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NEWS: Australia Bans Import, Sales of How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord Omega Anime


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ComicGuy105



Joined: 14 Jan 2023
Posts: 7
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2023 5:23 pm Reply with quote
Stelman257 wrote:
I guess some of you Americans/overseas folks must either be young or just blissfully ignorant to the ways down here ahaha, because yeah this has always been a thing. Our classification board has just kinda always been this way, since the wee days of the early 2000's, nothing new, nothing that'll seriously affect anyone's ability to enjoy stuff as usual. People will import and no, no one will care or fine you if you do.

It used to be pretty bad with video games back in the day, where we didn't legally have an R18+ rating for them for the longest time because they were "for kids". Plus this was the early/mid 2000's, so importing was a lot trickier than just going to Amazon/any online shop and hitting buy now. (most people relied on indie game stores to import it for them!) But then after much petitioning and rallying we finally got one! ...only for the board to keep refusing classification to titles instead of properly using that R18+ rating anyway ahaha. The struggle is eternal.

Oh yo, but we do got good healthcare and it's generally paradise here compared to actual bad parts of the world. Just a lil' reality check.
To be fair to the classification board they are bound by the classification guidelines, which they have no say in. In fact board in the past has actually asked that the guidelines be changed to be less restrictive. Because enforcement of classification rules is handled by the states, any changes to the guidelines has to be agreed upon unanimously by all the attorney generals of each state. The reason it took so long to get R18+ rating for video games was because the South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson refused to support it, and he held out all the way until he retired. Due to how old the code was and all the new forms of media popping up there actually was an audit a few years ago over how the classification System should be changed. Members of the public and different groups we allowed to make submissions over how they think the classification system should work. The classification board even made a submission asking that the new system should be less restrictive. This audit was why that Senator a couple years ago made a whole stink about banning some anime. It was a publicity stunt that he had planned with a Conservative parents group that had already submitted his entire speech to the audit before he even made it. Anyway, the audit was completed and a report was written and then it just sat in a desk for years because the Conservative government at the time probably didn't like its recommendations. We've changed government since then, so hopefully that report might actually get released and those changes might be integrated. So far nothing yet, but we will see.
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Greboruri



Joined: 09 Jul 2003
Posts: 384
Location: QBN, NSW, Australia
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2023 6:18 pm Reply with quote
ComicGuy105 wrote:
This audit was why that Senator a couple years ago made a whole stink about banning some anime. It was a publicity stunt that he had planned with a Conservative parents group that had already submitted his entire speech to the audit before he even made it.

That's not what happened. So SA Best Upper House MP member Connie Bonaros asked for help from two lobby groups in Japan (Human Rights Now and Lighthouse: Center for Human Trafficking Victims) in order to help get child like sex dolls banned from being imported in South Australia. So if you read between the lines in this ABC report, they wanted to apply pressure on the Japanese government by saying, look countries like Australia have banned these titles, therefore we should ban drawn child sexual abuse material in Japan (see the last few paragraphs of the article).

Looking from the outside and not knowing what was going on, the whole campaign was baffling as Bonaros, who is a member for South Australia, targeted a Japanese bookstore chain over a thousand kilometres away in Sydney (Kinokuniya). The light novels and manga targeted by SA Best / Centre Alliance were very specific and designed to fall foul of classicisation laws in order to get Refused Classification. I doubt Senator Griff or Bonaros knew what there titles were. None of it made any sense, unless you knew what was going on behind the scenes.

You'll note that neither Bonaros nor senator Stirling Griff have made mention of anime or manga for nearly two years now. I think the whole thing stinks as Japanese lobby groups should not be interfering with what Australians can watch and read, just in order to ban material in their own country.
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Estoma



Joined: 11 Jan 2019
Posts: 12
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2023 6:37 pm Reply with quote
Pouring one out for you Aussies. Sorry you have to suffer from this idiotic censorship.
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ComicGuy105



Joined: 14 Jan 2023
Posts: 7
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2023 8:15 pm Reply with quote
Greboruri wrote:
ComicGuy105 wrote:
This audit was why that Senator a couple years ago made a whole stink about banning some anime. It was a publicity stunt that he had planned with a Conservative parents group that had already submitted his entire speech to the audit before he even made it.

That's not what happened. So SA Best Upper House MP member Connie Bonaros asked for help from two lobby groups in Japan (Human Rights Now and Lighthouse: Center for Human Trafficking Victims) in order to help get child like sex dolls banned from being imported in South Australia. So if you read between the lines in this ABC report, they wanted to apply pressure on the Japanese government by saying, look countries like Australia have banned these titles, therefore we should ban drawn child sexual abuse material in Japan (see the last few paragraphs of the article).

Looking from the outside and not knowing what was going on, the whole campaign was baffling as Bonaros, who is a member for South Australia, targeted a Japanese bookstore chain over a thousand kilometres away in Sydney (Kinokuniya). The light novels and manga targeted by SA Best / Centre Alliance were very specific and designed to fall foul of classicisation laws in order to get Refused Classification. I doubt Senator Griff or Bonaros knew what there titles were. None of it made any sense, unless you knew what was going on behind the scenes.

You'll note that neither Bonaros nor senator Stirling Griff have made mention of anime or manga for nearly two years now. I think the whole thing stinks as Japanese lobby groups should not be interfering with what Australians can watch and read, just in order to ban material in their own country.
Oh I knew about that. I just didn’t want my response to be too long. But they did also team up with a Conservative parents group to have Stirling Griff‘s speech entered to the audit before he actually the read it to Parliament because the speech was after the submission closing date. I read the submission and saw the disclosure date. It seems that they were using both the parent group and the audit to achieve what you mentioned. It’s also insane that Bonaros flew all the way to Japan to meet with Japanese lobbying groups when she’s only a state senator. I don’t know how she didn’t get in trouble for that. The whole situation is just weird. I’m not even against what that Japanese group was standing for, there is too much child abuse material in Japanese media. But having two Austrian senators lie about the contents of certain anime doesn’t really help the situation. Because the stuff they’re trying get rid of in Japan is is already illegal here in Australia. Lying about what we let into the country doesn’t really help the situation in Japan. It just makes the senators look like idiots. I will say I have no problem with the banning of those dolls. I find the idea of anyone wanting those creepy.
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 6360
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2023 10:29 am Reply with quote
Estoma wrote:
Pouring one out for you Aussies. Sorry you have to suffer from this idiotic censorship.


I can say the same here and I say this as a US citizen that don't like this type of censorship against anime/manga.
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Sat Jan 28, 2023 5:09 pm Reply with quote
Hellsoldier wrote:
Angel M Cazares wrote:
I didn't know that Australia was also run by morons.


Oh trust me, Australia has quite a few Gold, Silver and Bronze medals in the Moron Olympics. On a whole range of topics, too.

Australia (and the UK) have been in the anime-censoring business for a while.
Where do you think the moron's ancesters came from in the first place? Laughing
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varmintx



Joined: 31 Jul 2006
Posts: 1221
Location: Covington, KY
PostPosted: Sat Jan 28, 2023 9:22 pm Reply with quote
Oh, hey, Mohawk52. One of the old guard. Haven't seen a post of yours in a long time. I love, 20 years later, same avatar.

OH GOD, 20 YEARS LATER!
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