS.
Michael Pettersson ACT Labor MP is coming to Nimbin MardiGrass
https://hempembassy.net/2022/07/14/michael-pettersson-mp-is-coming-to-mardigrass/
