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| Ian Gilfillan Australian Democrats Member of the Legislative Council |
Parliament Index |
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Legislative
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| Ian Gilfillan Australian Democrats Member of the Legislative Council |
Parliament Index |
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CLASSIFICATION (PUBLICATIONS, FILMS AND COMPUTER GAMES) (MISCELLANEOUS) AMENDMENT BILL
The Hon. IAN GILFILLAN: The Democrats support the second reading of this bill, which seeks to amend the act in a number of different areas dealing with the prosecution of offences relating to the sale of X and RC (refused classification) material, the sale of unclassified computer games and the publishing of offensive material on the internet. The object of the act is to provide for the establishment and enforcement of schemes for the classification of publications, films and computer games. The amendments seek to do the following:
· reduce the expense of classifying all materials seized in relation to an offence;
· crack down on the seizure of items;
· allow the expiation of some offences that are less grave;
· allow community liaison officers to issue expiation notices;
· convert divisional penalties to fixed maximum sums;
· widen the powers of the South Australian Classification Council to require information by a set date;
· reduce the number of copies of illegal films a person can have for personal use before it is deemed that they intend to sell or exhibit the film;
· make it an offence to sell an item of unknown classification; and
· make it an offence to place offensive material on the internet.
However, this amendment can only target providers in South Australia and not the content of providers outside the state.
When confronting a bill of this nature, we need to be, and are, sensitive to what could be interpreted as unreasonable censorship of the right of adults to have access to, to distribute and to use certain types of material. We do not agree that legislation is a morals-enforcing agency, and I looked at the bill with that background intent. I cannot say that there is anything particularly that causes serious alarm; otherwise, I would have identified it in my contribution and possibly even indicated our concern about the second reading. However, I will be interested to ask more detailed questions when we reach the committee stage. At this point the Democrats support the second reading.
