The R18+ legislation has been cleared by the Labor Party and will be introduced in parliament.
Last month, new Federal Minister for Home Affairs Jason Clare announced his intentions to stick to former Federal Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O'Connor's previous plans regarding the introduction of an adult classification for video games in Australia.
Clare stated that he intended to follow O'Connor's decision to introduce the R18+ bill in the February 2012 session of parliament.
It appears that Clare stayed true to this plan, with news today that the R18+ legislation has been cleared by the Federal Parliamentary Caucus of the Australian Labor Party at its meeting in Canberra, and it is now ready to be introduced in parliament.
Federal parliament resumed on February 7. In order for the R18+ bill to be passed through the Lower House (House of Representatives), Clare's office says it requires the support of at least two crossbench MPs. The crossbench MPs are Rob Oakeshott, Tony Windsor, Andrew Wilkie, Bob Katter, and Greens MP Adam Bandt, who have remained silent on their stance over R18+ to date.
To pass through the Senate, the bill will require the support of either the coalition or the Greens, both of which are sympathetic to the R18+ issue; in November 2010, Federal Opposition Shadow Attorney-General George Brandis voiced his sympathy towards the R18+ cause, while the Greens have showed their support in the past.
GameSpot AU will continue to update this story.
Laura Parker is the Associate Editor of GameSpot Australia. She loves adventure games, sparkly stuff, Trivial Pursuit, cake, Master Chief, earthworms, and rhetorical questions. She once stole a sandwich from Peter Molyneux.
Don't get to excited guys. I wouldn't trust these independents one bit, too much power for what they're worth! I might be jumping to conclusions, but i've just got a bad feeling. Let's keep our fingers and everything else crossed though, Happy gaming :)
I'm in Armidale, and I voted for Tony Windsor (the independent). There's a lot of concern about the independents, but the big deciding factor that got Windsor to go with Gillard instead of Abbott was the fact Armidale would get the National Broadband Network, which Abbott couldn't promise. I think he's aware of more technical things than other MP's, so I would be surprised if he didn't support this bill.
I still have a bad feeling about this. I don't really trust the independents. Hopeful that the idiocy will end and we will have consistency though.
I think it's good. The bills finally getting around parliament, so hopefully they'll pass it and let us have R18 games in Australia!
@theclaw135 USA bans tons of stuff, how your government do it is to blacklist banks that give finance or help transaction of the target, and then bank don't want to be blacklisted (target of federal investigation) so they stop business with the target. With no one give finance or unable to receive money from customers, the target closes shop. Self-censorship is worst in USA than anywhere else.
Wow it sure is different for us Americans. Ratings here aren't government backed, and our feds have yet to ban one video game. Ever.
Glad this is happening...sad that games would still be banned under this even with an 18+ rating.
The adult classification for games officially made into legal legislation after passing Senate without amendment; R18+ for games scheduled to come into practice January 1, 2013.
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