We the undersigned Australian citizens and their supporters hereby condemn the police raids of Australian galleries exhibiting work by the highly distinguished artist Bill Henson, whose work is held in the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Denver Art Museum; the Houston Museum of Fine Art; 21C Museum, Louisville; the Montreal Museum of Fine Art; Bibliothиque Nationale in Paris; the DG Bank Collection in Frankfurt and the Sammlung Volpinum and the Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna.

We reject the allegation that he is a child pornographer and we reject the allegation that Mr Henson's work is pornographic.

We demand that our elected representatives consider the damage this action is doing, not only to Australia's cultural reputation, but the creative souls of artists, their subjects and their audiencesboth here and abroad.

The signs of pre-emptive self-censorship in some galleries are not "the hallmark of an open democracy nor of a decent and civilised society. We should remember that an important index of social freedom, in earlier times or in repressive regimes elsewhere in the world, is how artists and art are treated by the state."1

No signatory to this petition endorses the sexual, emotional, psychological or physical abuse of children. Mr Hensons work has nothing to do with child pornography and " according to the judgment of some of the most respected curators and critics in the world, it is certainly art."2

Yes. It most definitely is.

1. Open Letter from Ms Alison Croggon, Writer, Melbourne, Australia
2. Ibid