Articles
It’s a crazy time we’re living in friends, and in such uncertain straights we must be ever vigilant; we must...
RedHotPie Editor | December 05 2008
The Australian Sex Party - the RHP interview
It’s a crazy time we’re living in friends, and in such uncertain straights we must be ever vigilant; we must be, at any stage, ready to fight for our right… our right to party!
Thankfully you’ve got the RedHotPie army on your side, battling conservatism, battling prudishness and basically battling all the wowsers who stand between you and a rocking good time.
Now, we’re thrilled to report on the launch of The Australian Sex Party, another great initiative from the good people at EROS. Kicking off the party at Melbourne Sexpo with great aplomb and some serious skin, the Australian Sex peeps laid out a charter for reform that will protect our bedrooms for years to come.
Wanting to know more, RedHotPie sat down with Fiona Patten, one of the main players in the party. In an extremely informative chat, Fiona described the party’s background and the role she sees their playing in Australian politics.
(RedHotpie)
So what would say the party’s mission statement is?
(Fiona Patten)
Well I think the name is an extremely honest name, we’re not family first and it was interesting when we were initially looking at these issues, because we do come from the adult industry and our roots are there, but once we looked at the issues, there were so many areas that needed attention, gender issues, sexuality issues and certainly political sex issues such as censorship,. So our clear and concise platform is: equality of gender and sexuality and freedom of speech.
You mentioned the party’s roots; can you expand on the conception of the Australia Sex Party?
Well the party had been born out of the Eros association, which is the retail industry association so it was the issues that were then raised in that association which lead us to say, even though we have much better recognition and understanding in the adult industry, we seem to be going backwards in a lot of those issues.
I think the final one was the ISP filtering, which was going to take Australian censorship back forty years. Material that is now legal in a newsagents in Australia will become illegal online, and not just in an opt out fashion, it will be black listed, so sites like RedHotPie could be blacklisted, so it’s not something you can argue if the government is saying a site contains illegal content and that’s not right, so we need to stand up within parliament rather than outside it.
So the ISP filtering was the catalyst that sparked the party’s conception
Yeah, I think that was the final straw that got us moving toward this level of organisation, I mean we had always tried to lobby and frankly, I had met with Senator Conroy a number of times while he was in opposition and raised my concerns with the ISP filtering and he said to me, “I assure you Fiona, your industry has nothing to worry about, it’s the child porn we’re after, it’s not adult material” and now they’re in parliament, and one wonders, now that they need Senator Fielding's vote, if that has impacted how they are approaching this.
Senator Fielding wants all porn blacklisted, but it’s not just porn, I mean euthanasia sites will be black listed, anorexia sites will be black listed. Anything that the government perceives to be bad for our community, they’re talking about black listing, and ok, we might trust this government, I’m not saying that I do but you might, but what about the next government, this is such a dangerous path that we’re travelling. Yes it’s quite the slippery slope
Very much so
So tell us about the Party launch at Sexpo Melbourne, it looked quite impressive.
Thank you, it was pretty remarkable actually, we hadn’t expected the type of response we’ve received; I think we spoke to a couple of journalists before the launch, by the time we launched, we already had our 500 members, you need 500 members to register for the electoral commission, we already had those, as of today we’ve got about 1200 members, and we just didn’t expect that. I don’t know how other parties launch but yeah
Well I doubt they have the hoopla, no sexy girls, placards, porn stars next door…
No, it was a pretty special launch, and again the fact that the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre is now not giving Sexpo dates, it just furthered our position that there is this conservative creep coming in and it doesn’t matter if it’s a labour government or a liberal government, there is this conservatism coming into politics and people are concerned that the Hillsong Church or the Paradise Church or who ever will complain, and they’re much more vocal than people in the adult industry. You try getting a petition signed for sex, then try getting one signed against it and I can tell you who gets more signatures.
But the response for us has been incredible, I think our little DVD thing we put on Youtube is up to about 67,000 views.
Yeah, I’ve noticed the party’s launch has been picked up in online news circles around the world.
Well I've been doing interviews all over the world, even on Facebook I've found places like Turkey and Italy are really interested. I put the party name into Google and I think on Friday afternoon there were 16,000 direct references to the party… all of the feedback I’m getting has been great, you get one or two saying I’m a Marxist and you’re a misogynist but most of it’s great.
Well that’s a great indicator of the part sexuality issues play in the online world.
