Page 2984 - Week 13 - Thursday, 23 November 1989
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PORNOGRAPHIC VIDEOS
National Council congratulates the Womens Committee on preparing a submission for the Joint Select Committee on Video Material and congratulates the Secretary on cogently presenting evidence to the committee.
National Council notes that the Majority Report of the joint Select Committee on Video Material referred to this submission as follows:
"13.116. In view of pornographys attack on the status of women, and the workplace sexual harassment theme of some video pornography, the Committee was not surprised to receive a submission from the largest affiliate of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association summed up a comprehensive submission thus:- .
If video material of the (pornographic) nature is widely available for home viewing, thousands of Australian men will be encouraged to regard women generally as targets of sexual harassment.
The availability for sale and hire of pornographic video material is therefore likely to undermine attempts by unions and others to eliminate problems of sexual harassment at work.
(Evidence, pp. 564-565 j .
13.117. The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees
Association was expressing the concerns of its members, the majority of whom are female.
National Council notes that this issue is Union business and draw attention to the fact that the majority of the Committee recommended that X-rated video material (and their R-rated equivalents) be refused classification.
The majority also strongly opposed the minority Recommendation contained in the Report that a new NEE category containing "X" rage material be established.
As the majority of the Committee observe this proposal "would entrench "X" rated video pornography described officially as "hard core pornography") in the community under the guise of the misleading title of NVE".
The majority of the Committee went on "The proposal runs counts to the overwhelming burden of evidence submitted to the Commit to concerning the harmful effects of th- material and is in consistent with the findings of the committee thereon .
The video material that we are concerned with here treat women "a sexual commodities to arouse the sexual desires of its target audience" and reduce persons to objects or occasions of sexual pleasure.
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