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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (3 September) . . Page.. 2927 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

which are presently classified as R, effectively banning those films. I might indicate that my view was slightly different from that. I think that the better approach would have been to have taken a larger proportion of those R films and classified them in a way that made it difficult to get access to them; so that it was not necessary to ban any films at all but would mean that children particularly would have less access to those films generally.

I think the weakness in the approach taken by the ministerial council is that only movies of a very low circulation, such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and things like that, will effectively be banned or, more probably, will have some material in them shaved out so that they have to be edited to be presented for general release. It would be better to deal with a large number of the more mainstream films which contain levels of violence which I think are of concern to many Australians. Many such films are very popular, such as those featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Claude Van Damme and others of that ilk. I think that is the mainstream issue that we need to address and that, of course, goes over to things like television programs and, increasingly, to video games. I acknowledge the concerns that have been raised by Ms Follett and I indicate that this is an issue our community must keep under close surveillance. I hope that we will be able to make progress on that issue to a greater extent than has been the case up until now. I thank members for their support for the Bill.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Bill agreed to in principle.

Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.

Bill agreed to.

MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, I seek leave to make a personal statement pursuant to standing order 46.

MR SPEAKER: Yes. Proceed, Mr Berry.

MR BERRY: During the debate on the French products matter which we dealt with earlier, Mr Humphries tried to make the assertion that the Labor Party had some sort of different agenda about China. I will restore everybody's faith in history. I read from Hansard of - - -

Mr Humphries: Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order.

MR BERRY: I am personally affronted by the accusation.

Mr Humphries: Mr Speaker, personal explanations cover matters where personal misrepresentation has been made. Mr Berry is talking about the position of the Labor Party. I suggest that that is not within the terms of a personal explanation under standing order 46.

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