Page 3426 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 18 September 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (11.06): One argument needs to be laid to rest at the outset of this debate, and that is the suggestion that the Labor Party, in not supporting Mr Stevenson's proposal, is in some way accepting that X-rated videos condone violence against women. If the Labor Party thought for one moment that banning X-rated videos would lead to a reduction in sexual violence offered against women in this society or anywhere in Australia, we would be supportive of the ban. In opposition and in government we have been incredibly supportive of measures such as the ACT's innovative domestic violence measures. In opposition and in government we have given full support to stringent laws against guns.
I find it extraordinarily indecent that this man who poses on X-rated videos is the man who says that people have a constitutional right to bear arms, to carry guns, who urges the community to disregard the ACT weapons laws, who urges people in the community to flout the law and run around and arm themselves. This man who is claiming that he is acting in the interests of reducing violence in the community is the same man who runs around urging people to arm themselves, who urges people to disregard the law of the ACT because he says it is unconstitutional. What a farce, and people know that it is a farce.
It is extraordinary that Mr Stevenson can urge a ban on video material while at the same time supporting and encouraging the use of weapons, even to the point of encouraging people to violate the laws of this Territory. It is extraordinary and shameful behaviour by this opportunistic politician. If there was evidence to support the view that a ban on X-rated videos would lead to a reduction in violence against women, the Labor Party would support it. This is not the issue, because the evidence simply is not there.
A couple of other points need to be made about matters that were addressed in the debate. Dr Kinloch talked some nonsense about the ACT violating the laws of the six States by allowing the sale of X-rated videos. I must say that Mr Kaine, to his credit, clarified the position on that. Of course the ACT does not violate the laws of the six States. The States, if they wished to, could ban or make illegal the possession of X-rated video material, but not one State has chosen to do so.
The States are quite prepared, hypocritically I would say, piously to ban the sale and yet allow the possession, circulation and publication of magazines in their jurisdictions which are full of ads for X-rated videos. If you look at some of the popular pictorial magazines that are published in Sydney or Melbourne - Truth, Picture, Australasian Post or People - the back half of the magazine is virtually full of ads for X-rated videos from the ACT. The States are not prepared to do anything about that.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .