Melbourne to vote for sex

The Australian Sex Party will stand a candidate for the seat of Melbourne in the upcoming federal election.

Sex Party convenor Fiona Patten said she would also lodge an application to register the party in Victoria for state elections later this year.

“We’re in the process of registering the party in Victoria … so hopefully now the party has gone through the rigours of registering with the federal Electoral Commission, it will be a lot easier,” she told Southern Star.

The Sex Party was recently given the all-clear by the Australian Electoral Commission for the second time after an appeal was lodged calling for the party’s registration to be cancelled because the word ‘sex’ was used in the title.

The first appeal was made when the party registered last August.

“If anything, it shows the need for the party when people get so heated up about the word ‘sex’, ” Patten said.

The Sex Party — which will campaign on a platform of “sexual free speech” and is pro-gay marriage — hopes to nominate candidates in every state for House of Representatives seats and the Senate.

Patten said the candidate for Melbourne, currently held by Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, has not yet been confirmed.

The Greens’ Adam Bandt — who ran for the seat in 2007 and took 45.3 percent of the vote — is also set to re-contest.

The seat of Melbourne takes in the Melbourne CBD, Richmond, Collingwood, Carlton, Fitzroy and North Melbourne and has been held by Labor since 1904.