All-rounder ... activist and performer Zahra Stardust expands her political ambitions with a tilt at City of Sydney. Photo: Jacky Ghossein

Zahra Stardust is a human rights lawyer, Miss Nude Australia Pole Dance Champion 2012 and a porn actress, but come Saturday she hopes to also be lord mayor of the City of Sydney.

A so-called sex-positive feminist, Ms Stardust is using her experience in the adult entertainment industry to further her passions in politics - as you do.

"At a local government level, I'm particularly passionate about anti-discrimination against the sex business," Ms Stardust told The Diary's I've-seen-it-all-now correspondent, Dominic Bossi.

"Our policies translate to things like the extension of legal injecting rooms beyond Kings Cross, [abolishing] sniffer dogs on public streets.''

Ms Stardust will hit the streets in the coming days to ensure voters are fully aware of the party's policies: ''Sexual education curriculum, ensuring that there are anti-discrimination protections based on people on the basis of occupation, removing the GST tax on tampons and, at a state level, protecting decriminalisation of sex workers in NSW."

Her campaign for lord mayor of Sydney will be her second election campaign. She ran as a candidate in the seat of Bradfield in the 2009 federal byelection.

Ms Stardust will be joined on the Australian Sex Party's ticket by a former policeman, Andrew Patterson, along with Graeme Dunne, Geoffrey Thomas and Robyn Trigg, as the party's candidates for the City of Sydney.

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The Sex Party have targeted improved rights for sex workers and the decriminalisation of drugs in the prelude to the City of Sydney elections on September 8.

Having already run for the Bradfield by-election in 2009, Sex Party Lord Mayoral candidate Zahra Stardust believes their ethos can be brought to the betterment of the City of Sydney.

“The Sex Party is fundamentally a human rights, social justice and civil liberties party,” Ms Stardust said. “At a local government level our policies translate to things like supporting a diverse vibrant city that has 24 hour public transport and better street lighting, and no blanket lockouts or curfews.

“We want to extend drug injecting rooms beyond Kings Cross, see no sniffer dogs on public streets and we want personal drug use to be decriminalised.”

A large part of the Party’s local policy is focused on fair treatment for sex workers and sex work venues.

“At the moment, a range of different local councils apply really discriminatory policies or measures against sex industry businesses; often there are planning requirements upon sex industry businesses that don’t apply to other commercial businesses.

“Some councils have forced sex industry businesses to relocate into industrial zones and this has been shown to isolate sex workers. Often it segregates those people into poorly lit or under resourced or unsafe areas.

Australian Sex Party Lord Mayor candidate for the City of Sydney, Zahra Stardust, has claimed that the Liberal Government’s plans to introduce a licensing system to regulate sex work in NSW would be ‘catastrophic for the health, safety and human rights of sex workers’. She states that ‘Evidence from Queensland and Victoria shows that licensing has proven to be an expensive, ineffective and unworkable model to regulate the sex industry.’ In comparison, she says:

‘The UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon supports decriminalisation as a human rights approach to ending discrimination against sex workers. UNAIDS supports decriminalisation as part of a best practice approach to HIV Prevention. The UN Population Fund insists upon universal rights for sex workers. Current epidemiology shows that decriminalisation provides sex workers with better access to OHS, industrial rights and peer education.’

Stardust notes that while licensing is sometimes misleadingly referred to as ‘legalisation’, it is more accurately described as ‘over-regulation’: ‘The excessive legislative requirements involved in licensing mean that large segments of the industry are often forced underground, presenting obstacles to sex worker access to health, safety, outreach, peer education and justice.’ Ms Stardust explains:

• Licensing may ban sex workers from working in residential or commercial areas and require them to work in isolated industrial areas, posing a threat to their safety.

• Licensing may require sex workers to disclose their legal names to clients or the public, increasing their risk of harassment.

• Licensing may require sex workers to register their legal name and address on a permanent police or government record, interfering with their privacy, limiting their ability to travel, and affecting their access to justice in court.

• Licensing may prevent sex workers from working together, reducing their access to support and peer education.

• Licensing may require sex workers to have forced medical testing, despite sex workers having far lower rates of STIs than the general population. There is no case of HIV transmission between a sex worker and client in Australia.

• Licensing means that acts which are lawful for non-sex workers (such as consensual sex between adults without a condom) become unlawful – and punishable – for sex workers.

• A history of police regulation, corruption and entrapment practices mean that sex workers in a licensing model are less likely to seek police assistance in the event of a crime.

• Licensing inevitably creates a two-tiered sex industry, because sex workers are forced to work illegally to protect their health, safety, rights and privacy.

The Australian Sex Party NSW is standing a group of five candidates in the Sydney City Council elections to be held on Saturday September the 8th.

The Sex Party’s Council ticket is headed by a former vice cop and anti-corruption campaigner, Andrew Patterson. The party is running feminist adult entertainer, Zahra Stardust, for Lord Mayor.
These unlikely allies bring a diverse platform of streetwise and practical policies to the local government elections including;

• turning Sydney into a vibrant 24 hour city with a diverse range of outlets and services operating around the clock, including public transport
• extending drug injecting rooms across Sydney; lobbying for the decriminalisation of personal drug use and elevating SCC’s standing in the drug debate at state and federal level
• ending discrimination against adult businesses and sex workers
• improving Council’s integrity, accountability and transparency and
• implementing an integrated transport plan for Sydney

Andrew and Zahra are joined on the Sex Party ticket by, Geoffrey Thomas, a public servant; Robyn Trigg, a former teacher who now audits training organizations; and Graeme Dunne, indie rock musician and former front man for 80s punk band, Pel Mel. Federal Sex Party president, Fiona Patten, will join the team at its media launch this Saturday 12noon, at the Local Taphouse, in Darlinghurst.

Ms Patten said that the diversity in the background of the Sex Party candidates along with the variety of their policies, reflected the vibrancy of the City of Sydney and was indicative of a party with no factions and no interest groups dominating policy. "Sydney is a world-class city and should have a local government planning strategy which promotes this by providing a variety of late-night social choices, 24 hour public transport and support for live music venues. We’re into the ‘think globally, act locally’ mentality and we want to bring our national policies into the local arena’.

"The Sex Party is a progressive party and we are proud to stand for voters who can see that there is a better way of doing things for Sydney."

Launch details:
Noon, Saturday 25th August 2012
Local Taphouse
Main Dining Room - Level 1
122 Flinders Street, Darlinghurst NSW

Click here for NSW Local Government Elections Sex Party Candidate Info.