It must be embarrassing for her colleagues to have a party with such a confronting name taking a sensible middle path on a number of social issues while they are constrained in a number of ways.

Fiona Patten MLC is no stranger to the ACT where she grew up and was educated including a degree from the University of Canberra. She was first a candidate with Craig Duby’s Hare-Clark Independent Party in the second ACT election in 1992.

Her interest in having a political voice and her persistence in running a political party, election after election, finally paid a dividend. Many Canberrans will remember Fiona working with Robbie Swan as lobbyists for the adult industry and the Eros Association.

In the first two ACT Assemblies the issue of X-rated videos remained a hotly contested issue through many debates. In the end, the industry was able to remain operating in Canberra only to eventually be sidelined by modern technology and the wide availability of pornography on the internet.

However, Fiona was much more involved. She represented women who worked in the sex industry effectively as an industrial officer for WISE (Workers in Sex Employment). Following legalisation of the sex industry in the ACT in 1992 she was keen to work with others to ensure that the rights of workers who chose that industry would be respected and that they would have a voice.

Her inaugural speech to the Victorian Parliament reflected her sense of humour and her openness: “I may be the first former sex worker to be elected to a parliament anywhere in this country, although no doubt the clients of sex workers have been elected in much greater numbers before me.”

She has been providing a measured voice across a range of social issues. When the issue of methamphetamines (or “ice”) was being blown out of proportion, she suggested a calm approach recognising the inadequacy of policing as the main manner of dealing with the issue.

She also encouraged a rethink of prohibitionist policies that put the illicit drugs in the hands of criminals.

It is worth recognising some of the runs on the board of what we now recognise as the Australian Sex Party. When the ACT moved to reduce the R-rated movie industry to a minimum through taxation it was Robbie Swan and Fiona Patten who pursued the issue right through to the High Court of Australia.

The result was a finding by the High Court that states and territories didn’t have the power to impose this type of duty not just on these products, but on other large money spinners such as alcohol and tobacco. The federal government of the time had to intervene to collect the taxes on behalf of the other jurisdictions. Some will argue it was one of a series of catalysts leading to the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Although the general community may well see the Sex Party as a “bit naughty”, there’s no doubt that the experience of the political lobbyist with the AIDS Action Council, with sex workers and with the Eros Association has given Ms Patten a level of political astuteness that may be costly for her political colleagues to underestimate.

Ominously for them, she told Gay Alcorn of “The Guardian” that, not for the first time, a parliamentary colleague told her: “I agree with every one of your policies but I couldn’t vote for you because of your (party) name”.

The make-up of the Upper House in Victoria gives her real power. Personal sexual choices leads the list of her goals with the foremost being abortion rights. She has been forthright about the need for sensible laws in other social areas as an outspoken advocate of voluntary active euthanasia and drug law reform.

Fiona Patten may represent the Sex Party – but it is looking much more like a genuine liberal party than the current party of that name.