Minnesota governor ‘surprised’ at Australia’s slow pace on cannabis legalisation

Walz – who made Minnesota the 23rd state to legalise and regulate cannabis while also expunging criminal records of people convicted for possession of marijuana – expressed shock that Australian states had not done the same.

“I was surprised that Australia hasn’t done this and for me, first of all, prohibition doesn’t work,” he said.

In NSW, the government has refused to move on significant cannabis reforms until after it holds a drug summit, likely next year. Despite Minns previously expressing support for a legal and regulated cannabis market, he has refused to move on the issue until then.

Walz cited a regulated market as a means of both helping his state’s economy, and addressing the over-representation of people of colour in the justice system.

“Minnesota has a long history of prohibition with alcohol and other things. It doesn’t work,” he said.

“In the end, the biggest issue is that cannabis arrests or incarcerations were predominantly in our communities of colour. And so one of the premises around cannabis legalisation first and foremost was an expungement of those records.”

On the timing of his visit to Australia – the first official visit by a Minnesota leader – Walz said he and other governors sought to guard against the increasing “isolationism” of the US.

It also comes at a time when some experts in Australia warn the alliance between the countries has become too close, particularly militarily, given the domestic unrest in the US.

An ally of President Joe Biden, Walz was confident Democrats would prevail in the White House in 2024. Australians, he said, “should be concerned” about the implications of a second Donald Trump presidency for the alliance with the US.

“I’m concerned [about] our alliances and I think that is one of the reasons that you’re seeing governors out here,” he said.

After meeting Minns, Walz was struck by the similarity in the challenges their states face, including affordable housing.

For housing, he had a litmus test – whether a public schoolteacher could afford a house. Walz said to Minns, “Say … a teacher wants to buy a $300,000 house? And [he said], ‘Well, they’re not going to buy that here’.”

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