Page 2247 - Week 08 - Thursday, 7 June 1990
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Thursday, 7 June 1990
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MR SPEAKER (Mr Prowse) took the chair at 10.30 am and read the prayer.
MOTION OF WANT OF CONFIDENCE IN CHIEF MINISTER
MR STEVENSON (10.31): I move:
That this Assembly has no confidence in the Chief Minister of the ACT in view of his lack of integrity, lack of credibility and extreme hypocrisy as demonstrated by his intention to have the Alliance "Government" introduce a Bill to tax X-rated videos, in absolute contradiction of his statements in this house on 21 November 1989 in total condemnation of such a tax.
Mr Speaker, Mr Kaine had good reason for being embarrassed, because his "reasons for introducing the Business Franchise ('X' Videos) Bill 1990 can be summed up by a simple four-letter word, 'loot' - loot from lust, if you like.
"This Bill confirms what we in the Opposition have been saying [for some time], that the Government's budget strategy is in tatters, that it urgently needs money and that, in its desperate pursuit of revenue, this Government is prepared to sacrifice its principles, its policies and its philosophy.
"I submit that the Chief Minister was aware of the hypocrisy to which [he] was party in putting forward this legislation...The mere fact of taxing these products gives them a status and an acceptability which they have not hitherto enjoyed in the wider context of the ACT and Australian society. It does legitimise them. With this high-profile public endorsement by the ACT Government of X-rated videos, the defence that [this] legislation will neither legalise nor legitimise them is totally specious.
"For a fistful of dollars the [Kaine] Government has prostituted its own social justice policy and has degraded its own policy regarding women...Mr Speaker, the impact of X-rated videos on women and girls in the community might be a lot more than the Chief Minister bargained for. Research on battered women and consumption of pornography by their partners, in a study by Canadian psychologist James Check and others, reveals a higher incidence of assault in this group than among non-pornographic users.
"Of course, Chief Minister, you might intend to use the revenue raised to fund more women's refuges. But, if so,
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