15th February, 2007
GLYNIS QUINLAN

Walk into a video store with your children practically anywhere in Australia and you’re likely to find R-rated videos depicting graphic simulated sex and violence in the next aisle round from the children’s movies.

Visit the wrong street at night in Victoria or NSW and you may well come across a brothel operating with the full favour of the law - with pimps working as legitimate businessmen.

Sounding a bit distasteful? It gets worse when you consider the human misery and exploitation which lies behind these industries. Not to mention their effect on families and the moral health of our society.

And it gets even worse when you find out that action has been taken recently to extend these problems.

On 1st March, the pornographic film industry took action in the Federal Court to try to overturn X-ratings for adult films showing real sex. Meanwhile, in Western Australia, the State Government is getting set to introduce a bill decriminalising brothels despite losing this bid once before. This time they’re being tipped to have more success.

One might be forgiven for wondering why the sex industry is being allowed to make such inroads in this country. When does the great cult of the individual, which says that people should be able to watch or do whatever they like, give way to the need of people living in community to be willing to give up some of these so-called ‘rights’ for the good of others?

And why should the financial interests of the pornographic film industry and brothel owners be given any place in determining what is acceptable in our community?

By way of background, currently X-rated videos can only legally be sold from licensed premises in the ACT and Northern Territory. Sure, people can easily find ways to get hold of extremely pornographic material and videos in the rest of Australia, but they aren’t freely available in video stores.

The pornographic film industry is trying to change that by claiming in the Federal Court that community standards have changed and that a reasonable adult would not be offended by films showing people having actual sex. They want these films to be given an R-rating instead, so that they can be legally sold throughout Australia.

The view of the Australian Christian Lobby is far different. We think film classification standards need to be made tougher, not looser. As it is, there are loopholes in the guidelines which, for example, are already allowing real sex to be shown in R-rated films for reasons such as ‘artistic merit’.

ACL managing director Jim Wallace recently said that the Federal Court action is a cynical attempt to make more money out of exploiting women and feeding into the problems of those with a predilection towards sexual offences.

“I think people sometimes under-rate our community standards and the desire of the great majority to improve the environment in which their children are raised,” he said.

Over to Western Australia, where the Attorney General has said the State Government plans to decriminalise and regulate brothels in order to protect the health and safety of sex workers and provide clarity for police.

They may sound like worthy aims, but the picture changes when you consider that decriminalising brothels actually tends to lead to a massive expansion of the sex industry - and consequently far greater exploitation of women and even children.

We have the experience of what happened after brothels were legalised in Victoria and NSW to back this up. In those states the effect of such legislation was to actually increase the numbers of both legal and illegal brothels.

As Janice Raymond argues in her paper Ten Reasons for Not Legalizing Prostitution, “people often don’t realise that decriminalisation means decriminalisation of the whole sex industry, not just the women in it. And they haven’t thought through the consequences of legalising pimps as legitimate sex entrepreneurs or third party businessmen”.

Legalisation of brothels also encourages sex tourism and, because there is such high demand, it leads to trafficking in women to provide more prostitutes.

Rather than legalising brothels, the West Australian government should be providing greater support for women so that they are not forced into prostitution in the first place. And it should be providing exit strategies for those women who are desperate to start a better life.

It would be good if the West Australian Government could take a leaf out of Tasmania’s book. In mid 2005 the Tasmanian Government sought to legalise brothels in the Sex Industry Regulation Bill 2005. However, in the face of concerted community opposition and concern, as well as the harrowing accounts of former prostitutes, the Government later totally changed its position, redrafted its legislation and instead introduced tougher penalties.

This was a good example of how lobbying can make a real difference. Rather than letting the sex industry set the agenda, Christians can influence decisions by writing letters, lobbying politicians, campaigning, and generally making their voice heard. It might not always work but there are many times when it will – and each one of these is valuable for our society.

In the case of the proposed West Australian bill, Christian lobbying efforts are already getting underway among a number of different groups. The Australian Christian Lobby has also set up a quick and easy way for people to write to politicians on this topic through its ‘Women are Worth More’ campaign on the Make A Stand website. Maybe you could consider sending a letter on this topic, or look for other ways to help improve the moral standards of our community, rather than seeing them go backwards.

Glynis Quinlan is the public relations manager for the Australian Christian Lobby.