Sex Party seeks election

The Australian Sex Party will field candidates in the November 27 state election.

Sex Party president Fiona Patten said the party, recently registered by the Victorian Electoral Commission, would field 20 candidates.

“Predominately we’ll be choosing marginal seats,” she told Southern Star Observer.

“I think this election we are in there with a chance, quite possibly an Upper House seat.

“And this being the only state where the DLP [Democratic Labor Party] has any presence, I think it’s really important there’s a counter like the Sex Party in there.”

The party is likely to campaign on a range of social issues including a push to tighten Victoria’s anti-discrimination laws to cover people on the basis of work — like sex workers — allowing same-sex adoption and the introduction of safe injecting rooms.

Patten said conservative parties in Victoria, such as the DLP, which strongly opposes granting relationship and IVF rights to gay and lesbian couples, needed a balance.

“Things like access to IVF, which I know is pretty good in Victoria, but that doesn’t mean it can’t change,” Patten said.

“When you have people like the DLP gaining a foothold here; not only do they have a member in the Legislative Council, they’ve now got a [federal] Senator, so to stop that pendulum from swinging, you do need to keep pushing it and apply pressure on the government.”

Patten said the party — which first ran a candidate in the 2009 Higgins by-election — will also seek to challenge Victoria’s classification laws if the party wins a seat.

It’s likely the party will go head-to-head with lesbian Greens candidate for Richmond Kathleen Maltzahn, whom they accuse of taking a hardline stance on Victoria’s sex industry.

The VEC received one objection to the Sex Party’s registration on the grounds that the name was obscene, which was eventually dismissed.