🚀 go-pugleaf

Clayton Forno <cjfat@optusnet.com.au> wrote in message
news:3acc2179$0$25508$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au...
> Last week laws where passed in Australia giving religious groups increased
> powers to pressure for censorship....and today...
>
> In the Australian state of Victoria laws were passed preventing the
showing
> of R rated movies (such as "Hannibal" and the re-release of "The
Exorcist")
> on Good Friday, because "the Christian religion must be respected"!


While not wishing to detract from the central point that this decision was
appalling stupid, I would like to add several points which should be made to
add some perspective.

No "laws" were "passed".  The directive came from an unnamed bureaucrat in
the Attorney-General's Department, apparently acting without the knowledge
or approval of the government. (The Attorney-General himself is in hospital
recovering from a rare form of hepatitis)

The directive applied only to "The Exorcist".  Other R-rated movies were
unaffected (although none are actually scheduled for screening on Good
Friday).

The government, caught flat-footed by an announcement it had not expected,
initially indicated that it had no choice but to support the ban on the
grounds that it is consistent with the relevant Act of Parliament, which
dates from approximately 1958.  The premier has since flagged moves to scrap
the law, and the acting Attorney-General has now announced that the ban has
been reversed.

Pity, really.  It's much more fun to get outraged, isn't it?