News and Media Archive

Last month I attended the Heart Foundation and Victoria Ambulance breakfast where I was taught how to use an Automated External Defibrillators. It was a fantastic and informative morning and I was struck by how simple the process of using a defibrillator was. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the single biggest killer in Australia. CVD kills…

A THREE-YEAR battle to improve lighting at All Nations Park has reached the Victorian upper house. Members of the Legislative Council have backed a community group’s claims that the park was unsafe at night. The group of dog owners protested outside the council chambers before a budget submission meeting last Thursday, and said it was…

Paramedics place themselves in harm’s way to save people’s lives. It is a noble and challenging job and paramedics should feel safe at work. I too am angered by the conduct of perpetrators in this highly publicised case. Actions like theirs should never go unpunished. However, the question at hand, is whether mandatory gaol sentences…

Today Fiona Patten MP, leader of the Reason Party, questioned the government on its commitment to creativity, music and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) education.   During the Parliamentary Accounts and Estimates committee hearing today, Ms Patten questioned the Minister for Education, James Merlino, about the Victorian Budget Paper’s $1 Million funding for…

VICTORIAN gambling taxes are close to hitting the $2 billion mark for the first time, a parliamentary committee has been told. Reason Party MP Fiona Patten questioned Treasurer Tim Pallas on the figures, which will come to about $1.87 billion in the 2017/18 financial year, during a budget estimates hearing on Tuesday. “Two billion dollars…

In the Treasurer’s Budget speech last night he stated ‘Taxes should be lower, simpler and fairer, but taxes must also be paid. Honest and fair businesses and taxpayers are being ripped off by those who think they are above paying tax’. Fiona Patten MP, Leader of the Reason Party, is continuing to crack down on…

Fiona Patten MP, leader of the Reason Party, has been described by ABC’s Jon Faine as one of Australia’s ‘most effective legislators’ and the Victorian Government’s 2018-19 budget goes a long way in validating this. Fiona was elected in 2014 and has a hugely impressive record of working cross-party to achieve impressive and progressive legislation….

Reason Party leader, Fiona Patten, has condemned the Liberal Party’s support for the so-called ‘Nordic Model’ of regulating sex work which was passed at the party’s state conference last week. ‘This is not a model for regulating sex work but a ban by another name and should be acknowledged as such’, she said. ‘The Liberals…

A state MP has called for Australia to introduce Amsterdam-style cafes where customers can enjoy hash cookies and smoke joints. Fiona Patten, a member of Victoria’s upper house, said marijuana should be decriminalised so it can be bought at shops and enjoyed over a cup of coffee as it is in The Netherlands. ‘Would I…

A SUNNY Friday afternoon at a venue overlooking the Yarra River was the setting for the annual Victorian Transport Association Women’s Lunch. The venue was Fenix Events in the suburb of Richmond and the keynote speaker was none other than Fiona Patten, a Victorian MP in the state Legislative Council. Ms Patten is a member…

Reason Party leader and Victorian Upper House member, Fiona Patten, has labelled the Greens call to legalise recreational cannabis as a desperate attempt to stay relevant to young voters and without reference to recent developments in the US and Canada. Ms Patten has been a strong advocate for the legalisation of cannabis for many years…

Hello from Canada in it’s very brisk springtime glory! I am currently on a study tour with the Electoral Matters Committee investigating best practice in electoral participation, which Canada does quite well. Also, while I’m here I’ll be taking a look at their new cannabis regulations. Oh Canada … why are you so good at all the things? I’m glad that this trip…

Upper House MP for the Australian Conservatives, Rachel Carling-Jenkins, has rejected suggestions she deliberately avoided a vote on the Government’s controversial fire services bill. Dr Carling-Jenkins was absent from Parliament last week when the Upper House was debating the controversial bill to restructure the fire services. She had been an opponent of the plan, and…

 

Fiona spoke to Jo Lauder about the Drug Law Reform report’s recommendations. Broadcast on the 27th of March, 2018 http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/ @jolauder      

I believe that as members of parliament we should act with integrity, in a way that maintains the upmost public confidence. Our culture should not be that of finding loopholes; Of taking advantage of laws to their fullest; Of breaking or bending rules. It should be the opposite. In our judicial system there is an…

Observing question time in our parliaments reasonably leads to the lament that our lawmakers are a bunch of dullard bullies. But, behind the closed doors of committee rooms, those same politicians collaborate to study evidence and generate policies for the common good. A fabulous example has just occurred in Victoria. The cross-party law reform, road…

3AW – 693AM Mornings with Neil Mitchell 26th of March, 2018 Monday – Friday 8:30am – midday Once a fortnight, Fiona Patten is a guest on his show and they discuss a range of topics… But it’s always about what Melbourne’s talking about.  

