On August 5, 2009, the Australian Sex Party was registered as a candidate for parliament. In early May the party was deregistered as it failed to procure 500 members to maintain registration, however in late July of the same year, the party was re-registered. Fiona Patten has been the leader of the Australian Sex Party since its foundation. The party came about due to the Eros Association, a national lobby group for the sex industry in Australia. The name is called the Australian Sex Party, as Fiona realized that, as a minor party, she needed a provocative name to compete with the larger parties.
The issues of the party are; same sex marriage, gender equality, discrimination and sex education. The Australian Sex Party has three distinct key policies.
The first policy they have is, dying with dignity, that is legalizing voluntary euthanasia or physician assisted dying. More than 82% of the Australian population agrees that people reserve the right to die with dignity and it is one of the more prominent policies that the Australian Sex Party have.
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The black market that operates under selling cannabis garners a lot of money that could be better put to use in schools, hospitals and other infrastructures. By regulating and taxing cannabis the only people who lose out on this change in stance on drugs are organized crime.
To have a definite separation of church and state, is one of the Australian Sex Party’s most controversial policies. Many church owned companies are exempt from paying taxes. Added on GST, capital gain exemptions and fringe benefit tax exemptions and regular tax payers have a staggering amount to pay. It costs us nearly $20 billion a year. The Australian Sex Party is ready to change that and enforce religious organisations to pay their taxes
Marijuana legalization will help reduce illegal activity surrounding the plant too, again, reducing the need to pay for those people to go to jail. This includes, but is not limited to, people who, after its legalization, still want to grow and sell their own marijuana.
Australian Marriage Equality is a national organization actively working to achieve ‘equal marriage for all consenting adults’ with the belief that an individuals’ sexuality ‘should not affect their legal rights and responsibilities under Australian marriage law’ (Australian Marriage Equality, 2014).
Without legalizing marijuana there will be many black markets. A black market is a market that works illegally and sells people illegal stuff that can’t be found everywhere. According to Stephan T .Easton (2004), as referenced in Larisa Ducati Flister 2012.” The retail price of a marijuana cigarette to be approximately $8.60 while costing around $1.50 to produce, yielding roughly a 7.10 profit”. In other words, the black markets are taking advantage of people. Many people don’t really care how much they pay in order to get weed. Because, it’s not available for everyone therefore people tend to buy them at any price. As a result, the only winners are the people selling in the black markets .If the government legalizes marijuana there will be no black markets there will only be official places to sell weed and therefore people will pay the original price that the government sets. Moreover, Silverberg suggests that the government should control the quality of marijuana, so that people would know the weed they are using is not poisoned (David Silverberg, 2005).People deserve to have a good quality weed and when the government legalizes it they will make sure every person gets a clean, pure, and healthy weed. However, the government can also benefit from the taxes gained from marijuana. According to Stephan T .Easton (2004), as referenced in Larisa Ducati Flister 2012 a study found the following: The consumption
This tax revenue could fund the environment. Also, opening of new schools and supporting current ones. Furthermore, it could enhance the building of new roads. It could also help create hospitals and clinics. Moreover, the tax revenue could help build new police stations, and firefighting stations. It could even help the homeless. Marijuana could also bring jobs to America. In fact, it could bring thousands of new job opportunities which will reduce our unemployment rate.
The legalization of cannabis has a variety of good things that can come with it. Such as money. Money is the main priority in today's society and legalizing cannabis can not only help Americans with that but also the United States in general. It will produce more jobs and create better opportunities for some people in our society. Another good reason to allow marijuana to be legal is that it can lower crime rate.
Only recently, the Australian Government introduced reforms to de-facto relationships. This meant that same-sex couples are entitled to the same benefits and subject to the same obligations as opposite-sex couples (Property Relationships Act 1984 NSW). The legislation of Same-Sex Relationships (Equal Treatment in Commonwealth Laws- General Law Reform) Act 2008 removed discriminatory treatment of same-sex couples. These acts included laws about tax, superannuation, Medicare, workers compensations, employment entitlements and family law. Homosexuals are discriminated against in terms of marriage, donating blood and are also victims to abuse due to their status. A study conducted by the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby revealed that 84% of participants aged between 14 and 21 had been treated unfairly because of their sexuality and almost half had suffered verbal or physical abuse. With these inequalities present, it is difficult to achieve equality and fairness around this group. Although Australia proposes the ideal of egalitarianism, it is hard to justify whether it is present or not.
This increased government revenue could be seen as a major advantage in legalising marijuana where revenue could be used for increase expenditure in defence, education and health.
