Although by 1972 the Australian censorship laws had been loosened, allowing once previously banned books and films to be sold and viewed in the public domain, it would seem that the new genre of sex shops would not be experiencing the freedoms that came with this wave of liberalism any time soon.
Below are newspaper articles describing police raids, legal prosecutions and
community objections, that have plagued the Adult Retail industry since the 1970s, and continue to this day.
The Canberra Times 1972
MELBOURNE - Victoria's first sex supermarket will open its doors in Melbourne at the end of April. Mr Terry Blake, 35, owner of the 'Orgy Shop', in Sydney, said today his company would definitely open in Melbourne before the end of April. "We are planning to go ahead with the shop and we don't expect too many worries from the Government", Mr Blake said. "I think Mr Hamer has adopted a realistic approach to the situation".
The Chief Secretary said today the Victorian Government would take no action to prevent sex shops opening in Melbourne. But he warned that anyone selling or displaying obscene material would be prosecuted.
Source: The Canberra Times
PERTH - Perth's "sex shop" opened for business today. Its wares were condemned as "disgusting" by four Liberal MPs who arrived two hours after the opening. The acting chief of the CIB, Senior Inspector A. J. Parker, and Detective Sergeant A. Sims, of the consorting squad, inspected the shop.
Source: The Canberra Times
ACT - Canberra's newest sex shop and the first in Civic, the 'R Certificate' Bookshop, will close today after only 13 days of trading. A spokesman for the three partners in the business said they would be losing about $55,000 between them. The spokesman declined to have his name, or (those of his partners, published for fear of jeopardising their regular jobs. He gave the reason for the closure as pressure from the Sydney John Photographic Studio, which rents premises next door in Garema Place and had sublet the room for the sex shop.
The decision to
close the shop had been made after talks between representatives of Sydney John
and the sex shop yesterday in which a compromise agreement" had been
reached, the spokesman said. Mr Sydney Smith, of Sydney John Photographic
Studio, said the sex shop, which has been selling' artificial aids, clothing, magazines,
books of sexual photographs valued at up to$12, and sex films in colour valued
up to $70, had applied for the lease under “false pretences".
He had originally been told the shop would be selling books and
novelties, and led to believe it would be oriented toward children. The terms of the lease had been for 20 months,
with Sydney John having the option of the offering a further five years. It had
been signed on the part of the sex shop but not on the part of the photographic
shop because "we became suspicious when they began to put up partitions at
the entry and would not set up business apparently until the lease was
finalised".
Some time after agreeing to the lease he had also found out he was not allowed to sub-let, the premises, Mr Smith said. ‘The spokesman for the sex shop said he had not wanted to begin trading until the lease was finalised. After his solicitor had completed it on his part the solicitor for the photographic store had taken it but had unexpectedly refused to return it completed as promised. The spokesman said he was very disappointed at the result.
Source: The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times 1977
Evils of sex shops – Letter to the Editor
Sir, - Allegedly the progression from primeval ape to the current homo-sapiens masterpiece was a lengthy process. Much more rapid appears to be the latter-day reversing descent of contemporary man to the status of trousered ape. Symptomatic of the gathering momentum back to the jungle is the recent advent of the so-called sex shop.
It follows fast upon the heels of failing personal and community standards of behaviour and elementary discipline and the weakening of family unity at the behest of lax academics and screwball libertarians (usually self-styled "intellectuals" or politicians). It follows logically the failure of the law to adequately protect the social unit, and the ineptitude (and/or powerlessness) of the law-enforcement agencies, both police and courts; the rape of our schooling system by "education Bottom of Form experts" who know little about education for living and less about the fundamentals of discipline and the inculcation of character; the abject failure of the churches and men and women of goodwill to effectively grapple with the forces of nihilism and imbecility; too many effete politicians concerned primarily with bread and circuses (booze, pokies, casinos and anything else with a quid in it); and the growing uncontrolled power of the media, especially in the entertainment field where any kind of licence or savagery is permitted whether in the printed word, on stage, or on the screens of cinema and TV. "Entertainment" in these enlightened days of universal "education" is becoming largely synonymous with killing, maiming, boozing and sexual perversion.
