Despite the fact that Brendan O’Connor claimed we would have an R18+ rating in place before the end of 2011, David Emery, the Manager of Applications at the Classification Branch has claimed that we may be waiting at least two years before we see R18+ games on shelves.
At the Politics of Play debate last night, Emery went into detail on the process required to legislate an adult rating for games, a process so burdened with bureaucracy it led Dr Jeff Brand to claim it was as strong an argument as any for government being removed from dealing with issues of Classification.
“There is legislation that’s been put to Parliament about the changes,” said David Emery. “What happens next is a long process again — it’s probably going to take another couple of years before you’re actually going to get an R18 that you can apply for, like a conventional classification that you have today.
“It’s got to go to Parliament, then there’s changes that have to be made subsequent to that — to the Classification Act — to allow for people who have had a game that has gone to the classification board and been refused classification to then be resubmitted in some form. There also needs to changes made to each state and territories classification act, that needs to go through the exact same process that I’ve just described, except on a state level.
“All of those things take ages,” he continued. “There are lots of delays. The answer is that it’ll probably be another couple of years before we’ll be able to accept an application for an R18 game.”
After the last SCAG meeting, Brendan O’Connor claimed that he had hoped to have an R18+ rating in place by the end of the year, although it is possible he was discussing the revised guidelines, which were discussed at the SCAG Meeting.
But according to Emery said process may take at least two years, and with the entire Classification Board on the verge of what could be seismic shift in its responsibilities, with the Classification Review still in process, this success of this bill could be dependent on a number of outside factors.
Australia will have an R18+ rating — but we may just have to wait a little longer than expected.
UVR
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 9:24 AMand knowing the gov and there love affair with the australian church, it will be 2 freaking years.
Ema Nymton
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 2:33 PMSorry? What does Church have to do with it?
fnarkl
Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 12:11 PMYou can be sorry all you like but the ACL somehow have sway with the Government.
LC
Friday, November 4, 2011 at 7:35 PM^ Truth. Don’t believe him? Check out the major parties stance on voluntary euthanasia, gay marriage, school chaplaincy and Labor’s stance on mandatory internet filtering.
The ACL has both major federal parties in their pocket.
As I’ve been saying for a while now: We will only get r18 games with generational change. I wish it wasn’t the case too, but that just the way it is.
Chuloopa
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 9:35 AMHmmm… after doing a bit of business law last trimester, which also touched on legislation, i actually had a really horrible feeling that something like this could happen.
Changes in legislation is such a horrible and long drawn out process with decisions having to pass through both houses of commonwealth and/or state government. One house the initiating party, the second the house of review.
This can actually be potentially tied up for even longer, especially if one or more parties choose to do everything in their power to counter the proposed changes, adding, removing or adjusting clauses to force it through the same process over and over.
It’s long, boring and very VERY annoying.
Gorzilla
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 9:41 AM“but we may just have to wait a little longer than expected”
Probably should be read as “hoped” then “expected” for those of us who’ve studied basic law and/or observed government in action. (hehe, inaction)
Chazz
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 9:36 AMGood ol’ red tape rears it’s ugly head.
Rigby
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 9:37 AMI agree with Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
Wonko
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 9:41 AMWe prolly get a BF3 game patched to a point that it works before that ;)
Jean-Luc says it all.
Neo-Kaiser
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 9:41 AMLet’s try and get the ball rolling by getting an analysis to research how much money they’ve lost due to a lack of an R rating and how much money they’ve lost due to importing that’s never stopped “illegal” games.
light487
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 9:42 AMHhahahhahahahAHAHAHhAhahahhahha.. <– crazed laughter for a crazy situation.
WiseHacker
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 10:18 AMIf you are going to laugh, get it right!
*Rears head and gives out a laugh that echos far and wide.*
BwuAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! GAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Woods
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 9:43 AM<<<<. That's my not surprised face.
Michael
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 9:44 AMNo need to rush into these things.
Ponton
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 9:47 AMI would have assumed it will just sit on someone’s desk for months at a time…
…like every bit of paperwork.
MrBS
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 10:02 AMI’m shocked! It’s been such a lightning fast paced process so far!!
RobbyM
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 10:12 AMIt just won’t happen, they agreed to make the changes just to shut gamers up but have no intention of doing it. When the 2 years are up, we’ll go back to the old policial game of 1 AG being against the changes (how many elections will be held in the next 24 months?) and the others will shrug and say there is nothing they can do.
