AUSTRALIA—The Australian Sex Party has announced that it will contest 24 lower house seats in Victoria during the forthcoming federal elections, and that Party president Fiona Patten (pictured) will head the Senate ticket. Seats being contested range from Melbourne and most metro areas to many regional areas where the Sex Party polled surprisingly well in the 2010 Senate election.
Candidates come from a wide variety of backgrounds and include scientists, warehouse managers, swimming teachers, students, small business owners, social workers and musicians.
Patten said that following an average vote of 7 percent in the past four Victorian State by elections, the party was in a strong position to influence the outcome of a few lower house seats.
“We’re engaged in a social battle to hold the line against religious parties who want to deny Australians a range of freedoms,” she said. “The two major parties don’t particularly care about these issues as long as they get the preference flows that they want. Abortion, regulating and taxing marijuana, euthanasia and proper taxation of the church are all issues that the Sex Party wants to see debated in the federal parliament as part of our basic human and civil rights.”
In 2010, Patten was engaged in a tussle with now DLP Senator, John Madigan, for the last Senate seat in Victoria. She was beaten by only a few thousand votes.
“Since then," she said, “Senator Madigan has made abortion his main focus of activity. If Family First or the DLP win the last Senate seat in Victoria again, I predict that they will hold the next government to ransom by seeking to criminalize abortion around Australia. A vote for the Sex Party is the best way of stopping this from happening".
She said her team was confident and enthusiastic. "The number of lower house candidates has increased from three to 24, since the last federal election. We are building a base for Australia’s number one civil liberties party."
For more information about the Australian Sex Party, go here.
The Sex Party’s candidate list by electorates is:
Batman: Lianna Sliwczynski
Bendigo: Charlie Crutchfield
Calwell: Nevena Spirovska
Corangamite: Jayden Millard
Deakin: Stephen Barber
Dunkley: Eloise Palmi
Gellibrand: Allan Cashion
Gippsland: Douglas Leitch
Gorton: Rhiannon Hunter
Holt: Lachlan Smith
Indi: Helma Aschenbrenner
Isaacs: Laith Grahan
Jagajaga: Nick Wallis
Lalor: Luzio Grossi
LaTrobe: Martin Leahy
Mallee: Amy Mulcahy
Maribyrnong: Amy Myers
McEwen: Vicki Nash
McMillan: Ben Staggard
Melbourne: James Mangisi
Melbourne Ports: Melissa Star
Murray: Tristram Chellew
Scullin: Nathan Rolph
Wills: Adrian Trajstman
