Chairperson, they say I must carry on where I stopped in the previous debate but I don't think it will be right. The Films and Publications Amendment Bill that is before us today, is a piece of legislation that has been with us since June last year, which is quite a long time.
I still remember that if I am not mistaken the Deputy Minister was present when we had our first briefing somewhere in September. So we had to sit down and work out a proper plan as to how to approach this piece of legislation. On many occasions we are accused of just trying to push legislation through to Parliament but one can testify here today that we have thoroughly scrutinised this piece of legislation.
We had public hearings on this Bill, we had submissions from various stakeholders and we even had some legal opinion from an advocate who came to assist us on this particular piece of legislation. We conducted workshops and we deliberated on the Bill, and so forth. So we have spent quality time in order to deal with the Films and Publications Amendment Bill.
This piece of legislation is very important because the purpose of this Bill is in actual fact to amend the Films and Publications Act, Act 65 of 1996. If one looks at what is really going on in South Africa and throughout the world with regard to pornography and all the kinds of sex- related matters, we had to come up with legislation in order to put some control mechanisms in place. This is what this Bill is basically doing.
There will be a board and a tribunal that will deal with certain complaints and so forth. There were threats at times when people said that this particular piece of legislation is unconstitutional. But I am sure we have a responsibility to our children in this country. We can't leave things as they are. Things are really getting out of hand.
I am not going to go into detail with this particular piece of legislation, but I must say that the select committee came up with quite a number of proposed amendments to this particular Bill. So we hope and trust that this august House will approve this Bill and it will then go back to the National Assembly. I thank you very much.
Debate concluded.