Page 2737 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 21 November 1989
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These two bodies, Mr Speaker - the National Status of Women Committee, set up in 1975 by a Labor government, and WEL ACT - must be particularly disillusioned at women's degradation for dollars being institutionalised by a Labor government which is led by Australia's first woman Chief Minister.
Ms Follett might quietly blush at her own sell-out of her sisters upon such a fundamental issue of concern to women, but to her credit she has not tried to hide, like some, behind euphemisms such as "non-violent erotica" when referring in her presentation speech to X-rated videos. This is an important admission because, like the smokescreen disclaimer that the taxing of these products would neither legalise nor legitimise the trade, there have been attempts to pass off X-rated videos as non-violent erotica, a misnomer if ever there was one.
By accident or design, however, the Business Franchise ("X" Videos) Bill 1989 does not provide a definition of what it is that the Government proposes to make money from. Members and other interested people must refer to the Classification of Publications Ordinance of 1983 for the definition. The Government, in a lot of legislation that it is bringing down now, never quite tells you in the legislation what it is doing. You have to do a lot of research to find out. The Classification of Publications Ordinance of 1983 states that, when the Commonwealth Censorship Board decides that a film depicts, expresses or otherwise deals with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in a manner that is likely to cause offence to a reasonable adult person, or is unsuitable for viewing by a minor, the board shall approve the classification of the film as an "R" film or an "X" film.
In the opinion of many people, Mr Speaker, and indeed of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, anything that fits the above description should be X-rated; there should not be an R-rated category. Members will appreciate that the definition is much broader in subject content than non-violent erotica.
It also gives considerable scope for videos depicting violence, cruelty or sex to be given a classification of R or X if they are likely to cause offence to a reasonable adult person; that is, if a video is produced depicting violence or cruelty or sex, or all three, in a manner that is likely to cause offence to a reasonable adult person, the video is not banned but it may be given an X rating. Again, such a classification goes well beyond the non-violent erotica qualification.
Thus, in spite of attempts in certain quarters to play down the scope of pornographic videos, the ACT, with the passage of this legislation, is set to profit from the depicting of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or
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