Just a note to let everyone know that the Classification (Publications,
Films and Computer Games) Amendment and Charges Bills are due to be debated
in the Senate on the morning of Wednesday the 8th of March.
For those of you who aren't familiar with these Bills, they provide for the
full cost recovery for classification services provided by the OFLC, and are
expected to increase revenue by $2.15 million per annum.
Whilst the Bills claim to be imposing a charge, they in fact seek to impose
a tax under section 55 of the Constitution. The fact that the Government is
seeking to recover the cost of ancillary services by imposing this tax is an
admission on its part that these charges do not, in fact, bear a legally
sufficient relationship to the cost of the actual service provided to
industry: namely the classification of film, publications and computer
games.
Labor believes that it is innapropriate to charge industry for the public
interest functions performed by the OFLC. Classification is a matter of
genuine community and not just public benefit. It is therefore appropriate
that industry meet the cost of classification while Government meets the
cost of the related public interest functions.
The charge regime has been structured so that fees for classifying a
publication, film or computer game are levied on a one off basis. So, for
example, once a game has been classified, all identical copies of the game
are deemed to have been classified.
This has implications for small and independent content producers, who may
only be in a position to distribute limited copies of their product - the
fee is the same as for larger companies, but the increased cost as a
proportion of the overall cost of production is considerable.
Copies of the Bill and Explanatory Memorandum are available at:
http://www.aph.gov.au/legis.htm under the current Bills by title, where the
titles are Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Amendment
Bill 1998, and Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games)
Charges Bill 1998.
For your information, Labor will be opposing the Charges Bill as well as all
of part 2 of the Amendment Bill with the exception of item 32 which
substitutes the new section 91(1).
Melanie Stutsel
Adviser
Office of Senator Kate Lundy
Shadow Minister for Sport, Youth Affairs
and assisting on Information Technology
Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600
(02) 6277 3334
http://www.katelundy.com.au
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