Australia Sex Party

Fiona Patten is the leader of the Australian Sex Party, a political group that emerged in 2009 as a response to what the party described as the sexual needs of Australians living in the 21st century. Among other political flagships, her party has campaigned against sex slavery, for the development of sex education in schools and also for a new classification for adult material.

As a long-time campaigner on behalf of the sex industry, Fiona Patten criticises Britain's legal stance regarding sex work, and calls for a deep legal reform.

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The Australian Sex Party vote in the Victorian Upper House has almost doubled following the state election. From an average vote of 2.2% in the last Senate election in Victoria, the party's vote in the regions it contested, rose to nearly 4%.

The party recorded the highest vote of minor parties and independents in three out of the four upper house regions it contested.

Party President and candidate in the Upper House region of Northern Metro, Fiona Patten, said that for a party that had been registered for only one month in Victoria to double its federal vote, was a tremendous outcome. The implications for the Sex Party's vote at the next Senate election are very encouraging , she said.

The Sex Party waged a strong campaign against Labor Minister for Gaming, Tony Robinson, over his curbs on adult entertainment and also ran a strong campaign against the Greens candidate in Richmond, Kathleen Maltzhan, who personally supported prosecuting clients of sex workers.

Ms Patten said that the most gratifying result was outpolling all three Christian parties (Christian Party, Family First and DLP) in all Upper House seats that the Sex Party ran in. We also recorded a much better vote than the religious parties in 15 out of 17 lower house seats that we contested , she said. The Sex Party's pledge to get religion out of politics is one small step closer to becoming a reality after this election although religious affiliations and networks run deep in both major parties these days .

Ms Patten said that the Sex Party would look at running candidates in local government elections and that the first Victorian by election would be keenly contested with Sex Party preferences going to the party that had the best civil liberty and personal freedom track record.

In its first federal election, the Australian Sex Party has laid claim to the major minor party status in Australian politics.

Outside of Coalition, Labor and Greens parties, the Sex Party is fighting neck and neck with Family First for fourth place in the national Senate vote, without even standing candidates in either the ACT or Tasmania.

In Victoria, the party is level pegging and vying with the DLP for the last Senate seat, in the NT it has received more than 4% of the vote and nationally, Sex Party preferences have significantly boosted the Greens vote.

In the six House of Representatives seats that the Sex Party contested, it came fourth in all but one, beating Family First in all.

Party President, Fiona Patten, said the Sex Party welcomed a hung parliament: Suddenly the smaller members of the parliament have become the big boys and are worthy of courting.

Ms Patten said that the major minor party status had been achieved on the smell of an oily rag. We had our name, our policies and a handful of hardworking volunteers , she said. We had no momentum from previous elections, virtually no funds for advertising, virgin candidates and the ability to hand out how to vote cards at only two per cent of polling booths around the country. Its been a remarkable effort really .

She said that from today, she would start looking for candidates to contest every House of Reps seat and the Senate in all states for the next federal election. We're off and running from a standing start and we'll shake things up a bit before the next federal election comes around , she said.

Following an appeal over the registration of the Australian Sex Party last August, The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has issued a Statement of Reasons for dismissing the appeal.

The AEC considered two issues raised by the appellant:

• That the abbreviation to be used by the party on advertising and on voting forms (Sex Party) was obscene
• Proper procedure was not applied in assessing the membership of the party

The AEC found that: sex in itself is a completely inoffensive word. It does not become offensive merely because it identifies this particular party as being concerned with public and political issues of a sexual nature . It also found that due process in ascertaining that the party had 500 legitimate members, had been accorded.

Sex Party President, Fiona Patten, said that the initial application to register the party had drawn a wave of protest and complaints which had not stopped even after the party had been registered.

Religious and morals groups are afraid of our agenda because for the first time in Australian politics, a political party has been registered which intends to expose religious hypocrisy and fraud for what it is. Religious conservatives like Archbishop Pell, Steve Fielding, Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd are understandably nervous , she said.

Ms Patten said that she was about to lodge an application to register the party in Victoria and was hopeful of running candidates in the next state election. Although the next NSW election is still 10 months away, the onerous provisions put in place by the two major parties and the Greens made it impossible to register the Sex Party there before that state election. It's a form of gerrymandering , she said. Instead of redrawing electorate boundaries to suit themselves they have redrawn the conditions of entry into politics with much the same result.

The Australian Sex Party will nominate its convenor and anti-censorship activist Fiona Patten for the Higgins by-election.

The organization said Patten will stand in contrast to the Liberal and Greens candidates to campaign for gay rights, a national sex education curriculum in primary and secondary schools. She also will tackle censorship issues, including the increasing influence of religion in politics and Internet filtering.

Patten said that censorship of the Internet was already at critical levels even before any national filtering scheme was in place. Many sex education, health and fertility agencies were having their sites blocked by inefficient filters.

She said the Australian Sex Party's site had been censored by the government as well: This is a clear breach of the implied rights to political free speech in the Constitution and an example of how difficult it has become for anyone who deals in sexuality to operate online, she said. If ever we get a Clive Hamilton's style national filter in place, the Internet will be off limits for many people.

The Australian Sex Party will nominate human rights advocate Zahra Stardust, who also is a burlesque dancer, for the Bradfield By-election on 5th December.

The organization calls Stardust, aka Marianna Leishman, a strong generation Y woman who believes in changing the world from upside down and using the stage as a space to talk about social injustice.

Stardust is a feminist writer and law graduate who also works as a trapeze artist, burlesque performer, showgirl, fire twirler and pole dance instructor.

We look forward to hearing from and consulting with the youth and women of Bradfield about issues affecting their rights, priorities and desires and providing a more nuanced representation of the beautifully diverse electorate of Bradfield, Stardust said.

The Australian Sex Party has obtained approval from the Australian Electoral Commission for registration as a political party.

The commission, which announced the registration on its website, said it had received several objections.

The party's convenor and likely future candidate Fiona Patten said: One of the reasons for establishing the party was to provide a positive platform for sexual issues amongst the negative notions of sex that most politicians and political parties have, she said in a statement.

Somebody Think of the Children blog raised concerns last week about whether the Australian Sex Party (ASP) would fight for an R18+ game classification, given that adult trade association Eros had been opposed to adult games.

Party convenor Fiona Patten promptly responded said that ASP does support the introduction of an R18+ classification for games, as well as an X18+ rating for games. It's part of their national and consistent approach to classification policy.

When it comes to the availability of BDSM material and other content that could be perceived as violent, ASP would like to see the X18+ classification replaced with a NVE (Non Violent Erotica) classification and clearly consenting role playing and fantasies allowed. If that's the case, the NVE guidelines would need to be a lot more lenient than those proposed nearly 10 years ago.

The party is also opposed to the removal of the AMI's Want Longer Lasting Sex billboard. Patten explains that the removal was because of an organised campaign and there was even a website that Catholic Bishop Pell promoted. The word sex in it self should not be seen as inappropriate and that is what happened.'

The Australian political party, with the slogan we're serious about sex, launches at Melbourne Sexpo on November 20th and party convenor Fiona Patten is confident it will gain the 500 members required to register and contest state Upper House and Senate seats.

Ms Patten, who is also the chief executive of the Eros Association - representing the adult retail and entertainment industry, said she and others were concerned about the Government's proposed internet filter, which is being tested over summer on about 10,000 sites to block unwanted content.

This really came out of 20 years of lobbying on sex and censorship and then... the latest being the compulsory internet filter, which will ... prohibit and blacklist adult material that is currently legal in magazines, books and film, she said.

Ms Patten said there had already been a lot of interest from potential members: We'll probably have our 500 members by the time we launch on Thursday. But there's four million customers of adult shops in Australia."

She also hoped the 1000 or so adult shops around the country would become Sex Party branches: Hopefully we'll get their attention with the word but then we may be able to help influence some reasonably sensible policies.

An introductory statement on the Australian Sex Party reads:

We're serious about sex.

Sex is a wonderful thing. It's the reason we were born and (mostly) its NOT the reason we die. Sex, as gender, defines who we are and often what roles we undertake in society. It's responsible for a heck of a lot of pleasure and fulfillment in life. Also, the basis of much art, fashion and music. It entertains us, enthralls us and mystifies us. Because its such a fundamental need of human beings, it conditions much of our behaviour. And then politicians go and legislate that behaviour.

The Australian Sex Party is a political response to the sexual needs of Australia in the 21st century. It is an attempt to restore the balance between sexual privacy and sexual publicity that has been severely distorted by morals campaigners and prudish politicians.

A political party based on sex is certainly a single-issue party but to choose a bad metaphor, its a very broad church. Economic, social welfare, environmental and even defense policies have got lots to do with sex and sexuality. All those big guns and huge surpluses...

If you're sick of religious and anti-sex politicians like Steve Fielding, Brian Harradine and Fred Nile threatening to block legislation in the Senate and State Upper Houses unless they get their way on sex and gender issues, vote for someone who understands this rort.

Vote for the Sex Party.