  You can read the report in full here:

  Report on ABC Radio National, aired on PM program on Tuesday 27th of March at 6:30 PM, featuring Fiona Patten. The issue of personal drug use has long challenged Australian governments and a Victorian Parliamentary committee report has recommended that it be treated as a health issue. It’s one of 50 recommendations on issues…

Victoria needs to re-assess its drug driving laws to measure impairment, not just the presence of drugs, a report into drug law reform recommends. Victoria needs to re-assess its drug driving laws to measure impairment, and not just the presence of drugs, a report recommends. Parliament’s drug law reform inquiry released its 640-page report on…

Pill testing should be introduced at music festivals to help emergency workers treat patients suffering adverse reactions like overdoses, according to an inquiry into Victorian drug law reform. A state parliamentary committee investigating laws and regulation of illicit drugs released the mammoth 680-page report with 50 recommendations. It proposed authorities, but not festival goers, have…

Fiona Patten MLC has tabled the Law Reform, Road Safety Committee Report on Drug Law Reform in the Legislative Council, that she initiated in November 2015. The comprehensive 680 page report with 50 recommendations received extensive evidence and research from a wide range of experts and peak organisations from Australia and internationally. In all it…

THE use of sniffer dogs at music festivals should be probed and drug-driving laws expanded to include more substances, according to an explosive parliamentary report. The unprecedented measures are expected to be among more than 50 recommend­ations to be handed down by the joint house committee in the Victorian parliament on Tuesday. Some of the…

Today, Australians consume more than 1.4 billion Weet-bix each year. As a Weet-bix kid myself, I had no idea, nor did my parents have any idea, that the money we spent on our family breakfast was being sent overseas, tax-free, to support a religious institution. I doubt Aussie families today would know that the dozens…

Staff at Victoria’s two youth justice centres have used lockdowns and isolation to control juvenile detainees many thousands of times in the past two years, often due to staff shortages and in contravention of human rights laws, a damning report has found. The practice of locking down and isolating youth offenders inside the Parkville and Malmsbury…

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s recent inevitably dubbed ”bonk ban” is an upstanding contender for the decade’s dumbest policy. This is not at all to say ministers should have impunity to have sex with staff members; there is clearly potential for carnal abuse of power and the Prime Minister is right to call it out as…

By Nino Bucci and Benjamin Preiss Updated 20 February 2017 — 8:15pm first published at 3:12pm   A coroner has recommended the Victorian government trial a supervised injecting room in north Richmond, amid an unprecedented spate of heroin overdoses. Coroner Jacqui Hawkins held an inquest in December into the death of Ms A, a 34-year-old who overdosed from heroin on…

Reason Party Leader, Fiona Patten MLC, has challenged both the Victorian Premier and the Leader of the Opposition to enact new laws around drugs that would be the toughest ever introduced in Victoria. She said they would smash the $8 billion illegal drug empire overnight and reduce the crime rate in the state by a…

A day of reckoning for state and federal governments over the tax-free status of Australia’s largest religious institutions is well overdue according to Victorian Upper House MP and Leader of REASON, Fiona Patten MLC. Successive governments have enabled the Catholic Church to amass a tax-free property and business portfolio valued at over $30 Billion making…

Victorian Upper House MP and leader of REASON, Fiona Patten MLC is concerned patients are needlessly suffering while access to medicinal cannabis remains elusive. As far back as October 2015, the government announced that it had accepted all recommendations of the Victorian Law Reform Commission, clearing the way for patients with multiple sclerosis, cancer, HIV…

The Reason Party has renewed calls for the introduction of pill-testing. It comes after nine people were hospitalised after a mass drug overdose at Festival Hall on the weekend. Reason Party leader Fiona Patten told Neil Mitchell evidence from overseas trials shows that pill-testing saves lives and reduces drug use. “How many people need to die?”…

It was an unusual sight. A non-government MP standing shoulder to shoulder with Labor Premier Daniel Andrews and three ministers for a major policy announcement.. But the appearance of Reason Party MP Fiona Patten at the policy launch for a safe injecting room trial in Richmond could be the start of a new trend, with predictions neither…

Fiona talked to Bob and Judy from RPP about 2017 in Parliament. Sugar and Spice is hosted by Bob Phillips and Judy Banks-Phillips every Thursday 9-11am on RPP 98.7fm.

