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The Courts Government Technology News

Australian IT Minister Alston Replaced 122

Posted by Hemos from the shuffling-him-out dept.
srouvray writes "The Australian is reporting: In a re-shuffle of the Australian Federal Cabinet, current Communications Minister Richard Alston will be replaced (Alston is going to retire) with Attorney General Darryl Williams. Alston is 'credited' for introducing tough anti-spam laws into parliament... Although it will be interesting to see if Williams will be branded a 'Luddite' as well!"
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Australian IT Minister Alston Replaced More

Australian IT Minister Alston Replaced

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  • hallelujah (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Unominous Coward ( 651680 ) on Monday September 29, 2003 @06:09AM (#7083311)
    Let's not forget that this is the minister who said that broadband was only for games and porn.

    I for one welcome his replacement.

    • Re:hallelujah (Score:1, Redundant)

      by beredon ( 454896 )
      Not to mention rolling out broadband across the country a "costly waste of time".

      I'm glad he's finally gone, but the new guy [law.gov.au] doesn't seem to be much better.

    • Actually (Score:4, Funny)

      by The Tyro ( 247333 ) on Monday September 29, 2003 @06:14AM (#7083331)
      It sounds to me like he's got his finger on the pulse of the geek community (or at least the /. community).

      I, for one, give him +1 insightful.
    • ...but does seem to be (or should I say can hardly help but be?) an improvement. Even if we must work slowly and carefully, at least we can work with him with a reasonable expectation of being taken seriously.

    • Wishlist (Score:4, Insightful)

      by fastdecade ( 179638 ) on Monday September 29, 2003 @06:28AM (#7083382)
      * Stop the Telstra Bulldozer in it's tracks -- support broadband. Canada proves it's possible in a big country
      * Sensible censorship
      * Sensible copyright
      * Serious commitment to anti-spam
      * Keep investing and committing to open source

      Alston's policies have left Australia as an international IT joke. So much local telent, and so many opportunities in the Asian and global markets have gone to waste. More importantly, every Australian business and consumer has suffered from the 1950s attitudes of the present Aussie govt. Step into the 80s guys, the economy is not all agriculture and textiles!

      • Re:Wishlist (Score:2, Insightful)

        by aastanna ( 689180 )
        support broadband. Canada proves it's possible in a big country
        I don't really know about the situation in Australia, but in Canada we have lots of dark fibre stemming from the dot-com bust. It was put in by companies that have since gone bust, and passed around...I worked at sprint for a while and they have lots. I wouldn't want to see that type of thing funded by a government.
    • And *I*, for one, welcome our *new* luddite overlord! :)

      Yeah, it's lame, but I'm so happy right now, I just don't care. I didn't think anything could better the news of Doctor Who returning, but here it is!

    • Not so fast... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by BrokenHalo ( 565198 )
      I cordially despise Alston, but given the record of the current Australian Federal Government, I wouldn't hold out too much hope that his replacement will be any more enlightened.

      I would suggest that this reshuffle is more to deflect criticism of the heavy-handed way in which Alston has attempted to directly influence editorial and policy and journalism in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation over, for example, the Iraq War II.

  • their penises are already big enough (or so I'm told)

  • Notable Achievements of Alston's (Score:5, Interesting)

    by lks_aus ( 700083 ) on Monday September 29, 2003 @06:17AM (#7083342) Homepage
    • Initially dismissing broadband as a gaming platform [slashdot.org]
    • Calling a country-wide broadband rollout a "costly waste of time" [theregister.co.uk]
    • Decreeing that consumers should be kept in the dark [slashdot.org] about their phone line
    • Linking the takeup of broadband to pornography [slashdot.org]
    • Allowing his department to spend $4,000,000 [slashdot.org] on a small and poorly developed website

    • Re:Notable Achievements of Alston's (Score:5, Informative)

      by goonerw ( 99408 ) on Monday September 29, 2003 @06:24AM (#7083371) Homepage
      You may want to fix up your links so that they refer to Whirlpool.net.au rather than the non-existant coldfusion pages on Slashdot.

