In August 2017, Fiona Patten announced the launch of a new Federal party called Reason Australia that in part was borne from a merger of the Australian Sex Party and the Australian Cyclists Party. In January 2018, the Victorian Electoral Commission officially changed the party's name from "Australian Sex Party – Victoria" to "Reason Victoria". In May 2018, the party applied to the AEC for registration for federal elections as "Reason Australia", which was approved on 30 August 2018. In December 2019, the Voluntary Euthanasia Party merged with the Reason Party, and has applied to the NSWEC to change its name to "Reason Party NSW.
Parliamentary actions
The party's main goal should they be elected was to establish voluntary assisted dying laws for Victoria. After a long process and a marathon legislative session, the bill became law on a conscience vote. In 2017, Patten renewed calls for a pilot program of a safe injecting room in North Richmond, in response to a large increase of Victorian drug-related deaths in the last several years. In the first session for the Legislative Council of the year, she introduced the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment Bill 2017. At the time there were regular overdoses in the streets of Richmond, and that number has been reduced significantly since the centre was opened, with various estimates about the number of lives saved due to the opening of the centre.
Policies
The party's policies include:
Drug law reform
Drug use to be treated as a health issue, not a criminal one
National media classification and introduction of non-violent sexual content label
Other areas
Focusing on community housing and ensuring that at-risk people have a place to live
Decriminalise sex work and remove censorship so that people can make their own choices about what they want to watch
Improving public transport especially for high growth outer suburban areas
Increasing oversight around politicians and tighten the rules to prevent unethical behaviour by the state's politicians and public figures
Taxing the non-charitable business arms of religious institutions. This includes the estimated $9 billion portfolio of the Catholic Church in the state
Electoral history
Victorian state elections
In addition to fielding candidates in a number of Victorian Legislative Assembly seats, the party stood candidates in all regions of the Victorian Legislative Council after 2017. In 2018 the party succeeded in re-electing Fiona Patten to the Northern Metropolitan Region.
*Chipp was endorsed by the party, but the party was not registered with the VEC at the time, as they were in the process of changing their name.
Links
The party has had some involvement in Glenn Druery's Minor Party Alliance. However, in the lead-up to the 2018 state election, Fiona Patten had a falling out with Glenn Druery due to his new conflict of interest as chief-of-staff to Federal Senator, Derryn Hinch, who was running candidates in the election and receiving favourable preferences due to Druery's private business dealings as the "preference whisperer". She claimed that he demanded that the Reason Party pay him money, or she would not be re-elected. Patten made an official complaint to the VEC, and Druery is now subject to an ongoing police investigation over this complaint.
