Sex Party

I don’t mind admitting, I was excited when I rocked up to the polling booth. I was voting in Melbourne and Greens candidate Adam Bandt was favourite to win with the bookies.

There was no incumbent, this wasn’t a safe Liberal or Labor seat. No matter who I voted for, I felt like my vote could really make a difference.

I got my first How To Vote card from the kindly old Democrat volunteer and couldn’t help but notice they’d given their 3rd preference to the candidate from the Australian Sex Party. Way to go Democrats. I had no idea you guys were into that kind of Party!

Continue reading "How to vote in the electorate of Melbourne" »

Whoever loses tomorrow, one thing is certain – this election will not be a victory for any major political party’s true believers. Coalition and Labor partisans have spent the last month gulping down political-DNA-corroding Kool-Aid in their increasingly desperate attempts to pimp themselves out to disengaged bogans address the legitimate concerns of those salt-of-the-earth, hearts-of-gold, marginal-seat-dwelling, mainstream Australians who embody all that is pure and noble in this great nation.

How many inner-city ALP activists letterboxing on cold winter nights have been haunted by that image of the PM and Member for Lindsay scanning the horizon on a navy vessel off Darwin, looking as if they might at any moment rush to a gun turret to strafe an incoming boat packed to the gunwales with queue-jumping reffos? And how many small-business owners brooding about a recalcitrant employee have spluttered on their Penfolds Grange at a Liberal fundraising dinner, pondering how the party of capital lost its bottle when it came to smashing the unions?

But let’s also spare a thought for the Greens’ disillusioned libertarian voters. It was always a somewhat awkward embrace, but for years those bridling at the interference of church and state into who they marry, what they watch, how they choose to get intoxicated, or when they die felt the Greens had their backs.

Continue reading "Slim pickings for libertarians" »

Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott might have turned into cardboard cut-out versions of themselves but there’s still plenty of life left in this election campaign.

It’s always guaranteed to come from the strangest quarters and you can bet it’s the most junior person in the office, or a gung-ho volunteer, who sets the cat amongst the pigeons.

Today’s gem comes from an administrative assistant for the ultra-conservative Family First party, who took it up himself to approach the Sex Party about a preference deal.

Continue reading "Election Sideshow Alley: Where campaign colour lives" »

The people have spoken in two suburban electorates this week, and they said no to sex. Or at least no to the Sex Party. 

As we reported a couple of weeks ago, the party joined the electoral race in the former Peter Costello stronghold Higgins, and also in the Sydney seat of Bradfield.

Not all went swimmingly for the two candidates vying for office.  In Melbourne, Sex Party boss Fiona Patten found herself falling foul of the local plod, after some South Yarra parents found her van - with SEX PARTY written on the back - somehow offensive.

Continue reading "Suburban tales: And the van had ‘Sex Party’ written on it" »