The Australian Sex Party Candidate for the Bradfield by-election Zahra Stardust, aka Marianna Leishman, has won the Open Pairs category of the Australian Pole Dance Championship in Melbourne with her doubles partner Stacey.

The inaugural Australian Pole Dance Championship is the first competition of its kind to offer a men’s category, which Ms Stardust says ‘provides a long-awaited place for Australia’s talented male pole dancers to demonstrate their strength, artistry and skill, and rebut stereotypes that pole dancing only ever occurs in the context of female performers and male audiences.’ The Championship offered four divisions, including both men’s and women’s categories, a pure pole division, a couples division and an artistic freestyle division, and aimed to give voice to the varied styles of pole dancing occurring around Australia, from the circus kind to the dance-based, fitness-oriented and striptease styles of pole. Ms Stardust said that these categories ‘afford greater creative licence to all performers to express themselves on the pole the way they choose.’

Against common stereotypes of pole dancing, the pairs’ winning video game show featured the music of Mario cart, Pacman and Tetrus and a psychedelic, technicolour world in which their robotic characters malfunctioned and rebooted. Ms Stardust, who performed a French revolution narrative to Beethoven with Foxene the previous year and a voodoo ‘living dead doll’ theme to classical music and heavy metal in the finals of the solo category this year, said that ‘Australian pole dancing has become renowned for its execution of all things magic in combination with theatricality, artistry, flexibility, agility, technique and superhuman strength.’ She continued, ‘Patronised by an overwhelmingly female audience, pole dancing has been embraced for its fluid aesthetics and theatrical narratives along with its ability to engage audiences through the emotive language of dance.’

However, Ms Stardust used her win as an opportunity to speak about the number of competition rules, both domestically and internationally, that continue to be imposed upon pole dancers to reduce, regulate and police the types of female expression that are represented onstage. ‘Despite the plethora of imaginative demonstrations of what pole can be, competitions both within Australia and internationally continue to impose rules defining what pole dancing should look like, what types of pole can be represented onstage, which shades of pole are thereby allowed to emerge, and which brands of pole are publicly validated’, she said.

Further, Ms Stardust noted that many of the rules regulating pole dancing are largely inconsistent. On the one hand, it is now a requirement of Miss Pole Dance Australia for all competitors to wear ‘high heels’ (with further rules dictating the exact type of heels that are acceptable), reducing an ever expanding genre of performance into a particular and narrow mould of feminine and sensual pole display. On the other hand, the World Pole Dance Federation renounces any involvement with the sex industry and bans the winner from accepting any contracts that are erotic in nature, effectively reinforcing stigma against that same female sexual display that Miss Pole seeks to endorse.

Ms Stardust lamented that the high heel requirement imposed from 2009 will ‘severely limit the creative licence and mobility of the performers.’ While performers who involve Chinese pole tricks in their shows will no longer be able to rely on the soles of their feet against the pole, other performers may struggle to make high heels a relevant to their costuming and theme. Moreover, the rule will significantly disadvantage the more athletic pole styles, ‘try back flipping in 6 inch stripper heels!’ Performers who specialise in adagio, acrobalance, contemporary dance or gymnastic style shows will be less likely to perform their acrobatic floor combinations in stilettos.

Ms Stardust maintained that ‘if high heels are hardly a staple for competent pole tricks, hardly the sole marker of an entertaining show, hardly a core ingredient for female intelligibility, (and if anything, probably a danger rather than a preventative measure in terms of Occupational Health and Safety!) the requirement becomes an arbitrary one that confines the expanding sport to a narrow brand of pole performance and visual aesthetic- pole becomes varying degrees of one and the same. Stripper heels can certainly be extravagant, magnificent and wonderfully wicked, but they are certainly not the be all and end all of pole dancing to the extent that they should be codified, compulsory and enforced. And as for all us high heeled shoe fetishists, let us wear our six inch PVC heels out of choice, not obligation.’

