The World Today Archive - Wednesday, 26 April , 2000 00:00:00 Reporter: Kirsten Aiken COMPERE: Well, after a strong police crackdown over Easter on nude bathing in the sunshine state, the Queensland Government has promised a review of the 1931 statute still being used against naturalists and others. Queensland is the only Australian state where it's totally illegal to appear without an appropriate swimsuit or other clothing at all public places. Nudists claim the antiquated law is costing the state valuable tourist dollars.



Kirsten Aiken in Brisbane reports that while the tourism industry agrees, it's a little more cautious about repealing the legislation.



KIRSTEN AIKEN: Queensland's beaches are among the best in the world, but if you want to sunbake or take a swim, don't drop your togs. In the sunshine state, public nudity and therefore nude bathing is illegal, but nudists are hoping an Act which was proclaimed in 1931 might soon shed the prohibition on their favourite past-time.



The Beattie Labor Government has announced a review of the Act which bans public nudity, as well as witchcraft and fortune-telling. The Police Minister is Tom Barton.



TOM BARTON: They're covered by a piece of legislation called the Vagrants Gaming and Other Offences Act. There is an internal review taking place of that legislation. It is my intention to potentially bring forward changes to that, to bring it into this century.



KIRSTEN AIKEN: In the past few weeks there have been reports that scores of nudists have been arrested in and around sand dunes on beaches on the golden Sunshine Coast by police wearing Speedos. A review is well overdue, according to Les Hodgkin from the Free Beach Association.



LES HODGKIN: The Free Beach Association was formed in 1988 specifically to talk to the Government and try and get them to change this law, and this is really good news.



KIRSTEN AIKEN: Why should people be able to take their gear off at the beach?



LES HODGKIN: Well, why shouldn't they? They can do it in all other states in Australia, and there's something like about 24 legal nude beaches in Australia but there's none in Queensland, and yet Queensland's got the best climate and the best beaches, we think, and it would be a big draw-card for tourism. There's a lot of people in Europe and in the United States, as well as the southern states of Australia, that would love to come to Queensland and love to be able to enjoy nude bathing on legal beaches.



KIRSTEN AIKEN: So is the ban on public nudity having a negative impact on the state's tourism industry?



LES HODGKIN: Well, it certainly is not helping. There are a number of unofficial nude beaches in Queensland, but the fact that it is unofficial and not legal, and there's always the remote chance that you could be arrested or charged is a big deterrent on a lot of people, whereas a lot more people would use these beaches and a lot more people would make the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast, in particular, and Cairns and the other areas would make it their holiday destinations if these facilities were available.



KIRSTEN AIKEN: The tourism industry agrees Queensland's ban on public nudity is costing it market share, but it doesn't want this niche market to cost it its big money spinner, the family holiday market.



John Liddicoat is from Tourism Sunshine Coast.



JOHN LIDDICOAT: I don't know whether I would like to see them, but I see no problem in such beaches existing whereby they provide the opportunity for people to bathe in the nude, and they need to be clearly marked and then anybody who wishes to go to those beaches can expect to see people bathing in the nude.



KIRSTEN AIKEN: John Liddicoat believes while most people aren't offended by nudity, those who are shouldn't be confronted by it.



JOHN LIDDICOAT: But I would not like to see it right across the broad spectrum of beaches because I think families and many people in society still take offence at nude bathing, and we need to be very mindful of the broader community responsibility that this sort of thing must embrace.



COMPERE: John Liddicoat is from Tourism Sunshine Coast. He was speaking with our reporter, Kirsten Aiken.