Representatives of the Eros Association, an Australian adult trade group, told a Senate committee looking into the so-called nanny state , its members were suffering because of restrictions on what they could sell. While they couldn't sell
films depicting certain consensual sex acts, people could still stream them online. Eros business manager Joel Murray told a hearing: They simply download it or order it from overseas. That's money that doesn't enter
the Australian economy. So from an economic perspective it doesn't make sense.
He also criticised the limited list of acceptable practices and fetishes, with many of those not included discriminating against the gay, lesbian, bisexual
and transgender community. The restrictions of businesses selling adult entertainment are so severe that they are proving unviable. There were only two businesses in the ACT (Canberra) that had X18+ licences and they soon would give them up, he
warned. The X18+ licence fee in the ACT ranges from $15,000 to $31,000, with having single films classified costing more than $1000. The association also raised concerns about state laws that ban the sales of porn in all the major states. Adults
can buy and possess X18+ films (with the exception of Western Australia), but only adult stores in the ACT and Northern Territories can sell them. |