While in Miss Pole Dace Australia high heels have become a requisite for pole recognition, on the other hand, perpetual runner up of the competition from 2005 - 2009 Suzie Q was prohibited from competing in the world championships because the World Pole Dance Federation, whose motto is ‘pure sport and art’, reject any association with the sex industry. If she chose to compete Suzie was asked to give up hosting mainstream lifestyle event Sexpo and told that the winner must decline any contracts or endorsements with any company that were erotic in nature. Ms Stardust commented, ‘While pole dancing has incredible things to offer the world in terms of its athleticism, strength flexibility and gravity-defying displays of artistic delight, and while this has made pole dancing particularly accessible to the mainstream, it is harmful when the fitness benefits of pole are promoted at the expense of stigmatising other types of pole dancing (including the high heeled or erotic versions), and by extension, stigmatising other types of women. In a world that continues to divide women into categories of Madonna or Whore, can pole not become an industry where women unite in solidarity to celebrate all kinds of female expression?’

Whether forcibly requiring dancers to wear a specific kind of shoe, or condemning erotic kinds of pole dancing in favour of fitness brands of pole, both Miss Pole Dance Australia and the World Pole Dance Federation police the ways in which women can express their bodies and sexuality on stage, and ultimately putting limitations upon a genre that is ever expanding and vast, said Ms Stardust. She noted that this issue was illustrative of a need for further sex education about gender and sexual variance, identity and expression, and the need for more comprehensive anti-discrimination laws and respect for people working in the adult entertainment industry. ‘As much as many of us live in a beautiful rainbow bubble in which pole is perpetually celebrated, many of us still suffer varying degrees of stigma about our beloved activities.’ She added that in NSW it remained illegal to sell X rated films and that such antiquated attitudes to sex and gender issues as seen from major political parties contributed to stereotype and stigma, hindering open discussion about and steps towards equality, freedom and harm for all individuals.

Senator Conroy, RE: Internet Filter

I am writing this email to you to express to you how your actions have cost your government and any future governments that act like this, my vote and every vote from here on in.

It is obvious to me that the reason you insist on implementing the internet filter despite its total lack of ability to provide the sort of protection that the government claims it will, is because this is just a distraction from the real driving force behind implementing such a blatant violation of the rights of Australia's population.

My objection is not about what this filter is supposed to block, it is about the assumed right our democratically elected government thinks it has to just insert such an infringement on our rights to access the world wide web.

The placement of this filter on our internet sets up a very unwelcome precedent for the modification of the information available to us.

Once in place it is the perfect tool to erode the freedoms of the people to discuss and exchange ideas.

Once in place, we are on a slippery slope to the removal of the agreed governmental system and its replacement by any group who chooses to manipulate the flow of information, and removal of any ideas that that group does not agree with.

This is a dangerous path to walk down and it makes a mockery of the people who worked so hard to gain the rights we have today.

If you are worried about the children as you claim, then sink these funds into proper action to address the situation, more police to investigate the people who harm the children, much steeper penalties for those found guilty of such crimes etc, don't pretend to be implementing this filter "For the Children", everyone knows that’s just rubbish.

Using the fear of people not wanting to be outcast, by inferring that anyone who is opposed to this filter must therefore be a paedophile is the most disgusting and vile abuse of your position within this government and you ought to be ashamed to stand there and utter such pathetic rot.

That sort of disgusting behaviour is known as witch hunting, you assert that an objection to this filter infers a link to poor morals or crimes against children.

This is no better than saying that "when we weight this woman’s legs with stones and throw her into the river, she must drown to prove her innocence of this charge of being a witch, but if she survives, then this proves that she is guilty and we must burn her at the stake"

How pathetic that in 2009 you can hold a seat in government and utter such rubbish.

There is no such correlation between the objections and this behaviour, you are just witch hunting and you know it.

This will end your career very quickly.

The word "Mandatory" is not what we expect from an elected government in Australia.

This reeks to me of the start of something we saw in World War 2, which led to some of the biggest violations of human rights in known history.

You must be aware that prohibition of a pure world wide web will just force it underground, that’s what prohibition does, this means that any of the criminals that use the internet to their advantage will resort to the underground version of the internet and you will have lost the ability to observe their movements, and to be effective in any way to stop them. This would be the exact opposite of the result you are claiming to want.

We don't elect a government to dictate to us, we elect a government to represent us and to be just in its actions.

Once you start abusing rights, you lose the rights that protect you.

This government has a job to do, representing justice for the population that supports it. If they are not going to do the job they have, then they will be removed by the same population that put them there and replaced by a group that will.

Creating a situation where the information available to people can be prejudged and interfered with is not a matter taken lightly.

We as Australians will not allow you or anyone to further undermine our rights,

YOU WILL BE STOPPED!

Anthony Voevodin.

I have just started reading the Enex report into mandatory filtering and my blood is already starting to boil. I will try not to vent and here are my very initial thoughts.

Almost all adult films that are classified as X in Australia require an edit.

In the past 4 weeks Customs have seized hundred’s of film titles depicting female ejaculation on the grounds that they would be refused classification.

Every site that features content from these films is potentially refused classification and qualifies to be blacklisted

Now how will they decide which of the millions of adult sites out there that might feature a consenting fetish should be blacklisted? The Enex report tested the existing blacklist that contains about 1,000 sites. That is totally unrealistic

The X guidelines are below. Anything that does not fit these strict guidelines is Refused Classification and therefore should be blacklisted and blocked. I believe that possible 1-2% of adult websites would comply with the X rating the rest would be classified as RC and therefore should be on the government’s black list. We are not talking thousands we talking millions and if you only block a handful what is the point?

The report states“Telstra reported that heavy traffic sites could overload its trial filtering solution if included in the filtering blacklist. This is also the case for all filters presented in the pilot. “

Well the biggest adult sites such as the tube sites, that definitely feature content that would be RC, see millions of visitors daily. How will the “filtering solutions” deal with them?

This is not about sexual violent websites or child porn. Every US and European site featuring legal consenting sexual activity has content that would breach the X rating and would be classified as RC.

Australian guidelines for X

This classification is a special and legally restricted category which contains only sexually explicit material. That is material which contains real depictions of actual sexual intercourse and other sexual activity between consenting adults.

No depiction of violence, sexual violence, sexualised violence or coercion is allowed in the category. It does not allow sexually assaultive language. Nor does it allow consensual depictions which purposefully demean anyone involved in that activity for the enjoyment of viewers.

Fetishes are not permitted.

As the category is restricted to activity between consenting adults, it does not permit any depictions of non-adult persons, including those aged 16 or 17, nor of adult persons who look like they are under 18 years. Nor does it permit persons 18 years of age or over to be portrayed as minors.

Yesterday Robbie Swan  and I attended the ballot draw for Bradfield and Higgins respectively. 
The ballot draws decide the order that the candidates appear on the voting form.
It is quite an event and process. The returning officer gives a speech that sounded like it needed a bell and a  hear yee hear yee at the beginning. A double random system is used. Australia is apparently the only country that does this.

First a staff member is blindfolded and she pulls out numbers from a bingo ball cage. Each candidate is issued a number. The balls are then put back in the cage and  drawn again and that decides the order. In Higgins I was given number 8 in the first and 8 was the second ball drawn in the second draw so I am number 2 on the Higgins voting sheet. An independent called John Murphy is 1st and the Liberal Keely O'Dwyer is 3rd. There are 10 candidates in all.
In Bradfield there are over 20 candidates and Zahra is number 10 on the ticket Fred Nile is running 9 candidates and one of the them drew the first spot.