      Decreeing that consumers should be kept in the dark about their phone line = http://www.whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm?id=765

      Allowing his department to spend $4,000,000 on a small and poorly developed website = http://www.whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm?id=1107

      Linking the takeup of broadband to pornography =
      http://www.whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm?id=956

      Initially dismissing broadband as a gaming platform = http://www.whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm?id=566
    • Now, let's not forget the acceptance of kickbacks from Telstra in the form of a $10,000AU plasma television [smh.com.au].
    • He was objecting to the government paying for a country-wide broadband rollout.

      I personally would greatly enjoy 100 megabits to my door, which could be done quite easily for most towns of about 5,000 or more and would obsolete wired telephones on the day, but while I've seen far worse abuses of it, I think spending tax money is not the way to do this.

      I say "most" because towns like Wyndham are kind of difficult to get the bandwidth to, and quite a few West Aussie towns are difficult to wire for anything b

      • It wasn't the fact that he didn't want the goverment to pay for it, but the fact that he said that broadband was only used for gambling and porn that made him the subject of international mockery.

      • Quoth: "I say "most" because towns like Wyndham are kind of difficult to get the bandwidth to..."

        I live about 20 Km from the Sydney CBD (as the crow flies) and I can see the exchange from my window. But because of Tesltra's pair gain system (aka rim job) I cannot get Broadband. Telstra was prepared to go as low as $80 per month for ISDN capped at 500MB. How nice of them.

        So it is not just the towns in the bush that cannot get broadband. It is also a lot of suburbs that were built after 1996 as that is the
        • ...since their NT1 routers use pretty much the same technology. Here in Perth, you could get the same ISDN (DoV) uncapped [arach.net.au] from ArachNet for $77.00 a month or capped at 1GB [arach.net.au] for $55 a month.

          Wyndham [kalumburu.com] is notoriously difficult to get wires to, is often overcast (bad for satellite) and regularly has weather which is... unkind to antenna towers. Then there's the crocodiles... but despite that I've been told by several unrelated people that it's a nice place to live.

      • No he didn't get anything right. He made wild random guesses and assumptions, and every now and then one turned out ok. The man was dilbert-like incompetent. Or even worse.
    • How about you give your source for those handy links, as you copied them verbatim from the news post at Whirlpool.net.au.

      Please mod down the parent. He blatantly copied off Simon Wright.

    • You're forgetting the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Act 1999 [libertus.net]

      I can't believe that this was taken so seriously by so many people because it is so futile. Basically, the law stipulates that freely serving any content of a nature that would prevent it from being shown on free-to-air TV cannot be hosted in Australia. As anyone who has used the internet for more than a few minutes would know, it doesn't matter where in the world the server you're connecting to is located so this has had ab

  • Hoo-fucking-ray (Score:4, Insightful)

    by The Fanta Menace ( 607612 ) on Monday September 29, 2003 @06:19AM (#7083352) Homepage

    At last, the cretin has gone. And despite the media claiming he left of his own accord, everyone in politics knows that he was pushed, due to his own ineptitude.

    Of course, Williams is just as much of a wanker, and probably won't fix anything.

    • His replacement, who was recently awarded the Australian Privacy Foundation's Australian Big Brother Award for Lifetime Menace to Privacy [privacy.org.au], is currently in Geneva attending a series of meetings. However, a statement released by his office said he was "pleased to have been Attorney-General for the last seven and a half years, and was looking forward to the challenge of a new portfolio". --- Another 7 poor years?

    • Re:Hoo-fucking-ray (Score:3, Informative)

      by TekPolitik ( 147802 )
      despite the media claiming he left of his own accord, everyone in politics knows that he was pushed, due to his own ineptitude.

      Not true. Check his bio [aph.gov.au]. He's 61 now. It's not surprising he didn't want to stay in Parliament much longer. Australian politicians (unlike their American counterparts) tend to retire close to the community retirement age, if not earlier.

