It’s been a long time coming — today the Federal Minister for Home Affairs, Jason Clare, introduced the R18+ bill in parliament and announced that it is expected to come into effect early 2013.
In his second reading of the R18+ legislation in parliament, Clare said: “This will bring the classification categories for computer games into line with existing categories used to classify films, and make the Australian classification regime more consistent with international standards.”
“This reform has been a long time coming. Agreement to introduce an R18+ category has been reached after ten years of negotiations with the states and territories. Over these ten years the Australian computer game industry has grown–along with the number of Australian computer gamers.”
Clare said that the legislation will first be introduced at a federal level and, if passed, states and territories will follow with their own legislation.
According to GameSpot AU, the bill requires the support of at least two cross-bench MPs to make it through the Lower House. To pass the Senate, the bill will require the support of either the Coalition of the Greens.
[GameSpot]
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