Why are these vice establishments, euphemistically termed sex shops, permitted in this city? I submit that they cater for an anti-social minority of kinks or worse. I would expect them to become centres for trafficking in drugs and young bodies. As repositories of dirty pictures of sexual perversions, they might correctly be regarded as training establishments for sexual assaults against women and children. What sort of hypocrisy is it that allows the lawmakers and administrators of this Territory to condemn rape and sexual assaults, and yet allows temples of fornication and sexual excesses to proliferate? What arc the double standards of the Minister, the crowd in the Legislative Assembly and the department in this very serious matter?
What are these people doing, or propose to do, about the rising incidence of assaults against women and children and the inspirational stimuli of sex shops, indecent and paranoid publications, pornographic and violent films, et al?
The silence of the Women's Libbers is deafening. What about a bit of frenetic fury about the faceless' men who ruthlessly exploit women as sex objects for a quick quid? Virtue mightn't matter, but they might show a bit of spirit in the matter of the human dignity of women. Shaw commented that we wear our thin uniform of civilisation awkwardly. But we don't need to be this awkward, even in this fools' paradise in which we for the moment live.
BERNARD MORRIS - Chifley
Source: The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times 1972
SYDNEY - The proprietors of a chain of sex shops defied Manly Council today to open Sydney's third shop. In the afternoon police raided the shop and seized books and rubber goods. Later the manager, Mr Graham Robert Marshall, 51, of Ocean Beach, Manly, was remanded in Manly Court to April 20 on a charge of displaying indecent representations.
Source: The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times 1972
MELBOURNE - The Victorian Government introduced a Bill in the Legislative Assembly today aimed at stopping sex shops from advertising and displaying their goods.
Source: The Canberra Times
ADELAIDE - The Attorney-General, Mr King, authorised today prosecutions against Adelaide's two sex shops, the 'Whisper Shop', in North Adelaide, for a publication, and the Love Art Shop, in Darlington, for goods sold and displayed.
Source: The Canberra Times
SYDNEY - The works committee of Sydney City Council has begun a campaign to reduce the number of sex shops in Kings Cross. As a result of a resolution by the council's works committee on. Monday night, one of these shops is expected to be given 14 days' notice to close before the council applies for an injunction in the Equity Court to do this. The Chairman of the works committee, Alderman Barry Lewis, said today the proliferation of sex shops, in the Cross was destroying its shopping centre.
Source: The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times 1977
ACT - One of Canberra's courts was turned into a restricted theatre yesterday morning for the viewing of a selection of films seized by the ACT Police vice squad from the 'Venus' sex shop in Fyshwick. Before Mr Dobson, SM, were Mr Harry Strum, 55, director, of Balfour Road, Rose Bay, and Venus Enterprises Pty Ltd on charges arising out of the raid.
Venus Enterprises pleaded guilty through a Sydney solicitor, Mr Trevor Nyman, to having objectionable publications for the purpose of sale, while Mr Strum pleaded guilty to being knowingly concerned in their sale. A third man, Mr Bruce Robert Ward, 30, Of Bangalay Crescent, Rivett, who had been manager of the shop at the time of the police raid on March 15, pleaded guilty through Mr Nyman but was not present in court.
The officer in charge of the vice squad, Sergeant Ray Sweeny, told Mr Dobson that an informant had given him a book on March 10 with the title 'New School Action - Girls and Boys', showing children of ages ranging from five to 11 participating in sexual activities with one another, by themselves and with adults.
Subsequently, he had visited the shop arid inspected a number of its publications. He had returned on March 15 with a warrant under the Objectionable Publications Ordinance and seized a number of books, magazines, films and cassettes. All the publications seized had involved children and/or adults and animals engaging in sexual activities.
