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Australia, like all countries, has rules that restrict or ban the production, sale, and distribution of some creative works, including magazines, movies, television, computer games, web site content, live theatre, music and other forms.
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Currently, Australia's censorship regime is largely the purview of the Office of Film and Literature Classification, a Federal Government body. All feature films, videos, television shows (exempting news, current affairs, and documentaries), computer games, and some magazines (those that contain sexual content) for commercial release are required to be submitted to this body, made up of "community representatives" appointed by the government for two-year (??) terms. Some films (those made for educational or training purposes, for instance) are exempt from classification under certain conditions.
The classification system for visual content is largely standardised for television, videos, and feature films. The current guidelines, which have changed relatively little over the past few years, may be summarised as follows:
Any film that does not meet the above guidelines for any category is "Refused Classification" and the distribution and exhibition of such carries heavy maximum penalties involving, potentially, both fines and jail.
Australian commercial network television screens only G-rated material from 3:30 until 7:30 p.m., up to PG-rated until 8:30 p.m., and only M-rated until 9:30 p.m. R-rated material is never shown on broadcast television in Australia. In practice, Australian television is considerably more relaxed about sex and coarse language than American networks.
Enforcement of classification rules is through an agreement between the Federal and the six state and two territory governments, so the state police would be involved in the arrest and prosecution of anybody violating the classification rules.
All the states actually go further than Commonwealth law requires and (theoretically) ban the sale of X-rated material, though possessing it and ordering it from elsewhere is quite legal. Therefore, all legal sale of X-rated material in Australia occurs by mail order from Canberra in Australian Capital Territory. In practice, it is widely believed that many sex shops carry extensive stocks of X-rated videos illegally; state police have shown no inclination to stop the trade.
Restrictions on the "X" category of videos were tightened in 2000 (including the restrictions on portrayal of fetishes, and of actors who appear to be minors), after failed attempts by the Howard government to ban the category entirely, and then replace it with a new "NVE" category which would have had similar restrictions.
In practice, it is likely that many consumers of material of the banned material simply switched to the Internet to obtain it.
Australia's laws on internet censorship are, theoretically, amongst the most restrictive in the Western world. However, the restrictive nature of the laws has been combined with almost complete disinterest in enforcement from the agencies responsible for doing so. Some of the interesting exceptions include an attempt by then NSW Police Minister Michael Costa to shut down , a case in 2001, involving the US Secret Service that was eventually pleaded out and an attempt by the FBI using the Australian Federal Police to censor a Victorian they alleged was posting threats to the USA.
A collection of both federal and state laws apply, but the most important is the federal legislation which came into effect on January 1, 2000. Under this regime, if a complaint is issued about material "on the internet" the Australian Broadcasting Authority is empowered to examine the material under the guidelines for film and video. If the material would be classified R or X and the site does not have an adult verification system, or would be refused classification, and is hosted in Australia, the ABA is empowered to issue a "takedown notice" under which the material must be removed from the site. If the site is hosted outside Australia, the site is added to a list of banned sites. This list of banned sites is then added to filtering software, which must be offered to all consumers by their Internet Service Providers. Consumers are not required to install such filtering software.
A number (but reputedly very few) takedown notices have been issued to some Australian-hosted websites. According to Electronic Frontiers Australia in at least one documented case, the hosting was merely shifted to a server in the United States, and the DNS records updated so that consumers may never have noticed the change. As far as foreign-hosted content goes, small numbers of complaints have reportedly been issued. Consumer takeup of filtering software has been minimal, and pornography of all kinds remains freely available on the World Wide Web from foreign sites. The Internet outside the World Wide Web also continues unaffected, with Usenet binaries continuing to be hosted locally.
Various state governments have laws that theoretically ban the transmission of any material "unsuitable for minors". They have never been enforced, and in the opinion of EFA are completely unenforceable.
