Doug PollardTranscript - Christian Vega, Australian Sex Party
Christian Vega
Christian: Thank you, Doug. Thank you for having me.
Doug:Yeah – well, you’re more than welcome. Now – m’mm, the Sex Party is a new party. Not terribly well known though I suspect by now, it’s very well known to Joy listeners.
Christian: [laughs] Yes, in case you’ve missed the promo, yes, we - - -
Doug:In case you’ve missed the promo, in case we’ve missed you on other shows - - -
Christian: [laughs]
Doug:- - - in case we’ve missed Fiona.
Christian: On Sunrise.
Doug:M’mm – oh, did you see that debate?
Christian: Oh, wasn’t it amazing? You know, as – if you haven’t seen it listeners, please You Tube it – it’s one of the most, probably, refreshing moments of debate in this election. Where you actually see two, political leaders actually say what they feel, not holding back – m’mm - - -
Doug:Definitely not holding back; I was going to play a bit of it on the show but – you know, we’re not going to have time today unfortunately and listening to it without the visuals, it doesn’t really work. Because they were busy talking over the top of each the whole time, weren’t they?
Christian: Yeah – and the facial expressions were priceless.
Doug:[laughs] (and) I notice both in their separate ways, have claimed victory in the debate. So, I suppose everybody came out of that one happy.
Christian: Sure.
Doug:You must have been pleased because it actually raised the profile of the Sex Party considerably, didn’t it?Because nobody – not that many people knew who you were.Everybody knows who Family First - - -
Christian: Yes; so, we – it was quite politically un-astute(sic) of the Family First party to have an on-air debate with us on mainstream television. We thank them for – you know, doing us that favour.
Doug:Saved you a lot of money on ads.
Christian: Oh, absolutely.It was a really good opportunity – bar from them rudely interrupting us, to get our issues and platforms out there and show that a lot of the stuff that we are talking about does affect a lot of people and there is a mainstream appeal to it even though a lot of what we talk about does speak to specific communities. They gay and lesbian – thing, community, being one of those.
Doug:Yes, indeed. Now, Melbourne Ports – m’mm, used to be a very working class constituency but its very gentrified by comparison now. It’s highly diverse. How are you finding campaigning, have you been knocking on peoples’ doors – have you been standing around in train stations, that sort of thing?
Christian: What we’re – well, I’m saving all of that hard stuff to right at the end because a lot of people are saving their decision for the last minute so, we see the last couple of weeks of campaigning as being very important in terms of trying to help people make those decisions. Having said that there’s been a lot of support in the Melbourne Ports area, it’s always been a very socially progressive area. It is a very large area incorporating Port Melbourne, the Docklands, St. Kilda right through to Caulfield so -
and in that – m’mm, electorate you’ll see a lot of people who are very, very committed to the Labor Party. You’ll see another area at the other end of the electorate, very committed to the Liberal Party and then, this area in the middle that’s
a bit undecided. They vote Greens.
Christian: So – yeah, it’s a very diverse area. We – it means that we have to campaign very differently, in different parts of our area but we’re working on that.
Doug:How are you finding response to you – I mean, have you met many voters and what’s the reaction been?
Christian: M’mm, the initial one is – is blush. People see our name, they think SEX – Sex Party – and a lot of people don’t initially recognise us as a political party. But – m’mm, so, a lot of them giggle for a little bit, they’ll take our flyer, they’ll have a read of our policies and you’ll see their facial expression(s) change as they walk off and start reading and actually, you can really see people identifying with what we have to say.
Christian: So, yeah – no, it’s been a very, very positive campaign and – yeah, it goes to show how much – a lot of the things we want to talk about are always – sort of, swept under the carpet. Or ignored by major political parties; they can be contentious but they are important to people and people do think about them - - -
Doug:What have voters raised with you, have any of them raised issues of their own, with you; said to you ‘what’s your position on X’ or ‘I agree – or – disagree, with what you said - - -’ What’s the kind of feedback you’re getting?
Christian: The people who’ve come up to me have taken the time to look at our website, have become familiar with our policies – m’mm, the big concern they have is that we don’t have enough of them and unfortunately, we are a small party. An emerging party, this is our first, federal election and we’d love to have a policy on tax and the environment and lots of other things; but, at this stage we haven’t gone there. However, because of our platform of civil liberties and human rights those things will apply to those issues and should we get into government we will be the voice that will be – sort of, championing that(sic) cause because I think a lot of the time parties tend to lose their way and can really lose track of those things when discussing big issues like those.
Doug:Yeah – I mean, the obvious accusation that can be thrown at the Sex Party is – well, it’s two-fold, really; one is that you are basically, a single-issue party. You’re about sex-related issues. But the other one is that you’re actually syphoning votes away from somebody who actually does have a chance to make a difference. Like the Greens, for example. Or indeed, from Labor and making it more difficult for them to win.
Christian: Yeah, if I can respond to those two issues – m’mm, we believe that there are a lot of disappointed people out there, a lot of disaffected voters who are looking – who are disappointed with all three, major parties at this stage, on particular issues – that the lack of action on those issues shows that and we would like to be the party that stands up and reminds people that hey, you do need to be active on these issues. Whether it be gay marriage of Internet censorship or drug law reform, these are issues that deeply affect a lot of people. A lot of disaffected people and we would like the opportunity for people to be able to vote on those issues and hence, why we stand for those.
Doug:One last point before you go because we’re going to have to wrap this up pretty soon; m’mm, where are you directing your preferences?
Christian: Well, our preferences are on the AEC Website – if people would like to look them up – but basically towards progressive parties. If you look at the parties that are running in the Senate there is a strong, right-wing conservative presence there; we’ve sought out the people – the parties – that are most aligned with our policies such as the Secular Party and directed our preference that way and as you move down the list you can see – sort of, where our priorities and how other parties - - -
Doug: Okay, so, a vote for you wouldn’t be a vote for the Liberals or the Labor Party?
Christian: No.
Doug:At least, not ‘til a long way down the list.
Christian: No. Not ‘til a long way down the list - - -
Doug:Okay. Just wanted to get that one clear, because people do like to know where their preferences are going if they’re so lazy as to not want to direct them, themselves.
Christian: Just to raise the – and it has been raised with me a number of times, the point that we are a single-issue party. If people logon to our website and have a look at our policies we are a civil libertarian(sic) party. So, there’s a lot of stuff that isn’t sex related. There’s – like, gay marriage, drug law reform – m’mm, so, coming from a civil libertarian background there is a lot of stuff we do want to talk about and that people are interested in, so, I urge people to have a look at that.
Doug:Okay – so, head off to the website and see. Christian Vega, thank you very much for joining us today.
Christian: Thank you for having me, Doug.
