Its FINALLY been released, its only been promised as "Soon" since I think february
http://www.ag.gov.au/gamesclassification
Not sure if international submissions would help or just be ignored but Australian members really should send in feedback

Soon is nearly a year. At least it is released now.
The submission template has a "Country of Residence" field. Anyone not from Australia, but are willing to help us out of the dark ages, please consider doing so :)

Look like we might get to play the new AVP after all :D

Mention how we're a joke on the world stage, ideal examples would be the kicking of australians from l4d2 sessions because of our cut version and anything similar
Nah, they'd have to resubmit it for classification even if the classification change happened tomorrow, they're not retroactive

As said elsewhere, I notice they cite Rapelay, then briefly mention CERO (as having an 18 rating), but then also fail to mention a few important facts connected to both:
1 - Porn games such as Rapelay would technically be banned here if the regulator concerned applied the rules established for publications which feature sexual content (primarily, that explicit sexual content should not consist of more than 1/3 the of the total content -- Rapelay by all accounts is only a glorified sex simulator without the accompanying story found in most similar games.
2 - CERO does not regulate pornographic games -- this is apparently handled by the Ethics Organization of Computer Software (but the classification labels used do not identify the regulator and I can find no firm evidence to support who the regulator is).
All CERO ratings clearly identify that they are CERO and use letters to indicate content rating with Z being the "top shelf" restricted content (which usually only gets applied to Western games by the way)
I.e. Assassin's Creed is rated Z (18 or older, must be displayed out of reach of minors) while the Japan made Yakuza series games are rated D (17 or older) despite having the same level of violence (and more sexual gratification).
The ratings on pornographic games simply carry the number 18 and text circling it stating not suitable for people under 18 -- the top shelf restriction also doesn't apply (as that specifically only applies to games with a CERO rating of Z).

Personally, I'd like to see the pornographic games here regulated far better, it might just open up PC gaming to the mainstream public if the current stigma could be removed. not that Capcom and the like would want that =/.
Still my point stands, if the AU government are going to cite a controversial Japanese game (which was never intended for overseas consumption) as an example, they should at least clarify which organization actually handles the related classifications. As it is, they're just aiming to mislead.

Err not really
"Were an R 18+ classification introduced, the RC category would still exist for games with, for example, gratuitous or exploitative depictions of sexual violence, such as the sexual assault simulation game Rapelay."
If anything they're kind of saying that "this sort of shit would be banned regardless of the R18+" rather than "R18+ will teach your children to rape cartoon women"

Considering: 1 -- They are citing a game that they would never have to classify in the first place and 2 -- They are inadvertently giving the impression that CERO allows such games to be sold in the first place. I would say that yes, the point is valid due to the example they are citing.

It is possibly also mentioned as it (rapelay) is one of the main titles political and moral groups like to suggest that if we get R18+, suddenly, Australia will be full of these titles. Somewhat important they let people know this stuff will still be banned, no matter what uninformed comment from person-xyz on a TV panel show tells them.
If it never made the news here, it would likely never of been mentioned at all.
edit: Though I agree on EOCS/CERO mislabelling.
(Appreciate all you feedback via twitter too.)

Also the mention of CERO is like 8 pages away from the mention of rapelay which was, in itself, not identified as japanese in any way. I fail to see how they're even remotely linking them, even by inference
Also, they would have to classify rapelay IF the distributors wanted to sell it here.

As much as this may sound controversial, I think that the government will not ease up on their restrictions at all, and that they will wait for another Martin Bryant style shooting so that they can ban them and further their political agenda. Aussies already went through it once with gun control, and I think this may be the governments way of furthering their argument.
Think about it. They keep the games restricted and censored. Someone goes on a rampage somewhere and they find a restricted title in his possession. At that point, the government can step in and say "See? We told you they were a negative influence" and they can ban them outright.
While I am not privy to the day to day politics in Australia, this is usually the sort of thing that happens again and again in every country regarding any moral panic issue.

Well, at least Aussie government don't spend money on building a F1 Racing Car to promote unity.
Or try to build a crooked bridge.
Or buy shitty submarines and helicopters.
Or blow people up with C4.....whoops.

Hey the collins class is a fine submarine and have you seen the size of the flies we get down this way? it NEEDS a screen door!

In any case, I have to hand it to the criminals there. When they banned guns, they started to get more creative. IIRC, the government banned crossbows since criminals were using them, so they started using machetes to kill people. Back then, a couple of my friends joked that they were soon going to ban pointy sticks.

That even affected art here. The comedians Lano & Woodley had a fucking funny segment on their TV show where one shoots the other with an arrow (look on youtube for Lano & Woodley The Primal Warrior) and they were going to replicate that on one of their live shows but then there was this ban thing...