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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2526 ..

CLASSIFICATION (PUBLICATIONS, FILMS AND COMPUTER GAMES)

(ENFORCEMENT) (AMENDMENT) BILL 1996

PRESENTATION SPEECH

The main purpose of this Bill is to allow the Director of the Commonwealth's Classification Board to grant exemptions and to approve organizations under Part VII of the Act.

Under Part VII of the Act, an exemption may be granted in respect of a particular film, publication or computer game. This could be used, for example, to grant ongoing exemptions for educational or scientific films. The Part also provides for the approval of organisations for the purposes of holding film festivals. An approved organisation may then be granted an exemption in order to show an unclassified film at a film festival. This type of exemption would generally be granted where a film is a special interest film that is unlikely to be otherwise exhibited in a commercial setting, or where the film is being previewed at a major festival such as, for example, the Sydney Film Festival.

Prior to the commencement of the Act on 1 January 1996, the power to grant exemptions for film festivals was vested in the Chief Censor by virtue of a delegation made under the, now repealed, Film Classification Act 1971. Exemptions could only be granted to organisations which had been approved by the Commonwealth Minister under the Customs (Cinematograph Films) Regulations of the Commonwealth.

This Bill will carry these arrangements across to the new legislative scheme. This move is consistent with arrangements already in place in Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory.

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