Taxing marijuana would be an asset to this country’s economy by helping them with the debts, rebuilding schools, and lowering crime rates. According to Matt Ferner of the Huffington Post, since Colorado legalized marijuana the state has made $600 million in combined wholesale and retail sales (Ferner). This can be great because the United States could pay off much of its debts. That amount of money was earned through a 25 percent tax on retail purchasing, including a 15 percent excise tax, and a 10 percent sales tax (Ferner). Another asset of taxing marijuana is that the government can give some of the money to the public. Some of this money can go to schools, hospitals, and medical treatments. The rest can go to creating new
First, one of the biggest reasons for many to legalize marijuana is the boost in revenue it can cause. Legalization will allow the government to form new taxes and apply them to the sale and distribution of marijuana. For example, in Colorado, analysts say that taxing could lead to raising millions of dollars each year. States who have legalized marijuana show higher numbers of usage than states who have not. That is why there is a higher demand for weed creating better economic opportunities for these communities in the future. Secondly, legalization could lead to improvements in the criminal justice system and law enforcement. If marijuana was made legal law enforcement agencies could spend less time going after weed related crimes and focus on more serious and violent criminals. This is a better for the criminal justice system because when it comes to decriminalization there will still be discretion on how each officer deals with possession. Therefore, legalization will
Another benefit accrued through legalizing marijuana would be a significant reduction in crime rates. Since Marijuana is currently illegal, it is sold on the streets country wide. Thousands purchase the drug from dealers, putting their lives and reputations at risk, simply because it is the only method to attain it. Both drug dealers and gangs fight to sell the drug in the street, causing their deaths and the deaths of innocent people. Legalizing the drug help decrease the street wars and gang violence by taking the “right” to sell out of the hands of dealers, and into the hands of the government. Since the drug will be legalized, it will be available in the same locations as cigarettes and alcohol, decreasing crime
The neoliberal state values the role of heteronormativity, the presence of intersex, transgender and transvestite individuals threaten the established norms and gender binary by creating ambiguity in gender expression despite legal and social recognition both nationally and on a human rights basis. The devastation of AIDS formed a new political alliance between the lesbian and gay communities to support the development of queer counter-discourse of flexibility and ambivalence within the queer culture (Johnson, 1996) while increasing the prevalence of homosexual and indeterminate sexual groups, the Australian government has increased legislation to consider and formally recognise these developments, such as the Australian Privacy Principle 13, which includes provisions that "Sex reassignment surgery and/or
Australia’s Senate and House of Representatives recently rejected bills to accept homosexual marriage in Australia. Labor MP Stephen Jones and Labor Senator Trish Crossin have both put forward a bill to gain marriage equality with both bills failing to pass through to the governor general (House of Representatives – 98-42, and
Another popular argument is that legalizing marijuana will put criminal organizations out of business. While such an outcome would be a beneficial, it is unlikely to happen for several reasons. Firstly, criminal organizations will always find other things to sell. Secondly, the majority of marijuana is still likely to come from cartels. And third, people will continue to buy marijuana on the black market for no other reason than its tax free. As an example, illegal cigarettes called “loosies” are commonly sold on the black market due to the high taxes placed on them. Eric Garner, who died while resisting arrest for selling “loosies”, brought this issue to public attention. Then there is the argument that the government has no right telling people what to put in their bodies. While this argument may have some merit, I would argue that the government does have a responsibility to protect our well-being. No one argues, for instance, when the FDA keeps things off the market that adversary affects our health. Lastly, proponents will say that marijuana is not addictive, however research shows otherwise. About 9 percent become addicted to marijuana, for those who start young it’s 17 percent. For those who use marijuana daily it can be as high as 25 to 50 percent ("Health Effects Of Marijuana
To explore the economic benefits of marijuana legalization we must first look at the amount of marijuana that is purchased by users. The White House Office of National Drug Policy reported that between 1988 and 1995, Americans spent about 7 billion dollars on the illegal substance, averaging about a billion dollars a year (Prislac, 2009). This means that annually there is a billion dollars out there that is subject to no sales tax. The national average for sales tax is 5%, so if you calculate the billion dollars being spent on marijuana, this means there is approximately 50 million dollars in sales tax that our government never gets
Let’s also assume that marijuana costs $15 a gram and of those 75,000,000 people smoking they smoke 5 grams a week. After calculations of 5 grams a week at $15 a gram times the 75,000,000 people that use, the total revenue would be $5,625,000,000, most of which if regulated by the government would be profit. Would it be more beneficial to society for this substantial amount of money to continue to be made by the illegal drug trade or the economy? Legalizing marijuana would also create jobs. The government would need to employ many Americans to produce and regulate the sales and distribution of the product. Facilities to grow and sell the product would be required and therefore people to run the facilities would be required. Another bonus is the fact that law enforcement can focus on other more serious crime issues within the community, instead of utilizing time and resources on marijuana. The number of people arrested yearly for marijuana offenses outweighs the total number arrested for violent crimes including murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. This also puts a strain on the prison systems that house these offenders which are mostly hard working Americans who simply smoke to relax. While these are all good points those who oppose the legalization state that marijuana is still a drug that alters perception, it is addictive, and long term use