I received a letter this week from the Classification Branch of the Attorney-General’s Department outlining the regulations relating to selling classified material, adult material. The letter goes on to talk about P & O Distributors, saying that they have distributed unclassified material to retailers. It documents a risk of prosecution and a fine of up to $28,688 or imprisonment for 2 years for breaching the law. Click on the image to read a copy of the letter.
While I have never dealt with P & O Distributors I certainly recall seeing product packaged like the example included with this letter from the Government in some fuel over the years.I think this is the more likely venue for unclassified material than newsagencies.
The letter points newsagents to the classification website for more information. It also came with a list of titles from P & O Distributors and a copy of a cover of one of their titles.
At first I thought this may have been some form of scam but upon checking I found it to be genuine.
Sick of kids sniggering down the back of the shop and leaving People & Picture all over the place, we no longer stock any magazines of this ilk wether in sealed bags or not.
This decision is part moral and largely business as our demographic of female customers seem to appreciate the move as well.
This may not suit all but it suits us.
Hate to say it, but these magazines (not the hard core stuff) work well in our newsagency. In fact we increased the range after we took over.
We have ours near the car and motorbike mags, at adult eye level, not where young kids could accidentally grab them, in a fairly central location.
Have never had a problem with young kids trying to buy them, but that could be that I know them all and their parents and they’d be too embarassed to. 😉
Ironically the hard core stuff is probably the least offensive due to the packaging. Picture and People leave nothing to the imagination and Zoo and the like have to satisfy my male (and some female) customers now.
Newsagents, servos and convenience stores have to understand the broader perspective behind this letter. The federal government charges importers of adult mags $800 to classify a magazine. If you bring in even 100 copies of the one title you need to add $8 to the cost of each mag to break even. They even charge $800 now to classify a business card. The system is completely broken and the government has asked the Australian Law Reform Commission to enquire into the scheme. Anyone who sells or has sold adult media should have their opinion heard. Classification costs are now a form of economic censorship and the state is now cracking down. We need a self regulated scheme like the US and Europe have.