Australian Sex Party will fight deregistration

The Australian Sex Party says the process used to check membership levels of political parties disadvantages smaller outfits.

The Australian Sex Party insists it's not the flop the electoral commission believes it is.

The Australian Electoral Commission has formally deregistered the party at a federal level after it failed to demonstrate it had a minimum of 500 members.

The decision comes just months after the Victorian branch of the party won its first seat in the state's upper house in the November election.

Party co-founder Robbie Swan says the electoral system is weighted against small parties, because they had to submit a list of 550 members for the commission to check.

"In the end, the AEC based their decision on responses they got to just 26 phone calls and four members," he said in a statement on Thursday.

Major parties on the other hand were able spend thousands of dollars paying staff to check their membership contact details were up to date.

"But for smaller parties who do not have paid staff and no budget to track down members, they have to just randomly select 550 names and send them off," Mr Swan said.

"They are gaming the system against minor parties."

Mr Swan claimed the Sex Party had 6000 members, but many of them were young people who moved frequently and didn't have landline phones.

He wants the electoral commission to be given more resources so it can check membership lists more thoroughly.

Comment has been sought from the commission.


Share

2 min read

Published

Updated

Source: AAP


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world