Smokers' Rights Party | |
---|---|
Spokesperson | Clinton Mead [1] |
Ideology | Single-issue politics |
Website | |
smokersrights | |
The Smokers' Rights Party (SRP) was a registered political party in Australia from 2013 until September 2017. [2]
The party was created in order to feed preferences to David Leyonhjelm of the Liberal Democratic Party. [3] [4] With the abolition of group voting tickets in 2016, the Smokers' Rights Party was no longer able to act as a preference feeder, and published a statement recommending that supporters vote for Leyonhjelm in the Senate. [5] It was formally deregistered in September 2017. [2]
The Smokers' Rights Party states that it does not receive funding from the tobacco industry. [6] Despite this, the Liberal Democrats do, having received at least $35000 from Philip Morris in the 2013-2014 financial year. [7]
Smokers Rights fielded only one candidate in the 2016 federal election. This was Joaquim De Lima as a candidate for the Division of Fowler in the House of Representatives. [8] De Lima had previously run as a candidate for the Outdoor Recreation Party (NSW 2011 for Penrith, 2013 Senate NSW, 2014 senate WA, 2015 NSW upper house), [9] and the Liberal Democrats (Federal 2010 for Greenway).
Notice under s 137(4) of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 On 5 September 2017, Stuart Oreo, acting Assistant Commissioner, as a delegate of the Electoral Commission, deregistered the Smokers Rights Party under subsection 137(4) of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918. Reason: s 137(4) – failure to respond to notice under s 137 (1)