That’s right, and I think it’s also interesting in that it’s come at the right time, you know I think people have started to be concerned, “hang on, yet another government intervention”, I mean our party comes from small business, the Eros Association comes from small to medium business, that’s who we represent and it’s not just a concern about government intervention in the bedroom, it’s concern about government intervention generally and I don’t think any party has thoroughly addressed that, so I think the internet filtering has really hit a nerve and the currency of that issue was fortuitous for us.
So where do you think this conservatism has come from and how has it been left unchecked to get to this point?
I suspect it’s actually that we’ve let politics go mad, you know, politics has become about politicians, the notion of politics is much more about keeping your seat for six years than it is about actually making some changes and making some decisions.
I speak to a lot of politicians who say “Fiona, I totally agree with you and I know that 80% of the population agrees with you, however, I hold this seat by 4% and Hillsong doesn’t agree with you and they will campaign against me, so it’s you and them and me”.
I think it has become as small and as petty as that, it’s about getting elected, doing their time in politics and then retiring on a good pension.
So it’s become a simple numbers game
That’s right, and fortunately, the numbers game is on our side, we know what the polling is like, we know with RedHotPie how popular your site is, the kind of engagement and relaxation people have with sexual issues and their own sexuality, so we know we’ve got the numbers, but the trouble is we’re the quiet ones
The Australian Sex party is out to harness the masses then?
Yes absolutely, and I think fortunately, it’s a beautiful time in that the internet hopefully is one of those harnessing devices. It’s not about walking the streets protesting saying we want sex, we can make our voice heard in that online arena, and then at the polling booths!
So who’s involved in the party?
Well we launched on Thursday so it’s still pretty new, but the Eros Association is the backing force for the Sex Party. We’re looking at running candidates in the senate in 2011, so we’ve got a bit of time in front of us to find the right people, the right candidates to really get ourselves organised.
I don’t want to sound sexist, but one of policies is that we would like to see more women in politics and we would like greater gender equality. I believe our society would be a lot healthier if the public company boards were more evenly balanced between men and women, in those decision making areas.
So at this stage our thoughts are on running as many women as we can into the senate and trying to increase the number. I mean other parties kind of pay lip service to that, but it’s still jobs for the boys and you see it all the time.
So you’ve got you long term goal, what’s happening over the next year or two?
Well we’d love to get huge recognition, I mean I’d love us to have a million people engage with us online, and to go into the next election with those sort of numbers would really make a difference. I think anyone interested in the industry is probably online aware, so that’s one goal. The other area is, I wonder whether some of the parties, particularly state government will be looking at some of our issues prior to the election.
It may be that we’ve been lobbying for law reform in the Eros association, I wonder if the Australian Sex Party might be able to achieve some of that law reform, prior to being elected. That doesn’t mean we wouldn’t run candidates, it just means we would be able to put pressure on Senator Conroy about ISP filtering, we may be able to put pressure on the state’s attorney generals about their ban on the sales of X-rated materials. we may be able to look at some of the national sex education curriculum… so that would be a great achievement, if we could get some of our policies through without even getting elected.
Well you’ve identified the pressing issues, but there will always be battles waiting to be fought, have you committed to this being a long term prospect?
We are definitely looking at this as a long term, it really has been interesting. When we first thought about this party and we were thinking is it the Sexual Freedom Party, is it the freedom of speech party is it the Australia Rights Party, you know, then we just said, no, it’s the Australian Sex Party.
You start looking at sex, which is a basic part of our lives, I mean we’re all here because of it and it is intrinsic in our lives, so yes, the party could be around for a long time because it will be about everything, like how do you treat sex and sexuality in old people’s homes, how do you sexual dysfunction, if we think that sex is part of a happy and normal relationship, what happens if you can’t have sex? Because of age, because of disability, because of some form of dysfunction, these are all issues that most governments and politicians do not want to touch. So I want to be talking to Pfizer about this, I want to be talking to disability organisations about this, and we are an ageing population so these are issues we are going to want to address.
Then you look at immigration issues and thing like people trafficking, I mean I think most people trafficking is done for other purposes than sex, but it’s the sex trafficking that always hits the media. I don’t think that’s going to change, we’re going to see greater movement of people around the world so we need to look at that. If a sex worker in Bangkok, wants to come to Australia to work in brothels legally to earn some money and buy some land back home, we need to cut out that middle man, cut out the trafficker, we need to enable her to come here and work safely, and that stops the exploitation, it may be that we can create a model that can be used in other industries, be it the construction industry or the farming industry, a safe model where workers can choose to emigrate for a brief period to work and earn good money in an area that needs workers. So yes, there are lots of issues that will take us through to the second half of the 21st century.
