MARGOT SEVILLE : Crikey journalist based in Sydney
After last night’s political debate at the Sydney Institute, I’ve cancelled my plans to go to Holland. According to the Reverend Fred Nile, voluntary euthanasia laws there have meant that people are “too afraid to go to hospital for fear of being bumped off without consent. Could one broken foot lead to you prematurely popping your clogs? The 81-year-old veteran of the NSW upper house asserted that “hundreds, if not thousands of people have been killed in Dutch hospitals.
Nile, once described as …

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
TweetTumblr
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 …

The Catholic archdiocese of Melbourne has defended the Missionaries of Charity after a photograph emerged purporting to show two nuns from the order defacing a Sex party poster calling for the church to be taxed and marijuana to be legalised.
The party’s leader, Fiona Patten, said the pair seemed “hell-bent on tearing down the words “tax the church from a pole in Collingwood.
“Our policy to tax the church is fair and reasonable, especially where it applies to the church’s profit-making businesses, she said on Friday. “If the nuns would like to …

One upside to new Senate voting rules is that they have driven a micro-party alliance giving rise to Australia’s first apparently irresistible political platform: sex, drugs and rock’n’roll.
Well, sex and drugs anyway. The Australian Sex party and the Marijuana (Hemp) party , in a liaison aimed at corralling the progressive end of the minor party vote , are running their “joint ticket in all states and territories except New South Wales and Victoria, where they will preference each other.
Still, Fiona Patten, whose role as an MP in the Victorian state …

We all deserve the choice of a voluntary assisted death
By Prof Ross Fitzgerald (AM)
A major source of opposition to voluntary assisted dying is the Catholic Church and other religious hierarchies. “Voluntary and “choice are concepts that churches like to reserve for their autocracies but not apply to individuals. They demand control , not only over their memberships but over the rest of us as well. In Australia, as elsewhere, minority ecclesiastical autocracies still remain powerful in their fight against same-sex marriage and voluntary assisted dying. Yet more than 70 per …

Given that for most people voluntary assisted dying is eminently sensible, it is still surprisingly difficult to have a reasoned debate about end-of-life choices.
As a patron of Britain’s ‘Dignity in Dying’ campaign, Sir Terence English reports: “During my life as a surgeon I have come across mentally competent, terminally ill patients who would have welcomed the option of being able to choose the timing and circumstances of their death. I believe the legislation of assisted dying is important for those who, like me, wish to have this degree of control …

Given that for most people voluntary assisted dying is eminently sensible, it is still surprisingly difficult to have a reasoned debate about end-of-life choices.
As a patron of Britain’s ‘Dignity in Dying’ campaign, Sir Terence English reports: “During my life as a surgeon I have come across mentally competent, terminally ill patients who would have welcomed the option of being able to choose the timing and circumstances of their death. I believe the legislation of assisted dying is important for those who, like me, wish to have this degree of control …

The introduction of party logos on Senate ballot papers at the forthcoming election could throw up some very unexpected results. It also represents one of the largest shifts in electoral philosophy that we’ve seen in a long time in that we have introduced “brands” as opposed to “party names” onto our ballot papers. In the same way that many public institutions and conventions are being corporatised, now our voting system is suffering the same fate as we inexorably move toward US-style electioneering.
The Coalition, the Greens and Nick Xenophon joined forces …

Celebrated author and academic Professor Ross Fitzgerald will lead The Sex Party’s bid for a federal Senate seat in NSW, named as the party’s number one candidate.
Fitzgerald launched his campaign at his home in leafy Redfern, Sydney, on Wednesday. With his daughter’s paintings hanging proudly on the walls and a small white dog weaving around the patio furniture, he spoke of his reasons for mounting his first election campaign at age 71 — namely, support for marriage equality, voluntary euthanasia and dealing with alcoholism and other social problems among prison …

Sex Party launches NSW candidate
Prison reform, drug reform and taxing religious institutions is top of the list for Professor Ross Fitzgerald, the Sex Party’s newest senate candidate, who rates his chances at winning a seat in NSW and shaking up the system.
Bill Shorten’s chances of holding inner Sydney seats have been enhanced by the Australian Sex Party’s likely decision to direct preferences to Labor.
The progressive small party is intent on paying back inner-city Greens rivals for supporting the Turnbull government’s reforms to the Senate.
In Sydney to announce the Australian Sex …

Sex Party: NSW Senate candidate Ross Fitzgerald not what you’d expect
MAY 11, 2016 5:06PM
Prof Ross Fitzgerald said he believed he was a perfect fit for a party whose motto was Your Life, Your Choice.
FORGET whips, chains and strippers because the Sex Party has just come of age — literally
He may seem like an unlikely Senate candidate for the Sex Party but Ross Fitzgerald thinks he might just have what it takes to pull it off.
The author, professor and father of a grown up daughter reckons he’s a perfect fit for …