He said that the
shop manager, Mr Ward, when asked whether he thought the publications
objectionable, had replied, "It doesn't worry me personally. I just sell
them. Some people might object but they don't have to buy them. They know what
we sell before they come in here". Sergeant Sweeny said he had interviewed
Mr Strum in Sydney.
Mr Strum had told him that he took responsibility for the shop and that he had not been aware that Canberra's obscene-publication laws differed from those in the States, where categories of restricted sale are permitted. During the hearing of the ease, a "closed court" sign appeared on the door outside the court, although no formal closing order was made. Other than officers of the court, police and Mr Strum, only one member of the public - a journalist - was present. Five films, one involving sex between animals and humans, another involving, sex between two children, another two involving group sex between adults, and one involving sado-masochistic scenes, were shown.
Mr Nyman, in submissions, told the court that his clients raised no points about the artistic merit or any tendency to corrupt and deprave, accepting that the material had an emphasis on matters of sex, as in the ordinance. The maximum penalty for such offences should be reserved for cases involving exposure of materials to young people, the depths of obscenity involved and the profit involved. He argued that the circumstances of this case did not merit such a penalty. He said the least offender was Mr Ward, who was only a sales man, while Mr Strum's offence, in part, had been to be "ahead of his time". Some of the materials would be regarded as quite ordinary in 10 years time, just as some materials not objected to now were subject to prosecution 10 years ago.
Mr Dobson commented that he thought it would be quite some time before materials involving children and sex would be found unobjectionable. He fined Mr Ward $75, with $4 court costs, out of a maximum of S200, and Mr Strum S150 with S5 court costs. Venus Enterprises was fined $400, against a maximum of 51,000. He ordered the materials forfeited to the Commonwealth.
Source: The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times 1979
ADELAIDE – A full-page advertisement for a chain of Adelaide sex shops appears in the latest edition of The Police Journal. The advertisement has embarrassed the South Australian Police Association, which publishes the monthly magazine. Its secretary, Mr G. Martin, said yesterday he would not comment. Police officers are said to have protested to the association, and a petition to the association was organised yesterday at police headquarters. It is understood the advertisement for the Lovecraft shops was prepared by an agency, and that the association was not aware of the advertisement until the journal was published.
Source: The Canberra Times
The Canberra
Times 1981
SYDNEY - The Sydney City Council won legal actions yesterday to close two ground-floor sex shops in the Kings Cross area. Council policy allows such businesses only on upper floors or in basements. 'Adult Products Co Pty Ltd' and 'Visual Enterprises Pty Ltd' had appealed against the council's refusal of development applications. Council then sought injunctions restraining use of the premises as sex shops. The companies yesterday withdrew their appeals and consented to the injunctions, requiring the shops to close by the end of January.
Source: The Canberra Times
SYDNEY - Sex shops and blue-movie houses have been banned from operating on street level in the City of Sydney by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment. The Minister of the Department, Mr Bedford, said an environmental plan had been made which would prevent sex shops from opening on to streets or public arcades in the city. They will be restricted to commercial or commercial-residential areas.
The move was welcomed by Alderman Robert Tickner, of the Sydney City Council, who said it showed good co-operation between the ALP council and the Labor State Government. However, he said it made little difference to the council's powers over sex-related commercial activities. According to Mr Bedford, sex shops and blue-movie houses now operating will have to abide by the plan. If they do not, it is up to the council to take action against them. Alderman Tickner said the council had the power to seek an injunction from the Land and Environment Court to prevent any use of land not conforming to the council's regulations.
He said the power had already been used in the case of one sex shop, and the Chief Judge of the court, Mr Justice McClelland, had upheld the council's planning policy. He stressed that the council's decision to get sex shops off street level was based on planning, not moral, grounds. The policy was adopted because the sex shops were forcing up rents, particularly in Kings Cross, and forcing other businesses out of the area. Mr Bedford said the local environmental plan was the direct result of adverse public reaction to sex-related commercial activities in the city.
