Page 1747 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 18 August 1992
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display material of this kind in public places. In South Australia - of course, under a Labor government again - we have seen a cracking down on the sale of People and Picture magazines. Future issues - this is as of May - will be available only to people over 18 in restricted areas such as adult bookshops. The problem apparently was not too much for them.
Victoria has followed suit. The Victorian Opposition introduced a Bill which was designed to close a loophole in the Victorian Classification of Films and Publications Act. It was again designed to outlaw the display of unsuitable magazines to youngsters. That Bill, I understand, had gone to the lower house in Victoria, but I do not know what its fate is. If it has not already been passed, I am sure that it will be passed some time after 3 October this year.
Again, the New South Wales Parliament has been acting in this matter. Dr Marlene Goldsmith, MLC, has prepared legislation designed to do much the same kind of thing - classify material which ought not to be on public display. Interestingly, though, I have also received word from a Federal member of parliament, Mr Keith Wright, the Federal member for Capricornia who is also, I recall, a former leader of the Australian Labor Party in Queensland - a former State leader and now a Federal Labor member for Queensland. He says that there is growing community concern about the availability of these magazines. He says that the solution is:
To request, and if necessary require, newsagents, service station proprietors and other relevant retailers to display soft porn publications on high shelving in such a way that the pictorial representations on the cover of the magazines are hidden by the publications on the shelving in front of them.
Again, action is being initiated by not just the conservatives, not just the Joh Bjelke-Petersens of this world, but also members of the Minister's own party who understand the level of community concern about this matter. The Commonwealth Government, of course, has also taken steps, which the Minister has referred to.
The complaint that I have, Madam Speaker, is not that the Government has run up against the snag of the legal and constitutional problems which bar or prevent the ACT from taking effective action in the same way that some other States have taken action - and I acknowledge that that bar is very much there - but that the Government, until today, had not acknowledged that there is a problem in this area.
Mr Connolly: Nonsense! I have said it every time. Would you table the full press statement that you are quoting from?
MR HUMPHRIES: I will happily table the comments that Mr Connolly made, as reported in the Canberra Times of 29 March. I seek leave to table those comments, Madam Speaker.
Leave granted.
MR HUMPHRIES: Thank you, Madam Speaker. This material degrades women because it reduces them to objects of sexual satisfaction. It propagates myths which I would have thought that this Government, which avows itself to be in pursuit of social justice, would be very anxious to challenge and destroy.
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