Controversy in the early 1990s over games like DOOM and Mortal Kombat saw the introduction of a classification scheme for video games.
The current scheme features ratings of "G", "G8+", "M", and "MA", which correspond to "G", "PG", "M", and "MA" in the movie classifications.
A few computer games have required modification to be sold in Australia, notably Carmageddon, Duke Nukem, and Grand Theft Auto:Vice City. This has been the subject of complaint in the gaming community, on the basis that there is no reason why adults should not be able to see content in games that they would see in a film. The various governments concerned seem unlikely to change the policy in the short term, however.
In at least some cases, "cracks" reintroducing the modified behaviour or imagery have circulated widely in the gaming community.
See also: Video game controversy
Since 1996 music has also been subject to classification, although unlike film and video games which are regulated by the OFLC, music is mainly self-regulated by ARIA (the Australian Recording Industry Association) and AMRA (the Australian Music Retailers' Association). However in recent times ARIA has tightened these classifications under controversial and bizarre circumstances.
It occurred during 2002 when a small band of Christian pro-censorship lobbyists started a letter-writing campaign to Australia's (then) Attorney-General Daryl Williams. Despite the fact that this group were the only individuals in Australia to officially complain about the content of music (having written a combined total of approximately 50 letters), Williams responded to their concerns and requested ARIA to "review" their classification scheme. The impression was given by the Attorney-General that if a review didn't occur, the government would take matters into their own hands. As a result, ARIA obligingly increased their classification categories from two to three levels.
The categories under the old Classification Sceme were:
The restructured classification scheme was introduced on the 1st April 2003 with the following categories:
Interestingly, as the classifications are self-regulated, only three recordings have been rated Level 3. Two recordings by US rap/R&B artist Khia ? her album Thug Misses and single My Neck, My Back was classified for graphic descriptions of sexual activity, while fellow US rap artist Necro had his album Necro Presents Brutality Part 1 classified for graphic descriptions of violence. As a result, people on both sides of the censorship debate have labelled the new classifications as ridiculous.
An area which the OFLC does have an influence upon music, is in the area of CD/record artwork and published lyrics. US death metal band Cannibal Corpse have had to release their albums in Australia with altered artwork and no printed lyrics, as have Austrian death metal band Pungent Stench, when their notorius album Been Caught Buttering was banned due to the album cover, and imported copies were seized by the Australian Customs Service.
It should be also noted that unlike the United States, satire, and other forms of artistic expression, are not legally protected by Australian law. This was exemplified by Australian industrial/electronica outfit Snog, who were legally not allowed to release their album Third Mall From The Sun in Australia, as the artwork satired the image of McDonald's. However, the band had no legal problems in releasing the album in other countries, including the United States.
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Heated debates about classification occur on occasions, however the outright banning of films is quite rare. Since 1995, a total of five films have been banned, a notable example being Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma. However, starting in 2000 with the film Romance a new crop of "arthouse" films that feature short scenes of actual sex have begun to attract closer scrutiny and in two controversial cases have been banned. The two banned films are Baise-Moi, a French film about two prostitutes who take violent revenge after being raped, and Ken Park, an American film about teenagers that features a scene of autoerotic asphyxiation, amongst other sexually-explicit scenes.
The banning of Ken Park has attracted considerable media attention and political protest. Prominent movie reviewer Margaret Pomeranz, former host of "The Movie Show" on SBS and now host of At the Movies on the ABC network, was arrested (and later cautioned and released) along with several others after attempting to screen what she described as "a wonderful film" at a hall. Copies of the movie, as of July 2003, are circulating widely on various file sharing networks such as Gnutella, and there have been reports of many private screenings. Tom Gleisner, host of The Panel (a prime-time comedy/panel discussion show), openly admitted on the show that he had downloaded and watched the film.
New South Wales Premier Bob Carr has stated that he thinks that the banning of Ken Park and other films is inappropriate, and his Attorney-General, manga.
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