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Story: Interest groups

Upholding virtue

Upholding virtue

Patricia Bartlett (right) became a household name during the 1970s and 1980s as a highly visible spokesperson for the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards. Bartlett assiduously sought to uphold New Zealanders' virtue by chasing down sexually explicit material and declaring it obscene. She had a few wins. Here she and Internal Affairs Minister Graeme Lee survey a collection of banned pornographic videos handed in during an official amnesty in 1993.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PA-Group-00685)

Reference: EP/1993/3203/20A

by Phil Reid

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Raymond Miller, Interest groups – Cause interest groups, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/34981/upholding-virtue (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Raymond Miller, published 14 March 2012, updated 1 April 2020.

Comments

Helen Judge
02 November 2012
I was taught by Patricia Bartlet in the1970s, she took pleasure in hurting children i and felllow class mates suffered physical and phycological abuse To this day I feel very angry and upset when I think of what I was subjected as child at the hands of this woman