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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (4 December) . . Page.. 4533 ..

Thursday, 4 December 1997

_________________________

The Assembly met at 10.30 am.

(Quorum formed)

MR SPEAKER (Mr Cornwell) took the chair and asked members to stand in silence and pray or reflect on their responsibilities to the people of the Australian Capital Territory.

CLASSIFICATION (PUBLICATIONS, FILMS AND COMPUTER GAMES) (ENFORCEMENT) (AMENDMENT) BILL 1997

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (10.32): Mr Speaker, I present the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) (Enforcement) (Amendment) Bill 1997, together with its explanatory memorandum.

Title read by Clerk.

MR HUMPHRIES: I move:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

This Bill amends the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) (Enforcement) Act 1995. As members will recall, that Act was amended in December 1996 to introduce a specific scheme for the regulation of the sale and copying of films classified as X-rated. In the period the scheme has been in operation, the Registrar of X Film Licences and inspectors have been involved in the inspection of all premises for which X film licences have been issued, as well as liaising with police in relation to the possible illegal sale of classified, unclassified and refused classification films by unlicensed persons. After addressing some unsatisfactory practices which had developed in the less regulated regime, the registrar advises me that he is satisfied that there is currently an improved level of compliance by X film licensees. However, there have been a number of alleged breaches of the Act which have highlighted certain deficiencies in the structure of the scheme as first introduced which I propose to address in this Bill.

The Bill amends section 24 of the Act by repealing subsection 24(3). That subsection currently contains a defence to a prosecution for possessing a film classified RC or an unclassified film with the intention of selling or exhibiting the film or copying the film if the film has been classified as X, R, MA, M, PG or G after the alleged offence. The subsection has the effect of not requiring a person to have a film classified unless, or until, they are prosecuted for allegedly selling, exhibiting or copying the unclassified film. This defence, if left in the Act, will directly undermine the intention of the overall classification scheme.

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