Saturday Magazine

18 Sep 2025

Saturday, 13th, September, 2025: Alex Greenwich, MP, IND. Sydney, NSW Cannabis Reforms

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Saturday, 13th, September, 2025: Alex Greenwich, MP, IND. Sydney, NSW Cannabis Reforms

Macca is back this week and his co-host is former Reason Party Politician Fiona Patten. Their first guest is Alex Greenwich, MP, IND. Sydney, as they discuss NSW Cannabis Reforms.

Alex Greenwich is an openly gay male MP in the . Before entering politics, Greenwich was a prominent LGBT rights activist and led Australian Marriage Equality (AME). Prior to running for office, Greenwich was the national convener of AME from 2009, and in 2010 was named as one of Samesame.com.

In July 2012, Greenwich aligned himself with prominent independent Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore and announced his candidacy on Moore’s ticket for the Sydney City Council elections scheduled for the NSW local government elections in September 2012.

This low (and therefore most likely unelectable) position on the ticket fuelled speculation that this was to increase Greenwich’s visibility for a possible run to succeed Moore should she be forced to resign her state seat of Sydney in light of promised reforms by the O’Farrell Liberal/National government to ban MPs from serving on local government bodies

This legislation was subsequently passed as the Local Government Amendment (Members of Parliament) Act 2012 (NSW) and following the local government elections in which Moore was re-elected for a third term as lord mayor, Moore resigned her seat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, triggering a by-election.

Greenwich subsequently contested the 2012 Sydney by-election as an independent with the endorsement of Moore, comfortably defeating Shayne Mallard of the Liberal Party with a 47.3 percent primary and 63.7 percent two-candidate preferred vote. Greenwich said after the by-election that it was “very clear Barry O’Farrell‘s legislation has backfired – because now there are two of us”. Greenwich has denied claims that he is a single-issue politician, having gone to the by-election on a platform involving a range of policy areas, including small business, the re-establishment of an inner-city public high school, and social welfare and public housing, among others.

Greenwich introduced the Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill 2019 into the New South Wales Legislative Assembly on 1 August 2019, in a bid to decriminalise abortion in New South Wales, allow abortions for up to 22 weeks, and permit an abortion after 22 weeks if two medical practitioners agree. The bill passed the parliament on 26 September and was given royal assent on 2 October 2019 as the Abortion Law Reform Act 2019.

In October 2021, Greenwich introduced the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2021. This bill later passed parliament and allows people to end their lives if they have a terminal illness. It passed both chambers of parliament and received royal assent in May 2022.

Greenwich also supported and introduced the Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Bill 2023 which was passed by