Discussion paper not good enough: O’Connor
The SCAG meeting took place in Melbourne last Friday to review the discussion paper. With 60,000 submissions, of which 98.2% were in favour of an R18+ rating, Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor described this an “overwhelming” effort. Unfortunately, with only one Attorney-General absent from the meeting no final decision has been made.
And despite the majority in favour, according to Games.On.Net, O’Connor has requested further analysis from the community and expert views before making a final decision on whether Australia receives an R18+ games rating. The Federal Attorney-General’s department has released a status report, available for download here. O’Connor helps this would ensure that community is kept well-informed of its progress.
The report provides statistical breakdowns as well as summaries of the positions taken by various lobby groups. Interestingly, only one religious group, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, spoke out in favour of the new rating.
The Australian Catholic Bishops (ACB) state that their preferred position is that R 18+ material would not be available in Australia. However, as material is currently available despite its illegality, it would be preferable to introduce an R18+ classification category for computer games so that access to such material, particularly by children, can be restricted.
Well, at least one religious group is using common sense!
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Shannon Lang says:
You’d think that the N.T Attorney General would make an effort to get her calendar in order and attend one of the most important meetings that they ever attend right?
Why does she HAVE to be at the meeting? Why can’t she just submit her opinion another way? What a WASTE OF TIME AND EFFORT THIS BUNCH ARE!!
Sorry, but you can’t expect such an important meeting to have NO outcome on essential and proper classifications because of ONE PERSON. That one person retired last election in S.A only to find that something so SMALL will interfere on such a large scale.
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shaunoez says:
ahh i love this
i guarantee they weren’t absent
i bet you they were all there, all didnt want to be the first to give us r18+ games
so they said “guess this 98% isnt truthful, burnt the papers
they will probably lose all evidence of it
and claim australia still doesnt want the r18+
its happened before
our government are so kind and friendly arent they
next our internet is being censored
welcome to communist china everyone
im getting the hell out of this terrible country.
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Rohan says:
How convenient that 1 didn’t turn up…
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Ryol says:
Thats a pretty sade excuse to ignore an issue that 98.7% of 60,000 people all want fixed. Like Rohan said, it’s pretty convenient that one person didn’t show up to work for that one day. sorta reminds of someone trying to get out of a test at school.
It’s pretty easy to tell that they don’t want an R18, but they don’t want to say No, because they’re afraid. I hope we get atleast a decision soon or i’m gonna lose my patience with these jokers.
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Anonymous says:
The Attorney Generals need to get their act together. A decision needs to be made on this issue or soon Anonymous is going to fight back and make the decision for them. Imagine 89,000+ people marching on parliament for an issue as simple as modifying the classifications for video games. In my opinion the decision has already been made.
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matty says:
I wish they would hurry up with this, I want Left 4 Dead 2 uncensored already… Wasted good money on a watered down piece of s@$%
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jack says:
this is bulshit they’re letting R18+ movies into the country but not games.. wtf is up with that. and nearly all Ma15+ movies will be worse than the R18+ games anyway.
austraila is just pussy haa
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John says:
Yeah right, it’s clear to me that the 60,000 submissions or the 98.2% in favour of the rating were simply given false hope. They’re not taking this issue seriously and they don’t plan on calling the vote any time soon or in the future. We’re just suckers who believe every false promise they make in order to elect them into office and they abuse that power to satisfy their own political agendas. It makes complete sense to introduce the R rating and I dont see why they’re delaying the inevitable. If they really want to protect kids from inappropriate material, this is the only sensible way to do it and they know it. No dont need excuses, only answers.
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Glenn says:
And you wonder why I chose to import my copy of Left 4 Dead 2.
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Aaron says:
It isn’t that they think r18+ is good or bad. They just have a hate for video games, thinking they are stupid and silly, just like there players. But there own personal hatred and ideas on the users should not help them come to a desecion!
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jay says:
Simple ppl, ebay.NZ get all you R18+ games sent to your door