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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 33, No. 5 22 April 1970

Australian student papers & Censorship

page 12

Australian student papers & Censorship

Last night I went to see Hair in Sydney. Not much, I thought, unless you like strobe-lighting and pubic hair.

But the same city that sports Hair as a major attraction—Sydney, like Auckland, having forgotten Oh! Calcutta!— is now up in arms about, of all things, student newspapers.

Goodness only knows what inspired the Premier of New South Wales, Mr Cutler, to suddenly take up arms against Sydney's student papers. The evidence that he has is real enough, though. Mr Cutler told the State Legislature a couple of weeks ago that he "respected Parliament too much" to repeat phrases from New South Wales student papers Honi Soit (Sydney), Tharunka (Macquarie) and Thoth, a Sydney Teachers' College magazine.

The whole set-up is, of course, part of a communist conspiracy designed to subvert the morals of the young. Mr Willis, the Chief Secretary (which position amounts to number two in the nefarious chain of command that is state politics) was quick to follow his beloved leader, Mr Cutler. Mr Willis asserted that the papers had printed material "sufficiently obscene" for them to be charged under the Obscene and Indecent Publications Act. Mr Willis, as "Minister in charge of censorship" was the man who decided Hair was fit to be seen without it corrupting, (thousands have seen it since he gave it his blessing, and to date I've not seen any obscenities in the street worth talking of).

The story started when Tharunka printed an excerpt from the banned book Portnoy's Complaint. The extract concerned itself with the universal sin of masturbation. The varieties described. I'll have to admit, were somewhat multifarious, but provided you've got a sense of humour, you can bear reading it.

Then Thoth came on the scene with a cartoon that was "filthy in the extreme". Mr Cutler, whose Army record is not in doubt, felt compelled to say "I have spent many years in the Army, in the company of broadminded men, and I would never allow another person to show this sort of thing to me." The cartoon, depicting the successful parry of an attempt by a lecturer upon the virginity of a young (female) student teacher, ended with a crack about the impotency of modern education.

Meanwhile Honi Soit Editor Mel Bloom has printed an article on incest—the opening part of which was "far too filthy for me to read to anyone" (Mr Cutler again). The article included a polysyllabic word describing a person who has incestuous relations with his mother. An unAustralian word, said Mr Cutler, "unheard of in the Australian Army".

In a city where prostitutes are available almost at call, strip joints innumerable, and girlie magazines of one hundred varieties are on sale on almost every street corner (literally), the Government's attitude comes as something of a surprise. It would appear that there is a genuine fear on the part of State politicians of the Liberal Party variety that the student exercise is part of a deliberate plot to undermine the authority of the Government. If that be the case, though, I'd hate to think what the machinations of their minds (I'm tempted to put that in the singular) would dream up if they ever saw a Capping Mag. Masskerade anyone?

Peter Rosier

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