NSW AG’s Office: We’re ‘Not Against R18+’, Not ‘Derailing’ The Decision

Yesterday Gamespot reported that NSW were set to “derail” the R18+ decision. We’ve just spoken to a spokesperson for Greg Smith who strongly denied these reports, claiming that the AsG need to look at R18+ “after the ALRC report to make sure this thing is right”.

“Any suggestion that we’re trying to derail the R18+ rating for games is completely untrue,” claimed the spokesperson. “Is a train derailed because it stops at a station? All we’re trying to do is create a situation where we have more certainty for gamers when it comes to classification, instead of rushing into something.

“We’re not against an the R18+ rating for games at all,” he continued, “we just don’t want to rush it through. For example, we don’t agree with what John Rau wants to do either with removing MA15+ – instead of browbeating let’s get a national approach.”

While most of us are keen to get R18+ approved as soon as possible, it seems as though the Attorney-General’s office in NSW is asking for patience. Considering the fact that we are on the cusp of what could be the biggest shake-up of classification in decades, Greg Smith’s office believes that waiting for the broad ALRC report makes more sense than rushing the rating through at July’s SCAG meeting.

“This has been on the agenda for a very long time now – over 10 years now? Waiting a little bit longer to make sure classification is done correctly is not derailing the process – why the rush now? We would just end up with bad policy.

“We understand the determination of gamers to get this thing through, but we need to look at it after the ALRC report to make sure this thing is right.”

Overall, this appears to be good news. Being perfectly honest, expecting an R18+ rating to be passed months before the ALRC report is, and always was, an impossible dream – the best we can hope for at this stage is some sort of consensus in preparation for the final report early next year.

Let’s hope we get that, at the very least, we get that consensus.


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