Source: The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times 1988
Combating sex shops – Letter to the Editor
Isn’t it amazing? A sex shop, 'Club X', opens in the immediate vicinity of a dancing school with over 500 female patrons and just happens to be alongside a children's bicycle training ground run by AFP in Belconnen. No matter how people objected, nothing could be done to close it down. Our local Member expressed his disapproval but that was all. Now there is talk of two opening in Northboume Avenue and Kingston shops. The Territories Minister, Mr Holding, is reported as "going to see what can be done to stop them". Obviously he has more punch than the previous minister, Mr Whatsisname. If not, then maybe some Kingston residents have an ear that Belconnen residents don't. It's not what you know but who you know.
E.A.COOPER - Lathamallowing
Source: The Canberra Times
HOBART - Hobart's first adult bookshop has drawn a joint statement of condemnation from the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Hobart, Sir Guilford Young, and the Anglican Bishop of Tasmania, the Right Reverend Philip Newell.
In their joint statement, Sir Guilford and Bishop Newell accuse people who support sex shops of attacking fundamental human dignity. They said that while pornography pretended to sell ease and excitement, it really exploited lonely and frustrated people. "It brutalises a man's strength, degrades women to objects and destroys trust in children who fear they cannot rely on any limits," the statement said. "Real love cannot be bought and sold. When the manufacturers of pornographic books, mechanical sex aids and videotapes protest at 'narrow-minded opposition', they clearly show their priorities — money instead of morals. "If our community opts for sex shops, it seeks not freedom but bondage.
As the Bible says: 'When self-indulgence is at work, the results are obvious - commercial sex, gross indecency and sexual irresponsibility' Tasmania's church leaders said the love of man and woman was meant to be rich in heart, mind, body and soul, but what was shown in pornographic movies and books destroyed such beliefs.
Source: The Canberra Times
ACT - Canberra's adult shops attracted a better quality clientele than many hotels, clubs, TAB agencies or nightclubs, a spokesperson for Canberra's adult shops, Michael McGregor, said yesterday. Mr McGregor, secretary of the Adult Video Industry Association in Canberra, was responding to criticisms about the location of adult shops, made by the minister responsible for the ACT, Clyde Holding. Mr Holding had asked the ACT Administration for a report on the location of sex shops and a review of powers available to control their location, after he had become aware last week of proposals to establish retail sex shops in Green Square, Kingston, and Northbourne Avenue, Civic.
He had warned people considering opening sex shops that any legislation which might be enacted would be retrospective from Monday and instructed the Administration to defer planning and lease approvals for these shops until he received the report. Mr McGregor said sex-shop clients were a "normal cross-section of society, including doctors, lawyers, housewives, university students and blue-collar workers". A third of all sales in Canberra were to women, and the elderly were becoming regular customers.
"If the do-gooders in the community are worried about the undesirable effects of certain businesses they should be trying to ban the sale of alcohol," he said. "Everybody knows that pubs breed violence, but no-one ever sees a brawl in an adult shop." He pointed out that in most cases sex shops checked the ages of customers more vigorously than most hotels and that there were strict limitations on advertising. Mr McGregor said restrictions on shop sitings was unnecessary government intervention in the ACT's free-enterprise system.
Source: The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times 1991
WOLLONGONG - A member of Wollongong City Council failed on Monday night to convince her colleagues to ban sex shops in the city. Alderman Pat Franks said she considered the issue was an "environmental problem". An officers' report to the council claimed it would be unrealistic to prohibit sex shops in all city zones. Alderman Franks said it should not be the purpose of elected aldermen to cater for the baser sides of human nature.
Source: The Canberra Times
Sydney Morning Herald 2007
KINGS CROSS - POLICE say they have in effect shut almost all of the sex shops in Sydney's red-light district after officers raided seven of the eight adult book stores in Kings Cross searching for child pornography and other X-rated material.
