An independent Tasmanian MP has taken to hitchhiking to get to work after losing his licence for driving with cannabis in his system.
Braddon MP Craig Garland says he was picked up by a passing motorist on Tuesday morning while waiting to catch a bus from Clifton Beach to Parliament House in Hobart.
The roughly 29-kilometre trip takes about 45 minutes by car in peak hour or around an hour and a half by bus.
“I was half an hour early for the Metro bus this morning so I thought I’d stick my thumb out on the side of the road and wondered how I’d go,” Garland said in a video posted to social media.
“The first car that came along, thank God … picked me up and dropped me off right in the middle of Hobart.”
Garland, 61, had his licence suspended for six months last month after pleading guilty to drug driving in the Burnie Magistrates Court.
Police intercepted him in Smithton in November 2024 after a roadside test detected traces of cannabis.
He said he had smoked cannabis the night before and had used it on and off for years.
The court heard Garland had previously been prescribed medicinal cannabis for chronic pain from sciatica and old injuries, though he didn’t hold a prescription at the time of the offence.
Magistrate Leanne Topfer granted him a restricted licence allowing him to drive between his home in the state’s north-west and Parliament House during sitting weeks.
But the conditions are strict. He can only travel within 24 hours either side of parliamentary sittings and must take the most direct route.
The magistrate also noted Garland’s prior driving history, including a drink-driving conviction from 1996, made him a repeat offender under the law.
Before being sentenced, Garland told the court he struggled to stay in the city because of the noise and often preferred to sleep outdoors on hard surfaces at Clifton Beach.
The former commercial fisherman and environmental campaigner was first elected to parliament in 2024.
More on this story: Drug-driving case prompts Braddon MP Craig Garland to push for cannabis reform
