Australian Adult Industry Flirts With Politics

The name may seem like a joke, but the Australian Sex Party is serious — serious about sex, according to their slogan.

Fiona Patten poses for a photo at Sexpo in Melbourne, Thursday, Nov 20, 2008. Patten today launched...

Fiona Patten poses for a photo at Sexpo in Melbourne, Thursday, Nov 20, 2008. Patten today launched the Australian Sex Party, aiming to win at least one Senate seat in each state while also targeting Upper House state seats. Among aims of the party's policy is to get Viagra, Cialis and other drugs that treat sexual dysfunction on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme as well as developing global approaches to tackle child pornography.

(Julian Smith/AAP )

The country's newest political party is also serious about a number of other issues: quashing a government proposal for a national Internet filter that would block 10,000 Web sites; instituting a new national sex education curriculum; and pushing for the legalization of gay marriage.

The party — launched Thursday at Sexpo, an annual sex exhibition in Melbourne — has already gathered the required 500 members and plans to register with the electoral commission next week.

"We're concerned about the Australian government becoming a nanny state, and about this conservative creep in politics," party convener and Eros head Fiona Patten told The Associated Press by phone.

Patten called the federal government's proposal for an Internet filter "the last straw."

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Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told Parliament earlier this month that his mandatory Internet filter would block 10,000 Web sites on a government blacklist of "unwanted content," including sites showing child pornography, excessive violence, drug use or instructions in criminal or terrorist acts.

But Patten said the filter targets a far wider range of sites.

"If they were aiming to block child pornography, no problem," she said. "But they've identified any adult site, things like playboy.com, a site that shows material that you can buy in a news agency or rent or buy in an adult video shop. It was an incredible shift back 30 years."

The Australian Christian Lobby has already condemned the Sex Party.

"Pornography and prostitution do enormous damage to women and children, and the idea of mainstream political parties giving this trade seats in our nation's parliaments ... would offend the sensibilities of most Australians who believe women should be respected," the lobby's Managing Director Jim Wallace said in a statement.