Fiona Patten

Fiona Patten
Leader of the Australian Sex Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 December 2009
Preceded by	Position Created

Fiona Patten is leader of the Australian Sex Party and a former sex worker. She is also the CEO of the Eros Association.

"Sex is deeply rooted in the lives of all Australians. It is relevant to hundreds of pieces of legislation made around the country. If you're sick of being preached at by wowser and chauvinistic politicians, join the Australian Sex Party. We're positive about sex."

Patten states on the party's website that she is related to Jessie Street, however, there has never been any evidence put forward that there is any relationship. Patten was "good mates" with Don Chipp, and was once on trial for Contempt of Parliament for threatening to "out" National Party politicians.

Politics

1992 ACT election

In 1992, Patten contested the second election for representation in the multi-member single consistency Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly on a ticket called the Hare-Clark Independent Party with sitting member, Craig Duby. Both Duby and Patten were unsuccessful in being elected.

2009 Higgins by-election

Patten contested the seat of Higgins in Victoria at the 2009 by-election. She received over 3 percent of the vote, placing her 4th out of 10 candidates. Her campaign was based on opposing Greens candidate Clive Hamilton's proposal for an ISP-level Internet filter which would block access to websites containing RC-rated content—that is, legal material which is banned from sale, trade or public exhibition due to its extreme nature.

Patten remains a prominent critic of the proposal. She appeared in the Four Corners episode "Access Denied" arguing that it would include blocking access to adult films such as Pirates—refused classification because of a technicality—that do not depict sexual violence, are extremely popular overseas and are available for download on dozens of websites. According to research mentioned in the episode, it is unviable for the filter to block access to more than a thousand or so individual web pages.

2010 federal election

See also: Senate results for the Australian federal election, 2010

The party contested all states and territories (except Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory) in the Senate and six of 150 House of Representatives seats at the 2010 federal election. The party won 2.04 percent of the national Senate vote, over 250,000 first preferences. After the major parties and the Australian Greens, the Sex Party during the vote count were "neck and neck" with the Family First Party 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.

2010 Victorian election

Patten contested the Northern Metropolitan Region in the Victorian Legislative Council at the 2010 Victorian state election.

2012 Melbourne by-election

Patten contested the 2012 Melbourne state by-election, coming third out of 16 candidates, receiving 6.6 percent of the vote, in the absence of a Liberal Party candidate. She says the party preferenced Labor ahead of the Greens due to the "anti-sex feminist movement" within the Greens, but that future preferences may change again.

External links

• SexParty.org.au - homepage
• Sex Party vs Family First debate: Sunrise 2 August 2010