Gina Ruston’s BuzzFeed News Report – 8pm June 7 2016

13 Things That Happened When A Sex Party Candidate Debated A Christian Democrat
Gina Ruston BuzzFeed News Reporter, Australia
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1. Professor Ross Fitzgerald told the audience gathered at the Sydney Institute that he was leading the Sex Party’s bid for a federal senate seat in NSW.

2. “The Sex Party is obviously anti-Christian and wants to remove our Christian heritage and make Australian a secular nation, Christian Democratic Party leader Reverend Fred Nile said.

3. Fitzgerald, who has published 39 books, asked the audience if they’d had a cheeky joint lately.

4. And then the 71-year-old said the government could raise revenue by taxing the sale of marijuana.

5. Self-proclaimed “crusader for human freedoms and family values, Nile, made a causal link between hardcore porn and the incidence of rape.

6. Random questioner (possibly just popped in off the street): “I’m disappointed there was no sex in your talk, Mr Fitzgerald

7. Nile, who has previously described homosexuality as “unnatural, immoral, unhealthy and sinful, expressed his views about the Safe Schools Coalition.

8. Fitzgerald said he didn’t know the Sex Party’s official stance on “gender fluidity but gave his own opinion.

9. Nile, who notoriously prays for rain every time Sydney’s Mardi Gras festival rolls around, criticised parents who gave children a choice between “boy or girl clothes.

10. “We stand for much much more than sex, Fitzgerald, who has won prizes for his erotic fiction, said. He said he admired his party’s “principled stand on taxing all religious institutions, supporting same-sex marriage and dying with dignity.

11. Fitzgerald said all religious institutions in Australia should be paying tax.

12. The pair were divided over whether Australians should have the “right to die with dignity and Nile said people in Sweden were “too scared to go to hospital for fear of being euthanised without their consent.

13. But they both agreed that alcohol had a corrosive effect on Australian society.

Gina Rushton is a breaking news reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Sydney.
Contact Gina Rushton at gina.rushton@buzzfeed.com.
June 7, 2016 at 8 p.m.