Poor Fred.
CANBERRA, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Sun-loving Australians reacted
angrily on Tuesday to a mid-summer bid by a conservative
Christian lawmaker to ban topless sunbathing on beaches in the
country's most populous state.
Christian lawmaker and veteran morals campaigner Reverend
Fred Nile won backing from key politicians in New South Wales
state, counting Sydney and its famed ocean beaches, to tighten
existing laws covering nude sunbathing.
"The law should be clear. It must say exposure of women's
breasts on beaches will be prohibited," Nile said.
Centre-left state government lawmaker Paul Gibson told the
Daily Telegraph newspaper that families at the beach during the
summer holidays did not want topless women.
But scores of callers to radio talkback stations complained
about the plan and Leanne Peters from the ACT Nudist Club in the
capital Canberra said Australia would look like a "haven for
prudes" in the unlikely event that laws passed parliament.
Australians love their suntans and topless sunbathing has
been common on most beaches since the 1960s. Nude beaches are
also legal in every state except tropical Queensland.
But the country also suffers the world's highest rate of
melanoma skin cancer. A new and graphic government advertising
campaign warns there is no such thing as safe tanning, building
on decades of similar official warnings.
NSW Assistant Health Minister Jodi McKay said banning topless
sunbathing was a step too far for most lawmakers. "We don't want
to go down the slippery slope of banning activities like this.
What would be next, banning breastfeeding?" she said.
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