Fred Nile’s proposed ban on topless sunbathing will be referred to the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board by the Australian Sex Party.

Party convenor, Fiona Patten, said that Fred Nile’s proposed legislation only applied to women and did not include men’s topless bathing. “This implies that there is something inherently offensive about the public display of women’s breasts on a beach while men’s breasts remain inoffensive”, she said. “Men’s breasts are basically the same as women’s. They both sit on the same part of the body, both have nipples and both sexes can get breast cancer. Women’s breasts are on average larger than men’s but by the time many men get to Fred Nile’s age ‘man boobs’ can be larger than many women’s”.

She challenged Mr Nile and his supporters, David Clarke and Paul Gibson, to tell the public exactly what it was about women’s breasts that they found so offensive and why that did not apply to men. “Does the sight of female breasts instil urges that these male politicians are afraid of?”

Ms Patten said that topless sunbathing was an established tradition in many Western European countries for many decades and that Australians are no more conservative in this regard than residents of the Greek Islands or the South of France. “Will we also see Fred Nile and David Clarke move to ban G string bikinis for both men and women? How much breast exposure does Fred Nile find acceptable? Will the proposed legislation require beach inspectors to carry measuring tapes?”

Ms Patten said that the proposed Bill was sexist and the sort of legislation that religious groups like the Taliban and the Mormons had put forward in other parts of the world. “Australia is a free thinking, freedom loving country. The NSW Labor and Liberal parties should not be encouraging religious extremism like this”, she said.

If Sydney’s beaches suddenly became meccas for Victorian swimwear and prudish morality, the Australian Sex Party would fight the legislation at the next NSW election she said. “Already we are seeing a coalition of ALP, Liberal and Independent MPs voting along religious lines rather than traditional party policy lines and community opinion when it comes to sex and gender issues”, she said.

The Australian Sex Party will put a broad policy platform to NSW voters at the next state election designed to stop the inroads that the religious right is currently making into all parties in NSW.

Fiona Patten
Convener