New Matilda's series on the minor parties vying for upper house votes continues. Today, read how the Australian Hemp Party and the Stable Population Party characterise their approaches.
Australian Hemp Party
What does the Australian Hemp Party stand for? Cannabis re-legalisation. The key issues for HEMP constituents neglected in the current debate are medical, recreational and industrial cannabis use. The party will direct preferences to the best cannabis policies – to Greens and Labor before Liberals and Nationals. Preference decisions are being driven by a desire to encourage people to look at the party’s key issue.
Budget surplus
Tax and regulate the cannabis industry.
Carbon pricing
Cannabis will assist in carbon sequestration.
Asylum seekers/border security
Karma is real!
Schools funding
Truthful education on drug use which has always been a part of humanity.
Civil liberties
Re-legalise cannabis use.
Private health insurance rebate
Health cost savings will be massive with drug law reform.
Stable Population Party
The Stable Population Party is a sustainability party with a major focus on “the everything issue”: population. We are equally concerned with environmental, economic and social wellbeing. From a population of 23 million today, under Liberal/Labor policies we are on target for 40 million by 2050 – and rising! We say let's slow down and stabilise at around 26 million by 2050.
The three key issues being neglected in the current debate are population, population, population. Rapid population growth of over 1000 people per day, or a million people every three years (the size of Adelaide!), is now the underlying issue linked to all of Australia's major problems. A stable population is the critical starting point to solving them.
For example, a stable population will help relieve overstretched infrastructure including hospitals, schools, roads and public transport, ease cost of living pressures for finite resources like land (housing), water and energy and protect our environment including food, water and energy resources, native bushland and animal habitat
The party’s preferences are split three ways, between the major parties. The suppression of the population issue by the Liberal, Greens and Labor parties is what drives the allocation of preferences.
We were formed to focus on the key issue underlying our major problems, and that’s where our policy focus lies. However, to help explain our approach, all our current and future policy decision making is guided by five core values: Sustainable living, Egalitarian democracy, Fiscal responsibility, Global citizenship, and Productive innovation.
Budget surplus
See: Fiscal responsibility – Public finances and resources should be properly managed and accounted for, so as to ensure Australia lives within its means, without indebting our children and grandchildren or running down our environments. This includes properly accounting for the costs of population growth, such as infrastructure, the depletion of our mineral and energy wealth and the growing impacts of our waste.
Carbon pricing
See: Sustainable living – Australia should progress economically and socially using resources in ecologically sustainable ways to protect the environment and the natural world. The aim is wellbeing for all Australians, present and future, and to preserve the biodiversity of our ecosystems, with enough space and resources to live well and in balance with each other. A sustainable Australia starts with a stable population.
Asylum seekers/border security
See: Global citizenship – Through partnership, example and assistance, Australia should help other nations to live well and plan their own future within their sustainable resource base. While welcoming our fair share of genuine refugees, we should acknowledge that overpopulation drives the resource scarcity behind most current conflicts and forced migration. By stabilising their populations through voluntary family planning and empowerment of women, nations protect their food, water and energy security, improve infant and maternal health, maximise resilience to climate change, avoid labour exploitation, and free up investment to build prosperity and develop. All people should be able to live in peace and harmony in their homeland.
Schools funding
See: Productive innovation – We encourage innovation and sustainable development. In economic, environmental, social and cultural fields we advocate renewed investment in research, training and higher education. The objective is a skilled, productive and creative nation, allowing Australians to fulfil their potential.
Civil liberties
See: Egalitarian democracy – All individuals should have equal opportunity to take part in the democratic process. We are committed to honest administration that prioritises the public interest and does not pander to vested interests or vocal minorities. Public policy should be based on objective evidence-based advice in light of wider social, economic, environmental, national security and cultural concerns. Importantly, we Australians must be allowed to democratically choose our own population size, mindful of our finite resource base and likely future global challenges.
Private health insurance rebate
See: Fiscal responsibility and Egalitarian democracy (above).
Donate To New Matilda
New Matilda is a small, independent media outlet. We survive through reader contributions, and never losing a lawsuit. If you got something from this article, giving something back helps us to continue speaking truth to power. Every little bit counts.