Operation Cheryl began just after midday yesterday when 60 officers executed search warrants on the adult book stores on Darlinghurst Road and its surrounds, seizing more than 60,000 DVDs, four computers and a small quantity of drugs.
Six men and one woman were charged with a variety of offences last night, including selling unclassified, or X-rated, pornographic material and selling water pipes and amyl nitrate.
The seized computers were being forensically examined for evidence of child pornography, the Kings Cross local area commander, Superintendent Jenny Hayes, said.
"There is an internet room [in one of the shops], $2 for access, and previous investigation has revealed child pornography on one of those computers," Ms Hayes said.
She alleged that the shops had been "flouting the law" and brazenly selling X-rated DVDs and videos, which cannot be sold in NSW, as well as unclassified material, which cannot be sold in Australia.
Penalties for possessing such material include a $100,000 fine and/or a maximum of 12 months' jail for an individual, and a $250,000 fine for businesses.
The raids came after a six-month investigation triggered by a case involving child sex offences, Ms Hayes said.
Information from this case led to police conducting undercover operations in the shops to determine the type of material that was being sold.
She said police would examine the computers to determine who had used them to access child pornography, as well as logging, examining and classifying the material.
Despite the stores openly displaying the apparently X-rated material, worth millions of dollars, on their shelves, Ms Hayes said the sale of the material had been going undetected for some time.
"We allege almost all the business conducted in these adult bookshops is illegal and we have effectively shut them down," Ms Hayes said.
But local workers and shopowners were not convinced this would be the end of the sex shops. One man, who worked at Porky's Nite Spot and did not want to be named, said he expected all the seized material would be X-rated.
"You'll see - it will be back to normal in the next day or two," he said.
The owner of the nearby City Convenience store, who wanted to be known as Sam, looked on.
He said he was against child pornography but open-minded about X-rated material.
"Funny people go in there but it's good for us," he said.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
Community News 2009
WA - The WA Council of State School Organisations is encouraging Rockingham council to “try again” to persuade the State Government to bring in tighter controls on where sex shops can be established in the City.
WACSSO president Robert Fry said he hoped the Government would support changing legislation to further restrict where adult stores can set up shop, particularly near schools. He said the issue would be on the agenda for the first meeting of WACSSO in March and the council would write to the State Government to seek “exclusion zones” between adult shops and schools.
Rockingham Mayor Barry Sammels said WACSSO’s push appeared to align with the Rockingham council’s attempt in December, 2007, to restrict the establishment of adult shops within the City Centre zone, which included refusing stores that wished to set up close to schools. The Planning Minister at the time, Alannah MacTiernan, rejected the council’s request but said she was willing to approve a modified amendment that prohibited restricted premises in major pedestrian shopping areas of the City Centre.
Source: Community News
ABC 2016
TAS - A sex shop owner in Tasmania's north has won an appeal against a council decision to refuse a planning permit for the business, in the face of opposition from local churches and some residents.
Marcia Goldsworthy, the owner of Ooh La La for Adulte's — which promotes itself as having a "huge variety of the latest toys and more giving our customers' a healthy and exciting sex life" — took the matter to the planning tribunal after the Central Coast Council denied a retrospective permit application for the store to sell adult clothing, items and novelties.
The Resource Management and Planning Appeal Tribunal found the council should have granted a permit for the shop in the main street of Ulverstone, with a variation to the usual parking space requirements.
In May, the council voted four to three to refuse a permit because there were not enough parking spaces on site — despite having granted a similar parking space variation to the business that used to be there, and a report by a council planning officer that recommended the permit be approved.
Shop 'sending the wrong message' - The permit application attracted more than 20 objections, mostly concerned that the shop would expose children to sexual material, worsen family violence and that it did not fit with the town's values.
