Peter Garrett might be out after the federal election (and turning down Midnight Oil reunion offers) but following on from the likes of Rose Tattoo’s Angry Anderson and country music star James Blundell throwing their hat into the political arena, another Australian musician – albeit one much younger – is also joining politics.

Adrian Trajtsman has been a staple of Melbourne’s alternative music scene for over a decade, both as electronic mastermind Talkshow Boy and as one of the founding members of Keith! Party, acting as producer/singer/MC for the hip-hop punks.

Now Trajtsman will be splitting his musical duties with his new role as a candidate for the Australian Sex Party, putting himself forward for the seat of Wills in Victoria for the upcoming Federal Election, pitching himself against ALP Member Kelvin Thomson who has held the inner-Melbourne seat since 1996, the second safest Labor seat in the country.

Trajtsman believes however, that following Labor’s leadership spill that people are disillusioned by the party. “People are disenfranchised with Labor,” Trajtsman tells The Music in an interview following the announcement of his candidacy.

“Labor is in turmoil. We’re attracting votes from people who have voted all different ways previously,” he says. “I want to get the issues out there; I want to be out there and saying ‘Hey, the other parties might not be talking about these issues, but these are important to us’.” “Labor is in turmoil. We’re attracting votes from people who have voted all different ways previously.” – Adrian Trajtsman

It was the Australian Sex Party’s policies, and especially the stance of party leader Fiona Patten, that first drew Trajtsman to begin volunteering for the party in 2010.

“I became a member after seeing Fiona Patten debating Wendy Francis from Family First on Sunrise and I just thought she was fantastic, a voice I’d like to have in parliament,” Trajstman recalls “Then I went to their website and had a look at their policies one-by-one and I was like, ‘Yep, I agree with that, I agree with that, I agree with that…’.”

Being a regular of Victoria’s live music scene, a state operating under strict legislative policies, Trajtsman knows first hand the issues by performers and venues alike. “I’m not disappearing off the music scene – I’m still going to be involved in music,” he notes, “but with regards to whether we’ll be addressing live music issues, that’s something we’ll probably more be looking at on a state level, with regards to licensing and so on.”

“With regards to live music, a lot of the time people want to lump assault – and particularly this media whip up of ‘alcohol fuelled assault’ – they want to lump that in with live music; they’re two separate issues and that’s always been the Sex Party’s view,” says the future Wills seat candidate. “A crime is a crime; if somebody commits an assault, that’s an assault, that’s not live music’s fault. It’s not caused because they were out late partying, it was caused because they decided to hit somebody.”

Trajtsman’s campaign will focus on three of the Sex Party’s major policy platforms, specifically the tax exempt status for religious institutions (“we don’t think it’s a good idea for government to invest money in promoting religion,”), marriage equality (“It’s about time something happened on that,”), and the decriminalisation of drugs through law reforms.

“We’re wanting to tax and regulate the supply of marijuana and allow for possession, use and cultivation for personal use for adults,” explains the musician-come-politician.

You can read more info and join the Adrian Trajtsman For Wills Campaign here.