The Australian Constitution does not guarantee its citizens freedom of speech and this means that governments in Australia have the ability to censor what people can read, hear and watch. When it comes to sex, Australian laws are actually quite restrictive compared to the United States, where porn is protected as a form of free speech.
There's an extensive rundown of the many and varied laws involved at this Wikipedia article but when it comes to sexually explicit material the gist of it is this:
* Any visual representation of sex must be simulated in order to qualify for an R rating. If the sex involves penetration, including oral and anal, then it's X rated. If a penis is erect, that's also X rated.
* An X rating means the item cannot be legally sold in the states (NSW, Qld, Victoria, WA, SA and Tasmania) even though it is perfectly legal to buy and own them. The ACT and NT are controlled by the federal government and thus it's legal to sell X rated movies there.
* In reality, most sex shops in Australia stock X rated videos, even though there were recently police raids in Kings Cross.
* Websites that are hosted in Australia are supposed to comply with Australian censorship laws. This is why you will be hard pressed to find any adult website hosted here. This site does not contain any explicit images but it's not hosted in Australia on principle.
* Internet porn originates from all over the world and Australians access it every day. The current government plans to censor the internet at ISP level to prevent this. By doing so it will be joining the illustrious company of China, Iran and Saudi Arabia who all censor their population's internet. (See below)
The Australian sex toy company Adultshop has recently mounted a number of high court challenges to the existing censorship laws, saying they no longer reflect community standards. They have pointed to a 2006 survey that found that 70% of Australians aren't offended by adult films. Unfortunately their appeal was overturned. the Office of Film and Literature Classification remains stacked with overly conservative members hand-picked by the Howard government.
The problem with these laws is that people are often too frightened to speak out against them. It means putting your hand up and saying "Yes, I like porn" which is not an appealing thing to do in public. Meanwhile, numerous church groups are very vocal in their opposition to adult material.
The Eros Association has set up a website called I Love Sex which quickly and easily lets you register your protest against the Australian censorship laws.
The fact is that you're here, you're reading this and you're obviously not offended by porn. You should let the politicians know this!
There are two websites that keep track of censorship in Australia. They're worth reading and supporting because they're standing up for your right to see, hear and read what you want.
Electronic Frontiers Australia
Libertus.net
Update 2013
The Australian government asked the Australian Law Reform Commission to look at the existing classification scheme. The final report recommended sweeping changes and acknowledged that the system was effectively broken. At time of writing the government has done nothing to change our laws.
NO AUSTRALIAN NET FILTER
In December 2009 the Australian government announced plans to introduce a mandatory internet filter which would block out "Refused Classification" content. They sold this as "protecting the children" from "illegal material" but it turned out that the filter would block political websites and legal adult porn. It was to be based on a secret blacklist compiled by unaccountable beaurocrats and it has enormous scope for governments to abuse it.
Thankfully, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy finally announced that the filter was a dead policy in 2012, after it was repeatedly shown that it wouldn't work.
Please read more about net censorship at the EFA.
"To be sexually free, women must be able to discover and legitimate their own sexualities through representing and seeing them represented in a vast variety of ways. We don't want the U.S. government, or Andrea Dworkin, telling us which representations are "good" and which ones "degrade" us."
- From Censorship Hurts Women, an NCAC Background paper
"By making certain kinds of sex 'unrepresentable', the Australian government is dis-enfranchising a sexual minority who are not breaking any laws. If we don't know more about the mating habits of the perves next door, it's because they're not stupid. They know that there aren't many public figures who are willing to stand up for their rights to sexual expression."
- Kath Albury, researcher and author of The Porn Report
"Why have feminists historically opposed censorship - particularly of material with sexual content? Because no matter how we are assured that the censorship is meant to protect us, the targets of such censorship invariably turn out to include feminist ideas and ideals, information that benefits women and challenges sexism..."
- Avedon Carol, Feminists Against Censorship
"Pornography is free speech applied to the sexual realm. Freedom of speech is the ally of those who seek change: it is the enemy of those who seek to maintain control. Pornography, along with all other forms of sexual heresy, such as homosexuality, should have the same legal protection as political heresy. This protection is especially important to women, whose sexuality has been controlled by censorship through the centuries."
- Wendy McElroy, author of XXX: A Woman's Right To Pornography
Quotes from this wonderful page at Libertus
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