It’s official: we really REALLY want an R18+ rating

Only live people signed this petition ... it's official!

Remember more than six months ago when the Australian people definitively told the government that we want an R18+ rating for video games?  Well … yeah, they’re still ignoring us.  I guess things like feigning indignation at banks for raising interest rates are more important.

Which is a pity because there’s yet more proof that a hell of a lot of people care a hell of a lot about this issue.  Video game retailer Game and PALGN ran an in-store petition earlier this year that drew even more signatures than the 2005 online petition to ditch the Howard government’s grossly unpopular Workchoices legislation.  No mean feat given this petition involved actual people turning up to an actual store and using an actual pen instead of just clicking a box online.

Of course, all those signatures can be ignored because they’re not from an independent source, right?  Nope, they can’t be – or at least they shouldn’t be.  Super-credible bean-counters BDO have just finished auditing the results and they’ve confirmed that 89,210 people really did sign the petition.

Congratulations to Game and PALGN on this fantastic result and for their great work on this issue.  The earliest we’ll know if we’re getting anywhere will be the Standing Committee of Attourneys-General meeting on December 10th, and while I don’t think anybody’s holding their breath just yet, hopefully this will get us one step closer to an intelligent resolution.  Click here to learn more about what Game and PALGN are doing on this issue and see a copy of the official audit results from BDO.