No R18+ decision for Australia expected soon

Game classification remains a thorny issue in Australia, with the lack of an R18+ rating for games resulting in titles such as Dark Sector and Blitz: The League being banned in Australia for extreme violence or inappropriate themes. And while various Australian media outlets are reporting today that a change is soon to come, a decision to introduce an R18+ rating down under still looks like it is months to years away from actually happening.

Some mainstream media in Australia were reporting yesterday that the R18+ rating could soon be introduced for games following the announcement that the R18+ issue would be discussed at the next Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG) meeting to be held on March 28. For an R18+ rating to be introduced, all of Australia's State Attorneys-General and the Federal Minister for Home Affairs would have to agree on the change before it can be passed into law. But a spokesperson for the Home Affairs Minister, Bob Debus, said no decision should be expected to come from the March 28 meeting.

According to the Minister's spokesperson, in a 2005 SCAG meeting it was agreed that the Victorian Government would research the issue of an R18+ rating in Australia further. The SCAG meeting on the March 28, 2008 is simply a chance for that research to be tabled, the spokesperson said.

"Usually those things move pretty slowly at those meetings. It can take years for things to get through. I would imagine Victoria would just present these materials and the states would go away and have another think about it until the next meeting," the spokesperson said.

The lack of an R18+ rating for games in Australia means the highest rating available for a game is MA15+. This essentially restricts any games considered inappropriate for anyone under the age of 15 and makes them illegal to sell in this country. In GameSpot AU's Australian Election feature late last year, then-incoming Labor Government Shadow Attorney-General Joe Ludwig said he did not believe an R18+ rating was necessary for Australian consumers.

"While I understand that many in the community desire the addition of an R18+ rating for video games, the Federal Labor Party does not believe that there are any fundamental problems with the functioning of the classification system in Australia and, as such, we do not currently have any proposals to work with state governments to introduce such additional ratings for video games," he said.

Despite the issue being introduced at the next SCAG meeting, the Home Affairs Minister spokesperson refused to be drawn on whether Labor's position on the R18+ rating had changed. "We'll be examining the decision presented to SCAG," she said.