Page 598 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 21 March 1990
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to it. I am sure that the Leader of the Opposition will understand that there are planning implications in relation to those issues. I am advised that the Office of Industry and Development and the leasing branch have already taken steps in relation to a bordello in Ainslie, wisely using our leasing powers.
There is clearly an important question to do with whether sex shops should sell these videos and the like and whether this Government should not have a properly balanced overall policy to address the issues and the fundamental underlying concerns in society about access, not only to videos but also to certain products that perhaps should be arguably - and I stress the word "arguably" - accessible elsewhere. That remains for this Assembly to resolve in another debate.
Mr Speaker, to give an example of the complications of moving quickly into laws that move some of the video selling outlets out of the city, let me explain the interrelated complications of dealing with a sex shop that may be located in a commercial district antipathetic to the general business in that area. Laws that blithely deal with the business of a sex shop may well, in their definitional clauses, strike at other agencies - for example, pharmacies that sell condoms, other compounds, preparations and devices, and other things that do not relate to a prurient view of human activity.
The overall issue that strikes the Government in this matter is Mr Moore's decision to push us along a policy line whilst we are developing, sensibly and level-headedly, a proper approach to an overall social issue and that the video issue is not alone in that context. I can assure the house that there are issues before the State Attorneys and the State police Ministers that relate directly to these concerns.
Of course Mr Moore has the right to introduce legislation, but I suggest to members that they have an obligation to consider all aspects of this issue before acceding to this eye-catching tactic by Mr Moore. The questions of X-rated videos, interstate practice and controls and the activities and correlated events around sex shops need to be discussed at national level. It will be discussed following initiatives that I took in Adelaide a few weeks ago at the next meeting of the States Attorneys-General in June.
Mr Speaker, I should mention that the Commonwealth Chief Censor is also a participant in discussions concerning censorship. The Commonwealth Chief Censor is a party to the dialogue on which this new Government is taking the running nationally and we hope to get together before this Assembly puts something into concrete that may have a whole range of legal implications and may involve this Government or other parties in extensive, expensive, divisive and blocking litigation in our courts.
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