Page 3436 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 18 September 1991
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less offensive and less worrying in relation to my children - and I will come back to Mr Humphries' comment on children - than seeing somebody's head or stomach blasted away or a head cut off and rolling around, which can be seen on R-rated movies.
Mr Humphries asked: What if a child was to get to these terrible X-rated movies and put them on the television and watch them? What impact would that have? People have at home far more R-rated and M-rated movies that contain these things, and I have seen that sort of material on standard television stations as well.
Mr Humphries: This will act on those as well. It is not an argument against this Bill.
MR MOORE: Mr Humphries does not have children. As to those of us who do have very young children, the critical thing is that I believe that it is my responsibility to ensure that my children do not have access to either sorts of movies until they are old enough. If I were to find that somehow or other my children had access to an explicit sexual movie, I would find that far less of a problem - and remember that my children are eight, five and three - than if they were exposed to an R-rated movie of the type I have described. I do not want it to happen and I will avoid having it happen; but prohibition is not the way to go about it.
It would be even worse if we go for prohibition and we get the current New South Wales or Victorian situation, where such movies are available with violence and sexual coercion - - -
Mr Duby: And depravities.
MR MOORE: And depravities; that is correct. I would find that even worse, and that will be the effect of this Bill. That is the effect of prohibition. You lose all control. That is amply illustrated by a comparison with illegal drugs. Attempts to prohibit illegal drugs, wherever that has been done, have failed miserably and invariably have made the situation worse.
That leads me to draw the attention of members of the Assembly to clause 3(b)(ii) of Mr Stevenson's Bill, where he refers to an objectionable publication including, as well as matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction. What are we going to do now? Just when the debate on drug use and misuse is coming into the open, included in this Bill is an attempt to ensure that the matter cannot even be dealt with in terms of films. It does not say how it is dealt with; it says that it cannot be dealt with. That is the calibre of material we are dealing with in this Bill. I will vote against it.
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