Page 1010 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 26 July 1989
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unanimously for all those jurisdictions that X-rated video material should be banned. That was the agreement of the Federal Labor Attorney-General at the time.
You might well ask, "Why was it not the case that the Attorney-General came back to Canberra and ensured that the ban occurred?". The answer, as we all know, was that there was a revolt in the Labor Party's caucus room in the Federal Parliament and that that undertaking by Mr Bowen in Darwin was not able to be kept. That is no reason to say that we should not keep the commitment made on behalf of the ACT at that time. I believe that we should.
It seems quite clear to me that we are talking here not about the simple kinds of innocently erotic videos that the X-rated video industry likes to put before us as examples of the innocent and innocuous material which it is being proposed be banned by hardliners like those people who they claim push the censorship line. We are talking about material which in some cases is very, very degrading, particularly to women. I will be interested to hear what the Labor Party - in particular, the Chief Minister - has to say about some of this material.
I worked at one stage for the shadow Minister for women in the Federal Parliament. We examined this sort of material to see what people were talking about and whether it did involve anything that was really offensive. I can assure members that it was; it was highly offensive. I am not talking as a prudish person. I am a member of the younger generation, as distinct from my colleague Dr Kinloch, for example.
Mr Duby: Too old for the Young Liberals.
MR HUMPHRIES: Too old for the Young Liberals perhaps; but nonetheless a person with reasonably progressive views, I pride myself. I do not think that the material I saw there was in any way, shape or form acceptable to ordinary, decent Australians.
Mr Duby: Was that X-rated material?
MR HUMPHRIES: That was X-rated material. My then boss, Senator Vanstone, took that material into the Senate and showed it to members of the Senate. I have not had the opportunity to do that here today, but I am very happy to do that. The material is quite offensive, and I do not think any members of this place would accept it or defend it, were it to be put before them. I would warn members like Mr Duby that before they accept the advice of the erotic video industry they look at what material they are talking about. It is not what I would call the soft porn; I am talking about the hard porn.
Mr Duby: Debbie Does Dallas? That sort of thing?
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