Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I present the report by the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee on the Australian film and literature classification schemetogether with the Hansard record of proceedings and documents presented to the committee.

Ordered that the report be printed.

As chair of the committee it is a great honour and pleasure to speak on and support this report, which, in my view, is a landmark report. It is nearly 200 pages in length and it has some 30 recommendations. It relates to and reviews the National Classification Scheme, which was introduced some 15 years ago. I thank the committee secretary and secretariat for the good work they have done. It was a very difficult and complex review but, as usual, it has been done professionally and compre­hensively. I specifically want to acknow­ledge Ann Palmer for the wonderful work she has done on behalf of the committee. I thank our committee secretary, Julie Dennett. I thank Bill Bannear; Patrick O'Neill, who did quite a bit of the work through until April this year; Katie Bird; Dylan Harrington; and Kate Middleton. I thank the deputy chair of the committee, Senator Crossin and my other colleagues on the committee. It is a landmark report and it took over seven months to deliver to the Senate today. On my last day in the Senate I am delighted to have the privilege of tabling and supporting this report and its 30 recommendations.

What we have discovered in this report is that the current system is flawed; in fact, there are multiple flaws with the National Classification Scheme. There is clearly a lack of consistency and uniformity across a range of media platforms and that is something that needs to be fixed as soon as possible. There are key principles that underpin the National Classification Scheme and we support those principles and an expansion of them.

One area of particular concern is the sexualisation of our children, the sexualisation of society and the object­i­fication of women—indeed, the demeaning of women—particularly in advertising, marketing and the community in general. We say enough is enough. We have got to get it right and we have got to get the balance right—an appropriate balance between freedom of expression and protecting what is in the interests of our children, women, families and society.

We have made specific recommendations regarding the importance of consistency and uniformity across all media platforms while maintaining a touchstone to community standards and community values. One of the major areas of significant flaws in the current system relates to what are called call-in notices, whereby the classification board can call in particular magazines and publications. Let's face it, they were in petrol stations, general stores and news agencies across this country. Various inappropriate and offensive material—particularly in relation to children—could be found in those public places by children or whoever. Clearly, they were inappropriate and should not have been there. They were called in. They were not in the dozens, but in the hundreds. The classification board clearly could not follow through on that. They called them in and there was, of course, no response. I have raised this again and again in Senate estimates. The evidence I put was that that is wrong and the process is flawed. The system is broken and it needs to be fixed. The committee report confirms that wholeheartedly.

We had the bizarre situation where we had evidence put to our committee which was taken from newsagents, petrol stations and general stores and we felt that we could not in fact publish those publications—they had to be censored! What a bizarre situation. We had those magazines and materials forwarded to us directly from newsagents, petrol stations and general stores and we could not actually put it on our website or make the material public because it was so offensive. So, clearly, the system is broken and needs to be fixed.

I would like to highlight some of the 30 recommendations in the report. I am absolutely delighted with these recommendations because they are far-reaching and they make a lot of sense. Let us have a look at some of the key recom­mendations. First of all the Senate provided an excellent report in 2008. Many colleagues in the Senate chamber would remember the 2008 report by the communications and arts committee on the sexualisation of children in the contemporary media. That report required a response within 18 months, but that has not been provided. All members of the committee, including the government members on the committee, supported that particular recommendation. We need action there, and fast.

We have recommended community assessment panels. It is important to provide a touchstone to the values and standards that are held by the community. Of course they change over time but, if you have that connection directly into the classification system through community assessment panels, then you know that you are going to keep in touch.

We recommended that the exhibition, sale, possession and supply of X 18+ material and films should be prohibited in all Australian jurisdictions, not just the states. As we know, at the moment they are legal in the ACT and in parts of the Northern Territory. This is a great shame and it should be fixed as soon as possible.

We have recommended a centralised database to provide full information sharing on the classification enforcement actions. This will help the law enforcement agencies to do their job of going in and making sure that any offensive material can be removed.

We have called for a massive expansion of the Classification Liaison Scheme, which is now part of the Attorney-General's Department. Their job will be to provide compliance and audit-checking activities in relation to compliance with serial classifi­cation declaration requirements—those call-in notices. We think there should be at least one representative in each state and territory. We think there should be a huge expansion of their workforce and resources. They can provide assistance to the state and territory law enforcement agencies for failure to respond to those call-in notices, and of course they should provide an annual report to this parliament via the Attorney-General's Department annual report. We have made a number of recommendations there as well. Equally, the National Classifications Scheme should apply across all content, regardless of the medium of delivery. Industry codes of practice that come under the Broadcasting Services Act, the ARIA/AMRA Labelling Code of Practice and the advertising industry should be required to incorporate the classification principles, categories, content, labelling, markings and warnings of the National Classification Scheme into their industry. They should adopt those measures by industry and, in our view, the measures should be legally enforceable with sanctions applying as appropriate. Further details are set out in our report.

We have made recommendations with respect to assessing and accrediting those that undertake those assessments. We have made recommendations with respect to setting up a one-stop shop for complaints. A lot of the evidence that came to our committee was that people simply did not know where to complain or how to complain. We had one bizarre example of a family member who went to the industry association, went to ACMA, went to the classification board and was left hanging dry. So we are saying there needs to be a one-stop shop, a classification complaints clearing­house. That clearinghouse would be responsible for the following: receiving complaints and forwarding them to the appropriate body for consideration, advising complainants that their complaint had been forwarded to a particular organisation for consideration, and giving complainants direct contact details and an outline of the processes of the organisation to which the complaint has been forwarded.

Big-picture-wise, yes, the government has set up the Australian Law Reform Com­mission to report into this matter and report back by January next year. That highlights the fact that, yes, the system is broken and needs to be fixed. This report will be wonderfully useful to the Law Reform Commission, but there are recommendations that we believe should be acted on forthwith.

In conclusion, thank you to my Senate committee colleagues for the work that has been done on this report and to the committee staff for all their support. It is a landmark report with major recom­mendations and I support the motion to the Senate. I thank the Senate.