      Often a retiring politician will find outside employment in areas such as public speaking, non-executive board membership, diplomacy, or in the

  • .. you insensitive clod!
    • I offer you my condolences. There is no place on the planet to live like Australia.

      No other country can boast the total ineptitude of the current federal government that we can.

      Of course, if you believe in education for the rich only, healthcare if you can afford it, maintainting the technological and social state of the 1960's, international politics that ignore your neighbours... then you will probably disagree...
      • We give the greedier ones copies of The Bush Tucker Book and invite them to exercise with us on our soil, which they consider to be (and name it thus on their maps) theirs. <thwack>

        Er... oh, you meant the Kiwis...? (-:

  • Be thankful (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    After all, the job could of been given to Amanda Vanstone ;)

    • Re:Be thankful (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Who?

      For those of you who are off-shore, Amanda is a happy-go-lucky ignoramus who has not got a single clue about any of the ministries we have had the misfortune of her heading up.

      Of course - I believe in fairness and equality, so my opinions are somewhat 'lefty'... 8-)
      • Amanda is a happy-go-lucky ignoramus who has not got a single clue about any of the ministries we have had the misfortune of her heading up

        That is probably the most charitable description of her that I would come up with.

        The present Cabinet might be best characterised as a bunch of malicious headkickers, and Vanstone is no exception. She is several stages more cretinous than her cronies, though.

    • Re:Be thankful (Score:2, Interesting)

      by bcg ( 322392 )
      I would have gladly laid down the Australian IT industry as a sacrifice rather than see her back in immigration.

  • Alston was a communications disaster, presiding over failed Telstra rollouts/privatizations, 3G rollouts, HDTV rollouts; if it rolled, he screwed it up.

    OTOH, Williams has possibly been the worst Attorney-General in living memory, and he's being replaced by the most embarrassing Immigration Minister of all time so he can replace Alston! This I gotta see.

    Yup, it's the good ol' Disaster Shuffle. Take yer partners for a foot-stomping good time :)

  • I literally cheered when I read the /. headline. Alston is a drongo and we're happy to see the back of him.
  • I just submitted this most excellent news item to /., but spent so much time digging up links to his inglorious past that someone beat me to it.

    However, I found the original Register article that named Alston as "The World's Biggest Luddite" [theregister.co.uk].

  • As mentioned in the article, it was only a few days ago that he was reported here [slashdot.org] as being a "pin-up" boy for anti-spam. Perhaps this was a final good deed to make up for his many earlier sins? Or was it so that the new luddite-in-chief wasn't instantly lynched?

  • An appropriate tribute... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Goonie ( 8651 ) * <robert...merkel@@@benambra...org> on Monday September 29, 2003 @06:51AM (#7083469) Homepage
    I hereby propose a new award be named in honor of the retiring Alston - "The Richard Alston Trophy for the most boneheaded government IT policy decision". Any suggestions for the trophy design?
  • Don't forget about the arts. Alston was more than a luddite.. he was also a cultural retard.

    As an Australian, I am thoroughly embarrased. I'm sure Americans and Britons who don't agree with their elected leaders and associated parties can sympathise.
  • While I am glad to see he has finally gone I'm not sure what real effect it will have. Alston was by far the worst ever Alston communications minister Australia has ever had but his party did not seem to care. As long as they can sell Telstra off they will remain happy. Assuming that the lib's do lose the next election it would take the new government some years to fix the damage caused by Alston.
  • Dear Mr. Alston,

    I head up a medium sized Web Development company that specialises in Govermental website makeovers.

    Attached, please find quotation for website that includes :-

    * 45 Graphics
    * 73 Scans
    * A search function
    * 144 html pages
    * 666 animated gifs
    * Hyperlinks
    * A site map
    * Lots of Pornography & Games to make use of that Broadband we all love !

    I hope you'll agree that the $1,000,000 development costs are very reasonable for such advanced technology.

