Cinemas say "tell someone who cares"

For months now I have been complaining about the inability of one particular cinema chain to adhere to federal regulations in relation to the screening of cinema trailers - in short the regulations say that a cinema can not exhibit a trailer for a movie classified higher than the feature film.

After a swag of infringements culminating in April with the screening of a trailer for the M Classified And then She Found Me during the G Classified bible Film The 10 Commandments was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I sent four letters of complaint on April 28 - 29

• To Kevin Rudd as the Federal Member in the electorate where the offences took place;
  
• Wayne Swan my Federal MP,
  
• the Federal Attorney General's office as the regulator


• and the cinema owner.

The replies arrived are in

• Kevin Rudd referred me to Wayne Swan


• Wayne Swan referred me to the Australian Communications and Media Authority
  
• The Federal Attorney General's office referred me to the Queensland Department of Justice and Attorney General and Office of Fair Trading (while stating that the cinema chain had been contacted and reminded of its responsibilities)


• And my favourite was from the cinema owner who said "it would please me if you went to other cinemas" He also insists "We can place a PG trailer on a G rated film" Really?
  He must be reading a different code from me

I suggest that he looks at the relevant section of the act displayed at Classification.gov.au
It says "Restrictions for screening trailersFilm advertising (eg trailers) for a classified film can only be publicly exhibited with a feature film of the same or higher classification. That is:
Film advertising for G films can be screened with all films
Film advertising for PG films can only be screened with PG, M, MA 15+ or R 18+ films
Film advertising for M films can only be screened with M, MA 15+ or R 18+ films
Film advertising for MA 15+ films can only be screened with MA 15+ or R 18+ films
Film advertising for R 18+ films can only be screened with R 18+ or X18+ films.
Film advertising for X 18+ films can only be screened with X 18+ films (only in ACT and NT)."

Further he claims the reason the trailers may be wrongly screened is because there is often little time between the classification and when the film is shown. That would be a defensible position if only it stacked up.

In the 11 documented cases I presented him with, the time elapsed between when the film was classified and when the trailer was shown were as follows: 81 days, 50 days, 2 days, 57 days , 36 days, 110 days, 38 days, 45 days, 41 days, 45 days and 52 days. Two days might be a reasonable excuse but with all of the others in excess of a month, I don't think so.

It may please the owner if I went somewhere else but it's not going to happen. It would please me if he did the right thing and with a whole new set of contacts thanks to the buck-passing of those meant to enforce Federal Government policy it's game on.