Hardcore Pornography

Good ol' Senator Fielding is at is again, fighting the good fight to protect the morals of our country.

His latest idea is that Federal Police should have the power to raid milk bars and newsagents in the search for pornagraphic material. Interesting concept, but I would have thought that the A.F.P. have more important things to do, like hunting down the terrorists that threaten our safety by enforcing religious intolerance and keep women covered up head to toe....

hmmm......

Well, let's shelve that for another day. First, let's take a look at porn. The issue, I mean, not the substance. If we have time, we'll have some porn at the end, OK?

Porn, like any other publication, receives a rating from the Classifications board and we're generally talking about R (18+) or X rated material.

With certain restictions, R rated material can be published, purchased and owned by anyone over the age of 18 anywhere in Australia.

X rated material, though, is a little different. First thing you need to know, is that there is no federal law restricting this sale or ownership. Each Australian state, though, has laws regarding the sale of X rated material.

Which leads to a very interesting circumstance. Because the ACT (and Jervis Bay) is directly managed by the Federal government, it is legal to buy, sell and posses X rated material if you're over 18.

In each state, though, it is illegal to sell such material. But.... it's not illegal to own it. Nor is it illegal to buy it. Let me just say that again, so that you can get your heads around this:

There is material which is perfectly legal for you to own, perfectly legal for you to purchase. Provided nobody sells it to you, because that's bad.

What's with that? Can you think of any other material that's legal to buy or own, but illegal to sell?

Prior to the internet, one of the ACT's biggest exports to the rest of Australia was mail-order porn. They still do a brisk trade, of course, but not quite as much. Because it's legal for them to sell it in the ACT, and it's legal for people in other states to buy it.

Of course, officially, Sen. Fielding's issue is with "unclassified" or "refused classification" material, which is illegal to sell anywhere in Australia. But, in order to give the AFP jurisdiction to deal raid the milk bars and protect people from seeing naughty things, it would require laws to take power away from State governments and hand it over to the Federal Government.

Normally, this is something I'd be 100% behind. I'm all for consistent laws across the country. But, this is the Senator from the Family First party, and this is the government that thinks censoring the internet is a practical and workable thing. Personally, I'm not convinced handing them more control over what can and can't be seen is a good idea.

After all, these are people who deliberately wanted to work in Canberra. And we know what goes in THERE, don't we? :)

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P.S. OK, since you were good, here's a picture of Paris Hilton. Without any clothes. Happy?