Tuesday, 30 May 2023

 David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (13:42): Last week I had the pleasure of being in Sydney to witness the inaugural speech of Legalise Cannabis’s newest MP Jeremy Buckingham. Jeremy is an experienced campaigner, having cut his teeth in the City of Orange from 2004, contested multiple state and federal campaigns and represented the Greens in the New South Wales Legislative Council from 2011 to 2019. Jeremy has always been a grassroots campaigner, building support for progressive environmental and social policies across traditional social and geographical boundaries. For example, his leadership against the coal seam gas industry in New South Wales united diverse stakeholder groups to preserve prime agricultural land, water catchments and national parks.

Purged from the New South Wales Greens in 2019, Jeremy became our elected candidate for the Legislative Council this year and came in 18th of 21, elected with, most notably, no preferences from any of the major, or for that matter, minor parties. As Jeremy said in his address:

Cannabis prohibition is coming to an end. Legalisation makes sense and Australians know it; that is why they voted for us. It is not a matter of if but when and, most importantly, how. That is why I and my colleagues in the Legalise Cannabis Party in Western Australia and Victoria have been elected …

He went on to say:

We are a grassroots movement that has grown steadily, patiently and collaboratively, and that is the approach we will adopt in this place to build trust, understanding and consensus.

I say ‘Amen’ to that, and we look forward to working with our New South Wales colleagues to bring an end to the cannabis prohibition. Congratulations, Jeremy.