The new leader of the ACT's most successful minor party says recent electoral and donation reforms stacked the cards heavily in favour of the major parties in this month's election.
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But Australian Sex Party ACT leader Steven Bailey maintains minor parties and independents can win seats under the ACT's new five-electorate system with better organisation and a higher calibre of candidates.
Mr Bailey performed well in the southern electorate, attracting 4.4 per cent of first preference votes himself. The Sex Party got a total of 7.9 per cent of the Brindabella vote, beating the Greens, and 4 per cent in Yerrabi.
Mr Bailey, who was recently named the leader of the party's local branch, said the Sex Party would be more organised and better resourced in the 2020 election.
"I'm a young man, and there's no urgency for me to get in there," Mr Bailey said.
"But there's no way that the Sex Party won't win a seat in 2020 with the experience that I've gained over the years."
He said a number of recent reforms had given major parties an unfair advantage.
The combination of uncapped corporate and private donations and a quadrupling of public funding had given major parties a huge boost to resourcing, Mr Bailey said.
The reduction in the political advertising expenditure cap to $40,000 had benefited parties able to run 25 members, five in each electorate.
The re-drawing of electorates, transforming three to five, had removed the ACT's only seven seat electorate, which Mr Bailey said made it more difficult for minor parties or independents.
"All of these things suited the major parties. They are complicated issues to express in terms of political messaging," he said.
"The major parties went into this election very confidently, this is the first time that they had the cards stacked in their favour."
Mr Bailey said the ACT deserved a higher quality of candidates from minor parties and independents.
He said many lacked organisation and a proper understanding of Hare-Clark. Ginninderra, for example, was stacked with independents and minor parties, which had diluted the vote and made it hard for any individual to get a quota.
"It was diluted, there was no organisation, and we just didn't know where preferences would flow," he said.
"I knew there would be a massive vote for independents there, but I also knew that massive vote wouldn't be worth a quota, and votes would be exhausted."
Ginninderra independent Kim Huynh was the most successful of the electorate's independents - in fact, of any independent - receiving 2355 votes, or 5 per cent of the total.
But the other seven independents in the field were well-behind, with no other candidate cracking the 1000-vote mark.
The Sex Party will benefit from public funding following their election result, receiving money for their strong performance in Brindabella, and likely in Yerrabi.
Mr Bailey said that will help them in the 2020 campaign, which he has already pledged to contest.
"Now I've got the biggest job of all, which is expanding our political messaging to all of Canberra... we need to overcome that cross-party political divide and appeal to people of all political persuasions," he said.
