Doug PollardSex Party in Prahran
Christian Vega
DOUG: We’re speaking with candidates in the upcoming local election. My next guest is Christian Vega. He’s standing for the Sex Party. He works in community health supporting sex workers, the homeless and people with mental health, drug and alcohol issues. A member of “Vixen” a support group for sex workers and is a national representative of the “Scarlet Alliance” which is the: Australian Sex Workers’ Association. He has a lot of priorities as you might imagine, in community health [and] joins us now on the line. Christian Vega. Good morning, Christian.
CHRISTIAN: Good morning, Doug. Good morning, listeners.
DOUG: What’s the weather like up there?
CHRISTIAN: It’s actually quite sunny and warm.
DOUG: Lucky-old-you. It’s pouring down here.
CHRISTIAN: I do miss Melbourne.
DOUG: You’re doing to be back for the weekend aren’t you?
CHRISTIAN: Of course I will be.
DOUG: Now, Sex Party. How are you travelling in Prahran?
CHRISTIAN: M’mm – look, the Sex Party is very, very well supported in Prahran. As you know the Sex party has always been very progressive and inclusive of (sic) a lot of the issues that effect the district of Prahran. Prahran might be the smallest electorate in the smallest district in the State but it’s full of communities and groups – and issues - the Sex Party’s very, very vocal of. So as well as support of the GLBTI Community we also have policies that really address issues like Melbourne’s liveability and nightlife culture which is definitely really present in Prahran. You know, we have policies regarding public transport and safety – m’mm, a lot of the key issues which affect people who do visit the Prahran district and its (sic) one of the things I’m very proud to represent.
DOUG: Yeah but you’re not going to get a huge vote there, are you; ‘cause the main battle is going to be between Tony Lupton for the Labor Party and Clem Newton-Brown for the Liberals – isn’t it?
CHRISTIAN: Well, that’s true. Being a small Party we’re not expecting to take-over government any time soon - - -
DOUG: [laughs]
CHRISTIAN: - - - a few people would get a rather rude shock if that happened. But I think it’s really important to acknowledge the roles small Parties and Independents play in upholding democracy in (sic) occasions of elections. We’re able to bring a voice to issues other Parties are too scared to talk about. So – you know, certainly – courage and bravery are two of the things the Australian Sex Party incorporates in to the way it goes about highlighting issues - - -
DOUG: You certainly - - -
CHRISTIAN: - - - sorry?
DOUG: You certainly had your differences with for example, the Greens. I’ve heard one-or-two Greens complaining because you’re running so well in Prahran they don’t stand an earthly, which is a nice compliment I support. But - - -
CHRISTIAN: [laughs]
DOUG: - - - m’mm, you take a very, very view about sex work. For example. Because the Greens are very strong on cracking-down on sex trafficking and trafficking of women – things like that - whereas your Party is founded in the sex industry, isn’t it?
CHRISTIAN: Ah-ha. Well – look, to be fair on the Greens they’ve had candidates speak to you on other shows, on Joy. Saying they don’t have a policy on sex work when in-fact we know through our work with a lot of grass-roots organisations who’ve engaged with the Greens, that they have a national policy on sex work. It’s just that the Victorian candidate for Richmond, for the Greens has been in constant denial of that policy. (and) That policy is one we’ve committed to, that we’ve gone further with and that is to – m’mm, up-hold the rights of sex workers and decriminalise the sex industry to ensure greater protection of human rights. Implementing occupational health and safety standards and look, it’s about trying to add more legitimacy to sex workers because they are a legally recognised occupation in Victoria. We should be protecting them as much as we can.
DOUG: Okay. One thing I wanted to ask you about, I received an email from your Party yesterday in fact I got several – you seem to be doing a lot of policy launches at the moment - - -
CHRISTIAN: [laughs]
DOUG: - - - you brought-up your Education Policy - - -
CHRISTIAN: I’m sorry, which policy?
DOUG: Your Education Policy; that’s something I have an interest in, personally. Because it’s my view you’ll never really tackle homophobia in society until you tackle it in the schools.
CHRISTIAN: That’s right.
DOUG: How does your policy address that kind-of-thing?
