The NSW Attorney-General has dealt himself into the film censorship business. In July Greg Smith led a remarkable last-ditch attempt to prevent Australia playing, after all these years, adult video games. Now the far-right conservative Liberal has driven the banning of the Dutch horror flick Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence).

The ban was greeted by contending forces across the internet with ridicule, consternation and whoops of victory. Having pressed Smith to act in the first place, FamilyVoice Australia (aka the Festival of Light) declared in triumph: ''Pornography based on human torture has no place on Australian screens.''

Inside Smith's office, heroic restraint appears to have been the order of the day. He assures the Herald that his chief of staff, Damien Tudehope, played no role in the banning of the horror film. Solicitor, would-be Liberal MP and fierce warrior in a string of past film censorship battles, Tudehope both guards Smith's door and sits on the advisory board of FamilyVoice Australia.

The plot: a depraved car park attendant snaps after watching Human Centipede 1 and determines to outdo the mad scientist in that film who sews three people together, mouth to bum, to form one long digestive tract. With no surgical experience and only the tools on his workshop bench, the obese obsessive of part two sews together a ''full sequence'' of 10. Many horrors follow.

Millions have watched the trailers for these films on YouTube. The critics were brutal. South Park has ridiculed the franchise. The British demanded cuts to part two. However, in May, Australia's Classification Board decided adults could watch the film, but warned officially it had ''high-impact themes, violence and sexual violence''.