In light of the deal that Barry O’Farrell did with Fred Nile on Ethic Classes and his deal with the shooters to reintroduce guns into schools. I have been mulling over Reverend Fred Nile’s Bucket List.

Before I go any further WTF ethics out guns in?

Fred, as old as the Nile, Nile presents this wish list in the form of Private Member’s Bills. He tabled 18 Bills in May last year.

The NSW Liberal government is desperate to keep Fred on side as was the previous Labor govt that all of these Bills are openly on the table. Smug is not the word for Mr Nile at the moment. His best mate mad opus dei dude with a comb over David Clarke is the bloody President of the Legislative Council and former right to life head honcho Greg Smith is the Attorney General.

Now while he has tabled the bills they are without any detail yet but the long description give you a bit of an idea.

Roughly they can be broken into sex, drugs, booze, gambling and families especially the ones he doesn’t like.

I think it is a fairly good guess that the booze and gambling bills will not get up as too much money is at stake.

The others, however are all up for grabs.

In some ways I am almost most concerned about are the abortion bills with David Clarke and Greg Smith strongly supporting right to life and NSW leg is not as robust as it is in Victoria

But the most likely to be horse traded are the sex and drugs bills

Adoption Amendment (Same Sex Couples Repeal) Bill 2011

An Act to amend the Adoption Act 2000 to repeal the amendments made by the Adoption Amendment (Same Sex Couples) Act 2010 that enable couples of the same sex to adopt children; and for other purposes.

Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Enforcement Amendment (Banning Restricted X Rated Films) Bill 2011

An Act to amend the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Enforcement Act 1995 to prohibit the possession of restricted x rated films mmm actually constitutionally impossible. He also has one of the biggest collections. He was recently exposed for accessing porn sites via his parliament PC he said he was investigating the sex party!

Crimes Amendment (Destruction of Child in Utero - Zoe's Law) Bill 2011

An Act to amend the Crimes Act 1900 to create a new offence relating to the destruction (other than in the course of a medical procedure) of a child in utero.

Crimes Amendment (Incitement or Promotion of Terrorism and Violence) Bill 2011

An Act to amend the Crimes Act 1900 to make it an offence to publish material that incites or promotes terrorism or other violence. I may be wrong but I think that material that incites or promotes terrorism is already illegal except the bible incest, beastiality, rape, eye for an eye

Crimes Amendment (Pre-natal Termination) Bill 2011

An Act to amend the Crimes Act 1900 to prohibit the destruction of any child in utero with a detectable heartbeat. Detection of heartbeat varies from pregnancy to pregnancy from 5-9weeks

Crimes Amendment (Soliciting Sex for Payment) Bill 2011

An Act to amend the Crimes Act 1900 to prohibit a person soliciting another for sexual gratification for payment. Actually illegal in almost all areas of NSW except for a few enclaves. Suspect what he is trying to get at is the Swedish model. Jesus would be a fan of the sex party as he also advocated for sex worker rights.

Education Amendment (Ethics Classes Repeal) Bill 2011

An Act to amend the Education Act 1990 to repeal the provision inserted by the Education Amendment (Ethics) Act 2010 allowing special education in ethics as a secular alternative to special religious education at government schools. First one off the rank

Family Impact Commission Bill 2011

An Act to provide for the establishment of the Family Impact Commission to study the moral, social and economic effects on the family unit of certain laws and proposed laws and Government expenditure; and for related purposes. Steve fielding did it first

Pregnancy Termination (Mandatory Counselling) Bill 2011

An Act to require women who are considering terminating a viable pregnancy to undergo counselling and to view an ultrasound of their unborn child.

Sex Services Advertising Prohibition Bill 2011

An Act to prohibit the advertising of sex services; and for other purposes. Actually already illegal! The law says that 'a person shall not publish an advertisement for a brothel or a prostitute' or 'advertise for sex worker staff'.

State Senate Bill 2011

An Act to authorise the use of the term State Senate as a reference to the Legislative Council and to authorise the use of the term State Senator as a reference to a member of the Legislative Council.

The saddest bill if you are a sympathetic person is the State Senate Bill. The aim of this Bill is to enable Fred to call himself a Senator that’s right after at least one failed attempt to become a Senator he is moving for members of the Legislative Council

Summary Offences Amendment (Full-face Coverings Prohibition) Bill 2011

An Act to amend the Summary Offences Act 1988 to prohibit people wearing full-face coverings in public places.