When she was handing out how-to-vote cards at the July 2016 federal election, Fiona Patten realised it was time to change. Patten had been the Sex party’s first MP for close to two years and, from the upper house in Victoria, she had achieved things. She had proposed a parliamentary inquiry into voluntary assisted dying, an idea…

Victorian Upper House MP, Fiona Patten will today first read a Bill in the Victorian Parliament to amend the Charities Act 1978 to exclude the advancement of religion as a charitable purpose. This amendment will ensure that tax exemptions for charities in Victoria only apply to those organisations engaging in objectively charitable works. Most people…

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is increasingly unpopular and distrusted because he is seen to lack the courage of his convictions, and be driven by a base lust for power. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is perennially unpopular and distrusted because he is seen to have no convictions, and be driven by a lust for power. Politics…

PLAYING the pokies is nothing like having a bet on the Melbourne Cup or the Grand Final, and the state government’s new gambling legislation must be debated, writes Fiona Patten.   LIKE most Australians, I like having a bet on the Melbourne Cup and I don’t mind donning a fascinator and a pair of uncomfortable…

Mornings with Neil Mitchell. Fiona Patten wants to cap the amount of cash gamblers can withdraw at poker venues, saying the machines are “more damaging” than drugs. The Reason Party (former Australian Sex Party) leader told Neil Mitchell the government wants to limit ATM withdrawals to $500 per day. “I’m calling on them to reduce…

A last-ditch attempt will be launched in parliament this week to stop the Victorian government handing the state’s pokies venues a long-term jackpot worth up to $70 billion. Legislation for 20-year licences to operate gambling venues and relax ownership limits on the addictive poker machines was expected to be rubber-stamped this week by the state’s upper house. The…

PARAMEDICS have treated a second suspected overdose victim near North Richmond’s safe injecting room site after a person earlier had an apparent overdose metres from where Premier Daniel Andrews was giving a media conference. The man overdosed on Lennox St at 12.28pm and was attended to by paramedics. It comes after Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed…

The announcement of Victoria’s first Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC) by the Victorian Government is to be embraced according to REASON Party Leader and Victorian Upper House MP Fiona Patten. “I congratulate Daniel Andrews for his about-face and for seeing REASON in evidence-based policy by adopting my Private Members Bill, put before Victoria’s Legislative Council…

By Tammy MillsPhoto by Penny Stephens Supporters of a Melbourne mother of 13 who was the first person in Victoria convicted of breaching abortion clinic “buffer zone” laws are drawing inspiration from an unlikely source. Pro-life groups say they could make a similar argument to former Greens leader Bob Brown to overthrow new safe access zone…

Proponents fear bill will not pass Legislative Council without amendments – which would send it back to lower house Supporters of Victoria’s voluntary euthanasia legislation say the vote in the upper house will be tight, with a number of MPs yet to declare their vote. The voluntary assisted dying bill 2017 passed the lower house 47 votes to…

ABC 7:30 Transcript STAN GRANT, PRESENTER: Well, one person who has been instrumental in getting the bill to this point is Upper House MP, Fiona Patten and she joins me now. Nice to have you with us. From what you’ve been seeing here, how close are they to a vote this evening? FIONA PATTEN, VICTORIAN…

Leader of Reason Australia and Victorian MP Fiona Patten stands with Melbourne Girls College and their sensible decision to counsel, educate and rehabilitate the two students found to be selling cannabis on schools grounds. A knee-jerk reaction to expel the students would have inflicted more harm than good. At the tentative ages of 12 and…

Fiona Patten declares herself gratified to have played a significant role in Victoria’s path towards becoming the first Australian state to allow euthanasia, even though the proposed legislation falls far short of her original permissive ambitions. She believes that should Victoria support the legislation tabled this week, all the other states and territories will follow…

