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  From: Mark Newton <newton@atdot.dotat.org>
  To  : Nick Stoic <nstoic@clove.net.au>
  Date: Sun, 30 May 1999 11:14:30 +0930 (CST)

Re: Censorship

Nick Stoic wrote:

 > Well, this is another story. Our government is appears to be more
 > concerned with banning all access to material that is out of their hand
 > and cannot be taxed! It's all about money and nothing else!

No, I think it's about Howard trying to be a poor-man's Menzies.

I was thumbing through the autobiography of Geoffrey Robertson last
night at Mary Martins, and encountered a passage where he was describing
the reaction to "Lady Chatterley's Lover" by D. H. Lawrence in the 
'60s and '70s.  This book, which is now seen as a classic of literature
which I read as part of my year 11 English class, was banned as an
obscene publication in England and Australia.  Eventually the ban 
was lifted in England after a court case found that there was no
evidence to back up the Government's claim that it "tended to deprave
and corrupt public morals," but the Australian ban remained.

Why?  Because Menzies read it, and said it wasn't the kind of book
he wanted his wife reading, so just to make sure his wife didn't read
it he made it a crime to import it into Australia.  That ban remained
in place for several years afterwards -- All because Menzies thought 
it was the kind of book he wouldn't want his wife reading.

John Howard was on 5AN on Thursday talking about the Internet.  He
justified the new law by saying that there's all kinds of stuff there
he wouldn't want his children seeing.

It's Menzies all over again.  Welcome back to 1950's morality -- It's
for your own good.

    - mark

--------------------------------------------------------------------
I tried an internal modem,                    newton@atdot.dotat.org
     but it hurt when I walked.                          Mark Newton
----- Voice: +61-4-1620-2223 ------------- Fax: +61-8-82231777 -----

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