Comments
objecting to the store included:
"To have to explain such things to
inquisitive children should not be acceptable in a town such as this which has
in recent times spent millions of dollars to improve its image." — Bill
Burford
"It is not the sort of shop we want
our grandchildren to have to walk past daily." — Carolyn and Milton Smith
"It may encourage even earlier sexualisation
of young children … violence against women is a significant problem in our
society and this business is sending the wrong message." — Members of the
Ulverstone Uniting Church
"My fear is the admission of businesses of this nature will help to destroy our family friendly atmosphere." — Ken O'Reilly, Pastor, Church of Christ, Ulverstone
The tribunal found those were not issues that could be dealt with under the planning scheme. "The planning scheme is silent with respect to nearly all the matters raised, and moral judgments are beyond the scope of the Tribunal's jurisdiction," the judgment said.
"The Tribunal is satisfied on the evidence that the application complies with the Planning Scheme and that an approval should issue."
The tribunal upheld Ms Goldsworthy's appeal.
The shop has been closed since the council refused to grant a permit in May. A post on the store's Facebook page acknowledged the ruling and said the shop would reopen soon.
"I WON … Doors will be opening up again in about two weeks. Just have to wait for parking permit to be issued," the post read.
Central Coast Mayor Jan Bonde said the council would accept the tribunal's decision, although some in the community would not be happy. "I think there'll be a lot of people disappointed and I think that they would be disappointed that their concerns couldn't be taken into account under the planning scheme," she said.
Ms Goldsworthy has been contacted for comment.
Source: ABC
- Background Image - Club X Brunswick, 2018 - Photo by Tony Nagy
- The Canberra Times
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- Community News
- Sunshine Coast Daily
- Brisbane Times
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- ABC
- Trove
SUNSHINE COAST - An adult shop in Caloundra's main street will remain open while council processes the business application - despite being in violation of the town plan. The Totally Adult shop at the top of Bulcock Street opened its doors this month despite the main street being zoned as a district business centre – a classification which does not allow adult operations.
It comes as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Sunshine Coast Regional council (SCRC) continue a joint environmental audit campaign at Kunda Park to ensure businesses based in industrial parks were complying with – or had even bothered to get – appropriate licensing and zoning authority.
A council spokesperson said the adult shop owner would be asked to lodge an impact assessable development application, giving the public 15 days to object to the continued operation of the business. The store will remain open for the duration of the application process.
Owner Mark Bryant said the application was in process and he was more than willing to meet council's requirements. "To be honest, I didn't know (approval) was required for Caloundra," he said.
Source: Sunshine Coast Daily
QLD - Some sex shops are breaking the law for what can be displayed in their shop windows, Queensland's Parents and Citizens Association (QCPCA) says. The QCPCA wants stricter controls on the window displays of sex shops which the State Government plans to keep 200 metres from schools and churches. QCPCA president Mary Black said some sex shop window displays clearly breached guidelines laid down under Queensland's Criminal Code.
"We really want tougher controls on window displays," Ms Black said.
"It doesn't matter if it is 200 metres or it is a 1000 metres away (from schools), there are shops that have displays that we would strongly believe are in breach of the legislation," she said. "Most people are doing the right thing, but there are some who aren't.
"Under the Queensland Criminal Code (section 210) it is an offence for anyone to expose anyone under 16 "to any indecent object or any indecent film, videotape, audiotape, picture, photograph or printed or written matter." QCPCA also wants clarification on whether "under 18s" can be prevented from entering sex shops. Under Queensland's indecent treatment laws, people under the age of 18 can enter a sex shop, but the onus is on the sex shop itself to usher underage shoppers from the store, similar to bottleshops selling alcohol.
Businesses face steep maximum penalties - up to 20 years jail if the child is under 12, or 14 years jail if the child is 12 or over and are exposed to R-rated material in an adult shop. Sex shops also face $2000 fines if they they allow people under 18 to buy an R-rated film. One Brisbane inner-city sex shop said staff took it upon themselves to keep minors from entering the store. The new planning guidelines come into effect from March.
Queensland has the largest number of sex shops of any Australian state, with the number doubling between 2002 and 2007 to 137. The State Government was pressured into providing tougher guidelines after concerns were expressed by communities in Proserpine and on the Gold Coast about new sex shops.
Ms Black said she was realistic about the 200-metre distance from schools. "At the end of the day you could also have a shop in a mall where kids hang around 500 metres from the school," she said.
"So we really believe that the signage at the front - the access to the shop - is one of the big issues that really needs to be enforced."
Ms Black said the QCPCA had mixed feelings about making the legislation "retrospective" and forcing some existing sex shops further from schools and churches. "We have had that conversation, but that is a business decision and we would find it difficult on exactly how you could police asking someone to move after they had set up a business," she said. "But as we said, it is the window displays and the whole policing of that, that is so important to us."
Meanwhile, Acting Premier Paul Lucas said the new state guidelines would be drafted by March. It will be up to individual councils around Queensland to decide whether they will use the government's guidelines. Mr Lucas said he did not intend to push sex shops into industrial estates as with brothels.
"We're not suggesting adult stores be banished to industrial areas, but we need to strike a balance between responding to community sensitivities and allowing legitimate businesses to operate without disadvantaging them," he said. If a local council decides to use different planning guidelines than the State Government proposal, the change must be publicly advertised, Mr Lucas said. Brisbane City Council's planning guidelines for adult shops could not be clarified last night.
Source: Brisbane Times
NSW - More than 13,000 videos have been seized from an adult store in Sydney and will undergo examination to determine their classification. Officers raided the St Marys premises, in Sydney's west, about 9.30am yesterday.
Members of the local community allege that some material on display was either unclassified, refused classification or classified as X 18+. More than 11,000 DVDs and about 2000 VHS tapes were seized and will undergo official classification. Police expect to formally interview the owner of the business at a later date.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
The Australian Sex Party 2010
NSW - Sydney
Police have become fixated on closing down Sydney’s adult shops with increasingly
intensive raids. Last week, two Kings Cross adult shops were raided and 90% of
stock was seized. The shops have been closed by police and taped with crime
scene tape. All tills and safes were broken open and computers and shop records
were all seized. Only lingerie was left. The raids took 15 police officers an
entire day to carry out.
Australian Sex Party President, Fiona Patten, said that a Sydney adult shop owner had been sentenced to
jail last month for selling federally classified X rated films that had been
judged by Commonwealth censors to be suitable for all Australians.
“The NSW
police have spent millions of dollars this year pursuing adult retailers where
this money should have been spent on solving murders and dealing with assault
and property crimes”, she said. “I challenge the Premier, the Police
Commissioner and Independents in the parliament to deny that their religious
beliefs are contributing to this moral crusade”. She estimated that the NSW
Police had spent $2 million on raiding a dozen adult shops in the last 12
months.
She said that NSW politicians had to have a good hard look at the double
standards that existed in their private lives as opposed to their public lives.
“When David Campbell was Police Minister he presided over a moral law that
jails people for selling legal X rated films”, she said. “In retrospect and
notwithstanding his perfectly legal right to visit a gay sauna, I believe he was
being a hypocrite. And he’s not alone in that. There are more moral hypocrites
in the NSW Parliament than any other state parliament”.
“If X rated films are not going to be sold from council-approved and age
restricted adult shops in NSW they will increasingly be sold from family
premises”, she said. “Already there is a dramatic rise in the availability of X
rated material from under the counter at suburban video libraries where one out
of three now sells X rated films. Hundreds of newsagents in NSW are now selling
X rated films in blister packs with adult magazines. This is not what the
public wants”.
She said last week’s raids would have cost the taxpayer at least $100,000 and
that the police would now have to spend at least another $20,000 getting the
films classified. “Most of these films will probably end up being classified as
X rated which means they are legal to bring into the country, legal to
purchase, legal to possess and legal to sell in the ACT and NT. Just not legal
to sell in NSW.”
The Australian Sex Party is writing to the Premier to request a parliamentary
enquiry into the nature of police activity on and public support for regulation
of the state’s adult movie industry.
Source: Trove