R18+ games will not be sold in Queensland, Australia, until after Feb. 7, 2013

The Australian state of Queensland will not implement an R18+ rating for video games until after it hears the result of a Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee report — due Feb. 7, 2013 — after which it will debate the legislation in parliament before amending the state's law governing the sale of R18+ games, GameSpot Australia reports.

All Australian states are meant to pass legislation to govern the regulation of the R18+ video games by Jan. 1, 2013, but last week the Queensland government announced that it would not be meeting this deadline. Instead, the Queensland government said that the legislation would undergo a review; the results of which will not be available until Feb. 7, 2013.

A spokesperson for the Australian Classification Board said at the time that Queensland's delay meant that R18+ video games could go on sale in the state from Jan. 1, 2013, free of restrictions and regulation until the state passes its own legislation. However, today a spokesperson for the Queensland Attorney-General Jarrod Blejie told GameSpot AU that without the passing of state-level legislation, R18+ video games will still be defined as "objectionable" in the state of Queensland, which means they will not be able to be displayed or sold by retailers.

A statement from the Attorney-General's office obtain by GameSpot AU reads:

Between January 1, 2013 and when the Bill passes in Queensland, R18+ computer games will continue to be caught by the definition of 'objectionable computer games' under the Classification of Computer Games and Images Act 1995.

This means R18+ computer games cannot be publicly demonstrated, made or sold until the law is amended in Queensland.

All other Australian states and territories have passed R18+ legislation.