Sex Party Lodges Objection to ‘Team Xenophon’ Logo

The Australian Sex Party has lodged a formal objection to the Australian Electoral Commission over the proposed logo to be used by Team Xenophon on ballot papers at the upcoming federal election. 

Sex Party co-founder and registered officer, Robbie Swan, who lodged the objection, said it was made in three parts.

Firstly, that Team Xenophon has infringed the Commonwealth’s intellectual property by using the classification symbol for the most explicit film classification in Australia – the X classification*.

Secondly, that the use of the X symbol as a logo on a ballot paper, allows a party to use one of only two commonly used markings to denote a vote – ticks and crosses. Given that some people will mark their ballot paper with a cross, often in vague or unclear ways, such a vote is more likely to be taken as a vote for Team Xenophon, under the savings provisions of the new electoral laws. It is tantamount to using a tick and neither ticks nor crosses should be allowed.

Thirdly, that Team Xenophon were using the X logo to confuse voters as to who they really were. When the story about the new logo first appeared in the national press on 6.4.16, many people left comments saying that they assumed the X logo represented the Sex Party*. Team Xenophon would have been aware of the fact that the Sex Party was founded as a result of Senator Conroy’s 2009 internet filter that would have banned the X rating. The Sex Party’s leader, Victorian Upper House member, Fiona Patten, campaigned heavily on the issue.

Mr Swan said that he believed Mr Xenophon may have misunderstood Australia’s classification scheme when he went looking for a logo and had wound up with the wrong rating. ‘Nick’s an old parental guidance man from way back and a good supporter of the nanny state’, he said. ‘He just got the wrong rating. PG is the logo that is much more likely to win him seats.’

Robbie Swan: 0413 871 604