Saturday Magazine

7 Jul 2025

Saturday, 5th, July, 2025: Weekly Wrap Up with Macca and Fiona Patten

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Saturday, 5th, July, 2025: Weekly Wrap Up with Macca and Fiona Patten

This week Macca has a very special co-host, Fiona Patten, Australian politician and activist. She was the leader of Reason Australia (also known as the Reason Party) and was a member of the Victorian Legislative Council, between 2014 and 2022, representing the Northern Metropolitan Region, until she lost her seat in the 2022 state election.

Patten established the Australia Sex Party, in 2009 to focus on personal freedoms after deep frustration with stagnation on censorship, freedom, marriage equality and drug law reform.

On 22 August 2017, it was announced that the Australian Sex Party would be changing its name to the Reason Party.

Before entering politics, Patten was the CEO of Australia’s national adult industry association, Eros Association. She championed sexual rights and health movements for more than 20 years, particularly on HIV/AIDS, after initially starting out as a small business owner with her own fashion label.

During her time as a Victorian MP, Patten has been credited for playing pivotal roles in achieving social reforms in Victoria, with examples including the passage of Victoria’s assisted dying legislation, , the trial of a medically supervised drug injecting room in Richmond, relaxing laws for ride-share companies such as Uber and establishing buffer zones for abortion clinics to keep protesters away from patients and staff.

According to The Age, between November 2018 and November 2021, Patten voted with the Andrews Government’s position 74.3% of the time, the second-most of any Legislative Council crossbencher, behind only Andy Meddick of the Animal Justice Party.

In March 2024, Patten announced that she was deregistering Reason Australia.

In August 2024, it was announced that Fiona Patten will be the lead Senate candidate of Legalise Cannabis Australia, (also known as the Legalise Cannabis Party) in Victoria at the 2025, Australian federal election.

Most recently, Fiona was honoured at GFN25 with the Michael Russell Award for her tireless advocacy in tobacco harm reduction.