Page 1261 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 24 April 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
The question was: are you in favour of the sale or hire of X-rated videos in the ACT? The results were as follows: 37 per cent in favour, 51 per cent against, 12 per cent undecided. Of ALP voters, 47 per cent were in favour, 41 per cent against. Of Liberal voters, 28 per cent were in favour, 62 per cent against. Of men, 50 per cent were in favour, 39 per cent against. Of women, 25 per cent were in favour, 63 per cent against. That was a very startling revelation from quite a significant poll.
The final letter, which I will table, is one that I received from a Mr Wolf Reich, who was formerly a proprietor of video shops. He wrote to all members on 23 April 1990. He stated:
Dear Member,
In August of 1984, during the introduction of the Classification of Publications Ordinance, I was the spokesman for the fledgling ACT Video Association including Adult Video Outlets. In effect I was the predecessor to Robbie Swan.
Attached to this letter is a submission that I made to the Federal Attorney Generals Department at that time. I am now totally opposed to X-rated and so-called non-violent erotica in contrast to my position then.
In 1986 I removed both pornographic and violent videos from my shops.
I made this decision based on a series of events in my own life and that of some of my customers known to me:
I saw the desensitising effect of sexually explicit material on my customers.
I came to see that pornographic videos inflame sexual lusts; people became addicted and then were not able to distinguish fantasy from reality;
Marriages were put under stress, not helped, because people were incited to demand their partners to perform the degrading acts that they had seen;
Pornographic videos do encourage violence;
Violent videos have a separate effect. Two of my customers committed murder.
I have been honest enough to realise and admit these problems, which I did not see initially. I was prepared to abandon this socially destructive business, and I lost everything financially.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .