New law to create ‘porn police’
New state laws “effectively create a new section of NSW policing best summed up as ‘porn police’, said Fiona Patten, president of the Australian Sex Party.
“The legislation gives police the power to determine the classification for an adult film or DVD just by looking at the box cover,” she said.
Legislative Council President Amanda Fazio was last week suspended from the Labor Party after voting against the Bill. A Parliamentary Committee had concluded “these issues may be an undue trespass on personal rights and liberties” and put the accused at a significant disadvantage.
Ms Patten referred to the arrest and jailing last year of a young gay man, convicted of selling X-rated videos in an Oxford Street adult shop. She said the state bill overrode the federal Classification Board which controls censorship in Australia.
“Ms Fazio’s suspension from the ALP shows just how far the religious right have infiltrated both major parties in NSW”, she said. “The Attorney General, John Hatzistergos and Liberal backbencher and power-broker, David Clarke, have both come out of this episode as moral crusaders who are complicit in bringing back old DLP policies,” she said.
“The NSW Police Academy in Goulburn would now have to have pornography screenings and training courses which the Academy was not set up to provide.”
This was not correct, said a spokesperson for Police Minister Michael Daley:
“Police already use the existing guidelines under the national classification scheme to decide if material has been appropriately classified.
“These guidelines have three principles: The importance of the context – is the classifiable element justified by the story line or theme? The impact – is it very mild, moderate, strong, high, very high, and The six classifiable elements which are: themes, violence, sex, language, drug use and nudity.”
by Michael Gormly
