My first public exposure as a candidate last night at the Central Mag candidate forum!  And it went well - plenty of applause.  A good start.

Having got registered officially as a candidate for Sydney yesterday (woohoo!), last night we managed to squeeze our way into the "meet the candidates" forum in central Sydney.  We hadn't been invited to sit on the panel - that was limited to Lord Mayor Clover Moore (the sitting independent MP), and the three candidates from Labor, Liberals and the Greens.  The Christian Democrats (a classic oxymoron if I ever heard one!) had also squeezed in at the end, so just as well the Sex Party was there to balance it out.

Well last night was not really inspiring from the privileged panel candidates if you're a Sydney voter.  Clover couldn't stop talking about her achievements as Lord Mayor.  The Green, the Liberal and the Labor candidates all gave the stock standard platforms we hear from those parties.  The only stand out exception was Sasha Blumen (Labor) who has borrowed our drug policy and told the voters that drugs should be a health issue not a criminal one.  Well, good on him, but he's not going to be popular with Labor head office for that little gem, because decriminalisation is so not their policy or their position.  They've been in power here for 16 years and have done nothing to reform the drug laws.

After the 90 minute panel for the privileged "gang of four", the Christian Democrat (his bio said he was a former sex addict? Ha!) gave some of the most right wing moralising you'll get to hear anywhere.  It was like listening to a tele-evangelist.

In my allocated 4 minutes I tried to do justice to our stand on civil liberties, equal rights (especially gay marriage, and equality and protection for sex workers), less corruption and greater transparency in government, as well as some of our local issues in the city of Sydney, namely transport and open spaces.  My two best received (judging by applause) suggestions were that, firstly, Sydney needs a full-time MP and a full-time Lord Mayor, not one in the same as with Clover.  Also my view that Barangaroo should be one big park for all residents to enjoy, not another feeding trough for property developers, brought cheers of approval from the crowd.  It was interesting that all the 4 panel candidates are pro-development of Barangaroo, including the Greens and Clover.

The Sex  Party for Sydney on 26 March!!!

Read more about the candidate forum here.