Page 1408 - Week 05 - Thursday, 13 May 1993
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PUBLICATIONS CONTROL (AMENDMENT) BILL 1993
[COGNATE BILL:
FILM CLASSIFICATION (AMENDMENT) BILL 1993]
Debate resumed from 31 March 1993, on motion by Mr Connolly:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MADAM SPEAKER: Is it the wish of the Assembly to debate this order of the day concurrently with the Film Classification (Amendment) Bill 1993? There being no objection, that course will be followed. I remind members that in debating order of the day No. 1 they may also address their remarks to order of the day No. 2.
MR HUMPHRIES (11.08): Madam Speaker, the two Bills we are currently considering are Bills relating to a similar matter. They are to do with the creation of a new MA classification and they are in line with a decision made at the national level, in the Federal Parliament in particular, for a new national scheme to be introduced which would tighten access to certain films by young people. Particularly in mind, I think, are films which might presently enjoy, in some cases, an M classification, films which exhibit violence or offensive language or in other ways are considered to be of some unsuitability for people in younger age groups.
The Assembly decided to adjourn these matters when they were brought forward for debate on the sitting days late in March and the beginning of April. It did so on the basis, I believe, that it felt that there was a strong need for us to consider the implications of these new rules on those in the Territory who would be responsible for administering them. In particular, the Film Classification (Amendment) Bill imposes a quite heavy onus on cinema operators in the Territory to ensure that they do not admit people between the ages of two and 14 to films unless they are accompanied by a parent or guardian. It is, Madam Speaker, a fairly heavy onus to place on a cinema operator, and we in the Opposition have used the intervening four or five weeks to talk to those people in the Territory to see what implications the Bill might have for them and how they might be affected by its passage.
Having done so, Madam Speaker, I must say that questions have arisen in my mind as to whether the Bill will operate effectively and without confusion or difficulty on the part of those upon whom it impacts, and also whether, in fact, it will be effectively enforced. I do not recall the last occasion I saw a cinema operator prosecuted for admitting a child under 18 to an R-rated movie, for example. It may be that those things do not happen in the ACT; that children do not try to get into R-rated movies. It may be that there are very few resources placed in the path of preventing this kind of thing happening and that, although cinema operators in the Territory are quite diligent about these things, there is not a great deal done to enforce the application of the present law.
There does appear to be some confusion among this section of the community about the way in which these new provisions will operate. I have spoken to operators or managers of all cinemas in the ACT except for the drive-in, which, I think, is still in operation, although I am not sure. I have not been there for a long time. The implication of what was said to me was that many operators do
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