Grand Theft Auto IV PC has been rated MA15+ strong violence, sex scenes, coarse language, and drug references by the Australian Classification Office. The PC game is unedited in any way and identical in content to the international version,” a local Rockstar rep said.
This is not a double standard, Rockstar edited the Australian console versions of GTA IV before making their submission to the Australian Classification board. It is likely they just didn’t want to take any chances (they weren’t sure if it would have been refused). The changes they made were based on Rockstar’s own interpretation of the guidelines and they were stricter than they needed to be.
This time around, Rockstar must have been feeling more confident since they submitted the unedited version and luckily it received an MA15+ rating. The cuts Rockstar made to the Australian version of GTA IV on consoles may not have been necessary (it’s impossible to know for sure since the decisions made by the board are often inconsistent and the members of the board may have changed). Hopefully the 360 and PS3 uncut versions will now be legal to sell.
Source: au.gamespot.com