    We can also offer you a RedHat Linux server at

  • Not a good thing. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Marlor ( 643698 ) on Monday September 29, 2003 @07:16AM (#7083595)
    Oh dear. This is bad news.

    The worst thing you could say about Richard Alston is that he is an incompetent luddite.

    Darryl Williams is much worse. He is cunning and intelligent, but with some truly awful political views.

    He is well-known for:

    trying to destroy [onlineopinion.com.au] the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission

    Being the force behind Australia's equivalent of the Patriot Act [theage.com.au]

    Refusing to defend a homosexual judge [smh.com.au], despite being bound by his position as Attorney General to act as an advocate and protector for the judiciary

    Refusing [bbc.co.uk] to accept UN reports on racism in Australia

    Lobbying for increased intellectual property rights [murdoch.edu.au]

    Lobbying [zdnet.com.au] for laws allowing Australia's spy agency, ASIO, to read domestic emails

    Supporting the increase [news.com.au] in the rate of phone tapping

    And generally trampling on human rights and civil liberties wherever possible.

    This is definately not good news.

    • Thanks for posting .. I don't know much about Williams.
    • So the economic and technology of the IT industry in Australia, at the cost of privacy. Yikes.

      Thanks for those links. Very very interesting.

    • Agreed.

      While Alston may not be as much of a Luddite in his attitudes towards technology, he certinaly appears to present more of a 'danger' to Australian's rights, given his views on censorship and privacy. Only this year, the Australian Privacy Foundation [privacy.org.au] gave him their Big Brother Award for Lifetime Menace to Privacy [privacy.org.au].

      While this award wasn't linked to Williams' views or actions in relation to technology it still doesn't bode well for us Aussies given his new role.

    • Re:Not a good thing. (Score:5, Informative)

      by thirdrock ( 460992 ) on Monday September 29, 2003 @08:15AM (#7083897)
      Being the force behind Australia's equivalent of the Patriot Act

      The ASIO bill was much worse than the Patriot Act. Among other things it
      1. Removed habeus corpus from common law.
      2. Made refusal to give testimony a crime (5 years)
      3. Denial of legal counsel
      4. Denial of ANY counsel (incommunicado)
      5. Strip search without justification
      6. Only avenue of complaint via letter, which you have to give to your interrogators, who will pass it on to the ombudsman (without 'misplacing' it, yeah right ...)

      The press goes on about Guantanomo bay, but at least the Americans had to invent a term 'illegal combatant', and it is still being challenged. With the ASIO bill, we signed 'Guantanomo Bay' into law!

      Now the Govt. can pick you up off the street hold you incommunicado, without counsel, without any rights under common law, and then imprison you for 5 years even if you don't know anything.

      And now we want this nazi motherfucker to be overlording our communications as well, reading our e-mails and listening to our phone calls.Sheesh .... we are so fucked.

      • 1a) Allowed for indefinite detention without charges being laid.

        I know that's sort of implied, just wanted to make it more explicit. (Of course, the Americans seem to have introduced that ploicy too...)
        • 1a) Allowed for indefinite detention without charges being laid.

          I know that's sort of implied, just wanted to make it more explicit. (Of course, the Americans seem to have introduced that ploicy too...)

          Yes, but the Americans have had to use dubious loopholes like 'material witness', which was used to hold Jose Padilla and Maher Hawash, and 'illegal combantant' which I mentioned before.
          Interestingly, Maher(Mike) was threatened with indefinite detention in a military brig if he didn't confess to his 'crime
          • I think the ASIO indefinite detention was actually some sort of eternally renewable 1-month period, but given that they didn't actually have to inform anyone about the person being detained, it's indefinite by any real definition. That part might not have survived the Senate, though...

            The American loopholes do stand a chance of being punished in their courts (if not now, then maybe in the future) as they are clearly designed as Constitutional dodges.

