Tuesday, 15 October 2019

In reply to  Mr QUILTY (Northern Victoria) (12 September 2019)

Ms HENNESSY (Altona—Attorney-General, Minister for Workplace Safety):

Victorians have a right to enjoy adult content safely, with the comfort that they will not be exposed to material that is harmful, offensive or demeaning in some way.

In Victoria, adult content is regulated under the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) (Enforcement) Act 1995 (the Classification Act).

The Classification Act forms part of a broader cooperative arrangement between the Commonwealth Government and state and territory governments, taking a national approach to classifying computer games, films and certain publications. This is known as the National Classification Scheme (NCS). The NCS is underpinned by an Intergovernmental Agreement on Censorship, to which Victoria is a party.

Under the NCS, the Commonwealth classifies films, computer games, and certain publications in accordance with the National Classification Code and the classification guidelines.

To complement the NCS, the Victorian Classification Act prohibits the sale, distribution and advertising of unclassified films or films classified as ‘RC’ or ‘X18+’ and places restrictions on how certain classified films can be sold, distributed or advertised.

Victorian legislation supports the NCS by, in effect, requiring films, publications and computer games to be submitted to the Classification Board for classification under Commonwealth legislation.

Any attempts to amend the Victorian legislation outside of the corporative national framework undermines the effectiveness of the NCS in Victoria.

The Victorian Government will continue to support the NCS and does not intend to depart from the national regulatory framework by deregulating adult content.