NSW AG Doesn’t Want Any Dilution Of The Refused Classification Category, Still Supports R18+ [UPDATE]


We’ve just been on the phone with a representative for Greg Smith, the Attorney General for NSW, to discuss his comments on Seven News last night, and confirm his exact position on R18+.

“The AG doesn’t want any dilution of the Refused Classification category for games, but remains fully committed to an R18+ rating for video games,” said the representative.

We asked why he had stated on Today Tonight that he wanted games like Grand Theft Auto IV banned, a game that was passed as MA15+.

“That was just his reaction after watching the game,” said the rep, “the point is that he wants games with extreme gratuitous violence or gratuitous sexual violence to remain in the Refused Classification category.”

It sounds as though Greg Smith’s idea of an R18+ rating is to simply tack all the criteria of the current MA15+ rating across to a new rating that is R18+ in name only. Worryingly, the rep also stated that the R18+ guidelines are still being “negotiated”. We asked him to confirm whether or not the new guidelines have actually been finalised, and we were told he wasn’t precisely sure as to whether new guidelines had currently been agreed upon, but he would follow up for us.

More news as we get it.

UPDATE: We’ve had it confirmed by a representative of Brendan O’Connor that the updated guidelines for R18+ will be released today. As soon as we get hold of them we’ll update.


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