Sex Party stands for Melbourne by-election

Allowing same-sex couples to adopt, replacing public school chaplains with counsellors and improving surrogacy laws for same-sex couples are just some of the policies Sex Party candidate Fiona Patten will stand for in Melbourne’s upcoming by-election.

Patten announced today she will contest the July 21 by-election for the state seat of Melbourne.

The Sex Party has been a vocal advocate for marriage equality but its core platform has been to challenge censorship laws against adult films and computer games.

Patten said she refused to doorknock Melbourne residents and will instead rely on the party’s substantial social media numbers including more than 17,000 Facebook followers and more than 8000 Twitter followers.

“I want to be a politician — not a Mormon,” she said.

Patten said the Sex Party vote had been steadily rising since it contested the 2010 federal election.

“The Sex Party is a young and progressive party that is increasingly concerned about the rise of the nanny state in Australia,” she said.

“We’ll be there to cater for progressive voters who want to vote for a party that has new ideas and offers a better way out of the old problems.”

Sex Party candidates stood in last year’s Victorian by-elections for Broadmeadows and Niddrie, receiving 5 and 8 percent of the vote respectively.

Greens candidate and Melbourne city councillor Cathy Oke is the current frontrunner for the seat, followed by Labor candidate Jennifer Kanis.

Bronwyn Pike, a Labor minister in the Bracks and Brumby Governments, resigned on May 7, triggering the by-election.

The Sex Party was founded in 2009 and has become a serious contender among smaller political parties.