Presentation as ALRC Commissioner to Knowledge/Culture/Social Change conference, University of Western Sydney, 7 November 2011

1. Rethinking Regulatory Design: the Australian National Classification Scheme Review Professor Terry Flew Australian Law Reform Commission Digital humanities, digital media, digital society panel Knowledge/Culture/Social Change Conference, Centre for Cultural Research, University of Western Sydney, 7 November, 2011

3. Challenges

4. Neo-liberalisation of media and cultural policy? Media and cultural policy pre-neo-liberalism Media and cultural policy post-neo-liberalism Nation-states Global markets State-subsidized cultural organizations Commercial convergent enterprises Policy as servicing citizen interests Policy as serving industry interests Commitment to the public good Commitment to ‘wealth creation’ Multi-disciplinary socio-cultural projects Primary focus on economics and market development objectives Cultural policy studies Creative industries

8. Leximancer analysis of all 2,452 submissions Games: 98% connectivity 49% relevance

11. Q1: a new framework? Games: 30% relevance

12. Q2: primary objectives of an NCS Games: 100% relevance R18: 36% relevance

13. Access to what content, if any, should be entirely prohibited online (Q24)? None: 13% connectivity No content; 19% relevance

14. Does the current scope of the Refused Classification (RC) category reflect the content that should be prohibited online (Q25)? Broad: 68% likelihood Scope: 47% likelihood Current: 42% likelihood Games: 44% likelihood No: 33% connectivity Ye: 2% connectivity

16. Smarter Policy Policy Instrument Advantages Disadvantages Direct government regulation (‘command-and-control’ regulation) Legal certainty; enforcement provisions Knowledge gaps; costs; time; non-compliance Self-regulation, co-regulation and quasi-regulation Flexibility; industry knowledge; buy-in; scope to raise standards Risk of tokenism; govt. avoidance of issues; barriers to entry Voluntarism Motivated participation Difficult to target outcomes; interest over time Education and Information Low administrative burden; low cost Private/public interest tensions Economic instruments Behavioural influence; incentives; scope for innovation; flexibility Costs to govt.; inequitable impact; determining outcomes

19. Verticals and horizontals