Page 3978 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 25 August 2010
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will hopefully assist in decision making about the types of materials that are sold to children and young people.
I am happy to support this motion. I move the amendment circulated in my name:
Omit paragraph (2)(c), substitute:
“(2) (c) ask the Youth Advisory Council to investigate the possibility of organising a competition, campaign or event designed to promote positive body image amongst children and young people;
(d) request that the Children and Young People’s Commissioner explore issues regarding any sexualisation of children and young people in the ACT; and
(e) report to the Assembly on the progress by the end of 2010.”.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (9.16): This is an extremely important matter and I would have thought that, on such an important matter, if the Greens thought it was so important to bring it on, they might have devoted some time to it.
Mr Seselja: The minister speaks for two minutes on it.
MRS DUNNE: And the minister comes in and speaks for two minutes. I think that this is a disgrace. If the Greens were really interested in this issue and really thought it was a priority, they would be prepared to bring it back on on another occasion and deal with it in the way that it deserves to be. I was ready to debate this last week and I am ready to debate it today, because this is something that is close to my heart.
I congratulate a wide range of people across the community who have been openly discussing this issue over a number of years. It is true that the publication from the Australia Institute from 2006 Corporate paedophilia was the kicking-off point for most of this debate. But it is not the only place where this work has been done. Corporate paedophilia looks at some of the issues related to that. It is essentially a discussion and an expose of how essentially major department stores in particular do objectify young people and young girls in particular.
I am surprised a little at some of the words that Ms Hunter used in her motion and some of the press coverage from last week. I think she tried to describe it here today where she tried to draw the distinction between sexuality and objectification. And it is not clear what she is trying to get at here. When you try to draw these distinctions in this very unclear way, it seems to me that you have not really got your head around what the issues are.
I would like to take some opportunity this evening to pay testament to some of my colleagues and some people—I will call them friends—who have worked in this area for a very long time. And I pay tribute to the publication from the Women’s Forum Australia of August 2007, Faking it. It was the work of one researcher in particular, Selena Ewing. Selena has worked in a number of areas of women’s rights over a very long time and has put together a particularly useful publication.
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