The Australian Government has tabled the Australian Law Reform Commission’s review of the country’s National Classification Scheme.  This is the first major review of Australia’s classification regime by the Australian Law Reform Commission in the past 20 years.
The Attorney-General and Minister for Home Affairs and Justice thanked the President of the Australian Law Reform Commission, Professor Rosalind Croucher, Commissioner in charge of the Inquiry Professor Terry Flew and the team of authors who have worked on the report.
The report makes a number of recommendations, including:

• a new National Classification Scheme and a single agency responsible for this scheme
• reforms relating to classification markings, modifications, time zones and advertising
• a single set of classification categories that apply to all classified media content
• changing the name of the ‘Refused Classification’ category to ‘Prohibited’
• the development of Industry Classification Codes
• legislative changes to provide for the enforcement of classification laws under Commonwealth law.

The report will also be taken into account by the Convergence Review, which is due to submit its own final report to the Government by the end of March.
The review is available from the ALRC’s website: http://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/classification-content-regulation-and-convergent-media-alrc-report-118