Why Australia needs an R18+ Rating

So, Left 4 Dead 2 has been cleared for release in Australia on an MA15+ rating. Censored. Fucking OFLC. Zombie dismemberment and decapitation has been removed completely, making killing zombies essentially the same as in the first game.

You all know my stance on an R18+ rating on video games. Not having one (which is the current method in Australia) both:
a) Bans/censors games that are suitable for adults (ie Fallout 3, L4D2), and
b) Causes games not suitable for under 15 year olds to be squashed into the MA15+ rating (ie Fallout 3, GTAIV)
Without such a rating, high profile games such as Fallout 3 (in which specific body parts can be attacked, causing effects such as exploding heads; innocent civilians can be killed) are squashed into the MA15+ category. Interestingly, the game was originally refused classification - the OFLC's main complaint was that the drugs in the game were named after real world drugs - ie pain killer was called 'Morphine'. Drug addiction is also present in the game. Once the names of the drugs were changed, the game was passed.

In addition, GTA IV is a game in which, as you all know, you control a character who is rewarded for completing tasks against the law in the real world. The character can, and is rewarded for, going on grand theft autos, killing cops and civilians, etc. This game is not suitable for undeveloped 15 year olds, however its high-profile nature intimidated the OFLC into passing its release.

Another example is Call of Duty 4, which was given an MA15+ rating. The game is set in the modern era, where you play as both an American and British soldier fighting in various locations around the Middle East and Russia. In this game, the player is engaged in fair warfare - the other side is shooting back. There is no unjustified killing. This game garners its MA rating, as it is not the same unjustified civilian murder as present in Fallout 3 and GTA IV.

Now for Left 4 Dead 2. Set in a fictional city based on New Orleans, four survivors work together to fight off a zombie holocaust caused by a rabies-like pathogen. The zombies are, as zombies do, trying to kill the survivors. New to L4D2 is a feature that really should have been in the first game, melee weapons. This seems to be the cause of the OFLC's objection, but really, if zombies came at you and you had no ammo left and there was a fire axe sitting on the table next to you, what would you do? I'd pick up the axe even if i did have ammo left. And they don't like the dismemberment. This is a feature that's been regularly implemented in games since the last century. When you could blow civilian's heads up in Fallout 3, the OFLC didn't mind. But lopping off a zombie's? They can't allow that.

Don't take this the wrong way. I'm not condemning violence in video games. 99.999% of 16 year old gamers (such as myself) step away from the controller/mouse+keyboard and don't feel like they are still in the game world. If I have just played GTA for a whole day, I don't feel the urge to go on a rampage myself. A gamer always dissociates himself from the world of the game, even if that world is similar to his own. There has been NO - I'll repeat that - NO proven or even evidenced link between a murder and violent video games. Don't believe what the media says - Marilyn Manson didn't contribute towards Columbine, and neither did CounterStrike.

Video games have been known to save lives, however. Paxton Galvanek witnessed an SUV roll on a highway in 2007 - though use of what he had learned on the video game America's Army, he safely extracted two passengers from the smoking car and was able to control heavy bleeding, saving their lifes. Galvanek claimed that he had learned about controlling bleeding from playing the Medic class on team-based shooter "America's Army", a game developed by the US Army as a recruitment tool, often condemned by critics for being overly violent.

So why doesn't our great country have an R18+ rating for video games? I wouldn't even be against R21+, or R25+ (supposedly the age where the brain stops developing). But the fact is, these games are perfectly suitable and safe for people of a mature age. There is no link between video games and violent behaviour.
Our country is going backwards technologically. We are the only first-world country without an R18+ (or equivalent) rating for video games. This, coupled with the Labor Government's planned introduction of a mandatory filter for all Australian internet users, has made our country the "laughing stock of the internet" (a quote I found on a forum somewhere). Is this how we want to be known?