Ms Patten said that Section 14 (i) of the NSW Classification Act unequivocally states that, ‘A person must not privately exhibit in the presence of a minor a film classified RC or X18+’, however parents were not subject to the same rules with R rated material. “It is legal for parents and guardians to show an R18+ film to their children in all states except Tasmania and the Northern Territory”, she said. “It is legal to show an X18+ film to one’s children in Victoria but it is illegal to sell an X18+ film to an adult in that state”.

She said the Northern Territory had the toughest restrictions on showing minors both X18+ and R18+ films but the Coalition had already chosen to ignore this fact by banning possession of X18+ as part of the Intervention rather than making sure that the existing laws were enforced.

Ms Patten said that Morrison’s call for parents to place R18+ and X18+ material under lock and key was unenforceable as most households had an R18+ film in them. It would also mean the end of minors working in the local video store. “His call for similar measures to be taken with Category One Restricted magazines must logically mean he does not want minors working in newsagents either”, she said. “Does he feel that ushers in the major cinemas also need to be over 18 because of the risk of them seeing R18+ films as part of their job?”

Scott Morrison’s comments are closely linked to those of the Australian Christian Lobby’s CEO, Brigadier Jim Wallace. Last Tuesday at a Forum Of the Round Table debate on internet filtering in the NSW Parliament, Wallace gave an account of a five year old boy called ‘Sam’ and his experiences with on line pornography. On today’s opinion site The Punch , Morrison retells the same Jim Wallace story.

“Mr Morrison has proposed a change to our national censorship laws which would have involved considerable amounts of taxpayer’s money, without first checking his facts”, she said. “He has also shown an extreme side to his personality by stating that consensual adult erotica could potentially be more damaging than guns. Clearly a film that shows legal acts between consenting adults could never be said to be more dangerous than an item that really only has two purposes – damaging targets or damaging humans or animals. “

She said that Mr Morrison’s comments had highlighted the fact that Australia’s censorship laws were fragmented and varied wildly from state to state. “Mr Morrison has only accentuated the need for censorship should be taken out of the hands of state governments and put into one national uniform censorship scheme for all Australians.