In its first federal election, the Australian Sex Party has laid claim to the major minor party status in Australian politics.

Outside of Coalition, Labor and  Greens parties, the Sex Party is fighting neck and neck with Family First for fourth place in the national Senate vote, without even standing candidates in either the ACT or Tasmania.

In Victoria, the party is level pegging and vying with the DLP for the last Senate seat, in the NT it has received more than 4% of the vote and nationally, Sex Party preferences have significantly boosted the Greens vote.

In the six House of Representatives seats that the Sex Party contested, it came fourth in all but one, beating Family First in all.

Party President, Fiona Patten, said the Sex Party welcomed a hung parliament. “Suddenly the smaller members of the parliament have become the big boys and are worthy of courting”, she said. “We’ve polled better than the Greens did in their first federal election and believe that our vision of Australia as the most socially progressive country in the world is equal to the Greens environmental messages of 20 years ago.”

Ms Patten said that the major minor party status had been achieved on the smell of an oily rag. “We had our name, our policies and a handful of hardworking volunteers”, she said. “We had no momentum from previous elections, virtually no funds for advertising, virgin candidates and the ability to hand out how to vote cards at only two per cent of polling booths around the country. Its been a remarkable effort really”.

She said that from today, she would start looking for candidates to contest every House of Reps seat and the Senate in all states for the next federal election. “We’re off and running from a standing start and we’ll shake things up a bit before the next federal election comes around”, she said.