Post the highly successful 420 celebrations on Saturday, 20 April, the Party has announced the first raft of endorsed candidates for the October 2024 Queensland State Election. There are still more candidates yet to be endorsed so watch this space!
And if you have considered putting your hand up, what are you waiting for? There is still time to express your interest. Email the Party at legalisecannabisqld@gmail.com and the Party will send you an application so you too can join in all the fun of the highly serious issue of legalising cannabis for all Queenslanders!
Candidates in order of State Electorate
| Buderim – Shaun Sandow
Sunshine Coast LNP Seat since 2017 inland from Maroochydore around the point where Sunshine Motorway branches away from the Bruce Highway. Most of Buderim as well as Tanawha, Sippy Downs and Mountain View. 67 square kilometres. |
Bundaberg – Ian Zunker (Bundaberg local)
ALP gain in 2020. LNP since 2017. Ian represented the Party in 2020 and garnered 5.5% of the first preference vote. An excellent result in the Party’s first outing! Covering Bundaberg, completely surrounded by electorate of Burnett. Kalkie, Ashfield, Kepnock, Walkerville, Avenell Heights, Thabeban, Norville, Svensson Heights, Milbank, Avoca and Branyan. 108 square kilometres. |
Burleigh – Jason Gann (Burleigh local)
Marginal LNP seat on the southern Gold Coast. LNP since 2012. Includes Palm Beach, Burleigh Heads, most of Burleigh Waters and Varsity Lakes. 30 square kilometres. |
Coomera – Suzette Luyken (current Party Secretary and Gold Coast local)
Marginal LNP since 2008. Northern Gold Coast between Coomera, Logan and Albert Rivers. Includes Ormeau, Yatala, Pimpama, Alberton, Woongoolba, Steiglitz, Jacobs Well, most of Coomera, parts of Upper Coomera. 340 square kilometres. |
Gaven – Nell Porter (local candidate)
Marginal Labor since 2017. Hinterland, northern Gold Coast, Gaven, Nerang, Mount Nathan, Highland Park, most of Pacific Pines and Carrara, parts of Worongary. 77 square kilometres. |
Glass House – (to be announced) Marginal LNP since 2009. Rural-urban, north of Caboolture, most inland parts of southern Sunshine Coast. Upper Caboolture, Mount Mee, Woodford, Elimbah, Beerburrum, Glass House Mountains, Peachester, Mooloolah, Eudlo, Montville, Maleny and Conondale. 1,768 square kilometres. |
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Hervey Bay – Jeff Knipe (local candidate)
Safe LNP since 2009. Built up area of Hervey Bay east from Dundowran Beach. Includes Point Vernon, Urraween, Pialba, Scarness, Torquay, Urangan and K’gari Fraser Island. 1,809 square kilometres. |
Ipswich – Aaron Spencer
Labor since 2015. Ipswich between Bremer River, Bundamba Creek, Deebing Creek, north of Cunningham Highway and south to Deebing Heights and Ripley. Ipswich CBD, Woodend, Coalfalls, Sadliers Crossing, Basin Pocket, Booval, Newtown, Silkstone, Eastern Heights, Raceview, Churchill and Flinders View. 86 square kilometres. |
Logan – Meredith Brisk (local candidate)
Safe Labor since 2015. Southern parts of Logan City, Boronia Heights, Logan Village, Park Ridge, Munruben, South Maclean, Yarrabilba and most of Jimboomba. 356 square kilometres. |
Mackay – (to be announced)
Safe Labor since 2015. Central Mackay (both banks, Pioneer River) between Mackay Airport (south) and Slade Point (north). Andergrove, parts of Beaconsfield and Glenella. Mackay’s suburbs overflow into Whitsunday and Mirani. Port of Mackay, world’s largest bulk sugar port. 80 square kilometres. |
| Murrumba – David Zaloudek
Labor since 2017 (Premier Steven Miles seat). Outer suburban electorate west of Redcliffe, Dakabin, Kallangur, Murrumba Downs, Griffin, parts of Mango Hill, Rothwell and Kippa-Ring. Covers 63 square kilometres. |
Nicklin – Melody Lindsay (current Party Vice President and Nambour local) 
Labor gain in 2020 (LNP since 2017). Rural hinterland, northern Sunshine Coast, mainly western side of Bruce Highway. Cooroy, Yandina, Nambour, Woombye, Palmwoods, Mapleton and Kenilworth. 686 square kilometres. |