Stevorooni
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 10:15 AMNever saw it coming…
RaygunBrown
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 10:17 AMBWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
The Cracks
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 12:50 PMCaptain Capslock strikes again! :P
Zap
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 10:30 AMBefore everyone gets defeatist about this, again, look at the positives.
All states AND the federal government have finally agreed on these changes.
The review board welcomed the changes.
There’s massive documentation about how this will streamline the process for all governments.
However, like with anything, these changes do take a bit of time to draft and get through parliament. It’s not like you can expect any government to say “Well, on our schedule we’re due to debate and pass the bills allowing us to pay teachers/tax other people/do all the things we put forth in the budget – but let’s shelve that and work on this instead”. While a lot of people would like this, if they did it with this issue (which to be honest is a small issue on the grand scale of things), other issues would also treated the same way.
There’s a lot of red tape, but at least there’s PROGRESS.
A change of government federally or state is highly, highly unlikely to just undo all the work and agreements and memorandums that these governments have already signed – it just doesn’t work that way. Also, keep in mind that we have state governments from both sides of politics signing up to these changes, so if one was to be elected and suddenly break ranks, there’d be massive pressure from the national body they represent to pull their heads in.
Besides, this is one guy’s opinion. O’Connor wants this stuff finalised ASAP. I’m sure there’ll be pressure to get it done, get it done right, get the laws written up correctly, and get it done now.
Always keep in mind – the politicians agree with these changes. The ACL might not, but the Governments do. It’ll happen.
Grandmaster B-Funk
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 10:50 AMin a positive outlook, this means i’ll be 19 when the changes happen, so i wont be affected… yaaay…
weresmurf
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 10:54 AMFunk you. Go funk yourself. Get funked. Ah I can’t be bothered… >:\
WHY ARE *YOU* ALLOWED TO BE HAPPY!!!!
weresmurf
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 10:53 AMAnd by this point, GTA5 will be out, with its appropriate censorship and MA15+ rating… the ACL will declare ‘THE R RATING IS A FAILURE!’ and the media will jump on the bandwagon like a bitch in heat. Just watch, it’ll happen.
allanon10101
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 11:09 AMSo we’ve finally got the attorney-generals to stop dragging their feet on the issue only for them to hand the issue over to another group of political red-tape-lovers who will drag their feet for years too.
Can anyone else smell a rat?
Meowgravy
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 11:10 AMHonestly, I dont give a crap anymore.
Zico
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 12:17 PMSeconded
boltronics
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 7:30 PMI gave up caring months ago.
Andy
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 12:45 PMi sayy scrap the entire classification system and allow self classification BUT have penalties if companies deliberately clssify their games in a catagory two low. eg L4d2 as pg then FINE $100,000 + 2 month ban etc problem solved. remove RC have P, PG, M, MA, R and X(explicit/extreme) with MA R and X requiring ID to purcahse.
problem solved companies wouldnt take the risk of classifing their game to low with hte financial penalty as well as the ban period. everyone would play it safe just in case to avoid lossing out.
JokerDies
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 4:35 PMThat takes the cake for the most retarded comment I have ever read on this blog.
thxultra
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 12:53 PMMakes me think The Joker himself is in charge of all this! And, yeah, I dont actually care anymore either – imports ahoy *salutes skull & crossbones*
thorn
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 9:52 PMfucksake this means this will sit on the table untill election comes and still fucking more waiting
Sam Timmins
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 9:53 PMFor fuck’s sake Government, I’ve been TRYING HARD to get the money back from piracy to the Aussie games industry, but you sure as hell make it hard!
So much easier for all of those pirates to just pirate than for you to get a damn classification in gear!
Tempting me to shut down my group as well!
R18 Games Australia:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/110767468939052/
Been posting since roughly 2009-2010. I’ve been invested in this since the 1993 removal of R18 and X18.
Krystal Ruch
Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 8:36 PMBrendan O’Connor was just talking about his ‘hopes’ when he said “in a matter of months.” The Government doesn’t operate on hope.
It is true though; it is a matter of months. A lot of them.
Reece
Tuesday, November 1, 2011 at 11:08 AMI still want to know why the government should have any say with classifications period? I say the board should be run by an independent board. The government can’t make up it’s decisions on gay marriage and asylum seekers what chance in hell does video games have?