Strategy Informer  

Finally, the R18+ bill will be going before the Australian Parliament for a vote on the 7th February, which Office of Federal Minister for Home Affairs Jason Clare has confirmed will be going forward. The previous Minister Brendan O'Connor had promised last July that the bill would be voted on in February.

When O'Connor was reassigned late in 2011 to a new office, there was some concern that Clare might take the issue off the table, and the office's silence over the past few months did nothing to quell those fears.

However, Clare's office revealed to GameSpot Australia that the Minister would indeed allow the bill to come up to a vote by the Parliament, as scheduled. "Our plans are to introduce the R18+ Bill in the first session of parliament this year. If it passes the Lower House, it will then go to the Senate for the same process," a representative told the videogame news site.

The process requires the bill to pass through the Lower House with the support of at least two crossbench MPs, which include Rob Oakeshott, Tony Windsor, Andrew Wilkie, Bob Katter, and Adam Bandt. None of the MPs have expressed their voting inclination since the Bill was first revealed.

The second part of the process is the Senate, where the Bill will require the support of either the Coalition or the Greens, both of whom are sympathetic to the R18+ issue. 15 months ago, the Federal Opposition Shadow Attorney-General George Brandis voiced his support of an R18+ rating. The Greens have traditionally showed support for it as well.

Source: GameSpot