She also wanted to see provisions introduced into the Electoral Act for parties to return public funding, if a successful candidate later resigned from the parliament for reasons other than ill health or genuine personal ones. “Peter Costello, Brendan Nelson and the Liberal Party have caused the taxpayer to fork out over a million dollars for the Bradfield and Higgins by elections. Their only motivation has been personal aggrandisement and political advancement. The Liberal Party should now return the public funding they received when they won their seats”.

She said the Greens had lurched strongly to the right in preparing for the Higgins by election. “Clive Hamilton was the architect of Stephen Conroy’s plan to filter the internet with his 2003 Australia Institute report. He also subscribes to the extreme feminist view that non violent X rated films cause rape. It’s the same moral agenda that the Christian Democrats and Family First are running with”.

Ms Patten said that censorship of the internet was already at critical levels even before any national filtering scheme was in place. Many sex education, health and fertility agencies were having their sites blocked by inefficient filters. She said the Australian Sex Party’s site had been censored by the government and access to the site was currently denied to people working in Stephen Conroy’s department. “This is a clear breach of the implied rights to political free speech in the Constitution and an example of how difficult it has become for anyone who deals in sexuality to operate online. If ever we get a Clive Hamilton-style national filter in place, the internet will be off limits for many people”, she said.

If elected by the voters of Higgins she promised to address the issue of religion in politics.

She said that Peter Costello had embarrassed the electorate with his ongoing and cringe-making support for the extremist religious group, The Catch the Fire Ministries.