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Brisbane turned on a fittingly hot and sweaty reception for all of us at Sexpo, encouraging good numbers through the door.

It must have been quite a Brisbane baptism of fire for the Harmony porn stars out from the U.K, but they did a wonderful job of entertaining the crowds. The Sex Party stand was directly across from the porn star's stage so we had plenty of opportunities to sign up new members who were feeling particularly enthusiastic after meeting the stars. With the help of our wonderful volunteers we signed up 150 new sex party members and raised over $2000 for the party. By Sunday evening we had completely run out of Sex Party brochures, stickers and tattoos.

We also attended the Sexpo Business 2 Business meeting which was a great way to let people in the industry know what we are about. A number of businesses agreed to hand out our sex party brochures in their shops and were excited about our proposed Sex Party Shop Packs. We will be developing them shortly so let us know if you would be interested in hearing more about these.

It was really encouraging to find that many of the Sexpo customers had already heard of the Sex Party through the media and everyone was really positive about what we are doing. We got some great feedback and some thought provoking questions on our policies. With Perth Sexpo only a few weeks away, it is now full steam ahead to get the Sex Party ready for it’s debut in the west.

“I’m so sorry – I’ve been trying to get my head around the difference between burlesque and striptease. We’ve decided that probably Fred Nile is the only one that doesn’t see a difference!” she laughs. I like this woman already.

In November of last year, Australia’s national adult industry association announced the launch of a unique new force on our political landscape – the Australian Sex Party. As convenor, Patten asserted that the party was a sign of the times and an acknowledgment of the importance and scope of sexual issues in ordinary people’s lives. Further, the party was a response to our rapidly changing political landscape, and the profound increase in recent years of ‘nanny state’ politics.

“We’ve just seen an incredible rise in socially conservative politicians in parliament,” Patten tells AXN. “Be that from Kevin Rudd through to Steve Fielding. We’re also seeing them have a lot more power. For example, the government needs Fielding’s vote on almost every issue. So that was certainly one of the reasons we felt there was a need for the other voice to be heard in those debates.”

"Let us think of those children who are victims of the industry of pornography and every other appalling form of abuse, and thus are traumatised in the depths of their soul."

Pope Benedict, Xmas, 2008.

The Australian Sex Party has called on the Rudd government to convene a Royal Commission into child sex abuse in religious institutions as a priority during its first sitting of federal Parliament in 2009. This follows Pope Benedict’s midnight mass Xmas homily in which he accused the ‘pornography’ industry of abusing children.