Something is happening in the Fairfax media. They have discovered sex and reached the conclusion that its not so bad after all. Or at least, that it can be written about without ritual denunciation.

The Sun-Herald’s magazine insert Sunday Life a couple of weeks back ran an interview with a working girl that was completely matter-of-fact. She is 40, with kids.. Her husband walked out on her after 15 years of marriage, and when she did her sums, she discovered that after the mortgage and the bills there would be no money for food, and placed an ad on a web-site giving her age, 40, the size of her tits, DD and offering “full service.”

She got a call straight away. She describes how nervous she was, how she fished out the appropriate lingerie from the back of a drawer, chose her clothes to show off her DD dimensions, showered, moisturised all over and drove to the hotel with her stomach churning.

He was a nice man, about 50, and though he paid for two hours she stayed for three. Sex took 45 minutes and the rest of the time was spent lying in bed and talking.

She sees up to four clients a day and makes between $800 and $1200. It’s the perfect work and family balance, she says.

At no point in a full page article, of which “Melanie” herself appears to be the author, is there a moral judgement.

That’s not the case with the account by Sister Jane Frances de Chantal, who entered a Franciscan convent at 18 and left two years later, got married and moved from Britain to the US. It took until her 40s before she realised just how much her Catholic upbringing and her experience as a nun had damaged her sexual instincts.

Sister Jane is now Dr Fran Fisher, a sexologist. Her book comprises interviews with 28 women who also took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, but then left orders. Some had had relationships with other nuns, some with priests, and some with lay people. One had intercourse for the first time at 52 and another at 50. She and her partner did it every night for two or three months. He thought she was an amazon. “I’ve waited 50 years for this, so just lie back and shut up,” she told him.

Fisher is fiercely critical of the Catholic system that allows naïve young women to uproot themselves from their families to enter a convent. It was wrong, and it is still going on, she says. There is a huge toll down the line, she says. The Church shouldn’t allow it to happen,

The syndicated article on the opinion page of the Sydney Morning Herald doesn’t give the name of Dr Fisher’s book.

You can ask our Sexologist Cyndi Darnell anything and everything. If you have a question for Cyndi please send it to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or via Cyndi's Facebook page.

Sexuality and Disability

Dear Cyndi,

I have chronic pain and a host of other medical issues that have meant I’m now on disability, possibly permanently. The medication for it leaves me chronically exhausted but I still crave sex. I haven’t been active for 12 years, and I’ve had a few offers from women overseas, but even if I could go over there and not end up with my pension cut, I worry about my lack of performance. I might not be able to have an erection, let alone orgasm. While overseas offers have the advantage of being hypothetical, the fact is my life would be better with someone in it, and I miss sexual interaction. What can I do to compensate for having a disabled body? Would a woman tolerate that sort of limitation?

Women seem very demanding sexually now, and to an extent I have to admit to finding it all too difficult and wishing I could just have a sexbot! I was reading the other day that on average it took 20 minutes of stimulation for a woman to orgasm, and more with aging , and I just felt like it was all a bit pointless.

Should I just give up?
Dave.

Dear Dave,

Your situation sounds extremely frustrating on a variety of levels. From your letter it sounds very much like you’re not only craving sex, you’re also craving intimacy and connection; a partnership.

It seems you’re not meeting women locally, or especially the kind of women you might like to meet. You are not alone there. There are many people, abled, and not, of all genders who struggle to find companions for life, sex and intimacy. Our culture is very ‘couple’ oriented, and this can leave those of us ‘un-partnered’ feeling somehow, out of sorts. The truth is, finding a life partner and creating and sustaining a long term relationship requires more than just having an abled body, it’s also about being willing to be vulnerable, compromise, communicate and take initiative when required.

I cannot speak for all women when you ask “Would a woman tolerate that sort of limitation?”, but my hunch is you’re after a woman who will do more than just tolerate you? A partner who is attracted to the other things you offer would certainly be capable of a whole lot more than just ‘tolerating’ you, provided your connection and communication in other areas was fulfilling for the both of you also.

This leads me to encourage you to focus on what you do have to offer rather than just on your short comings. Your fears about performance anxiety, while relevant, are extremely common among both abled and disabled bodies alike. Not everyone is a sex machine all the time! Everyone has days of feeling concerned about their performance, but when this prevents you from actually being able to connect with another person, I would encourage you to seek out the services of a counsellor (either myself; face-to-face, via Skype, or someone in your area) to talk through your anxiety issues and your expectations of yourself and women in relationships.

You admit that you do find it all too difficult and would prefer to have a sexbot. Your sexbot idea is in fact also a solution (and a valid one at that), but I wonder how satisfying that will be for you given your desire for a relationship and a connection. Whether it takes a woman 20 minutes to orgasm or whether at all, ideally would have little bearing on your motivations for sex if you are in fact looking for a genuine connection. There are a huge variety of fabulous sex toys etc on the market these days to enhance women’s pleasure, and assist in times of ”sex fatigue”. I wonder if your ‘pointless’ feeling is more psychological / emotional than physical?

You may also like to consider some of the services offered by the good people at Touching Base to have face-to-face conversations about your concerns regarding your sexuality and your chronic pain management / disabilty.

With Pleasure
Cyndi
www.cyndidarnell.com
..........because pleasure matters

Cyndi Darnell works in Melbourne and around Australia as a sex therapist and educator, sex and relationship counsellor, sex coach, sexologist, and public speaker advocating the importance of sex, sexuality, and pleasure for health and well-being. She is the founder and creator of Pleasure Forum Australia , a monthy adult to adult sex education program where the emphasis is on pleasure and practical education, not sleaze and clinical theory. Cyndi works predominantly in Melbourne, but also offers workshops and therapeutic sessions across Australia and globally via Skype.

Were priests and senior church clergy able to carry out their widespread campaign of child sex abuse, because parliaments and politicians turned a blind eye to what was going on? Have some politicians had inside knowledge of instances and the extent of child sex abuse in the church and not used the powers and resources given to them to try and stop it?

In 2000 Australian Sex Party President, Fiona Patten, authorised a list of over 500 church clergy who had been charged with a child sex offence, to be sent to every state and federal MP with a request for a Royal Commission. “I only received abusive letters from about a dozen MPs and not one reply that suggested there was a problem”, she said. “The Royal Commission needs to examine the abusive replies and the lack of response from those MPs who should have responded. Other groups also sent lists of paedophile priests to MPs and were ignored.” (Bruce Baird’s reply to the Eros coordinator is attached).

In the early 1990s the federal Member for Capricornia and lay preacher, Keith Wright, was widely known as Elmer Gantry (after the Sinclair Lewis character) among his parliamentary colleagues on both sides. “This was because of his hypocritical stance on sex industry and moral issues at the same time as he was engaging in child sexual assault - even in his parliamentary office”, she said. “Not one MP reported his behaviour even though after he had been convicted, many confided that, ‘Oh yes we all knew about that’.”

Keith Wright’s Campaign slogan was ‘Save the Children – Ban Porn’.

“Tony Abbott, Kevin Rudd, Julian McGaraun, De Anne Kelly, John Anderson, former Senator Brian Harradine and many other senior politicians over the years have claimed close links to the highest levels of Australia’s churches. What were they told (if anything) over the years in their high level meetings with church leaders? And what information does the Australian Christian Lobby, which claims to represent many religious organisations over the years, have about child sex abuse amongst these groups?

While there are now hundreds of convicted paedophile priests in Australia, there are no convictions for these offences in Australia’s sex industry.

Australian Sex Party President, Fiona Patten, has claimed that state and federal politicians may have been involved in covering up child sex abuse in the church and called for the Terms of Reference of the Royal Commission to include an examination of the way in which religious institutions may have infiltrated Australian parliaments. “The Royal Commission needs to look at a register of religious interests for all politicians”, she said.

Ms Patten said that up to 40% of federal MPs may be members of the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship and that it was beyond belief that members of this group did not have an understanding of the extent and nature of child sex abuse within their own churches.

Ms Patten has been campaigning for a Royal Commission into child sex abuse in the church from the day her party was registered in 2009. It was one of the Sex Party’s top ten policies and the Sex Party has campaigned hard on the issue at every state and federal election it has contested. No other political party had a similar policy and no other political party has a formal policy of any kind to investigate sexual abuse within the churches.

“The relationship between the church and the sex industry holds many keys to understanding sexual abuse in the church”, she said. “The Catholic Church especially has assuaged its guilt over child sex abuse by pointing the finger at Australia’s sex industry and has worked with Catholic and religious politicians to engineer draconian legislation against the sex industry over many years as a kind of smokescreen. Religious groups have used compliant politicians to legislate against sex shops not being allowed to be within 100 metres of a church or school for fear that children will be molested by sex shop patrons and staff. There are no convicted paedophiles in Australia’s sex industry but the church and religious schools are riddled with them and the Royal Commission needs to understand why this is so”.

