The indomitable Jason Hill over at The Age blog Screenplay is reporting that South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson has agreed to make public the discussion paper on the proposed introduction of an R18+ rating for games in Australia.

This backflip comes just over a week after Mr. Atkinson withdrew his support for a public consultation on the issue. Yesterday however, at the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General meeting in Brisbane, Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hull – a long time supporter of the introduction of an R18+ rating – was able to achieve a consensus with fellow ministers. His spokeswoman Meaghan Shaw announced that the paper would be finalised by the end of the year, with a view to Australia-wide distribution.

Although Mr. Atkinson did not reveal why he reversed his position, this is a fantastic first step for the introduction of an R18+ rating in Australia and Mr. Hull is to be congratulated for his diplomacy and forward-thinking. We’ll keep our eyes peeled for the discussion paper in the weeks to come.

Source: “Yes” – minister (Jason Hill, The Age)

This entry was posted on Friday, November 7th, 2008 at 11:25 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Comment on Michael Atkinson Re-Ignites R18+ Debate

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   TBoneTony says:

   Lets hope that this discussion paper is a fair and even one.

   Not something that is spread with lies and fears, but one that has valid information and the real truth about what will be accepted and what will not be accepted with R18+ rated games.

   With the fear that politicians use, such as Barnaby Joyse and his claims of “RAPE and Pornographic Sex scenes” in videogames that is not true at all, what Atkinson might be doing at this point is to put in his own views that don’t really add up to the real truth but instead try to create a moral panic amongst those who don’t really know the real truth about Videogames and the R18+ rating in Australia.

   Remember, the games we are fighting to have the choise of playing are never going to be as violent or sexual as the ones in America that has got their M rating as high as 17+, NOT 18+ as that would be the Adult Only rating that is in fact banned from their market because it is considered as a dead market.

   Because many store owners would never sell AO rated games in America that is the reason why there is no AO18+ rating unless if the ESRB gives it an AO and the Publisher would then have to tell the developer to re-fix the game to give it an M17+ and considering that the US market is the main market that all videogame Publishers try to market for that is the reason why we in Australia will get an R18+ rating but with games that are still rated with an American M17+ ESRB rating.

   I surely hope that they have included this for the Pro R18+ rating side of the debate as this might be very important to use.