| Ninderry – (to be announced)
LNP since 2017. Northern Sunshine Coast between Bruce Highway and Sunshine Motorway. Coolum Beach, Peregian Springs, Eumundi, Yandina, Bli Bli, Diddillibah, Kuluin, Forest Glen and areas in between. 301 square kilometres. |
Pumicestone – Rosie Doolan (Caboolture local)
Labor gain in 2020 (LNP since 2017). Northern Moreton Bay Regional Council. Bribie Island, separated from the mainland by the Pumicestone Channel. Mainland includes Sandstone Point, Ningi, Beachmere and parts of Caboolture north of D’Aguilar Highway. 337 square kilometres. |
Redlands – Suzanne Spierenburg (local candidate)
Labor since 2017. Redlands Council area, east and south-east of Brisbane. Victoria Point, Redland Bay, part of Thornlands, Moreton Bay Islands, including Coochiemudlo, Macleay, Lamb and Russell. 121 square kilometres. |
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The first round of interviews for candidates in the 2024 Queensland State Election have been held and the Party will officially announce the endorsed candidates on Saturday, 20 April (4:20).
The Party is hosting three exciting 4:20 events: one on the Gold Coast at Burleigh Heads, (with a touch of Hollywood on the Goldie); one on the Sunshine Coast at Caboolture (bringing together a swathe of candidates from across the Sunny Coast) and one out west in Dalby (in an alcohol free zone).
So roll up for a family friendly picnic (BYO picnic lunch) and meet some of the candidates, volunteers and other like-minded cannabis law reform activists and supporters. Some merchandise and family friendly activities will be available on the day.
Watch this space. Candidates for the 26 October State Election will start to be endorsed in the near future and their bios and other information will then be available.
This is an exciting time for the Party as we have some exceptionally talented and dedicated people putting their hand up to represent ALL cannabis users, right across Queensland.
We’re also always looking for volunteers so you too could do your bit to help change Queensland’s discriminatory cannabis laws and enable cannabis legalisation!
2024 Inala by-election
Nigel Quinlan is Queensland through and through. Born in Mackay, he attended seven different Primary Schools in Central Queensland and Brisbane followed by two High Schools in Brisbane and Toowoomba. He enjoys making music, keeping fit and kicking goals!
After finishing High School he worked for AMP but was made redundant after two years. He has worked as a cleaner at various Brisbane Primary and State High Schools but lost his last job because of cannabis possession for personal use offences. He has faced court several times on similar charges which destroyed his career and his ability to be a productive tax-paying member of society. He knows firsthand how these laws can destroy people’s lives.
After attending his first Beyond Prohibition Mardi-Grass in Nimbin in 1993, Nigel has been involved in grassroots activism through petitions, university stalls, street marches and in the last five years he has been doing musical theatre and singing drug war redemption songs with people of different abilities and the homeless.
Nigel changed his name to Nigel Freemarijuana in 1996 and ran, for political office for the first time, in the Lytton By-election. He has also run in six other elections, both federal and state, for the (former) HEMP Party, The Greens, as an Independent and for Legalise Cannabis Queensland Party in the 2020 election, in the seat of Inala.
In 2000, after the Ryan Federal By-election, the Electoral Commission removed his name from the electoral roll. He appealed that decision and consequently ran with the name Freemarijuana on the roll. After 2003, Nigel took a pause from running into the wall of politics. However, after having recently been arrested, yet again, he is coming back into the fray, as nothing has changed!