To get all the Sex Party action you can handle, swing by sexparty.org.au
Thankfully you’ve got the RedHotPie army on your side, battling conservatism, battling prudishness and basically battling all the wowsers who stand between you and a rocking good time.
Now, we’re thrilled to report on the launch of The Australian Sex Party, another great initiative from the good people at EROS. Kicking off the party at Melbourne Sexpo with great aplomb and some serious skin, the Australian Sex peeps laid out a charter for reform that will protect our bedrooms for years to come.
Wanting to know more, RedHotPie sat down with Fiona Patten, one of the main players in the party. In an extremely informative chat, Fiona described the party’s background and the role she sees their playing in Australian politics.
(RedHotpie)
So what would say the party’s mission statement is?
(Fiona Patten)
Well I think the name is an extremely honest name, we’re not family first and it was interesting when we were initially looking at these issues, because we do come from the adult industry and our roots are there, but once we looked at the issues, there were so many areas that needed attention, gender issues, sexuality issues and certainly political sex issues such as censorship,. So our clear and concise platform is: equality of gender and sexuality and freedom of speech.
You mentioned the party’s roots; can you expand on the conception of the Australia Sex Party?
Well the party had been born out of the Eros association, which is the retail industry association so it was the issues that were then raised in that association which lead us to say, even though we have much better recognition and understanding in the adult industry, we seem to be going backwards in a lot of those issues.
I think the final one was the ISP filtering, which was going to take Australian censorship back forty years. Material that is now legal in a newsagents in Australia will become illegal online, and not just in an opt out fashion, it will be black listed, so sites like RedHotPie could be blacklisted, so it’s not something you can argue if the government is saying a site contains illegal content and that’s not right, so we need to stand up within parliament rather than outside it.
So the ISP filtering was the catalyst that sparked the party’s conception
Yeah, I think that was the final straw that got us moving toward this level of organisation, I mean we had always tried to lobby and frankly, I had met with Senator Conroy a number of times while he was in opposition and raised my concerns with the ISP filtering and he said to me, “I assure you Fiona, your industry has nothing to worry about, it’s the child porn we’re after, it’s not adult material” and now they’re in parliament, and one wonders, now that they need Senator Fielding's vote, if that has impacted how they are approaching this.
Senator Fielding wants all porn blacklisted, but it’s not just porn, I mean euthanasia sites will be black listed, anorexia sites will be black listed. Anything that the government perceives to be bad for our community, they’re talking about black listing, and ok, we might trust this government, I’m not saying that I do but you might, but what about the next government, this is such a dangerous path that we’re travelling. Yes it’s quite the slippery slope
Very much so
So tell us about the Party launch at Sexpo Melbourne, it looked quite impressive.
Thank you, it was pretty remarkable actually, we hadn’t expected the type of response we’ve received; I think we spoke to a couple of journalists before the launch, by the time we launched, we already had our 500 members, you need 500 members to register for the electoral commission, we already had those, as of today we’ve got about 1200 members, and we just didn’t expect that. I don’t know how other parties launch but yeah
Well I doubt they have the hoopla, no sexy girls, placards, porn stars next door…
No, it was a pretty special launch, and again the fact that the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre is now not giving Sexpo dates, it just furthered our position that there is this conservative creep coming in and it doesn’t matter if it’s a labour government or a liberal government, there is this conservatism coming into politics and people are concerned that the Hillsong Church or the Paradise Church or who ever will complain, and they’re much more vocal than people in the adult industry. You try getting a petition signed for sex, then try getting one signed against it and I can tell you who gets more signatures.
But the response for us has been incredible, I think our little DVD thing we put on Youtube is up to about 67,000 views.
Yeah, I’ve noticed the party’s launch has been picked up in online news circles around the world.
Well I've been doing interviews all over the world, even on Facebook I've found places like Turkey and Italy are really interested. I put the party name into Google and I think on Friday afternoon there were 16,000 direct references to the party… all of the feedback I’m getting has been great, you get one or two saying I’m a Marxist and you’re a misogynist but most of it’s great.
Well that’s a great indicator of the part sexuality issues play in the online world.
That’s right, and I think it’s also interesting in that it’s come at the right time, you know I think people have started to be concerned, “hang on, yet another government intervention”, I mean our party comes from small business, the Eros Association comes from small to medium business, that’s who we represent and it’s not just a concern about government intervention in the bedroom, it’s concern about government intervention generally and I don’t think any party has thoroughly addressed that, so I think the internet filtering has really hit a nerve and the currency of that issue was fortuitous for us.
