Smokers'_Rights_Party
Smokers' Rights Party
Political party in Australia
The Smokers' Rights Party 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).