Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) Share this | Hansard source

The Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Amendment (Assessments and Advertising) Bill 2008 amends the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995. These amendments will achieve two important policy initiatives. They will reform the rules around advertising unclassified material and they will change the classification procedures for box sets of episodes of television series broadcast in Australia.

Together with the amendments to the state and territory classification enforcement legislation, this bill will replace the prohibition on advertising unclassified films and computer games with a new scheme which will allow advertising, subject to conditions that will be set out in a new Commonwealth instrument.

The reforms to the existing prohibition on advertising unclassified films and computer games will reform the inequitable exceptions applied to cinema release films and will implement an agreement by the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (Censorship). The censorship ministers’ agreement followed consultation with relevant industry stakeholders and members of the general public. In fact, this consultation included the release of a public discussion paper on the advertising scheme.

The bill will also amend the classification procedures for films which are compilations of episodes of a television series so that an application of such a film will be accompanied by an assessment report that complies with conditions set out in the new Commonwealth instrument.

The bill will include a new requirement that at least one of the episodes in the box set has already been broadcast in Australia. This recognises the reality that not all series that are released for sale are broadcast in full in Australia. It also responds to the practicalities of the marketplace, allowing distributors to obtain a classification while the series is still running on television so that it can be released for sale during or at the end of the broadcast season.

Both of these initiatives are aimed at ensuring that the legitimate producers and distributors of films and box-series television shows can gain rights to the property that they produce. The current system, because of its cumbersome nature, actually prevents legitimate producers and, therefore, all the actors and people involved in these shows, from enjoying the benefits of their work. The current system creates an environment whereby video piracy and other forms of opportunistic behaviour can diminish the value of this important market.

Both of these initiatives are also aimed at limiting the regulatory burden or the cost to industry but still include significant safeguards to maintain the integrity of the classification system. We will seek consistency of advice for consumers and protection of minors from harmful material. While the industry will be encouraged to use self-regulation to allow greater advertising opportunities, the assessors from industry, using either scheme, will have to be both appropriately trained and authorised by a director of the board. The schemes enable the director to impose sanctions for the unacceptable use of schemes, including revoking or suspending an assessor’s status or, in extreme cases, even barring a person from using the scheme for periods of up to three years. So the consequences of self-regulation, if they do not work, are very significant.

The details of the reforms will be contained in legislative instruments rather than in this bill to ensure that those aspects of the National Classification Scheme remain both flexible and responsive.

I believe that the reforms that this bill will achieve are sensible, important and will result in a more streamlined classification system, and I commend the bill to the Committee.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that the bill be reported to the House without amendment.

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