Welcome to the EROS Association Website

The Eros Association Inc is Australia's national adult retail and entertainment association. We function in the same way as other peak industry groups like the Pharmacy Guild or the Motor Traders Association in that we unify our members, lobby government and run a professional and ongoing public relations campaign.

Established in 1992, Eros is the longest serving adult industry group in Australia and we have earned a reputation for integrity and professionalism in our activities. We seek to bring logical and popular perspectives to love and sex rather than moral or religious ones. 'Make love not war' is the philosophy that we bring to our political debates.

Although issues of sex, morality and the law are found throughout the site, it is not intended for titillation but rather for information and education.

About The EROS Association Inc

Adult erotica and so-called 'pornography' may be the second oldest profession in the world, but it's actually the newest industry  in Australia. An industry generally becomes an industry when three things happen:

1. It becomes legal at a national level;
2. Its combined turnover becomes significant (ie the tax department gets interested in you);
3. It forms its own properly constituted industry association with a formal constitution and stated objectives.
   

These three criteria were met by Australia’s sex industry in the early 1990s. The threats by federal government to ban X rated videos of the late 1980s had been won. The combined turnover of adult retail and entertainment businesses was approaching $1 billion and government agencies were starting to look at ways to levy this slice of revenue. And finally, a large group of traders had banded together to launch a national industry association – the Eros Association (or Foundation as it was then). The formation of Eros was crucial to the success of future profitability and growth for the adult industry – even to those who would never join.

One of the big lessons that all fledgling industries learn early on is that politicians and bureaucrats do not like talking to individual business owners about big picture problems as they can be accused of favouritism and even of accepting bribes. They like to deal with non-profit industry associations who represent large numbers of traders and are at arms length from day to day business activities. When it comes to the sex industry, this principle is even more rigorously enforced as the accusation of receiving a favour‚ for political consideration, is especially touchy!

And yet many adult industry owners and workers remain frustrated at the slow pace of political change. Despite overwhelming support for the legalisation of X rated videos amongst the general public (72% average in polls over 10 years), they remain illegal in all the states. It is still illegal to host adult content from an Australian ISP and phone sex is still illegal if charged to a normal home phone account. On the other side of the ledger, X videos remain legal at a federal level despite constant pressure from sections of the government to ban them. Draconian laws to make it illegal to even upload adult material to a website, have been defeated in some states but have been passed in others. The fight continues.

Download EROS Code of ethics

Suzy Humphreys - President
Suzy Humphreys is owner and Managing Director of two of Australia's best adult lingerie companies, Group Australasia and Leg Avenue. This is her third year as President of The Eros Association.

From a champion Ballroom & Latin Dancer, working on the America's Cup, to starting the company, Picone Group Australasia Pty Ltd - a multifaceted career has brought Suzy Humphreys to position her career in the Adult Industry of Australia.

With Picone representing such lingerie ranges as Leg Avenue, Rasta Imposta, Cinema Secrets, In Character, Forplay and Bang Him, the Adult stores of Australia see a lot of Suzy and hence, brings her to the forefront of representing Eros at a good industry level.

As President of Eros, Suzy focuses strongly on encouraging new Memberships and ensuring Renewals whilst taking an active role in the future direction of the Eros Association.

"The Eros Association is such a fantastic medium for all of the Adult Industry and coupled with a brilliant Eros team, Robbie, Fiona and Yasmin, represent the Adult Industry at the highest level.

The Eros Committee are from a wide range of the industry, and are not only focused, but committed to providing the Adult Industry with only the best interests at heart.  This Committee is second to none:

• President -- Suzy humphreys (Picone Group Australasia)
• Vice President -- Craig Hill (HGC)
• Vice President -- Colin Edwards (Sweethearts)
• Secretary -- Sue Peran (Windsor Wholesale)
• Treasurer -- John Myall (A A P D)
  
• Committee Member -- Ian Conway-Powels (Risque)

Fiona Patten - Chief Executive Officer

Fiona Patten became the first president of the Eros Foundation in 1992. Prior to that she had been working with state and national sex worker organisations lobbying for sensible prostitution law reform.

In 1992 she ran as an independent in the ACT election although she just missed out on being elected she managed to gain the fourth highest personal vote. Not long after this she set up Eros with the support of much of Australia's adult industry.

Fiona became recognised as the responsible and intelligent face of the modern sex industry in Australia and took the good fight up to moral's campaigners and conservative politicians alike. When she resigned in July 2000 to take on an executive position with the newly launched public adult company Sharon Austen.com, she left in her wake a much more professional and much more widely accepted sex industry.

For the past few years Fiona has been working as a full time lobbyist for the adult industry, focussing specifically on state censorship law reform.

Above Fiona Patten fronts the news cameras at SEXPO in Sydney.

Robbie Swan is Eros' Media Director and Political Advisor to the CEO and the Board

Between 1992-1998 he was Eros' chief political lobbyist and campaign manager. During that period he worked closely with political advisors from across the spectrum to accept logical perspectives on Australia's adult industry rather than the moralistic policies of the church and moral's groups. He was well known for his stouches with arch conservative Senator Brian Harradine, who at one stage accused him of being a transvestite in a Senate Committee hearing.

In the early 1970s he was the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's florist in Seelisberg, Switzerland and then went on to be a teacher of Transcendental Meditation. He was editor and founder of the political humour and satire magazine, Matilda; editor of the the eco-magazine, Simply Living and the women-friendly erotic journal, Ecstasy. He has also worked with anti-censorship campaigners Phillip Adams and Richard Neville. In the early 1990s he coordinated the first lobbying campaigns on behalf of the Adult Video Industry Association.

Robbie Swan debates policy with Neil James from the Australian Defence Association, John Warhurst, Professor of Political Science at the ANU and Press Gallery Journalist, Julian Fitzgerald.

Rebecca Lanning - Membership Coordinator & Contributing Editor

EROS Hall of Fame

DAVID HAINES MAICD, B Ed (Bristol, UK)
President (2002-2005)

Left: Eros President, Suzy Humphries gives Hall of Fame and past President, David Haines, a fond embrace.

David Haines was a member of the Australian Film Censorship Board (now incorporated in the Office of Film and Literature Classification) from 1981 - 1994. He was Deputy Chief Censor from 1986, and Secretary to the Standing Committee of Commonwealth, State and Territory Ministers with Censorship Responsibilities between 1988 -1994. In 1991 - 1992 he was an Associate Member of the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal's Inquiry Into the Classification of Program Material on Television. He was also a producer/director of adult films during 1998 and 1999 including Buffy Down Under, which achieved the highest sales ever for an Australian produced adult movie. He has also been a long term consultant and media commentator on the communications and entertainment industry on censorship legislation, content regulation, enforcement, and associated issues. He is also a founding member of the Watch on Censorship Committee, set up in 1996 to address and publicise a perceived politically driven conservative shift in censorship practices in Australia. He is currently Chairman and non-executive director of the listed company, Mobile Active (previously Gallery Global Networks and Sharon Austen Ltd). 

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Company Information

Trading Name: Eros Association Inc
ABN: 35 903 598 652
Trading Address:
PO Box 69
Deakin West
ACT 2600
Australia
Phone: 02 6285 2477
Fax: 02 6282 1499
E-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it