MEMBER for Mildura Ali Cupper will join forces with influential Victorian Upper House MP Fiona Patten in a new coalition to “change Victoria for the better”.
In a bombshell announcement, Ms Cupper will on Friday become the Deputy Leader of Ms Patten’s Reason Party as she does “whatever it takes” to “score the biggest wins I can for Mildura”.
Ms Cupper insists she will maintain her independence in a power play that will make her become the party’s voice on transport infrastructure, agriculture and other regional issues.
It will also give Mildura an unprecedented say on key policy reforms in the Upper House, where crossbenchers including Ms Patten, the Member for Northern Metropolitan Region, hold the balance of power.
“I’m not an election candidate, I’m an MP – and I can’t stuff around for the next two years (before the 2022 state poll),” Ms Cupper said.
“I’ve got one job, and that’s to get positive outcomes for Mildura.
“This is about two strong, independent women coming together to change Victoria for the better.”
Ms Patten said the new coalition of “like-minded, socially progressive” women would work with the Andrews Government to “achieve better outcomes for regional Victoria”.
“I have become known as pragmatic and I don’t see myself as the Opposition,” said Ms Patten, who created the Reason Party in 2017 after dissolving her Australian Sex Party.
“I see Reason as a party – and now coalition with Ali – that wants to work with the government to achieve what’s best for the community.
“The party will provide a really strong voice for Mildura in the Upper House, which it hasn’t had before now.
“We’ll now both have the ability to have voices in both houses of parliament, which enables you to negotiate with everyone.”
The aligning of the two rising parliamentary stars came about in the past two months during talks on the new industrial hemp laws.
“We could both see that we worked well together and we just started to see those opportunities,” Ms Patten said.
The first item on Ms Cupper’s agenda is convincing the government to fix the “glaring rates disparity” between the country and city.
“This scandalous economic injustice between metro and regional councils can’t go on any longer,” the former Mildura deputy mayor said.
Ms Cupper, who was a Labor candidate at the 2010 state poll, concedes she will cop some backlash over linking with the Reason Party.
“But I’ll ultimately be judged on what I’ve achieved for Mildura (by the 2022 state poll),” she said.
“Mildura will now get levers in both houses of Parliament – and this will help change the game for not only my electorate, but the rest of the state.”
Ms Patten and Ms Cupper will hold their first official Reason Coalition parliamentary meeting at State Parliament on Monday, when the last sitting week of the year kicks off.
Political rise of a dealmaker
In 2009, she started the Australian Sex Party, which was born out of the Eros Foundation, an adult-industry lobby group where Ms Patten had been chief executive officer.
Ms Patten was elected to Victoria’s Upper House as a Member for the Northern Metropolitan Region in 2014.
Three years later, she dissolved the Sex Party and launched the Reason Party, under which banner she was re-elected at the 2018 state poll.
She has successfully lobbied the Andrews Government on several key reforms. The most notable was initiating the parliamentary inquiry that led to Australian-first “dying with dignity” laws.
The 56-year-old also helped secure the first medically supervised injecting centre in Victoria after introducing the Drugs Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment Bill in 2017.
The key crossbencher in the Victorian Legislative Council has now teamed up with independent Member for Mildura Ali Cupper to turn the state’s political landscape on its head.
Asked how she thinks Premier Daniel Andrews will react to the new coalition, Ms Patten said on Thursday: “I would hope the government welcomes this new coalition – and that they’d see this as two strong, sensible MPs joining forces so we can represent our communities in a better way.
“I would see no reason for the Andrews Government to be frightened of it.
“The rise of the independents is happening right across Australia – and the governments that embrace this movement can only benefit.
“I started my political career launching the Sex Party, which got people’s attention.
“And when we started the Reason Party, we always saw it evolving into something that was a hybrid of a political party.
“It’s still a small party (with about 3000 members across Victoria), and we’re certainly not going to be changing the curtains in The Lodge (in Canberra) any time soon. But what we are able to do is influence policy by working with the government.
“And that’s very much what Ali and I will be doing.”
