In case anyone is interested in submitting comments for the debate (or "the entire country shouts at a man with his fingers in his ears" as its probably more accurately called), you've only got a day left to submit them
http://www.ag.gov.au/gamesclassification
The submission template on the right has email submission details and the questions you have to answer. They seem to welcome them from all over since they ask for your country as well as other details so feel free to tell them that we look like a joke.
If you do send in comments, post them here so we can see what reasoned and intelligent arguments are being ignored by a reactionary selfish twat. Here's mine:
"I have recently started a small game development venture with a friend and we are working on our first game. It’s not a big game and will be unlikely to set the world on fire but we are proud of what we’re working on and are eager for people to see it. The game features a few scenes with some rather strong content which is essential to the story and to the development of the characters within the game but would probably only be seen in a film that would be rated R. With the current state of the game classification options and even given the non-explicit low detail visual presentation we are using, the nature of the scenes in question may be enough for the game to be refused classification.

We are therefore left with 2 options; the first is to remove the content to eliminate the potential objection and the second is to remove Australia from the potential areas of distribution, neither of these options is desirable. As an artist, I simply cannot compromise my vision based on the opinions of a government body but as an Australian I hate the thought of being unable to contribute to the culture and economy of our country.
Parity of ratings between all types of media is the only reasonable and logical solution that gives people the information they need to make an informed decision and let artists implement their vision."

I sent in my submission its not quite as elegant as your one, but I think it gets the point across.
"Give R rating for games so people can play what they want, otherwise your just a big fat poopy head.
-Lif3 Tim3 Gam3r"
I hope this helps your cause...

Ahh poetic words from the birthplace of the english language...

Swindon?

Sent in my submission.
"To whomever it may concern, I want to penetrate your bodily orifices with sellery. Sincerely, t3chn0g4m3rfr34k"

I wrote in a while back, about the need for a more consistent rating system across various media, explaining that one main point is to shift a lot of the M titles to a high rating, and trying to dispel some of the 'moral panic' (On various panel TV shows back then) that allowing R18 will have Australia swamped with genres like virtual-rape games (Which would be RC regardless).
I'll try dig up the original file to post here.

I am worried that Germany starts doing this aswell.
We still have big oppositions preventing a strict censorship and the Bundesverfassungsgericht which saved our rights several times from the fucked up government we have here now, but it has already began.
If you buy a game over 18, you have to start paying taxes and it also requires a special procedure to get that game, and the chances are high that it will be denied, even if you are 18.
There are already german pages which requires to send you your ID to be accepted to watch 18+ content. And this from a multinational artist site.

Is that Germany's Party for Very Long Words?

*shudders in disgust*
Swindon? I swear you kids don't know you're born these days :-\.
Anyway - submitted my answers and provided the following comments
While you're always going to get people who don't care what their children are doing, as long as they're not making a fuss to disturb them, RESPONSIBLE parents monitor theirs. The same argument extends to what children "buy" or "download" - most parents will sit and play/watch/interact their children's activities. Denying computer games an adult (Restricted/18+) rating is denying YOUR citizens a very useful tool to help them make an informed decision on what to allow or disallow their children. It's also having the side-effect of making your country and government an international laughing stock.
You may censor the internet in your country all you wish, but you can't censor it everywhere else : people are following this "process" and most news sites are not very favourable to Australia.
There's just no reason, short of becoming a dictatorship, in this day and age, that you should not treat your citizens like PEOPLE, instead of CRIMINALS. Your country (along with Germany) is under a large spotlight at the moment, and to be frank, you're failing it.
Treat your citizens with the respect they deserve, get rid of that Michael Atkinson fellow, and implement the R18+ scheme for video games.
Thanks for listening,
EDIT : Bloody quoting system FACEPALM again >.<

No, it's our constitutional court.
I am really thankful that we have them, or else our country would've turned into a Neoliberal dictatorship in less than 2 years.
They prevented the internet surveillance campagne of the internal affairs ministry for example.
Our goverment is now under a coalition of the really conservative and reality disregarding CDU( Christliche Demokratische Union = Christian Democratic Union) and the (neo)liberal ideological FDP(Freie Demokratische Partei= Free Democratic party), which is a really bad combination, even if the heads of both parties are having "sympathies".
Our opposition is not that great either, basically all middle-winged assholes, which lead Germany in financial chaos once they were the "Führers".
The only party I sympathise is the left-winged "Die Linke", the only downside is the oldest members were SED-Members of the Stalinistic DDR.
The other is the rebellious and enlighted "Piratenpartei"(I don't need to explain more ;) but they didn't managed to get into out parlament yet, but will maybe managae that in the next election...
Many voters(who boycotted the elections radically) hesistate to vote them because most believe the bullshit they are supporting child pornography...

Here is my contribution:
Also, it took me quite a while to find the wingding for a checkmark, for the "Should the Australian National Classification Scheme include an R18+ classification category for computer games?" question. When they give the option of emailing the submission in word format, why the hell do they make the template so that it basically cannot be filled out in Word? Idiots... But then, they are obviously not too computer savvy, or this issue would never have existed in the first place.

I just copy-pasta'd the whole shebang into my ISP account email, and then delted the options I didn't want off their lists. A lot easier than applying a drawn, or icon tickmark over their box.

Are non-australians allowed to enter? If so here's my entry:
"Dear Australian PM. Please kindly GTFO our gamez, noob. And STFU.
Kindly speaking,
gamers around the world."

You know, somehow I get the feeling that all the "STFU n00b! U R teh l4mer!" submissions will contribute little of value to the Australian political process. It's fine that you want to get the message across, but that way of doing it will probably hurt the cause much more than it will help it. So much so that I'd say it borders on sabotage. Have some respect for your fellow gamers in Australia, would you?

I was rather hoping they were jokes.
I'm hoping an international perspective will help show just how stupid they're being and not let them get away with it. it won't make a bit of difference really but I can still hope...