Page 3437 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 18 September 1991
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MR DUBY (11.45): At the outset, let me put my position. I do not intend to support Mr Stevenson's Bill. However, I genuinely respect the views of the many people in the community whom Mr Stevenson has been able to rally behind this cause.
Mr Moore: He is really behind them.
MR DUBY: Yes. In a lot of ways, I genuinely respect their opinions. I have had a number of phone calls, conversations, letters, et cetera, from concerned members of the community. They have contacted me in recent weeks, and at other times when this matter has come before the Assembly, and expressed the view that X-rated films are a curse on society and should be abolished. The problem is that, when I discuss the matter with these folk, it almost invariably comes down to the fact that it is a moral position they have taken. On most occasions they quote to me statistics that are patently incorrect - statistics, I might add, that have been published by Mr Stevenson on a number of occasions.
I believe that a number of them have never seen an X-rated film, but they equate X-rated films with violence. They say that they are very concerned about violence, and therefore we need to ban X-rateds. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. X-rated films are not violent films. They say that since censorship laws have been liberalised in various States the rate of sexual offences, rape, et cetera, in those States has increased dramatically. They also quote statistics from, for example, Queensland, which they claim show that there has been no increase.
These are figures contained in information supplied by Mr Stevenson. The problem is that those figures are patently false. I have reports indicating, for example, that in the last 25 years the number of sexual assault cases has virtually doubled. That is a major problem, but no-one disputes those facts. Queensland has the highest rate of increase of reporting of these crimes of any State in Australia. In 1985 the number of sexual assaults was 1,121; in 1988 the figure was 2,847. That is a massive increase of well over 100 per cent in a period of three years.
This is the State that under the previous regime, and probably still under the current one, had very tight censorship regulations, even down to having a Queensland edition of Playboy. I am a Queenslander and I know that if you want to get anything in Queensland you can. It is that sort of a society. Nevertheless, it is very difficult for the general public to obtain that material. In the last two weeks people have said to me on a number of occasions that Queensland does not have these films and that
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