Most of the candidates attended the event and most were very freindly. The 72 year old  Hungarian immigrant who is standing for one nation couldn't stop giggling when I told him where I was from. Clive Hamilton from the Greens tried to avoid me but I caught him. There was a bit of media there and we brought cupcakes which at first totally confused the Electoral Commission but in the end they all thought it was hilarious and most people had one.

Usually we spend the day and part of the evening of Wednesday setting up the show, having a few quiet (sometimes not so quiet) drinks/dinner with all our colleagues who have flown in for the show and then try and get a good sleep before the 4 day show begins. This show we thought, why not add a black tie dinner and film festival into the mix? So the dynamos Sarah Flynn and Emma Wilson went to work. Invites to submit films were sent, invites to attend the dinner were posted and the logistics of holding a dinner in the middle of Sexpo bump in, when traditionally forklifts and cherry pickers are still operating, were overcome.

We also had to overcome the challenge of holding an erotic film festival ina state where making erotic films is illegal. ( My speech on this is in an adjoining blog)

20 mins before the doors opened for the gala dinner Rebecca Lanning, Anne Watson Anna Van Reil, Emma, Sarah and I got changed in back office in under 10 minutes using a pocket mirror to apply make- up, check for VPL and droopy boob. It was pretty impressive that we all managed  to look so glamourous. Although Sarah's gorgeous black silk long dress was kept well hidden behind a desk calling the show. Emma, in a bespoke chiffon and silk number looked like she had been dressed by a team of stylists.

Yes it was madness but as they say it was alright on the night. The evening included cocktails, very good food and brilliant stage design by Produce Now who staff donated their time for the event. There were stunning performances from the new candidate for Bradfield,  Zahra Stardust and the world star Suzie Q with her extraordinary partner Toby. (See picture gallery) Kissing languidly while hanging from a rope a few metres from the ground and holding onto very little is an amazing skill and no doubt they will soon be taking the world by storm.

WIth international stars Sasha Gray and Monica Mayhem (actually she is one of us- just more famous in the US) there the evening had a real red carpet feel to it.

Russell Gilbert rounded the evening's entertainment by auctioning off some mighty fine wines including a Grange and a1982 Claret.

There were some great short films and we will be announcing the winner at Melbourne Sexpo. I don’t if it is my age but I really enjoyed watching the 1922 film Free Ride.

A few drinks to wind down after the show and then up bright and early Thursday to start Sexpo. Once we had found our stand and had it flown in from Melbourne and all of our printing couriered from Penrith we were ready to go except that it was after 7pm by then, so straight to the Fox and Lion for few drinks with Sex party members. Oh and we also had to find Sarah's voice. We didn’t actually find that until Saturday, the poor thing had a terrible case of Laringitis.

Once everything was in place the show went swimmingly. Another couple of hundred members joined up and a few keen men had their members temporarily tattooed. We also tattooed breasts, bums and even a pair of testicles.

A new phrase, eat a dick, was made into a song by the fabulously musical Anne Watson and it is estimated that the phrase was heard 1,846,665 times during the show.

Sunday featured an Alpha girl catch up to raise some money for the party.

Hamilton’s nannying attitudes are contained in his 2003 Australia Institute report called Regulating Youth Access to Pornography. Notwithstanding the problems of young boys wanting to seek out sexually explicit images on line, Hamilton reaches straight for the banning button as a way to solve the problem. Not only that, he went as close as you can get to calling for an all out ban on X rated films. He even went so far as to support the philosophies of fundamentalist feminists Dworkin and McKinnon that, ‘pornography is the theory, rape is the practice’.

The Greens have been looking at ways to make themselves more mainstream for quite a while now and the idea of co opting someone with Hamilton’s profile makes some sense. But Hamilton is so far left that he almost comes full circle and to the right of the right.

He has called for mandatory internet filters, new laws governing department store catalogues and he even weighed into the Bill Henson debate calling on greater control of the arts