R18+ Legislation introduced into parliament, law by 2013

Legislation requires two independents to pass Lower House.

The “Debate on the Classification Amendment Bill 2012” has finally been introduced to the federal parliament by the Minister for Home Affairs Jason Clare, who aims to have the law come into effect on the 1st of January 2013. He told parliament that “a lot of Australians are passionate about this reform” and that agreements on the legislation were finally reached after 10 full years of debate. The law will first have to brave the Lower House, where two of the five sitting unaligned will need to vote along with the Gillard Government to send it up to the Senate. The five are Greens representative Adam Brandt as well as the independents Bob Katter, Tony Windsor, Rob Oaskshott and Andrew Wilkie.

Once moved through to the Senate, either Opposition MPs or the Greens will have to support the bill for it to pass. However, this will only comprise the Commonwealth’s legal obligations and separate legislation will have to be passed in every state and territory for the law to take effect. Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare explained this was the major reason behind the 2013 target, as it will take some time for it to move through all these separate legislatures.

When former home minister Brendan O’Conner asked the Australian public about the issue in 2009 with a federal discussion paper, an overwhelming 98.2% of the 58,000 respondents were in favour of the legislation’s amendment.

It will be interesting to see whether publishers go through the hassle of getting their games reclassified, should the law be passed, or whether some games will stay lost to the echoes of time.

Source: Gamespot AU, The Age, ComputerWorld