The Australian Sex Party was an Australian

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

founded in 2009 in response to concerns over the purported increasing influence of religion in Australian politics. The party was born out of an adult-industry lobby group, the Eros Association. Its leader,

Fiona Patten Fiona Heather Patten (born May 1964) is a former Australian politician. She is the leader of the Reason Party and was a member of the Victorian Legislative Council between 2014 and 2022, representing the Northern Metropolitan Region until she ...

, was formerly the association's CEO. Patten described the party as a " civil libertarian alternative". Patten is a veteran campaigner on issues such as

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

, equality, and

discrimination Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of Racial discrimination, r ...

. Patten was elected to the

Victorian Legislative Council The Victorian Legislative Council (VLC) is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria, Australia, the lower house being the Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The Legislative C ...

at the 2014 state election. The party was briefly federally deregistered by the

Australian Electoral Commission The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is the independent federal agency in charge of organising, conducting and supervising federal Australian elections, by-elections and referendums. Responsibilities The AEC's main responsibility is to ...

(AEC) on 5 May 2015, after an audit found that it could not demonstrate that it met the statutory requirement of 500 members, but was re-registered in July. The Sex Party was registered at state level in Victoria, where it had parliamentary representation, as well as in the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory. In 2017, the party merged with the Australian Cyclists Party to form the Reason Party.

Policies

The Australian Sex Party's policy platform has been described as

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...

and supporting equality, social justice,

civil liberties Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties ma ...

and freedom of choice. It is opposed to mandatory internet censorship, and supports the introduction of a national media classification scheme, including a rating for non-violent sexual content. The ASP also supports a Royal Commission into the sexual abuse of children in Australian religious institutions, and is in favour of legalised abortion, gay rights, voluntary euthanasia, the legalisation of cannabis for recreational use along with the decriminalisation of all other drugs for recreational use. However, although this said decriminalisation, or more specifically the removal of criminal sanction, is of interest to the party, they do recommend that this is dealt with by referring one found with illicit drugs to a corresponding treatment centre. Additionally, the party is also in favour of sexual rights for disabled individuals. Based on the science, the Sex Party supports vaccination to protect public health and reduce the spread of preventable diseases. In a 2016 response to the

Australian Vaccination-Skeptics Network The Australian Vaccination-risks Network Inc., formerly known as the Australian Vaccination-Skeptics Network (AVsN), and before that known as the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN), is an Australian anti-vaccination pressure group registered ...

's Meryl Dorey, the Sex Party stated: "Choosing not to vaccinate your children amounts to

medical neglect In the context of caregiving, neglect is a form of abuse where the perpetrator, who is responsible for caring for someone who is unable to care for themselves, fails to do so. It can be a result of carelessness, indifference, or unwillingness and ...

; this is a serious ethical issue".

Election results

Federal

2009 federal by-elections

The party contested elections for the first time at the Higgins and Bradfield by-elections in November 2009, gaining over three percent of the primary vote in both seats, coming fourth of ten, and third of twenty-two candidates, respectively.Virtual Tally Room
, results.aec.gov.au. Retrieved on 2010-10-21.

2010 federal election

The party contested six of 150

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

seats and all states and territories (except

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

and the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding township#Aust ...

) in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

at the 2010 federal election. Receiving more than 250,000 first preferences, the party won 2.04 percent of the national Senate vote. After the major parties and the

Australian Greens The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, are a confederation of Green state and territory political parties in Australia. As of the 2022 federal election, the Greens are the third largest political party in Australia by vote and t ...

, the Sex Party during the vote count were "neck and neck" with the

Family First Party The Family First Party was a conservative political party in Australia which existed from 2002 to 2017. It was founded in South Australia where it enjoyed its greatest electoral support. Since the demise of the Australian Conservatives into wh ...

for the fourth place in the national Senate vote. The party "outpolled several more prominent minor parties and came within about 10,000 votes of Family First for the Senate in Victoria". After the party's first federal election contest, Patten claimed that the Sex Party was "now the major minor party in Australian politics":

We’ve polled better than the Greens did in their first federal election and believe that our vision of Australia as the most socially progressive country in the world is equal to the Greens environmental messages of 20 years ago.

