Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Amendment (Children’s Employment) Bill 2009
I speak as member of the exiled centre-left faction of the Christian Democratic Party to the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Amendment (Children’s Employment) Bill 2009. The purpose of this bill is to amend the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 to extend the safeguards relating to the employment of children under 15 years to children up to 16 years who are employed as models, and to increase the maximum penalties for particular offences in relation to the employment of children from 10 penalty units to 100 penalty units.
This legislation is long overdue and the argument just presented by the Hon. Robyn Parker is very clear and succinct, and does not require me to elaborate. It is in response to intense community concern about the dangers for young people who are participating in the adult world of entertainment and fashion without sufficient safeguards, and it extends the current legislative protections to under 16-year-olds. By all means let us have that if it is needed, but maybe it should really be 18 or even 21-year-olds. The competitive, dog-eat-dog world of modelling is brutal, no matter what your age. Although we usually think of models as girls and women, this is not solely a gender issue because boys and men model also.
However, the dangers may be worse for young women, and certainly proportionally more girls and women seek to be models than boys and men. It is often the merely attractive ones who never make it onto the catwalk or behind the camera that are most at risk, because they are the most desperate. They are all so easily taken advantage of because their dreams can blind them to people’s real intentions and their own limitations.
Last week the casting call for auditions for America’s Next Top Model reality television show saw thousands of girls standing in line overnight, some for up to 10 hours, for a chance to be in the limelight. Then some disorderly conduct on the part of three people who were later arrested triggered a stampede that injured a large number of girls. This sounds like a scene from some kind of nightmare, yet it illustrates the widespread desire of young women hoping for a shot at stardom.
Age is not necessarily the issue either. I believe personal vulnerability is the real issue. The temptation of fame, popularity, riches, travel, glory, wealthy suitors, and working in glamorous surroundings is immense. The wedding today of a Queensland woman to a very wealthy suitor is a good example. These are all elements of social power, and who alive does not want some aspect of that?
Money, sex and power are the intoxicating rewards that society promises to lavish upon the favoured. For the truly talented, beautiful and brilliant the world beckons and each one has to cope with their success with whatever character and inner resources they have. Many people do not have the resources to cope successfully and they end up seeking obliteration of consciousness in alcohol, drugs or other addictions in an attempt to control the complexities of their lives.
Many top models such as Kate Moss are well-known drug addicts. Being addicted is one way they stay so skinny. “Heroin chic” is the term used to describe the emaciated look so admired in the fashion industry—until recently. Moves are now underway in the industry to make body images more realistic. In the late 1980s I became quite concerned about the number of girls presenting to the psychiatric hospital being run by Wesley Mission.
Eventually, in 1995, I established the Wesley Eating Disorders Unit at Wesley Hospital—the first unit of its type to be established in Australia. Incidentally, it won the gold medal of the 2005 International Psychiatrists Convention for outstanding programs for treating anorexia nervosa and bulimia, and it was the role model for subsequent eating disorders units that, fortunately, have now been established at hospitals such as Westmead.
For every successful model there is a horde of would-be models who compete intensely in their quest to succeed but who eventually fail because they do not have what it takes. They can be lured into doing almost anything if the right person promises them what they want to hear. They are easy pickings for those intending to exploit naivety and who know how to push the right buttons. During the years of operation of the Wesley Eating Disorders Unit it was one of the saddest places I visited of all the 500 centres operated by Wesley Mission.
An entire industry orbits around young talent and wannabes: talent scouts, modelling agencies, photographers, magazines and websites. Many of the people involved are not from professional organisations with guidelines and standards in place; they are poseurs with flashy business cards who drop names and deliver a persuasive story to take advantage of vulnerable youth and, just as frequently, their hopeful parents.
This is not a new story; it is an old one. If one were to read any of the Hollywood memoires by the successes and failures on Hollywood directors’ casting couches one would discover all the sleazy elements that prey upon innocence and dreams. Last week there was a news article about a Sydney woman being lured by a self-proclaimed talent scout from a major lingerie company who got her into his office and assaulted her. He was not what he claimed to be—he was a con man—and this trusting lady was over the age of 21.
Gullibility does not diminish with the growing number of candles on one’s birthday cake. Many modelling agency scams exist only to rip off people who have dreams of their photographs appearing in magazines. They lure the victims by advertising in local newspapers or online, encouraging potential models to meet company representatives for group screenings.
The advertisements usually state that there is no fee, but those who pass the screening—and everybody does—are asked to sign a contract agreeing to attend classes and to pay for a portfolio of photographs that can cost well over $1,000. Then the company vanishes, leaving the would-be models without any training, job leads or even a portfolio. This scam, or a variation of it, is popular worldwide because the number of gullible and vain people is unlimited and it always pays off handsomely.
For those people who are successful in the legitimate world of modelling, being in the public eye can mean relentless pressure, and many people buckle under it. In the past year we have the seen the public meltdowns of seasoned entertainers such as Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Joaquin Phoenix, amongst others from many generations. As with Judy Garland, none of these people were teenagers when they fell apart emotionally and psychologically.
Obviously, we cannot legislate to protect everybody who is lured into modelling, even though that is what I would prefer to be doing. However, at least we can do that for children under the age of 16. I commend the Government for introducing this bill, which I support.