So far this year, over a dozen adult retail, wholesale and production outlets around the country have been raided and had their stock confiscated, under direction from the federal Attorney General’s department. There are at least another dozen in the pipeline.

Last month an Oxford st (Sydney) adult shop owner became the first person to be sent to jail in modern times for a censorship offence. Last month also saw Victoria’s largest producer of X18+ material, Abby Winters.com, prosecuted for making X18+ films. They are currently relocating to a more tolerant European country.

Australian Sex Party President, Fiona Patten, said the raids were an outrageous undermining of the federal government’s own Classification Act.

“Officers from the Attorney General’s department are, on the one hand, classifying X18+ films for all Australians to sell and possess and then turning around and dobbing in adult shops, websites and produ cers in the states who deal in this product”, she said. “The federal government should be supporting the spirit and principles of its own legislation rather than the outdated and highly politicized laws of other jurisdictions.”