In 2000, Australia’s national sex industry association, the Eros Association, published the first listing of paedophile priests in Australia called ‘Hypocrites’ (www.deception.com.au) and called for a Royal Commission. The ABC’s Four Corners wrapped a program around the publication and aired an interview with Archbishop Pell who accused the sex industry of using the issue to sell pornography.

In the aftermath of this publication and its call for a Royal Commission, the Eros Association was inundated with death threats and letters from federal and state MPs calling the action disgraceful and appalling. Federal MPs like Bruce Baird said that Eros had ruined any credibility it had in dealing with the federal parliament and the call for a Royal Commission was a travesty. Former Tasmanian Senator and champion of the Catholic church, Brian Harradine, refused to answer letters from the Eros Association about child sex abuse in the church.

Last night I attended the Melbourne Chargers Awards night. It was a glitzy affair. The men looked very handsome in suits and some went as far as black tie. I even popped on some sequins which is not my usual Monday evening attire. In fact I have never seen so many clothes at the Sircuit bar.

The night was billed as a celebration of diversity and it was certainly that.

The first guest speaker was Ji Wallace - Olympic medal winning gymnast and ambassador for PLWHA. He spoke passionately about HIV discrimination.

President of the Melbourne Unicorns John Rosenhain spoke about how their rugby club had been working on being more inclusive for a few years. This meant changing some club behaviour so women and families felt welcome. And now they have made the Chargers welcome. The Melbourne Chargers are a Gay Rugby Club. It is pretty ambitious setting up a gay Rugby team but a Rugby Club in AFL Melbourne is quite a feat. Getting support from the century-old Melbourne Rugby club, showed me that we have come a long way.

Of course I joked on twitter that the awards included the 'BJ award' and the 'tiara trash award' but this is a team that made it to the grand final of the Bingham cup, an international competition for gay and inclusive rugby clubs in Manchester earlier this year. It attracts over 30 football clubs from over 15 countries.

Both my brother and sister have played rugby and I have played with (and fallen in love with!) a number of rugby players in my life (that's right...I'm nothing if culturally all over the place). My brother’s team seemed to go on quite a few tours and there always seemed to be some sort of nude run or nude night. I was recalling this last night and quipped that it was really a bit 'gay'. "And that is the problem", my friend and JOY FM presenter, Dean Beck quipped. This “straight” male bonding activity makes it so much harder for anyone to come out. When blokes are playing and celebrating in this intimate way, 'coming out' just seems like a bridge too far.

As a person who has supported diversity and played on sporting teams where I was in the minority sexuality- wise, even I am still part of the problem with quips like, 'that’s so gay'.

AFL footballer, Jason Ball, spoke last night about the extraordinary difficulty he found in coming out to his football team.

Over the past month Jason raised this issue very successfully and had a petition signed by over a 250,000 people. (add link)The AFL has been very proactive and successful in addressing racism and Jason is now calling on them to do the same with regards to homophobia.

It just strikes me that a gay rugby club is something really, really special. It challenges our stereotypes of both gay men and rugby players.

It just strikes me that a gay rugby club is something really, really special. It challenges our stereotypes of both gay men and rugby players.

Across Australian jurisdictions right now we are seeing a conservative push to introduce a raft of criminal and regulatory laws in relation to the adult sex industry. Many of the humane, sensible and progressive gains made in recent years are under serious threat, driven by the Christian-fuelled right wing of Australian politics. It is a sad indictment of our times.

As a committed member of the Australian Sex Party, as a civil libertarian, as a former Vice Squad Detective Sergeant, and as a professional corruption fighter, I feel the need to speak up amidst the self-proclaimed moral righteousness that has hijacked our political discourse.

The original version of this article was written to address the current debate in WA in relation to the adult sex industry and in particular policing sex in regional areas. However, I submit that my comments are equally valid across all Australian jurisdictions.

I offer the following thoughts in relation to policing (including regulating and/or licensing) the adult sex work industry, in relation to both individual sex workers and brothels/parlours.

By way of introduction, my relevant professional and academic background follows.

I was a police officer in the WA Police Service from 1986 to 1999. I left the Service in 1999 at which time I was a Detective Sergeant in the Vice Squad, responsible for policing the sex industry. I can therefore share real experience in dealing with this issue from a police perspective, as well as a Western Australian one.

Here in NSW I was Chief Investigator at the Independent Commission Against Corruption for several years, so I am well versed in the dynamics and problems of corruption across the government sector.

I am now an Internal Ombudsman in local government in NSW. Currently in NSW, the only form of “regulation” of sex workers and brothels rests in the planning approvals issued by local government. I provide advice to council staff in dealing with the sex industry and I also oversee the probity and conduct of council staff in this regard.

So from a professional perspective I have been closely involved with the sex industry under different regulatory and legal frameworks, and in different professional capacities.

Academically, in 2006 I wrote a dissertation for my Masters of Ethics and Legal Studies, which examined adult sex work from philosophical, historical and legal viewpoints.

Whilst there are significant philosophical arguments against the State attempting to regulate sexual relations between consenting adults, the very thesis which my dissertation presented, I am limiting my comments in this article to some of the practical problems which arise from such State intervention.

So I now offer some personal reflections, from many years of professional experience.

I dealt with many hundreds of sex workers and numerous brothels during my time in the Vice Squad. At that time, the WA Police was still operating the notorious “containment policy”, with the Vice Squad being responsible for policing what the law stated was an illegal industry. In reality, our role became that of pseudo-supervisors of the industry.

It must be remembered that the containment policy, as flawed as it was, actually arose from the findings of a Royal Commission into the corruption endemic to the police in relation to the sex industry. Of course, the Royal Commission had only intended the policy to be a temporary measure, not the ongoing framework it became for over 20 years.

The other night I was doing an interview on Joy 94.9's Gay News Week and came in on the tail end of a conversation about Prime Minister Gillard's acceptance of an invitation from the Australian Christian Lobby to speak at one of their up coming events.

She has spoken to the ACL a number of times. In fact she even launched their election website in 2010.

Now as a political party I couldn't ask her to speak at one of our events but what about Sexpo? It is attended by tens of thousands of people who may hold somewhat different beliefs to the attendees of the ACL conference.It would be a great way to get to a wide range of young voters as the average age of Sexpo attendees is 24.

Actually, I think her attending Sexpo would help her in the polls. Lets face it, it couldn't hurt!

The next day I spoke to a senior ALP member and asked what he thought about the PM attending Sexpo, he rolled his eyes and said I doubt that very much. I asked why she would attend an ACL conference but not Sexpo. "Because they are much meaner and nastier than you" or words to that effect. Pretty much sums it up!

I wrote anyway.

Dear Prime Minister,

We note your recent agreement to address the Australian Christian Lobby conference on 6th October. We also note that this is the second time you have agreed to address this lobby group.

The ACL holds many views on sex and sexuality that are not shared by the majority of Australians, so we congratulate you on being prepared to address a minority morals group, as well as other more mainstream community groups. Your media advisor is quoted as saying “I can say that the Prime Minister addresses a wide range of groups, and has addressed the ACL in the past.”

We would like to invite you to address a much larger group of people who would pretty much represent a collective view that was diametrically opposed to the ACL. This is the annual Sexpo Adult Lifestyle Exhibition at the Melbourne Conference & Entertainment Centre between Nov 30^th and December 2^nd. We would propose that you address a selected group of 300 VIP patrons at the annual Eros Shine Awards on the 30^th November. We would rebroadcast the address to the 60,000 patrons who will attend over the next four days.

Most of Sexpo’s patrons are young couples from the suburbs and young people living in and around Melbourne.

We would propose a 15 minute talk with 15 minutes of questions from the floor.

Many younger voters are concerned about prohibitions on their sexual lives these days and the rise of the nanny state. This would be an excellent way for you to address such concerns.

Of course we would treat the occasion with the utmost dignity and professionalism.

Thank you for considering this request and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours truly,

Fiona Patten

Gillard agrees to address Christian lobby

14 August 2012 AAP

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has agreed to address the Australian Christian Lobby conference on October 6.

ACL managing director Jim Wallace said the organisation had a policy of alternately inviting a major political party leader to its national conference.

"The prime minister's engagement is part of the political process and Australian Christians represented in the community should have a right to expect that the PM would want to address them," Mr Wallace said in a statement.

The prime minister, an avowed atheist, is expected to speak on the theme of "religious freedom in a secular democracy" on October 6 in Canberra.