Whilst the Sex Party did not win any seats, their preferences were substantially beneficial to the Greens who won a Senate seat in every state for the first time.

2016 Federal election

For the 2016 federal election the Australian Sex Party fielded

candidates in every state and territory as well as two candidates in New South Wales and four in Victoria for seats in the

. In several states, the Sex Party only fielded one senate candidate, teamed up with the

Marijuana (HEMP) Party Legalise Cannabis Australia, formerly the Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) Party, is an Australian political party. It has a number of policies that centre around the re-legalisation of cannabis for personal, medicinal and industrial uses i ...

to share a column on the ballot paper.

2016 Australian Capital Territory general election

The Australian Sex Party ACT contested the 2016 Australian Capital Territory general election, with lead candidate Steven Bailey receiving 7.9% of the primary vote in the

Brindabella electorate Brindabella may refer to: * Brindabella Airlines * Brindabella Business Park, part of Canberra Airport * Brindabella College in O'Connor, Australian Capital Territory * Brindabella electorate * The Brindabella Ranges * Brindabella National Park * ...

Victoria

Victorian state elections

In addition to fielding candidates in a number of Victorian Legislative Assembly seats, the party stood candidates in all regions of the Victorian Legislative Council after their initial election in 2010. In 2014 the party succeeded in having its first candidate elected to the council with the election of

in the Northern Metropolitan Region. She was returned in 2018.

Victorian state by-elections

Other state wide elections

Northern Territory

The party stood candidates in 5 electorates for the Northern Territory elections, 2012

Australian Capital Territory

The party stood candidates in 3 regions at the ACT elections, 2016

Parliamentary actions

In 2015, Patten put forth a Private Member's Bill calling for a "Safe Access Zone" around hospitals, GP clinics and health services that perform abortions, where it will be an offence to engage in behaviour that harasses or intimidates women seeking to access an abortion. The Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (Safe Access Zone) Bill 2015 formally passed the Victorian Legislative Council without amendment. Patten introduced another Private Member's Bill in 2016, calling for the regulation of ride-sharing apps such as

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery ( Uber Eats and Postmates), pa ...

. The Ridesharing Bill 2016 gained support from both the

Daniel Andrews Daniel Michael Andrews (born 6 July 1972) is an Australian politician serving as the 48th and current premier of Victoria since December 2014. He has been the leader of the Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since December ...

Labor government and the opposition led by

Matthew Guy Matthew Jason Guy (born 6 March 1974) is an Australian politician. He has been a Liberal Party of Australia Member of the Parliament of Victoria since 2006, representing Northern Metropolitan Region in the Legislative Council (2006–2014) an ...

. In 2016, the Sex Party renewed its call for religious institutions to pay more state-based taxes, and to overturn long-standing exemptions.

Links with other groups

The Australian Sex Party's close links with the adult industry lobby group, the Eros Association, led some people to see the party as its political wing. The party had some involvement in the preferencing deals organised by

Glenn Druery Glenn Druery is an Australian political strategist, electoral campaigner and ultra-distance cyclist. He has played a leading role in the electoral success of various micro and minor parties in Australia since the mid-1990s. He acquired a reputat ...

Minor Party Alliance The Minor Party Alliance (MPA) is a collaborative undertaking of small Australian political parties, created by Glenn Druery's "Independent Liaison" business, which assists in organising preference meetings and negotiating preference flows between ...

References

Sources

External links

Australian Sex Party
official website
Facebook page

Twitter
*
Sex Party vs Family First debate
, ''Sunrise'', 2 August 2010 {{Political parties in Victoria (Australia) 2009 establishments in Australia Political parties established in 2009 Civil rights and liberties in Australia Sex Party Sex Party Sex and the law Sex positivism Political parties disestablished in 2017 2017 disestablishments in Australia