So where do you think this conservatism has come from and how has it been left unchecked to get to this point?
I suspect it’s actually that we’ve let politics go mad, you know, politics has become about politicians, the notion of politics is much more about keeping your seat for six years than it is about actually making some changes and making some decisions.
I speak to a lot of politicians who say “Fiona, I totally agree with you and I know that 80% of the population agrees with you, however, I hold this seat by 4% and Hillsong doesn’t agree with you and they will campaign against me, so it’s you and them and me”.
I think it has become as small and as petty as that, it’s about getting elected, doing their time in politics and then retiring on a good pension.
So it’s become a simple numbers game
That’s right, and fortunately, the numbers game is on our side, we know what the polling is like, we know with RedHotPie how popular your site is, the kind of engagement and relaxation people have with sexual issues and their own sexuality, so we know we’ve got the numbers, but the trouble is we’re the quiet ones
The Australian Sex party is out to harness the masses then?
Yes absolutely, and I think fortunately, it’s a beautiful time in that the internet hopefully is one of those harnessing devices. It’s not about walking the streets protesting saying we want sex, we can make our voice heard in that online arena, and then at the polling booths!
So who’s involved in the party?
Well we launched on Thursday so it’s still pretty new, but the Eros Association is the backing force for the Sex Party. We’re looking at running candidates in the senate in 2011, so we’ve got a bit of time in front of us to find the right people, the right candidates to really get ourselves organised.
I don’t want to sound sexist, but one of policies is that we would like to see more women in politics and we would like greater gender equality. I believe our society would be a lot healthier if the public company boards were more evenly balanced between men and women, in those decision making areas.
So at this stage our thoughts are on running as many women as we can into the senate and trying to increase the number. I mean other parties kind of pay lip service to that, but it’s still jobs for the boys and you see it all the time.
So you’ve got you long term goal, what’s happening over the next year or two?
Well we’d love to get huge recognition, I mean I’d love us to have a million people engage with us online, and to go into the next election with those sort of numbers would really make a difference. I think anyone interested in the industry is probably online aware, so that’s one goal. The other area is, I wonder whether some of the parties, particularly state government will be looking at some of our issues prior to the election.
It may be that we’ve been lobbying for law reform in the Eros association, I wonder if the Australian Sex Party might be able to achieve some of that law reform, prior to being elected. That doesn’t mean we wouldn’t run candidates, it just means we would be able to put pressure on Senator Conroy about ISP filtering, we may be able to put pressure on the state’s attorney generals about their ban on the sales of X-rated materials. we may be able to look at some of the national sex education curriculum… so that would be a great achievement, if we could get some of our policies through without even getting elected.
Well you’ve identified the pressing issues, but there will always be battles waiting to be fought, have you committed to this being a long term prospect?
We are definitely looking at this as a long term, it really has been interesting. When we first thought about this party and we were thinking is it the Sexual Freedom Party, is it the freedom of speech party is it the Australia Rights Party, you know, then we just said, no, it’s the Australian Sex Party.
You start looking at sex, which is a basic part of our lives, I mean we’re all here because of it and it is intrinsic in our lives, so yes, the party could be around for a long time because it will be about everything, like how do you treat sex and sexuality in old people’s homes, how do you sexual dysfunction, if we think that sex is part of a happy and normal relationship, what happens if you can’t have sex? Because of age, because of disability, because of some form of dysfunction, these are all issues that most governments and politicians do not want to touch. So I want to be talking to Pfizer about this, I want to be talking to disability organisations about this, and we are an ageing population so these are issues we are going to want to address.
Then you look at immigration issues and thing like people trafficking, I mean I think most people trafficking is done for other purposes than sex, but it’s the sex trafficking that always hits the media. I don’t think that’s going to change, we’re going to see greater movement of people around the world so we need to look at that. If a sex worker in Bangkok, wants to come to Australia to work in brothels legally to earn some money and buy some land back home, we need to cut out that middle man, cut out the trafficker, we need to enable her to come here and work safely, and that stops the exploitation, it may be that we can create a model that can be used in other industries, be it the construction industry or the farming industry, a safe model where workers can choose to emigrate for a brief period to work and earn good money in an area that needs workers. So yes, there are lots of issues that will take us through to the second half of the 21st century.
To get all the Sex Party action you can handle, swing by sexparty.org.au
