Ex-Classification Board Member slams Atkinson in submission

Monday, March 1st, 2010

The deadline for making a submission to the Discussion Paper has now passed and, according to GamePolitics, one of the submissions was made by Paul J. Hunt, former Deputy Director of the Classification Board, who has written a 17-page response on the issue. Hunt begins his argument by providing readers with first-hand knowledge about his past experiences working for the Board.

“When I made a decision, or participated in a decision, that a computer game was unsuitable for minors, I was forced to refuse classification for that game. It was not because I thought that the game depicted, expressed or otherwise dealt with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that it would offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults. It was simply because the game was not OK for kids.

Not being able to restrict computer games to adults was an impediment to my ability to reflect Australian community standards.”

Most of his response is directly targeted at Michael Atkinson’s ridiculous arguments on why an R18+ rating for games should not be introduced in Australia.

“In February 2010, Mr. Atkinson told gamespot.com.au that ‘I think the majority of the population are unfamiliar with these games, and without images, they won’t be able to imagine them in their mind’s eye. They’ll have no idea how violent or sexually depraved they are, and what kind of torture, drug use, and blood spatter they include.’ He also reported to have said that ‘R18+ was an issue that most Australians didn’t care enough about.’ Once again he is exaggerating the level of content that is permissible under the guidelines at the R18+ classification.

“Of even greater concern is the fact that Mr. Atkinson does not understand that most Australians are gamers, and therefore the majority of the population is familiar with game content. (As noted above, 68% of Australians play games and 88% of all Australian households have gaming equipment.) All responses, including those from gamers, are responses from the Australian community. Whilst Mr. Atkinson may wish to marginalise gamers, and put down the knowledge of all Australians, I trust the Government will accept all submissions at face value as representative of the Australian community’s feelings on this issue.”

You can read Hunt’s full response here.

Atkinson has a go at Gamers4Croydon

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

In what seems to be a foolish move, South Australian attorney-general Michael Atkinson has launched an attack on Gamers4Croydon who has recently became a registered party in South Australia. Atkinson told GameSpot:

“It’s 60 days until the election and they [Gamers4Croydon] don’t even have a candidate yet. Their Web site is full of memorabilia but not much else. This electorate has some 24,000 people to talk to and convince. Personally, I see no evidence of local support for their party.

“I assume the Gamers4Croydon campaign will involve criminal activities and dirty tricks, which is what I’ve come to expect from gamers,” he said. “Regardless, I think they will struggle to get even 1 percent of the votes, and their campaign will actually discredit the public campaign in support for R18+ rather than enhance its chances. They [Gamers4Croydon] might do better leading up to the election, but at this stage they’re not doing anything. What’s more, David Doe has to stop taking pleasure in people abusing me.”

Atkinson may have the right to stop Australia from introducing an R18+ rating for games, not allowing adults to play the games targeted for them. But to actually accuse a political party of engaging in “criminal activities and dirty tricks” just because they suddenly become a threat is the equivalent of labelling someone a child abuser. As for G4C getting one percent of the vote, we are confident that G4C will get more than that.

Gamers4Croydon Needs South Australians

Monday, November 16th, 2009

As you may be aware, fledgling Australian political party Gamers4Croydon is taking Michael Atkinson up on his challenge and running a candidate in his electorate of Croydon at the 2010 South Australian general elections. Gamers4Croydon founder David Doe was recently in Croydon to collect signatures, but he still needs at least 50 more South Australians signatures in order to register Gamers4Croydon as a legitimate political party!

If you are enrolled to vote in South Australia, please head over to the site and fill out the membership form.

It doesn’t cost anything to join and will go a long way towards bringing about the change this country needs in its ratings system.

As well as running in Croydon, Gamers4Croydon is aiming to run in other electorates, and even to run at least one candidate for the Legislative Council so that all South Australian gamers can put their votes behind the party at election time.

Even if you’re not registered to vote in South Australia, donations to a registered Australian political party are tax-deductible up to $1500 and every dollar given will go to help Gamers4Croydon succeed in 2010. Please visit the site and do what you can to help out.

Gamers4Croydon launches, AG inboxes flooded

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

Last week, the fledgling political party* Gamers4Croydon launched, with the sole intention of contesting the seat of Croydon (Michael Atkinson’s electorate) at the next state election in South Australia.

As part of their launch, the group set up the “one-click (almost) email your Attorney General”, which provided a pre-written letter to the relevant Attorney General. All that was required of the user was to fill in the relevant personal details.

The site has posted a handful of stock responses from various Attorneys General (not Atkinson, to date).

Mr Barry Collier (Member for Miranda, NSW Legislative Assembly, Australian Labor Party) writes:

It is my understanding that the paper will contain detailed descriptions of the content of various computer games which have been Refused Classification. In order to ensure informed submissions on the issue it is important that people are aware of the kinds of material which may become lawfully available for sale in Australia if an R18+ category were to be introduced for computer games.

Along with the constant hand-balling between state and federal levels, it would appear at this stage that if and when the discussion paper is released, Mr Atkinson will get his wish of a discussion paper full of misinformation, straw-men and very little relevant to the actual issue.

* Gamers4Croydon is not currently recognised as a political party by the State Electoral Commission of South Australia, although official registration and clarification are currently being sought.

R18+ Discussion Paper “Under Consideration”

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

An unofficial response from the Attorney-General’s Department to an enquiry from a Senator’s office reveals that the upcoming discussion paper on the issue of an R18+ rating for video and computer games in Australia is “under consideration”.

Under consideration is public-servant speech for “don’t expect any action on it for a long time”.

The discussion paper represents the best chance of the wider public having their views heard on the issues. Once the discussion paper is released for public consultation organisations and members of the public are invited to make submissions outlining their views and arguements on the matter. As it stands the issue of an R18+ classification is just too small for it to be seriously considered by politicians, particularly with other far larger hot topics such as the economy and the recently reignited immigration debate. Once the discussion paper is released, the state governments will no longer be able to ignore the evidence-based arguments being presented by those in favour of the introduction of an R18+ rating.

The Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (Censorship) first agreed in principle to release a discussion paper in March 2008, however this was then nearly derailed by opposition from South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson later on in the year. He then withdrew his opposition on the matter a few weeks later and the departments agreed to prepare the paper with a view to releasing it in early 2009. After they were unable to come to an agreement at the Standing Committee meeting in April 2009, the federal Attorney-General Department took over. It was then planned to be released by mid-2009 under the Minister for Home Affairs, the Hon Bob Debus – however this, too, was cancelled when the Hon Brendan O’Conner replaced him in June of this year.

Since then there has been no news about it, and the latest response from the department indicates it will be a long while until there is.

Thanks to our anonymous inside tipster for this information.