Vote 1 Sex!

Forward-thinking voters may not be as starved for choice in the upcoming election as they think.

Trading against the increasing conservatism of the three major parties, the Australian Sex Party has launched its election campaign speaking out on sensitive issues and quickly proving the party’s policies are sounder than their name might initially suggest.

President of the party and Victorian Senate candidate Fiona Patten told RedHotPie this week that the party would be standing candidates in every state.

“We’re hopeful that we can score a senate seat in the upcoming election,” Ms Patten said.

If the current wave of publicity continues it’s entirely possible the Sex Party will get their wish and land a member in the senate, thus making them one of the strongest civil liberties groups in Australia.

“We would be working to see less government intervention in people’s lives... a lot of our policies are about the issues politicians are afraid to talk about,” Ms Patten said.

Although the Sex Party will be speaking out on specific issues, the fights they are weighing in on may indeed strike a chord with many members of RedHotPie and indeed open-minded Australians everywhere.

Pie members may find considerable common ground with the Sex Party on issues such as the proposed internet filter, the ban on gay marriage and the archaic media classification and censorship systems.

“For the member’s of RedHotPie (the internet filter) will limit their free speech, it will make it difficult to access sites that are of an explicit sexual nature, there is no doubt about that,” explained Ms Patten.

On the issue of pornographic classification and censorship Ms Patten was quick to point the floors in the current system.

“Basically the censorship and classification system in Australia is broken; it doesn’t work. We have different laws in every state... We would like to see the whole classification scheme thrown out of the window,” said Ms Patten.

“Let’s look at spending the government’s resources on monitoring what children see and let’s leave adult content out of the picture,” she added.

While gay marriage seems to be off the table as far as Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott are concerned, the Sex Party are putting their weight behind gay Australians and their right to marry.

“This is a priority for us, I have a sister who is gay and I can’t believe that she is discriminated against under Australian law just because of who she loves. We would certainly be pushing very hard to have all Australian laws treat everyone equally in terms of their sexuality” she said.

The Australian Sex Party seems to be the only real voice against those that would impose their conservative beliefs on our social and sexual freedoms; and as the wowsers take an increasingly disproportionate stake in our government our votes may be more important now than ever.

For more information on the party and their candidates visit www.sexparty.org.au