Ding dong the witch is dead! Or at least no longer AG.

[weemadando]

Attorney-General Michael Atkinson quits front bench
Greg Kelton From: The Advertiser March 21, 2010 12:01pm 219 comments


TROUBLE-plagued Attorney-General Michael Atkinson has fallen on his sword to make way for fresh blood in a new Labor ministry.

He will remain in Parliament until the next election in 2014.

Mr Atkinson said that it would be irresponsible, given the Government's majority of one, to create a by-election in those circumstances.

Mr Atkinson also praised Premier Mike Rann, saying he "prevailed against all the odds and he can stay as Premier for as long as he likes".

"I believe there should be renewal," he said.

" I have had 20 years in Parliament.

"I think there ought to be renewal in the ministry. I think there are talented people on the Labor backbench who deserve a go.

"I don't think we want all the ministry leaving in a bunch about 2014 and so it's important that renewal be staged."

Mr Atkinson said one of the factors in the decision had been wanting to watch his son Johnno play soccer for Woodville-Belgrade.

"He was supposed to play his first game last night at 7pm and like so many times in my time in Parliament I wasn't there," he said. " I am pretty disappointed about that.

"So I resolved that every time Johnno walks on the pitch this year his dad is going to be there even if it embarrasses the hell out of him."

Mr Atkinson said no one had suggested he stand aside. He had started phoning people about it yesterday and had confirmed the decision this morning.

He left at a time when the crime rate was down 33 per cent or 38 per cent depending which measure you use.

"Over eight years we have brought the criminal justice system in SA much closer to society's values," Mr Atkinson said.

Mr Atkinson, who was first elected to Parliament in 1989, made the shock announcement outside a Prospect church just after 10.45am today.

The 51-year-old has been a lightning rod for most of the major problems to have hit Labor in the past two terms.

He has been dogged by a string of controversies - think internet censorship, stashed cash, Ashbourne-Clarke and the senior magistrate defamation case.

He also has attracted national criticism over his refusal to allow an R18+ rating for video games.

His humiliating backflip over internet censorship laws on the night of Februrary 2 came after a furious reaction on AdelaideNow to The Advertiser's exclusive report on the new law.

Earlier that day, Mr Atkinson tried to defend the new law on radio.

He said the new law was necessary because people such as Aaron Fornarino, who regularly posts comments on AdelaideNow, were Liberal Party plants.

But embarrassingly for Mr Atkinson, Mr Fornarino does exist. He lives in a flat on Port Rd, 500m from Mr Atkinson's electorate office.

After the backdown was revealed on AdelaideNow, Premier Mike Rann posted three Twitter messages: "AG has listened. So no debate will be stifled. No political censorship of blogs or online comments whether named or anon."

"All MPs and all parties voted for Electoral law. Hope Libs, Greens, Family First, Independents etc will join us to support repeal."

The attorney-general also took a leading role in the formulation of the Rann Government's controversial anti-bikie laws.

[adam_grif]

Hell, it's about time.

[Zixinus]

I think I heard Yathzee flipping his hat into the air with this.

This is probably good news for many Australian gamers.

[pj1351]

Good start. Now if we can follow it up putting the boot to Stephen Conroy, that'd be even better.

[Stofsk]

There was a massive swing against him in his electorate, lucky for him he was in a very safe Labor seat, otherwise he would have definitely lost it. I don't know now if his seat has just become marginal because of the weekend's election, but it was clear people in his own electorate weren't keen on him and should he have continued on he would have faced a tough battle in the next election.

I see this as welcome news. Better if he had lost his seat or if Labor had lost outright, but we can't get everything in life.

[Ritterin Sophia]

I'm glad you're all stoked and all, but can you guys explain what relevance this has to G&C to this ignorant American?

[Darksider]

I think this was the dickhead who kept getting AO rated games refused from classification by the Aussie ratings system, therefore requiring aussies to import them from elswhere, buy pussified versions, or go without.

I recall both Stark and ando basically saying it was because of one annoying asshole AG that the classification system couldn't get changed. This might be him

[General Zod]

I think this was the dickhead who kept getting AO rated games refused from classification by the Aussie ratings system, therefore requiring aussies to import them from elswhere, buy pussified versions, or go without.

I recall both Stark and ando basically saying it was because of one annoying asshole AG that the classification system couldn't get changed. This might be him

It is.

[GuppyShark]

Atkinson's antics went beyond 18+ ratings for games - he forced segregation of 18+ DVDs including many classics, and the real nail in the coffin was passing and holding to a law requiring all online political commentary to include names and addresses, so he could sue people who said things he didn't like.

[Darksider]

Wait a minute. This guy wanted to pass a law that let him sue people who talked shit about him on the internet?

He must have the tiniest balls on earth.

[Twoyboy]

Wait a minute. This guy wanted to pass a law that let him sue people who talked shit about him on the internet?

He must have the tiniest balls on earth.

He tried to introduce it under the guise that the Libs would be flooding the forums and news sites with posts from fake "concerned citizens" about the ALP. He even chose an example of a post that was made by an obvious Liberal pseudonym... except the guy happened to:
a) be real
b) live in his electorate
c) have been in his office in the last few weeks getting a stat-dec notorised or something.

He's a real clown.

[General Zod]

Wait a minute. This guy wanted to pass a law that let him sue people who talked shit about him on the internet?

He must have the tiniest balls on earth.

He tried to introduce it under the guise that the Libs would be flooding the forums and news sites with posts from fake "concerned citizens" about the ALP. He even chose an example of a post that was made by an obvious Liberal pseudonym... except the guy happened to:
a) be real
b) live in his electorate
c) have been in his office in the last few weeks getting a stat-dec notorised or something.

He's a real clown.

more specifically

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."

[Thanas]

Moving this to an appropriate forum.

[Molyneux]

Long-overdue. I can only hope that this helps improve the lot of gamers in Australia - and that this schmuck goes on to fall into a vat of eucalyptus-scented shampoo and be eaten by a rabid koala.

[Archaic`]

Considering the demographics of his seat, I have to say, that swing is massive, and unlikely to be the result of gamer action alone (though the Gamers 4 Croydon party did pick up something like 4% of the vote). Very glad to see him resign from the front bench nevertheless, just concerned that the next schmuck is going to have the same kind of backward views as this guy did.