Image: Skye Suicide/Flickr (Creative Commons)
The R18+ ratings campaign may have hit one stumbling block in New South Wales with one person threatening to use his power to kill the bill if it is sent through the state’s upper house – the Reverend Fred Nile.
According to The Australian, the deeply devout Christian member is one of two people of the Christian Democrats Party that, alongside with the Shooters and Fishers Party, that hold the balance of power.
It isn’t the first time that Nile used his power for the religious right, threatening to vote down any government bills unless it cancels ethics classes as an alternative to religious instruction classes – so he’s pretty much happy to shove down crazy religious views down the throat of others.
That’s so very Christian-like, isn’t it?
The R18+ classification has been a ten-year process, and while the Australian Christian Lobby has reluctantly agreed, Fred Nile is most likely not going to vote for the proposal. However, those who might fear that it could bring it into jeopardy will most likely be thankful that the Labour Party at least has the majority of seats in the Upper House.
Let’s examine the numbers, shall we? The Upper House in the NSW Parliament has 42 seats – requiring 23 members to let legislation pass. If Labor follows their federal counterparts and approve it (and most likely will), alongside the Coalition Government, then it would have 33 seats – 10 more than required for it to pass. And if the Greens say yes, then that adds 5 more seats – possibly blocking any attempts for them to “veto”.
However, all of that is assuming that Barry O’Farrell, the Premier, will say yes to the proposal. If he says no, then its all over.
So, please, let it pass.
Incidentally, this is the 3,000th post on techgeek.com.au (at the time of writing) – so congrats to us, and sorry for putting something as depressing as this.