Censorship in Australia - History

History

Not only was Lady Chatterley's Lover banned in Australia, but a book describing the British trial, The Trial of Lady Chatterley, was also banned. A copy was smuggled into the country and then published widely. The fallout from this event eventually led to the easing of censorship of books in the country.

The Australian Classification Board was formed in 1970. It is a federal body with the power to rate all films (and, from 1994, videogames). From 1994 to 2005 the ACB was overseen by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC). In 2007, the OFLC was dissolved and the Attorney-General's Department became responsible for the ACB. 1993 saw the introduction of the MA15+ rating to fill in the gap between the M rating and the R18+ rating due to complaints about films such as The Silence of the Lambs being too strong for the M rating (not recommended for younger audiences, though any age is still admitted) but not high enough in impact to be rated R18+ (no one under 18 years of age is admitted).

• Lady Chatterley's Lover trial.
• Censorship of live theatre.
• Gradual relaxation of guidelines.
• The Graham Kennedy crowcall incident.
• Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos screening on air
• The Jackson Jive skit
• Relatively relaxed attitudes of Australian network television relative to the United States but stricter than continental Western Europe