Issues - Censorship
In 1972 Queenslanders of a more traditional inclination deplored the 'decline' in moral standards amongst young people, and argued for greater censorship of films, literature and schoolbooks. The public debate over censorship filled newspapers and talkback radio, and the Education Minister (Alan Fletcher) announced that sex education courses would not be introduced in Queensland schools, claiming that he had received 'hundreds of letters' opposing sex education100. Queensland's Literature Review Board, set up in 1954, said in its 1971 Annual Report that obscenity was 'becoming difficult to define'.
In April the Board banned The Little Red School Book in Queensland (which the Federal Cabinet had allowed to be imported), but refused to give any reason for the banning101. The Courier-Mail pointed out that the other states held different attitudes on this issue and warned that Queensland risked 'becoming a national joke' as a result of the lack of nationally agreed censorship standards102 . Queensland did not send a representative to an interstate conference on censorship in May because of 'the lateness of advice and the pending State election'103.
Education Minister Fletcher said it was 'significant' that there were connections
between The Little Red School Book and the Communist Party, while the Premier
announced that Cabinet had decided to ask anyone seeing copies of the book
being distributed to school children to 'dial the police emergency number
000'104. One state politician called for the Government to 'deal with the noisy,
filthy, scruffy, sex-perverted minority' at Queensland University, and police
raided the Student Union building to seize copies of a student newspaper after
a single complaint about one "obscene" article had been made 105. Police
also bought a copy of The Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen from a city bookseller
and 'photographed other copies of the banned book' in the shop: the book would
'be read by police' before they submitted a report to the Assistant Commissioner 106
.