Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 5 (Hansard) 16 May) . . Page.. 1337 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

What I say, what most women in this society say, and what all the women in this place have said so far, except that we have not heard Mrs Carnell, is that that is extremely offensive. Women for a long time have been challenging this aspect of masculinity which is violent. There are many men in this community who are equally offended by it. I will feel very ashamed if in this place, right now, we end up supporting the introduction of paintball.

Mr Osborne has spoken before on this issue and was concerned that because we already have so many violent recreational activities it is difficult to single out this one. I said to him then, and I repeat it now, Mr Osborne, that we can challenge these other issues even though they are Federal issues. We have already lobbied Mr Humphries and he is happy to work with this other category, which is V for extreme violence. We need to ask, "Why do we need any kind of recreational activity which is classified as extremely violent?". That might be something we can address in the future.

Mr Moore demands evidence that this is offensive, or he wants evidence that there is a relationship. There may not be evidence at this point, but what we do have evidence of is that a great number of people in this community are offended by this continual supporting of violent activities. He argued that, if you went into a home and found antique surgical instruments, there would be some indication that that person - - -

Mr Moore: I was only illustrating logic.

MS TUCKER: Yes. I would argue that if you find extremely violent videos in anyone's home it is a good logical possibility that that person does not find that violence offensive because they have chosen to have it in their home. It would be interesting to see how many people in the community would not dream of having that big V violence in their home. You have to look at that side of the argument too. How many people here find it enjoyable to watch extreme violence?

Mr Moore: Go and look in the video shops and see how much violence is there. It is in almost every home, Kerrie.

MS TUCKER: If it is the case, as Mr Moore is interjecting, that lots of people in our community like to watch extreme violence for relaxation, then indeed we do need to question our society. Why not look at all these issues together?

By continuing to support these sorts of activities this Government is not providing the right kind of role model if we want to change our culture, if we want to say that the ACT is a place of peace. The ACT is a place where we want to not foster violence; so we have had the courage to make legislation which means that we have very tight gun laws, the tightest of anywhere in Australia, and we also do not condone activities such as paintball because they are grossly offensive.

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister) (11.19): Mr Speaker, what we are talking about here is not the issue of violence, not the issue of setting role models; it is the issue of control. At times I have been very proud of my time in this Assembly and very proud of this Assembly. There have been times when I have not been proud of this Assembly.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .