Greens Senator David Shoebridge has lashed out at Labor and the Coalition after the two sides combined to defeat his adult-use cannabis legalisation bill in the Senate.
The Legalising Cannabis Bill 2023 sought to permit recreational cannabis use by adults and open the door to legal home cultivation of up to six plants, alongside a regulated commercial cannabis industry operating across Australia.
The legislation would also have created the Cannabis Australia National Agency as a statutory authority responsible for registering strains and overseeing activities such as cultivation, possession, manufacturing, sales, cannabis cafe operations, and international trade.
After being knocked back by a Senate committee in June, the bill was blocked from advancing past a second reading when Labor and the Coalition voted together against it, 24 votes to 13.
Despite the defeat, Shoebridge showed no sign of backing down.
"We took a big step today from treating cannabis as part of the failing 'war on drugs' and instead putting forward a model that is safer, reduces harms and delivers for the millions of Australians who just want us to legalise it," he said.
"The support for this bill across the community is enormous and it's why we know cannabis legalisation in this country is inevitable.
"The Labor and Coalition parties joined together to try and hold Australia back in the 1950s by blocking this desperately needed reform.
"They keep pretending the war on drugs is working and that we all live in a world where drug use almost never happens – like the occasions when their own MPs are caught with drugs and swear it is a one off.
"Government data shows 8.8 million adult Australians have consumed cannabis. The Labor and Liberal parties are happy to call all of these people criminals. That's a bloody disgrace."
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Shoebridge vowed to press on with the campaign.
"I promise you today the Greens will keep working until we legalise cannabis," he wrote. "Adults should be able to choose if they want to have a brownie or a beer."
