The lesser task of protecting decency

I was working through a judgment by Justice Gray in the Supreme Court of South Australia today (I came back and deleted the link, because while what it contained was a court room description of the contents of a prohibited DVD import, it was highly unedifying) and came across an interesting snapshot of the history of the law on public morality and decency:

"The defendant drew attention to the Fullagar Memorial Lecture, delivered by Dr JJ Bray in July 1971, in which Dr Bray traced the juristic basis of the law relating to offences against public morality and decency. Dr Bray referred to the early decision of Hicklin and noted that it had been applied by Fullagar J in Close. At that time Fullagar J observed that there was no obscene libel unless what was published was both offensive according to current standards of decency and calculated or likely to have the effect described in Hicklin - a tendency to deprave and corrupt people whose minds were susceptible to corruption and into whose hands the material may fall. Dr Bray went on to note that the High Court in Crowe had gone further and limited the test of indecency as to whether it was offensive according to current standards of decency. It was Dr Bray's prediction that the law would abandon the attempt to protect morality in the field of words, written or spoken, the graphic arts, the stage and films, and would confine itself to the lesser task of endeavouring to protect decency. The prediction of Dr Bray has proved to be correct."

Dr JJ Bray, “The Juristic Basis of the Law Relating to Offences Against Public Morality and Decency” (Speech delivered at the Third Wilfred Fullagar Memorial Lecture, Monash University, 19 July 1971). Published in (1972) 46 ALJ 100

R v Hicklin (1868) LR 3 QB 360

R v Close [1948] VLR 445

Crowe v Graham (1968) 121 CLR 375.