            New Zealand could be good... might end up that there are
    • Phillip Ruddock is the new Attorney-General. As recent news articles state, the reason is to "strengthen the security aspects" of the job. Phillip Ruddock is firstly a favourite of Howard, and once is given a task he will pursue it to the letter no matter who gets hurt in the way, even if they are innocent kids (look at his actions as immigration minister). To say he is dedicated is an understatement. And to wrap up the package he truely absolutely believes that what he is doing is the "good" thing eg.

      • And, what's more, he is extremely popular with most Australians because of the the way he does his job. He was extremely successful at playing to Australian mainstream opinion which says that that refugees claiming to be fleeing from persecution are really scheming "queue-jumpers" who just want to take advantage of us.

        As far as privacy goes, your average Australian seems to think that if you don't have anything to hide, you don't have anything to be worried about, mate! No doubt Ruddock will be managing

      • If he can treat little kids the wa he does because he believes it is the right thing to do and he can't show any weakness, imagine how he's going to treat a "terrorist suspect". I'm sure we're going to end up safer from terrorists. But the collateral damage is likely to be huge.

        The thing is, Australia has never had a terrorist problem. The only Australians killed by acts of terrorism were as targets outside our borders, or as 'collateral damage' in attacks directed against Americans, also outside of our b
    • The problem with democracy - sometimes, you can't vote for a GOOD party.
    • That's what you get for having a country full of convicts...
  • I'm sure the new guy will need his website redesigned. I am going to offer to do it for 50% of what it cost Alston. At $2 million that is a bargain.

    --

    0x00
  • I've currently got enough gear to start a wireless broadband ISP sitting here in my house in Melbourne. I've got two high spots with access points that are installed and ready to go as well as a 10mb uplink.

    I don't have a telecommunications license.
    Thats going to require setting up the right type of company and then paying the 1st $10,000 application fee. Rumors from someone thats just started the 1st years paper work is saying its going to cost $50,000 just to get to the second year.

    Damn cuting into Zi
  • Finally this pratt is no longer in a position to do any more damage to his portfolio. IMHO he has done more to damage telecoms and tech in Australia than any other communications minister in recent history. Good riddance Richard. Get rid of Tony Abbott while you are at it, John.
  • "I tell you now, there is no Linux in Australia! Let them come! We will wash our hands in the blood of the infidel."


    I had to do it...
    • Well done and very funny but sadly the wrong joke. How about:

      We welcome our new IT OverLord!

      The buffoon is gone and now we will see what someone with malice aforethought can do, no more crazy ball, this is going to be knives in the night from here on.

  • I sent in this story a lot earlier than this version, and mine was "rejected". We are told not to get upset when stories are "rejected" but there seems to be an issue here, CmdrTaco! Editorial policy should be consistent! (Okay, I'm not really upset, really, really I'm not... :-)
  • I notice that when a story relating to the US (eg a new policy or achievement ) is posted here, it is accompanied by the US flag. Why no Aussie flag? Couldn't find the graphic?
    • Why no Aussie flag? Couldn't find the graphic?
      Considering current policies, you might as well just use the Stars and Stripes to indicate the Australian government.

  • Oh God! (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by pimpinmonk ( 238443 )
    Attorney General Darryl...
    As I was reading this I thought the next word would be McBride, and I almost fainted. Imagine that man in any sort of political office? "Uh, guys, I got this great plan. Instead of trying to hunt down Saddam, why don't we just sue him unless he pays us $6,999,999.00 for every weapon of mass destruction he has? Yes!!! Brilliant!!!"
  • What is this!? I submitted this story 24 hours ago and it was rejected and now someone else posts it and it's put up?! What my post wasn't good enough was it?!

    btw as I wrote in my post, Daryl Williams isn't exactly the best guy for the job, he wasn't a very good A-G and I don't think he knows anything about Communications and IT.
  • Senator Eggleston described Senator Alston as the
    greatest communications minister Australia had ever had, saying that during his term as communications minister the nation had seen great improvement in telecommunications services, particularly in rural Australia.

    WTF?

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