IP: australian sex industry

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 01:58:16 +1000 (EST)
> From: =?iso-8859-1?q?David=20Goldstein?= <goldstein_david () yahoo com au>
> To: APPLe <apple () apnic net>
>
> Hi Applers
>
> This may be of interest to some of you. Coverage from The
> Independent newspaper in the UK about how the adult industry in
> Australia is unhappy about the way the government wants to
> regulate what Australians currently call X-rated movies.
>
> Cheers
> David
>
> Australian sex industry threatens revenge on MPs
>
> By Kathy Marks in Sydney
>
> http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Australasia/2000-04/aussiesex260400.shtml
>
> 26 April 2000
>
> It is the type of threat to make a politician shiver, and
> certainly not with pleasure. The Australian sex industry
> yesterday warned MPs opposed to a relaxation in the
> classification of X-rated videos that it would make it a
> political issue in marginal constituencies.
>
> The Eros Foundation, the industry's lobby group, said it was
> prepared to use its extensive mailing list in an aggressive
> campaign to target subscribers in marginal seats held by
> politicians from the right-wing, rural-based National Party.
>
> The National Party, which governs Australia in coalition with
> the conservative Liberal Party of the Prime Minister John
> Howard, is resisting moves to change the X-rating of videos to
> "non-violent erotica". They want the word erotica replaced with
> the more loaded term, pornography.
>
> Robbie Swan, a spokesman for Eros made plain yesterday that
> theirs was no idle threat. "I think there are a number of
> National Party MPs in marginal electorates, such as Larry
> Anthony, who wouldn't want this brought up as a political
> issue," he said. He said Mr Anthony's marginal seat in northern
> New South Wales contained 4,797 purchasers of sex products ­ 6.2
> per cent of the electorate. "And when you think that most of
> those buyers are in a relationship with someone, that figure
> doubles," Mr Swan said, somewhat optimistically. In total, he
> said, there were 1.1 million Australians who could be targeted
> with political information by the industry within 48 hours.
>
> Earlier this month a Senate committee recommended that the
> rating be changed. De-Anne Kelly, a North Queensland National MP
> who has led the campaign to persuade the Cabinet to adopt the
> word pornography, was unmoved yesterday. She said: "I and my
> colleagues who raised this matter initially aren't going to be
> put off."