SEX, drugs and death have been central to Fiona Patten’s political rise.
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.”
