‘New No-Go Zones’ for Qld Sex Shops Ineffectual and Confused

New planning laws for Queensland’s 150 adult sex shops announced by Planning Minister Paul Lucas today were ineffectual and confused, the Eros Association said today.

Eros CEO Fiona Patten who represents Queensland adult retailers said that the legal stipulation to place adult sex shops 200 metres from schools and churches had missed the mark completely as to what the public wanted. “The Minister failed to define an adult shop in his statement so how can you apply this rule if you don’t know what it is you are trying to plan for’, she said. “How does the Minister categorise a shop selling condoms that can be sold in a chemist, lingerie that can be sold in a department store and adult magazines that can be had from a newsagent or bookshop”?

She said that the Queensland Government had to bring its censorship laws into line with the rest of Australia and allow legally restricted adult material which can be regulated. “It is still legal for 14 year old boys to go into an adult shop in Queensland because there are no restricted products there”, she said. “What is the point in making sure adult shops are 200 metres from schools when school children can legally enter these premises?”

Ms Patten said the Minister’s claim that Queensland adult shops were the most tightly regulated in Australia was simply untrue. “There is no regulation at all of these shops because the Queensland government bans a range of adult material that is legal in all other states and territories in Australia. How can they say they regulate banned material? You cannot regulate that.”

She said Queensland was copying the regulations of other states but not amending their legislation to include the restricted products sold in other states.