Title: CLASSIFICATION (PUBLICATIONS, FILMS AND COMPUTER GAMES) (ENFORCEMENT) (AMENDMENT) BILL

House: Assembly
Activity: Second Reading
Members: Mildenhall
Date: 23 March 2005
Page: 47

CLASSIFICATION (PUBLICATIONS, FILMS AND COMPUTER GAMES) (ENFORCEMENT) (AMENDMENT) BILL

Second reading

Debate resumed.

An application has been lodged with the Greater Shepparton City Council for a Club X sex shop in Shepparton. A committee comprising community groups, church groups, welfare organisations, leaders in the community and just people who are concerned in the community has been formed to fight the application; it has called itself Goulburn Valley Community Against Pornography. Council has received 199 objections and a petition bearing 1250 signatures. Also, 700 people rallied in Shepparton in opposition to the Club X mega store.

The community is concerned about such a store's impact on young children, just as the government has stated they have similar concerns. Our community is concerned about the image that a mega sex shop in the community will have and also because it is proposed to be situated in a gateway into Shepparton. It is also concerned about the diminution of family values.

We already have two adult book stores in Shepparton which are in a discreet location, but they have told the Shepparton News that although they might have sexually explicit material in their stores, they do not get inspected. The concern for the community is that while council says it will inspect and put conditions on this new sex shop, the reality is that the two that are there already are not inspected to see whether they are selling appropriate material or whether in fact the publications they have are appropriate and within the guidelines.

The council has approved the club's application, and the Goulburn Valley Community Against Pornography is now having to fight that decision in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. The council's own municipal public health plan raised the high incidence of child abuse in Greater Shepparton and stated that research clearly demonstrates the critical importance of creating safe, nurturing environments for children, particularly in their early years. The community is concerned that the offensive material shown in some sex shops still goes uninspected and we are not quite sure what is actually being sold in those sex shops. Obviously the material is very sexually explicit.

Comments appeared in the Shepparton News of 4 November 2004 when a councillor from the City of Shepparton went to Albury to have a look at a Club X store -- the same Club X organisation that is applying to establish a sex shop in Shepparton. He went with three planning officers from the City of Greater Shepparton. He made a number of comments about what goes on in the store.

His particular concern was about the coin-operated viewing booths that are operating there. They also sell publications, DVDs, videos, magazines and toys. His concern about the coin-operated video viewing booths was, in his words quoted by the article:

'They're masturbation chambers virtually'.

According to the article he went on to say that the:

... video-viewing booths seemed to operate on coin slots, were about twice the size of a toilet, had locks on the door, a chair, a bench and a video screen.

'The only other thing in there, surprise, surprise, was a great big commercial dispenser of tissues,' he said.

'It was pretty ordinary, and I'm pretty broad-minded. It was pretty disgusting, I wasn't impressed at all.'

The concern my community has is that approval for this sort of development has been applied for in Shepparton. The application for sex shops which sell and display sexually explicit material and also have the viewing rooms are made under the Planning and Environment Act, which deals with planning issues. I refer to my notice of motion no. 511, which is on the notice paper and of which I gave notice on 9 December 2004. It states:

That this house calls on the Minister for Planning to work with the Minister for Local Government to investigate potential amendments to the Planning and Environment Act 1987 and the Local Government Act 1989 which will permit councils the option of refusing a planning application on the grounds that the application would be detrimental to the health, safety or social amenity of the community.

While section 60 of the planning act allows the responsible authority to consider any significant social or economic effects because of development, I believe it is also important to include health and safety issues so that we protect our children from explicit material, from the sorts of things that devalue families and the values that we like to see in our community, and also to protect the most vulnerable in our community from being able to view this material in an ad hoc way.

Many rural councils do not have the resources to inspect sex shops for compliance, and they feel they do not have any alternative but to reject the application. It is really important that we have legislation in place to protect children, as this bill will do, and to improve enforcement.

The government also needs to look at changes to the Local Government Act and the Planning and Environment Act so as to protect communities from

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unwanted developments regarding explicit material and to give councils more responsibility to be able to reject applications. If the councils have been out and consulted the community and if the community, as my community has done, puts in very strong objections and puts forward their fears about this type of development, I think the councils ought to be able to reject applications for those types of developments. I support this bill before the house; it does make some sense, and there are some good initiatives in it.