YNOT – The Australian Sex Party, a registered political entity, has called for revisions to the country’s import regulations, saying the current rules are out-of-touch, culturally arrogant and too subject to individual interpretation. In addition, because they conflict with Australian content-classification rules, current customs regulations could lead to discrepancies between what is legal to produce and what is legal to posses within Australia, according to Sex Party President Fiona Patten.
The hullaballoo began in April 2012 when Bruno Marques, a member of the Melbourne-based Manga Appreciation Society, attempted to import 15 manga comics he had ordered online. Australian Customs Investigations confiscated the shipment, and Branch Manager Sean Quinn advised Marques by letter that “fifteen (15) comic books were identified as contravening the Customs Act 1901 by depicting stylised images of sexual fetishes containing non consent or physical harm.”
Marques contacted the Australian Sex Party for help in untangling the mess. According to Patten, all the material Customs had seized was freely and legally available to view online within Australia. She and Victorian civil liberties barrister Greg Barnes agreed to help Marques shepherd a lawsuit through the appeals process.
“When I saw what they had taken, I advised Mr. Marques to object and take the matter to court, thereby forcing Customs to have the material classified by the Classification Board,” Patten said. “The CB ruled that 30 percent of the material was quite legal to bring into the country, and last week Mr. Marques went and picked them up from Customs House.”
While the case wended its way through the CB, in October 2012 Marques made a trip to Bali, where he purchased the identical publications. All 15 were allowed through the Customs checkpoint in Marques’ possession.
Patten said the discrepancy between actions at the Customs checkpoint and the import office raised serious issues about the uniformity of decision-making in Customs and the education levels of ordinary officers at the coal-face.
“In our negotiations with Customs, they claimed they didn’t need to have the Japanese publications translated to classify them,” Patten revealed. “In fact, the only translations that were put forward were provided by Bruno Marques. Customs even used the translations he provided against him. How reliable can decisions on foreign material be if no official translations are made?
“These were cartoon drawings of Japanese fantasies like 200-year-old fairies having consenting sex with giant frogs, so why would Customs even consider them as illegal imports?” she continued. “The characters are not even human.”
Of more concern is how the conflicting rulings might affect private citizens inside Australia who create manga-like materials for their own amusement.
“The [seized] material was never illegal to possess in Australia, which begs the question as to why Customs are seizing legal material under the regulations,” Patten said. “Mr. Marques’ interest was for his personal use, and the only way he could challenge the Customs decision was to take it to court.”
Even though possession of the material is legal in Australia, Customs’ actions could result in jail time under certain circumstances and in some states, Patten warned.
“I would advise all Australians who now get a seizure notice for any media to immediately appeal the decision and allow the courts and the CB to assess the material,” she said.
Patten has written to the new Customs Reform Board and the relevant Minister to request the Customs Import Regulations be “urgently amended” so they do not contradict or work against the Classification Act.
“Material that is legal to posses in Australia should be legal to import for one’s own personal use,” she said. “Since 2004, it has been an offense to import media that would be refused classification, but [the Refused Classification designation] under the act has always been about commercial use, not private use. Customs have deliberately misinterpreted the Classification Act for what seems to be their own empire-building purposes, and in so doing have trashed the civil rights of many Australians.”
