indiegames
February 5th, 2010, 16:40
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/kotaku/2010/02/atkinson.jpg South Australia 's opposition calls for the firing of Attorney-General Michael Atkinson (http://kotaku.com/tag/michaelatkinson/), the primary reason the country can't give games a R18+ mature rating, after he suggested that a West Croydon citizen was an imaginary plant for the Liberal Party.
In December, Luke Plunkett clarified the R18+ video game ratings mess in Australia (http://kotaku.com/5419298/hey-stop-blaming-the-australian-governmentpeople-for-banning-games) for us, explaining that while five of the six Attorneys-General of the country agree that video games should be allowed mature ratings, the required sixth, Michael Atkinson, did not, fearing that it would make it too easy for children to purchase mature video games.
Now we're given a better idea of what the games industry in Australia is dealing with.
Earlier this week Atkinson made news after repealing controversial internet censorship laws, enacted to ensure that comments on the March 20th election could not be made anonymously or through the use of assumed names. The laws required such comments to include their real name and postcode in such comments, in order to verify their veracity. Non-compliance would result in fines of $1250 for individuals and $5,000 for businesses.
As you can imagine, this didn't go over well.
So the law was repealed, which is good, but then Atkinson went on DMG Radio to explain why the laws were necessary.
"I'll give you an example; repeatedly in the AdelaideNow website one will see commentary from Aaron Fornarino of West Croydon. That person doesn't exist," he said.
"That name has been created by the Liberal Party in order to run Liberal Party commentary."
Aaron Fornarino, it turns out, is a real person, living only a couple hundred meters from Atkinson's office.
Paranoid much?
So now South Australia's Opposition is calling for his removal from office, asking that Premier Mike Rann terminate the Attorney-General for breach of the ministerial code of conduct.
"It is unacceptable for a minister to diminish the reputation of a member of the public, indeed anyone, recklessly or deliberately," Ms Chapman said. "It is not acceptable that the Premier do nothing about this."
Now the actual chances of Michael Atkinson being sacked over this are slim. It's pretty much one of the functions of Australia's Opposition, calling for the termination of elected officials at every turn, but it does give us a clearer picture of the sort of man standing in the way of Australia's R18+ video game ratings, doesn't it?
Opposition calls for the sacking of Attorney-General Michael Atkinson (http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/opposition-calls-for-the-sacking-of-attorney-general-michael-atkinson/story-e6frfku0-1225826810179) [News.Com.Au - Thanks Alex!]
http://ads.pheedo.com/img.phdo?p=1 (http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?p=1) http://a.rfihub.com/eus.gif?eui=2226 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?d=yIl2AUoC8zA</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=iOSNCRiFOLY:bt_IaQaIKMQ:yIl2AUoC8zA) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=iOSNCRiFOLY:bt_IaQaIKMQ:H0mrP-F8Qgo) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?i=iOSNCRiFOLY:bt_IaQaIKMQ:D7DqB2pKExk</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=iOSNCRiFOLY:bt_IaQaIKMQ:D7DqB2pKExk) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?i=iOSNCRiFOLY:bt_IaQaIKMQ:V_sGLiPBpWU</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=iOSNCRiFOLY:bt_IaQaIKMQ:V_sGLiPBpWU)
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/kotaku/full/~4/iOSNCRiFOLY
More... (http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/iOSNCRiFOLY/australias-anti+r18%252B-game-rating-attorney+general-sees-fake-people)
In December, Luke Plunkett clarified the R18+ video game ratings mess in Australia (http://kotaku.com/5419298/hey-stop-blaming-the-australian-governmentpeople-for-banning-games) for us, explaining that while five of the six Attorneys-General of the country agree that video games should be allowed mature ratings, the required sixth, Michael Atkinson, did not, fearing that it would make it too easy for children to purchase mature video games.
Now we're given a better idea of what the games industry in Australia is dealing with.
Earlier this week Atkinson made news after repealing controversial internet censorship laws, enacted to ensure that comments on the March 20th election could not be made anonymously or through the use of assumed names. The laws required such comments to include their real name and postcode in such comments, in order to verify their veracity. Non-compliance would result in fines of $1250 for individuals and $5,000 for businesses.
As you can imagine, this didn't go over well.
So the law was repealed, which is good, but then Atkinson went on DMG Radio to explain why the laws were necessary.
"I'll give you an example; repeatedly in the AdelaideNow website one will see commentary from Aaron Fornarino of West Croydon. That person doesn't exist," he said.
"That name has been created by the Liberal Party in order to run Liberal Party commentary."
Aaron Fornarino, it turns out, is a real person, living only a couple hundred meters from Atkinson's office.
Paranoid much?
So now South Australia's Opposition is calling for his removal from office, asking that Premier Mike Rann terminate the Attorney-General for breach of the ministerial code of conduct.
"It is unacceptable for a minister to diminish the reputation of a member of the public, indeed anyone, recklessly or deliberately," Ms Chapman said. "It is not acceptable that the Premier do nothing about this."
Now the actual chances of Michael Atkinson being sacked over this are slim. It's pretty much one of the functions of Australia's Opposition, calling for the termination of elected officials at every turn, but it does give us a clearer picture of the sort of man standing in the way of Australia's R18+ video game ratings, doesn't it?
Opposition calls for the sacking of Attorney-General Michael Atkinson (http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/opposition-calls-for-the-sacking-of-attorney-general-michael-atkinson/story-e6frfku0-1225826810179) [News.Com.Au - Thanks Alex!]
http://ads.pheedo.com/img.phdo?p=1 (http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?p=1) http://a.rfihub.com/eus.gif?eui=2226 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?d=yIl2AUoC8zA</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=iOSNCRiFOLY:bt_IaQaIKMQ:yIl2AUoC8zA) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?d=H0mrP-F8Qgo</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=iOSNCRiFOLY:bt_IaQaIKMQ:H0mrP-F8Qgo) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?i=iOSNCRiFOLY:bt_IaQaIKMQ:D7DqB2pKExk</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=iOSNCRiFOLY:bt_IaQaIKMQ:D7DqB2pKExk) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/kotaku/full?i=iOSNCRiFOLY:bt_IaQaIKMQ:V_sGLiPBpWU</img> (http://feeds.gawker.com/~ff/kotaku/full?a=iOSNCRiFOLY:bt_IaQaIKMQ:V_sGLiPBpWU)
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/kotaku/full/~4/iOSNCRiFOLY
More... (http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/iOSNCRiFOLY/australias-anti+r18%252B-game-rating-attorney+general-sees-fake-people)