Page 5217 - Week 16 - Thursday, 28 November 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
I think it is a sad commentary on democracy and political life in Australia that we have people such as Mr Collaery and others who are prepared to stand up and actually say that we should not have the right of freedom of speech, the right of freedom of publication, the right to read. What they are saying is that George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four was right and that Animal Farm was right: People should not be allowed to read, should not be allowed to discuss matters. These new utopians would say that they know better, that they know what they should silence.
Mr Connolly: But you are the strongest advocate of censorship in the house.
MR STEVENSON: Mr Connolly says that I am the strongest advocate of censorship in the house. As I have said on these various issues, again and again he neglects to mention that the majority of people in Canberra want X-rated videos banned, because that is what he talks about. (Extension of time granted)
Mr Berry: What is the Anti-Treason League? What is the White Aryan Resistance? We want to know about those. Tell us whether you support them.
Ms Follett: And the League of Rights.
MR STEVENSON: As I have said, the statement on pornography - - -
Mr Berry: Tell us whether you support them. No, you will not tell us that, will you? The White Aryan Resistance?
MR STEVENSON: I will get to that in a moment. All Attorneys-General in Australia would ban X-rated videos, and, indeed, all the States have. The people in Canberra, by a majority of 61 per cent to 39 per cent, I think it is, would call on us to ban X-rated videos. Yet this is supposed to be not okay. When I stand for this issue and for other issues that people are concerned about, it is supposedly not okay.
The Labor people and Mr Collaery specifically have said something about some treason group or whatever. Mr Collaery said that he has had documents given to him from my office, or a document which he said was - - -
Mr Collaery: From the Anti-Treason League.
MR STEVENSON: From the Anti-Treason League, which he said he returned immediately. I do not know whom he returned them to. He certainly did not give them to me, nor did Mr Jensen.
Mr Collaery: Did you have that documentation in your office?
MR STEVENSON: So, the interesting thing is - - -
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .