Australia

Commonwealth of Australia Australia
Capital		Canberra
Largest city		Sydney
Official language(s)		NoneN2
National language		English (de facto)N2
Currency		Australian dollar

Australia is a country in the southern hemisphere, a neighbour to New Zealand.

The country's OFLC provides the age classification of all media in the country, including Grand Theft Auto releases. The majority of the GTA series is rated MA15+, however some editions of the games have drawn the RC rating ("Refused Classification"). Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was famously re-rated after the Hot Coffee debacle, the OFLC changing its original MA15+ rating to RC. The re-release of San Andreas saw it obtain the the MA15+ rating again, after the Hot Coffee material was edited out. Rockstar produced a different version of Grand Theft Auto IV for retail in the Australian/New Zealand market to meet Australian OFLC MA15+ guidelines -- no blood pools form beneath dead bodies, prostitute 'services' are shown from an obscuring angle (and no options are available), and injury decals are not shown on the protagonist or on NPCs when they are wounded. Copies of the game acquired from online retailers (Steam, Gamestop etc) are the international version of the game, even if downloaded within Australia. The international version of GTA IV was eventually submitted for rating in New Zealand by a retailer, and was passed with an 18+ rating, allowing the uncensored version to be sold there.

Media that receive a "Refused Classification" rating are banned from sale; it is particularly easy for games to receive this rating, as there is no 18+ classification for games. Games which do receive this rating must be edited to meet MA15+ standards to obtain an Australian release.

Note that the OFLC do not decide ratings policy, but merely enforce it -- changes to the classification system, such as providing an 18+ rating for games, must be authorised with a unanimous vote from all state attorneys-general. Attorney General Michael Atkinson of South Australia is the lone dissenting vote regarding an 18+ category for video games.

Australia within the Grand Theft Auto games

In the GTA III Era games, references are made to a war between the United States and Australia. It is first referenced in Grand Theft Auto III when a caller in Chatterbox FM, Colonel James P., talks about his experience in the Australian-American War, which Lazlow claims it did not happen. References appear in later GTA games, usually in Ammu-Nation commercials and radio advertisements. It can be presumed that Australia lost the war -- San Andreas Ammu-Nation promotions mention weapons "from when we whooped Australia's ass".

The GTA IV Era games continues the references to the Australian-American War. A commercial for Babies Overnight adoption service mentions "...an Australian baby, which loves to play war but always loses." On the website "www.ilovetoblow.org", there is also another reference to Australia losing the war.