Nigel joined the Legalise Cannabis Queensland Party in the hopes of being elected to the Queensland crossbench, to get some collective bargaining power happening. He wants to see cannabis legalised so the economic and social resources can be channelled in a more productive and healthy way. He believes other social and economic issues would receive adequate funding if the drug war was not being over-resourced.
Nigel is the Legalise Cannabis Queensland Party’s endorsed candidate in the Inala By-election and he wants to start kicking goals for all Queensland cannabis users!
2024 Ipswich-West by-election
Melody Lindsay is the endorsed candidate for the Legalise Cannabis Queensland Party in the Ipswich West by-election.
Melody wants a better deal for all Queenslanders, so she has rolled her sleeves up and is ready to do what is needed to make cannabis law reform happen, sooner rather than later, in the Sunshine State.
From a lower socioeconomic background, she has overcome many adversities in her life and this has given her a broader perspective on the social justice issues the community lives with every day.
Melody lost her partner and father of her two children to suicide and whilst raising the children as a single mum, the family experienced homelessness. However, she has never let adversity defeat her. Instead it led to self-education and achieving whatever she could to get a better life for herself and her children.
Studying Torres Strait Island culture with Uncle George Wano (her children being of TSI descent) they formed a dance troupe called Kotor Sogipu (Tree Top) and performed and delivered Cultural Practice workshops across the south-east coast of Queensland.
Melody has a varied employment record, working in Early Childhood Education and as a Youth Custodial Corrections Officer at Cleveland Youth Detention Centre. She has also worked as a general labourer in farming, nursery and landscaping.
She is currently the Pilot for Sacred Forest Woodfordia and Vice President of the Legalise Cannabis Queensland Party Management Committee, having also studied herbalism, counselling and she is working on legal studies.
Although not a resident of Ipswich West, Melody can easily relate to the people and their struggles and she wants to give them the chance to vote for cannabis law reform in the up-coming by-election. She wants a better quality of life for all Queenlanders and being a voice for the people in parliament is one way to start to achieve this and other positive outcomes.
Melody is concerned about local and state based issues such as homelessness, lack of mental health funding and rehabilitation facilities, wastage of police resources on petty victimless ‘cannabis crimes’, whilst violent crime rates are at staggering levels.
She sees hemp as a highly valuable commodity that could not only provide jobs in agriculture, manufacturing and research, but provide a positive way forward to a healthier environment and a healthier ecconomy.
Melody aims to help reduce the cost of medical “weed” by advocating for home grow for those who need it. She supports the right for adults to choose cannabis as a safer social alternative to alcohol and prescription drugs and will be advocating to bring about this change.
2024 Brisbane Mayoral election
Clive Brazier is a local bloke who has lived and worked in Queensland since 1979. He has always been a hardworking man, and he will work hard for you.
Having cultivated an interest in politics from a young age, he has worked for local politicians, representing Labor, Liberal and the Greens.
Clive has also been a candidate at all levels of government contesting elections on a cannabis legalisation platform. Politically aware, he sees the challenges at a local government level and felt compelled to nominate.
He survived Stage 3 head and neck cancer in his sinuses in 2004 and lost his teeth as a side effect of chemo and radiation. During his treatment he used cannabis to ward off nausea and vomiting with good effect, and wants to see it legalised for those who want to grow their own and consume for personal use.
He sees our current medical cannabis scheme as “a rip off and the reason so many patients turn to the black market to access it”. He believes cannabis should also be used environmentally, to help rejuvenate land and waterways around old mine sites and quarries due to the fact it regenerates the soil.
2024 State election
October, 2024
Authorised by Suzette Luyken, 51 Cullen St Nimbin NSW 2480
Legalise Cannabis Queensland Party respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land and sea we all share, and pay respect to elders past, present and future, whose ongoing efforts protect and promote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.