Oz Sex Party livid over move to declare pornography to Customs

MELBOURNE - A new question on immigration forms in Australia regarding declaration of pornography to Customs has come under the scanner as being an invasion of privacy.

The Australian Sex Party, a political party, has questioned whether it is feasible for Customs to go through personal belongings, and that if they did so, it would be a major attack on privacy.

“Is it fair that Customs officers rummage through luggage and pull out a legal men’s magazine or a lesbian journal in front of their children or their mother-in-law,” News.com.au quoted the party’s president Fiona Patten as saying.

The issue has echoes of the 1956 detention of famed British conductor and composer Sir Eugene Goossens who had his bag searched upon return from Europe.

He was carrying material that was considered, at the time, pornographic and his reputation was subsequently ruined forcing him to flee the country.

“The term pornography is not referred to at all in the federal Classification Act which Customs rely on to classify their material,” Patten added.

Comment on the matter was being sought from Customs. (ANI)