Page 2063 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 5 June 1990
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film and written material which some of us would regard as disreputable.
By the way, I am not suggesting that this film is disreputable, because I have not seen it yet. However, here is the old hippy, if you like - Richard Neville - coming out on this issue and, in the last section, dealing with the matter that Mr Stevenson raised. I will not quote it all, but the last two paragraphs deal with the problems of Aborigines in Aboriginal communities faced with the dilemmas in their communities as a result of the importation of X-rated videos. Here is an extraordinary source for that material, an extraordinary article.
The final gist of Richard Neville's point of view is, really: have we gone too far; have we reached the point where our society has become so libertarian, so committed to accepting almost anything that we have gone beyond the bounds of decency? Richard Neville is saying this. So I think we should listen to a good deal of what Mr Stevenson has to say.
I am much intrigued by Mr Connolly's points and I wonder whether something is going to happen there that I do not know about. Finally, I suppose, I am having to recognise that there is the purist position, the best possible position that one would want, and here we cannot have that. We have already lost that. What I am looking for is the best possible position under the circumstances. I recognise that this Bill gives a possibility for some move in that direction. I do not think it is the best possible, but I think it is the best possible at the moment.
MR BERRY (9.08): I did not intend to speak on this matter either, but a couple of matters have been raised in the course of debate that really require some attention. The first, of course, is the issue of hypocrisy. At least six of the 10 members opposite have done a complete turnaround in relation to this matter. I guess that has been well reported in the media. However, I think it needs to be mentioned briefly again.
I was interested to hear Mr Duby, who has now left the chamber, talking about people being two-faced on this issue. He was talking about the Labor Party and its approach to these matters. Very clearly, the Labor Party's position relates to prescribed publications areas where there are certain restrictions about the display and sale of this sort of material. But the only two faces that Mr Duby saw were the two he saw in the mirror when he was on his way down here. I think Mr Duby is suffering from a case of blurred vision.
I can understand Mr Stevenson opposing this Bill, because under the proposed new section 19A of the principal Act Mr Stevenson will not be able to pull any of his stunts any more - that is, to encourage a minor to obtain an X-rated film. Under this proposal he would be prohibited from
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