Leader of Reason Australia and Victorian MP Fiona Patten will move a motion in Parliament on Wednesday to stop the South Morang crush that commuters face every day by calling for express services to be introduced. “The line is bursting at the seams now but the government will only consider the issue in 2 years,”…

The recent discovery of a $12 million crop of illegal tobacco in bushland just south of Canberra, has law enforcement extremely worried. And so it should. Anyone who knows anything about black markets knows that where there’s smoke there’s generally a raging bushfire not far away. KPMG’s Illicit Tobacco in Australia 2016 report showed that…

Victorian MP Fiona Patten has welcomed the findings of the Parliamentary inquiry into the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC) Bill. The Bill proposes an 18 month trial of a medically supervised injecting centre (MSIC) in North Richmond, where last year, 34 people died and hundreds overdosed requiring medical intervention. “The Inquiry heard evidence that overwhelmingly…

Leader of the Australian Sex Party and Victorian MP Fiona Patten has condemned the jail sentences handed down to seven Nimbin locals last week for growing and selling cannabis as a pointless, life shattering waste of resources when other jurisdictions are basking in the success of tax-and-regulate models. Speaking from Denver, Colorado, Ms Patten pointed…

Leader of the Australian Sex Party and Victorian MP Fiona Patten has applauded the clear path forward recommended by the Ministerial Advisory Panel helping shape Victoria’s Dying with Dignity legislation.   “Starting with the Inquiry into End of Life Choices I initiated recommending dying with dignity laws, this is the most comprehensive process ever undertaken…

Leader of the Australian Sex Party and Victorian MP Fiona Patten has today called on all Australian governments to end the privileged position of religion after today’s census data release showing ‘no religion’ as the top answer to the religious belief question. “It’s time to take religion out of politics. It’s time to end the…

Leader of the Australian Sex Party and Victorian MP Fiona Patten will introduce amendments to the proposed Commercial Passenger Vehicle Levy this week after departmental evidence showed the Victorian government is drastically underestimating rides to justify a $2 levy. “Government calculations are based on 28.8 million taxi trips and enforcement costs of nearly 23%. Well…

A PROPOSED $2 levy on every taxi and Uber trip in Victoria could be slashed to $1 in an eleventh hour bid to pass new laws. The levy, which will be slapped on passenger trips from next year, is part of the Andrews Government’s $494 million plan to compensate taxi licence holders when they legalise…

Leader of the Australian Sex Party and Victorian MP Fiona Patten has slammed the Victorian Government’s hypocrisy on festival drug deaths saying new measures only increase the potential harm, not reduce it. “If the Police Minister thinks this is harm minimisation, she doesn’t know what harm minimisation is,” said Ms Patten. “The most dangerous substances…

While everyone else is talking about terrorism… and talking about terrorism… this is a quick public service announcement to remind you all: Don’t get alarmed. Don’t be afraid. Don’t give a f**k. Instead of worrying, do something fun. Make out by the river. It gives ASIO something good to look at. Run that marathon (actually,…

I would like to add my voice to the thousands of people expressing sorrow for the death  and praise for the life of child protection advocate, Anthony Foster. History will show that both he and his wife, Chrissie, made one of the most outstanding contributions to child protection in Australia under probably the most difficult…

Given Melbourne’s significant cycling culture, you would think Victoria would be the first state to embrace a 1 metre overtaking buffer. The fact that we haven’t done so already, shows the unique situation on Melbourne’s roads. So many of Victoria’s arterial roads have four modes of transport – pedestrians, cyclists, vehicles and trams, plus on-street…

The statistics regarding family violence are simply staggering. “The Lookout” – a forum for Victorian family violence workers and other professionals – notes there were 76,529 ‘family incidents’ recorded by Victorian Police for the year ending March 2016. That was a 10% rise on the previous year – and those are only the cases police…

3AW radio has recently given Fiona the opportunity to discuss local issues a couple of times now on a Tuesday morning at 10am in Melbourne. April the 4th, Fiona spoke to Neil Mitchell about the issues of violence against women, organ donation and emergency housing. Tuesday 18th April, with Tony Jones (as Neil Mitchell was away)…

Book tickets now to join us for a forum style event with Fiona Patten MLC, Comedian Greg Fleet, Human Rights Lawyer and Barrister Greg Barns and Executive Officer for Yarra Drug and Health Forum Greg Denham to discuss how to win the war on drugs in Victoria. Panellists will reflect on their lines of work…

Leader of the Australian Sex Party and Northern Metropolitan MP Fiona Patten has called out Matthew Guy’s dumb on crime approach, saying his priorities are skewed. “We are already jailing people in record numbers, but that hasn’t stopped crime going up. So why does Matthew Guy think more of the same will magically reduce crime?…

MEDIA RELEASE – Leader of the Australian Sex Party and Victorian MP Fiona Patten has slammed the move to cut tram services, wondering whether negotiation tactics by tram operators are in play. “The Public Transport Minister wrote to me saying the government is calling for stronger performance standards in its negotiations with Yarra Trams. Well,…

Two-thirds of children and young people in detention are victims of violence, abuse or neglect. Almost a third have mental health concerns. These children have been subjected to lockdowns, sometimes for more than 24hrs. The Inquiry into isolation and lockdowns by the Commission for Children and Young People heard stories of children having to relieve…

News Alert – Leader of the Australian Sex Party and Victorian MP Fiona Patten today said she is looking forward to improving scrutiny of government spending in her new role as a member of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee. PAEC is a joint investigatory committee of the Victorian Parliament with a function similar to…

Media Release 20 March 2017 Leader of the Australian Sex Party and Victorian MP Fiona Patten welcomes the view of senior police, prison, parole administrators, judges, prosecutors and drug law researchers that Australia should progress “incrementally towards decriminalisation of drug use and regulation and, where possible, taxation of psychoactive drug supply.” “It’s time Australia listened…

NEW laws banning fracking and extending the moratorium on conventional gas have passed Victorian Parliament after controversial amendments by the Opposition were voted down. The Opposition tried to amend an anti-fracking bill to allow for conventional gas exploration to occur before 2020, if the state needed it. Under the controversial plan, farmers would have the…

Media Release – Leader of the Australian Sex Party and Northern Metropolitan MP Fiona Patten has today questioned why the Victorian government is fast-tracking imports of medicinal cannabis at the same time Victorian compassionate suppliers are targeted for prosecution. “The hypocrisy is astounding. The government says ‘every day without this life changing medicine is one…

SHE was lying in a Hungry Jack’s bathroom in Melbourne, a syringe sticking out of her leg. She had overdosed on heroin and the mother was rushed to hospital where she died at just 34 years old in May last year. She was unemployed and lived with her mother and brother in Dallas, in Melbourne’s…

PREMIER Daniel Andrews is refusing to support a push for a safe injecting room despite admitting that more needs to be done to help drug addicts. The Herald Sun revealed today that a coalition of community leaders and medical experts is backing Sex Party leader Fiona Patten’s plan for an 18-month trial of a safe…

There is probably no other issue in Australian public life that can claim such increasing levels of support over the past decade. On the most recent polls, 84 per cent of ALP voters and 82 per cent of Coalition voters support it. Even 77 per cent of Catholics and 88 per cent of Anglicans want…

MEASURES like roadside drug tests for people driving on medication, and sniffer dogs at music festivals would be put under the microscope in a proposed parliamentary inquiry into drug laws.

Member for Northern Metropolitan and Leader of the Australian Sex Party, Fiona Patten MP, has welcomed the rejection of legislation for a plebiscite on marriage equality and has again urged a move to a parliamentary vote as soon as possible.

Somewhere in Victoria sits a highly guarded building that will soon become the home of Australia’s first government-sanctioned cannabis crop.Here, in a research facility shrouded in secrecy, change is coming.

I had an abortion in my last year of high school. It was the 1980s. Alongside Elvis Costello, the love of my life was a strapping, smart and sensitive surfer. We were madly, deeply in love but unfortunately that was not an effective form of birth control.

Following outdated and ill-informed views in the recent debate on Fiona Patten’s motion to decriminalise cannabis, the North Metro MLC has established a parliamentary friendship group to look at drug law reform.

Upper House MP, Fiona Patten, has congratulated former Collingwood player, Dane Swan, on his honesty and openness in admitting his recreational drug use while playing football. She said that his comments, (contained in his recently released autobiography) were a breath of fresh air in the debate over drugs in the AFL.

Member for Northern Metropolitan Region and Leader of the Australian Sex Party, Fiona Patten MP, has called on the federal government to take the national plebiscite on marriage equality online – if we have to have one at all. Ms Patten has just returned from an overseas trip with Victorian Parliament’s Electoral Matters Committee investigating electronic voting and says that with modern technology and current leaps forward in cyber security it’s possible right now.

I lost both my parents at a relatively young age for them. Mum went with a respiratory illness at 66 and dad died four years later because he couldn’t engage in life anymore without her. Neither of them suffered long and painful deaths. But my mother was in a difficult spot with breathing for the last year of her…

“This report is the culmination of hundreds of conversations and over 1,000 submissions. I am very honoured to have been part of this inquiry and I can honestly say it has been one of the best experiences of my working life. I would like to thank my fellow committee members and of course Lilian Topic and…

UBER drivers will face criminal history checks and be banned from driving cars that are more than 10 years old under a long-awaited plan to legalise ride-sharing services in Victoria.

The Australian Sex Party has published a powerful letter torching the arguments of anti-vaccine campaigners, after the party was asked about its position by a prominent vaccine critic.

Police have questioned an elderly man who flouted new laws aimed at stopping protesters from harassing women outside abortion clinics.The man was spoken to by two police officers after reports he was praying outside the Fertility Control Clinic in East Melbourne about 4pm.

A MELBOURNE security firm’s links to police are being reviewed after revelations it is to be sold to the Chinese.Special minister of state Gavin Jennings told parliament of a government review into any links to Securecorp in Mulgrave, owned by ex-police Special Operations Group member Craig Harwood.

Current and former politicians from across the political spectrum, speechwriters and senior executives will be amongst the high profile presenters in Australia’s first University-led program committed to addressing the ongoing under-representation of women in politics.

Upper House Northern Metropolitan representative and Leader of the Australian Sex Party, Fiona Patten MP, is calling on all sides of politics to stop the game-playing and bring on a final debate and vote on the Port of Melbourne lease this week in parliament.

The Australian Sex Party’s first MP, Fiona Patten, is focused less on “adult services” than she is on abortion rights, euthanasia, drug reform and civil liberties.In November last year, a law preventing anti-abortion protesters from demonstrating within 150 metres of an abortion clinic passed the upper house of the Victorian Parliament.

Sex Party MP Fiona Patten is introducing a bill to Victoria’s state parliament which she hopes will lift restrictions on ride-sharing services such as UberX.

Minor political parties that have used complex preference deals to win Senate seats are threatening to target the Greens in inner-city seats if the party cuts a deal with the government to change how senators are elected.

Victorian Parliamentarian Fiona Patten marched once again in this year’s Pride. Fiona and her party, The Australian Sex Party, have become regular faces of the march, attending the event proudly for the last 5 years.

Drug disposal bins should be introduced at music festivals so revellers can discard illicit substances without fear of being caught by sniffer dogs, health promotion groups say.

Leader of the Australian Sex Party and Member for Northern Metropolitan, Fiona Patten MP, is currently in the United States of America meeting with legislators, business people and lobbyists discussing a wide range of issues as they relate to dying with dignity and drug laws, in particular cannabis.

Foreign dignitaries visit the California Capitol fairly often, but few come with party affiliations quite as eye-catching as Fiona Patten’s.A member of the Parliament of Victoria, in Australia, Patten is the leader of the newly formed Australian Sex Party, winning election to the regional lawmaking body in 2014. She is in Sacramento this week to learn more about how California enacted policies of interest to her, like offering medical marijuana and allowing terminally ill patients to take their own lives.

Have a listen to Tom Ballard’s latest podcast with Fiona Patten where they talk sex, drugs, euthanasia and even manage to plug the new Safe Access Zones bill.

Having lobbied both State and Federal Parliaments for over two decades, Fiona Patten co-founded the Australian Sex Party. While unsuccessful in winning a Senate seat on two occasions, everything changed in December of 2014. It was Fiona’s second Victorian State election campaign and persistence paid off, seeing Fiona elected to the Legislative Council as the Member for Northern Metropolitan Region.

In a bid to get the reality of drugs out in the open the Victorian Sex Party has launched an unprecedented motion to probe the issue in Parliament.

For The Sex Party’s Fiona Patten, it’s been a particularly productive 12 months. The former adult industry lobbyist was a driving force behind the government’s bill for safe access zones around abortion clinics to stop women being harassed by protesters. She also helped initiate a parliamentary inquiry into end-of-life choices which has had more than 1000…

The annual award, previously won by Rosie Batty, the ADFA cadet known as ‘Kate’ and Julia Gillard, recognises the women who make Australia a better and fairer place for other women.

SNIFFER dogs should not be deployed at a Melbourne music festival this weekend, according to an Upper House MP. Sex Party member Fiona Patten has called on Premier Daniel Andrews and Police minister Wade Noonan to call off the canines at the Stereosonic Music Festival at the Melbourne Show grounds.

Support for same-sex marriage is set to be tested in the Victorian Parliament, with both houses to vote on the issue.The Sex Party will move a motion in the upper house early next year calling on the federal government to change marriage laws to “better reflect equality”.

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is the use of antiretroviral drugs emtricitabine and tenofovirdisoproxil fumarate (Truvada), taken by HIV negative people, to prevent HIV infection. The drug Truvada has been available for PrEP in the United States since 2012, however in Australia it is currently only available for treatment of HIV-positive individuals, not prevention for those who are negative and at risk.

A law banning protesters within 150 metres of abortion clinics has passed in Victoria after the upper house voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Safe Access Zones bill, reported AAP.

Forty organisations have banded together to show support for Victoria’s existing abortion laws and reject DLP MP Rachel Carling-Jenkins bill that would wind back women’s rights to safe, legal abortions.

A renewed push to wind back Victoria’s abortion laws has been rejected by the Andrews government, which says the matter has already been settled by State Parliament.

Victorian Member for Northern Metropolitan and Leader of the Australian Sex Party, Fiona Patten MLC, has welcomed a proposal from Health Minister Susan Ley that will see the legalisation of cannabis for medicinal purposes federally, clearing the way for Victoria to lead the nation in this new industry.

Under the government’s new laws, faith-based groups will not be granted exemptions to refuse services to same-sex couples seeking to adopt on the grounds of their sexuality.

Sex Party MP Fiona Patten wants to create buffer zones around abortion clinics to protect women from protesters. Protesters who harass women visiting abortion and fertility clinics will be banned from outside the centres, with the Labor government set to give in-principle support a Sex Party plan to create buffer zones.

Victorian MP for Northern Metropolitan and Leader of the Australian Sex Party has called on the Andrews Labor Government to adopt her changes to the Crimes Amendment (Child Pornography and Other Matters) Bill due for debate in the state’s Upper House this week.

The recent introduction of an abortion-related private member’s bill in the Victorian Parliament brought forth some interesting strategies and alliances. At the same time, it demonstrated the changing nature of gender politics. The bill was introduced into the Victorian Parliament by Sex Party MP Fiona Patten.

Protesters will be banned from harassing women on the steps of Victorian abortion clinics before the end of the year.The Victorian government has agreed to a deal with Sex party MP Fiona Patten to put protest exclusion zones outside fertility clinics.

Member for Northern Metropolitan and leader of the Australian Sex Party, Fiona Patten MLC, has today welcomed the establishment of a $200 million Agriculture Infrastructure and Jobs Fund for Regional Victoria saying “it’s only right that country areas should benefit from the Port of Melbourne Lease.”

After 29 years, Melbourne’s nudists will be banned from the last metropolitan nude beach. Nude bathing will be banned at Campbells Cove in the city’s west from September 1, after Wyndham City Council said it was too close to the growing suburb of Point Cook, Planning Minister Richard Wynne says.

Melbourne should become an international fashion capital rivalling Paris and Milan and a new Victorian ministry for fashion should be created in the state government, according to a new MP.

Upper house member Fiona Patten says police are fed up with being continually called to disputes and cites exclusion zones set up around clinics in Tasmania.

The group’s first meeting was held on Wednesday evening and was attended by around 20 members of parliament. The establishment of the Friendship Group has been welcomed by LGBTI advocates as a practical way to increase multi-partisan understanding and support for LGBTI issues.

All you Victorians filming your genitals – you’ve been breaking the law. Sex Party MP Fiona Patten wants to change Victoria’s X-rated classification laws to bring them in line with federal legislation.

Member for Northern Metropolitan and Australian Sex Party Leader Fiona Patten MP has moved to create legislation that will provide a legal framework for services like Uber in Victoria.