From sex activist to progressive trailblazer: Fiona Patten’s remarkable rise to influence

The nation’s ‘first’ teal: Fiona Patten has exerted considerable progressive influence in her eight years in Victoria’s parliament. Photograph: Ellen Smith/The Guardian

Fiona Patten isn’t used to not getting her way. It’s been two weeks since the Victorian government voted down her bill to cut funding to religious public hospitals that refuse to offer abortion and euthanasia and it’s clear she’s not over it.

“If I’m honest, it’s probably been one of the more disappointing campaigns that we’ve run,” she says, “but I don’t think it was all our fault.”