R18+ fails to pass SCAG meeting

At the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG) meeting today, one abstaining vote on the introduction of an R18+ rating has stalled the issue yet again.

The New South Wales Attorney-General Greg Smith had earlier this week confirmed his intention not to vote for the introduction of the rating as he wished to wait until the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) issued its report on the matter, which is currently in progress.

Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O’Connor has declared his intention to seek ‘other options’ to push the issue through, although specifics about what those are remain scant.

The South Australian Attorney-General Paul Rau hadannounced that if the R18+ rating can be passed at a federal level (so that each state could decide for itself), he intended to fold the MA15+ category into R18+ using a stickering system, a proposal frought with difficulty.

Details on what the next steps are for the much belated normalising of the Australian videogame classification system will be forthcoming soon.

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