The Australian Greens, commonly referred to simply as the Greens, are a confederation of green state and territory political parties in Australia. As of the 2022 federal election, the Greens are the third largest political party in Australia by vote and the fourth-largest by elected representation. The leader of the party is Adam Bandt, with Mehreen Faruqi serving as deputy leader. Larissa Waters currently holds the role of Senate leader.
A group voting ticket (GVT) is a shortcut for voters in a preferential voting system, where a voter can indicate support for a list of candidates instead of marking preferences for individual candidates. For multi-member electoral divisions with single transferable voting, a group or party registers a GVT before an election with the electoral commission. When a voter selects a group or party above the line on a ballot paper, their vote is distributed according to the registered GVT for that group.
Rose Butler Jackson is an Australian Labor Party politician serving as a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council since 8 May 2019. Since 5 April 2023, she has been serving in the Minns ministry as Minister for Water, Minister for Housing, Minister for Homelessness, Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Youth, and Minister for the North Coast. She is the former Assistant General Secretary of NSW Labor.
Richard Luigi Di Natale is a former Australian politician who was a senator for Victoria. He was also the leader of the Australian Greens from 2015 to 2020. Di Natale was elected to the Senate in the 2010 federal election. A former general practitioner, Di Natale became federal parliamentary leader of the Australian Greens on 6 May 2015 following the resignation of Christine Milne. He was the leader of the Greens during the 2016 and 2019 federal elections.
Prostitution in Australia is governed by state and territory laws, which vary considerably, although none ban the selling of sex itself.
Drug liberalization is a drug policy process of decriminalizing, legalizing, or repealing laws that prohibit the production, possession, sale, or use of prohibited drugs. Variations of drug liberalization include drug legalization, drug relegalization, and drug decriminalization. Proponents of drug liberalization may favor a regulatory regime for the production, marketing, and distribution of some or all currently illegal drugs in a manner analogous to that for alcohol, caffeine and tobacco.
Reason Australia, commonly referred to as the Reason Party or as simply Reason, was an Australian political party. Its leader, Fiona Patten, described the party as a "civil libertarian alternative". Patten was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council as at the 2018 state election in the Northern Metropolitan Region, after formerly being elected as a Sex Party member for the same seat in 2014. However, she lost re-election in 2022.
The use of cannabis in New Zealand is regulated by the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, which makes unauthorised possession of any amount of cannabis a crime. Cannabis is the fourth-most widely used recreational drug in New Zealand, after caffeine, alcohol and tobacco, and the most widely used illicit drug. In 2001 a household survey revealed that 13.4% of New Zealanders aged 15–64 used cannabis. This ranked as the ninth-highest cannabis consumption level in the world.
Laws regarding euthanasia or assisted suicide in Australia are matters for state and territory governments. As of June 2024 all states and the Australian Capital Territory have passed legislation creating an assisted suicide and euthanasia scheme for eligible individuals. These laws typically refer to the practices as "voluntary assisted dying".
Cannabis is a plant used in Australia for recreational, medicinal and industrial purposes. In 2019, 36% of Australians over the age of fourteen years had used cannabis in their lifetime and 11.6% had used cannabis in the last 12 months.
Cannabis political parties are generally single-issue parties that exist to oppose the laws against cannabis.
The history of same-sex marriage in Australia includes its express prohibition by the Howard government in 2004 and its eventual legalisation by the Parliament in December 2017. Although a same-sex marriage law was passed by the Australian Capital Territory in 2013, it was struck down by the High Court on the basis of inconsistency with federal law. The Court's decision closed the possibility of concurrent state or territory laws that would allow same-sex marriage where federal law did not. A law legalising same-sex marriage passed the Parliament on 7 December 2017 and received royal assent the following day.
Cannabis in Germany has been legal for recreational usage by adults in a limited capacity since 1 April 2024. As of February 2024, it has been assessed that 4.5 million Germans use cannabis.
Cannabis in Ireland is illegal for recreational purposes. Use for medical purposes requires case-by-case approval by the Minister for Health. A bill to legalise medical uses of cannabis passed second reading in Dáil Éireann in December 2016, but was rejected by the Oireachtas Health Committee in 2017.
The German cannabis control bill is a bill passed by the German Bundestag in February 2024, and the Bundesrat in March, that legalised the adult use of cannabis in Germany, as well as the personal possession and cultivation of limited amounts of cannabis by adults in Germany, beginning on 1 April 2024. Adults in Germany are allowed to possess up to 25 grams of cannabis in public and up to 50 grams of dried cannabis at home. Each individual adult in Germany may also have up to three of their own cannabis plants at home. As part of the bill, adult-only non-profit cannabis social clubs with a maximum of 500 members will become legal in Germany from 1 July 2024.
The Misuse of Drugs Amendment Act 2018 is an Act of Parliament in New Zealand which amends the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 to allow terminally-ill people to consume cannabis and to possess a cannabis utensil. The bill passed its third reading on 11 December 2018. It was supported by the centre-left Labour Party and its coalition partners New Zealand First and the Green parties but was opposed by the opposition centre-right National Party. The Act received royal assent on 17 December and came into force on 18 December 2018.
Abigail Selina Boyd is an Australian politician living on the Central Coast in New South Wales. She has been a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council since 2019, representing the Greens.
The Legalise Cannabis Western Australia Party (LCWA) is a political party registered in Western Australia. The party advocates for law reform in relation to cannabis.
The 2025 Western Australian state election is scheduled to be held on 8 March 2025 to elect members to the Parliament of Western Australia, where all 59 seats in the Legislative Assembly and all 37 seats in the Legislative Council will be up for election.
The 47th Parliament of Australia is the current meeting of the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Australia, composed of the Australian Senate and the Australian House of Representatives. The May 2022 federal election gave the Australian Labor Party control of the House. Labor won 77 seats at the election, and it gained an additional seat in April 2023 due to winning the Aston by-election, giving it a three-seat majority government. Labor leader Anthony Albanese became the 31st Prime Minister of Australia, and was sworn in by the Governor-General David Hurley on 23 May 2022. The 47th Parliament opened in Canberra on 26 July 2022.
