Boobs on Bikes

There has been an angry backlash to a New Zealand court's decision to ban a parade of topless women on motorbikes in Auckland.

The lawyer for the annual Boobs on Bikes parade says a by-law used to ban the event is invalid after the council asked an Auckland District Court judge to issue an injunction to prevent to event happening on Wednesday.

The council claims the parade would breach a newly amended by-law banning offensive public events but Jesse Soondram, lawyer for the parade's organiser Steve Crow, said the by-law was invalid.

Soondram said it had already been decided, by police and the courts, that it was not an offence for women to bare their breasts in public in the Summary Offences act.

He argued the council was trying to apply a stricter standard of what was offensive than existed in the law.

Although there were some opposed to the parade, the fact that 100,000 spectators turned up last time showed a large number of people held a different view, Soondram said.

A judgement will be given on the matter tomorrow, but Crow said the parade will go ahead regardless of the court's decision.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to flock to Auckland, New Zealand, tomorrow to watch topless women riding on motorbikes after a judge dismissed a council's attempt to ban the parade.

Judge Nicola Mathers threw out Auckland District Council's attempt to gain an injunction to stop the Boobs on Bikes parade down Queen Street, saying it breached a new bylaw allowing the council to ban offensive parades.

But Judge Mathers said in Auckland District Court today that it was debatable whether the bylaw was legal, and also debatable whether it met the legal threshold of offensiveness.

Parade organiser Steve Crow, who also organises the R18 Erotica Expo held in Auckland over the weekend, said the decision was a victory for common sense and freedom of speech.

Judge Mathers noted that some people were deeply offended and considered the parade tactless and distasteful. But she said at least 80,000 people voted with their feet last year by attending the parade, suggesting they approved of the parade and considered it harmless fun.

As police had advised that it was not an offence under the Summary Offences Act for a woman to go topless in public, Judge Mathers said it was hard to argue that the parade met the legal definition of offensive.

The Boobs on Bikes parade has gone off without incident on Auckland's Queen Street despite a march by about 60 nutter protesters.

Thousands of spectators lined the city's main street to watch the parade of topless women, which went head despite the city council's opposition.

But a few nutters joined groups including the Human Rights Foundation and Auckland's Women's centre, carrying banners with slogans such as porn fuels rape.

The protest group walked silently along the street, protesting not about bare breasts, but against the free advertising they say the parade gives to Steve Crow and his hard-core pornography empire.

Auckland City Councillor Cathy Casey had threatened to lie in the path of the parade with a group of other morality protestors to stop it but her protest didn't eventuate.

New Zealand's C4 has received a number of viewer complaints after a raunchy episode of Jono's New Show.

The show featured uncensored footage from boobs on bikes parades, a dwarf involved in bondage & discipline and an explicit interview with porn stars that involved simulated sex.

One nutter, who called the show terrible and pornographic, stated that young people were still up at the time it screened and that programmes were getting worse and worse.

Jono's New Show executive producer Angela Mann says: There were clear warnings at the beginning of the show saying it would contain sexual material. We covered a topic that was of great interest to the majority of our audience.

Two more Steve Crow-run companies - Vixen Direct and Erotica Expos - have gone into liquidation.

New Zealand liquidators at MeltzerMasonHeath have confirmed that the firm has been appointed following the shareholders decision to liquidate the companies.

Both companies are owned by CVC Group and their sole director is Steve Crow.

Last week NBR announced Steve Crow’s company Eden Media, formerly Vixen TV and Vixen Media, also owned by CVC Group Limited, was forced in to liquidation at the High Court at Auckland.

The application was made by printers PMP Maxum.

Update: Biking On

11th July 2009. See article from google.com

A porn entrepreneur has vowed to go ahead with his annual "Boobs on Bikes" parade of topless women in Auckland, despite financial woes and the opposition of the city's mayor.

Two of Crow's companies have gone into liquidation at his request after earlier shows in the capital Wellington and the southern city of Christchurch lost money.