After raising her family in regional Victoria, Judy Ryan relocated to inner-city Melbourne in 2012. Judy accidentally became immersed in Melbourne's deadly heroin crisis, and in 2016 launched what ultimately became a successful residents' campaign for a supervised injecting facility in Richmond. Judy has since stood as a candidate in the three levels of government in Australia- as an independent candidate in the City of Yarra in the 2016 local government election; as the Reason Party candidate in the Victorian state electorate of Richmond in 2018; and as the Reason Party candidate in the federal electorate of Melbourne in 2019.