Page 3691 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 9 December 1992
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MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Humphries, let me clarify this. I believe that you have withdrawn any suggestion that the Government is acting in a particular direction because the Labor Party received money at a particular time. That is your withdrawal. Can you stay on that course of action, please, Mr Humphries?
MR HUMPHRIES: If that is what you say, Madam Speaker, then that is what has happened. Madam Speaker, I do not think that this Government can get away with what it has done without people being aware of what has happened.
Mr Berry: What has it done? It is more of the imputation.
MR HUMPHRIES: The fact of life is that this Government has taken a position which is out of step with its colleagues in other States, and the other fact of life, as disclosed in electoral records, is that the Australian Labor Party, from which the Government is drawn, has taken a substantial donation from the pornographic video industry. Those are the facts.
Mr Berry: Well, the Liberal Party took it from the tobacco companies, too.
MR HUMPHRIES: That is the accusation you level at us all the time, is it not? You level that accusation at us all the time. So, why is it not able to come back the other way? That is what the Speaker has ruled; so I will not dispute the Speaker's ruling.
Madam Speaker, I believe that we should support this Bill because I am concerned about the degradation of the image of women which occurs through the X-rated video industry. The Attorney-General, a short while ago, was waxing lyrical about how we were all concerned about protecting women from domestic violence, and so on. There is a very serious affront to the dignity of women in this Territory going on already. I know, when I say this, that I speak in a vein similar to that of many feminists who are members of the Australian Labor Party. The affront occurs through the continuation of degrading images of women in that kind of material.
I think any of the women who sit on the opposite benches who are not aware of that fact are either playing dumb or choosing to ignore what is very obvious to anybody who peruses that material. It is degrading to women. It perpetuates an attitude amongst men, which I think this Government has said it wants to destroy, but apparently not enough to actually want to give away the benefits that flow from taking that position. Madam Speaker, I believe that this is damaging to the quality of our society, and I believe that we should take decisive steps now to support the legislation and ensure that that damage is contained.
Madam Speaker, I am not the only person who takes that view. I want to quote from a prominent ALP figure in this Territory talking about this very issue. Let me quote:
I don't take any pride at all in hearing that we are the pornographic capital of Australia. Those that rule this place at the present time want to remember that that doesn't exactly add to the image of this great cultural and political city.
Who opposite can guess who said that? Which of your colleagues said that?
Ms Ellis: Do we get a prize?
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