CHRISTIAN: Particularly at election time elected officials and the community seem to throw-around word – like, “equality” and “acceptance”. As if they’d be gifts that – you know, elected officials. Can magically give to people: I give you equality – or – I give you acceptance. The Sex Party doesn’t believe that. The Sex Party believes equality and acceptance has to start in the community. So we put together a policy around compulsory sex education in schools that would be age appropriate and expands from the current curriculum of anatomy, STIs and pregnancy. We believe sex is a broad-reaching topic and it’s one a lot of people are interested in. It’s one people don’t get enough education in particularly around things like relationships, families - - -
DOUG: M’mm, m’mm.
CHRISTIAN: - - - accepting families. We believe that children should be taught to accept all different types of relationships and recognise all types of families as equal. That’s why the Sex Party believes in a more long-term generational change in terms of establishing equality and acceptance for GLBTI Community.
DOUG: The gentleman from the Labor Party I was speaking with before speaking with you was saying that he believed in taking things a bit at-a-time and then people would see the sky didn’t fall-in and then, he’d do a little-bit-more. He said it was much better to: bring people along with you. Rather than confront them and possibly provoke a backlash.
CHRISTIAN: Well, look. We believe there’s enough community support out there for things like compulsory sex education for children. I mean, these aren’t radical ideas. These are ideas that are supported by the community and yes – you know, sometimes – a long journey takes little steps at-a-time but how long do we have to take little steps, for? I think the general community is actually quite impatient with government in terms of giving the GLBTI Community equal rights. This isn’t something we should be devoting so much energy to (sic) it should have already been done by now and look, if we’re not there now we think there needs to be more strides ahead towards equality for our community.
DOUG: There’s one aspect of your Education Policy that intrigued me. You want to extend voting to sixteen to 18-year-olds but make it non-compulsory in those years?
CHRISTIAN: That’s right. Look – you know, m’mm – going out in to the electorate. Campaigning out in the hustings we come across so many people – particularly young people, who are very disengaged with politics. They think that politics is about middle-aged white men who don’t really look like they’re interested in their [youth] issues. When in fact, that’s not the case; there’re a lot of young people who are really passionately involved. But they’ve had to go out and find their own information, for themselves. The Australian Sex Party believes that by engaging young people more in the political process that they will be able to feel a bit more connected to this process. ‘Cause at the moment we’re seeing a lot of people who are really disillusioned, detached – really not connected to that process. (and) We’d like to see them come-along more. That’s why our Party’s made-up – if you look at our candidates and our membership, we do have a significant proportion of young people who are along with us because we’re willing to be vocal on the issues they care about. That are real and pertinent to their lives, they feel like they want to contribute to it and so that’s why we have them with us. We’d like to see that more broadly as well.
DOUG: Yeah, the other thing about your Party is as well you make a big thing on your website, for example is about-a-third of your candidates are from the GLBTI community.
CHRISTIAN: That’s right. We’re quite proud of that, yes.
DOUG: So you practise the diversity you preach?
CHRISTIAN: Absolutely. It’s something that’s quite [indistinct] with other Parties, you know?
DOUG: They do tend to look a bit: white bread, blue suit – you know? As you said, middle-aged white male. Don’t they?
CHRISTIAN: Yeah and look, we want to add a bit more colour-and-movement to politics. Because it shouldn’t be seen as boring. It’s something that affects us all, we all have to vote – you know, parliament is supposed to be representative of us so we believe our community should definitely be in there.
DOUG: Great. Well, the best-of-luck in drumming-up some votes for yourself at the weekend in Prahran, Christian.
CHRISTIAN: Excellent. Lovely chatting to you, Doug.
DOUG: I’ll be doing an election night broadcast from here so maybe, we’ll catch-up with you as well?
CHRISTIAN: Fantastic. I’ll - - -
DOUG: We’ll see how it goes.
CHRISTIAN: - - - look forward to it.
DOUG: Thanks, Christian.
CHRISTIAN: See you, ‘bye. ‘Bye J-listeners.
DOUG: That was Christian Vega. He’s standing for the Sex Party, in Prahran. As I said, he’s going to get a bit squeezed there, between the two major Parties I should think but if you want to make a point and you agree with what the Sex Party stands for that’s one place you can put your vote.
