Australian IT Minister Alston Replaced 122
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!"
hallelujah (Score:5, Insightful)
I for one welcome his replacement.
Re:hallelujah (Score:1, Redundant)
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)
I, for one, give him +1 insightful.
Re:Actually (Score:2)
His replacement doesn't seem to be exciting... (Score:2)
Re:hallelujah (Score:0)
Wishlist (Score:4, Insightful)
* 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:0)
Wrong. There's a reason why Linux has next to no presence in australia, although it does have some following at least.
>More importantly, every Australian business and consumer has suffered from the 1950s attitudes of the present Aussie govt.
Yeah, that's why the Australian economy holds up well while the rest of the world celebrates half-percent growth you retard.
Re:Wishlist (Score:1)
Wrong. There's a reason why Linux has next to no presence in australia, although it does have some following at least.
done a whois on samba.org recently?
Game development company? www.auran.com [auran.com]
Re:Wishlist (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:hallelujah (Score:0)
http://www.linuxiso.org/
Re:hallelujah (Score:3, Funny)
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!
Hallelujah? I'm scared. (Score:0)
I don't want to know. This country scares me.
Not so fast... (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Aussies don't need spam... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Aussies don't need spam... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Aussies don't need spam... (Score:0)
Actually it's the Abo's who have the big ones, or so the Aussie sheilas say...
Only feral aussie sluts would hump abbos -nt- (Score:0)
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Notable Achievements of Alston's (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Notable Achievements of Alston's (Score:5, Informative)
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
Comment removed (Score:1)
Re:Notable Achievements of Alston's (Score:0)
Re:Notable Achievements of Alston's (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Notable Achievements of Alston's (Score:0)
From interviews with him it seemed his general opinion of the internet and communications were that nobody needs any more than a landline supporting a 9600bps modem, and whoever is pushing for more is probably into organised crime and suspicions must be raised as to their intentions.
He's a moron. If he managed something right with his anti-spam policies, then it's an accident.
Actually, he got _one_ right (Score:3, Insightful)
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 because the ground is too hard (Albany) or too salty (Lancelin).
I also fear what would happen with 100Mb door-to-door when the next CodeRed/Nimda/MSBlast goes off. Someone could suck out your entire hard drive in a few minutes. Perhaps in 5 years when hardly anyone's using MS-Windows any more?
Re:Actually, he got _one_ right (Score:1)
Re:Actually, he got _one_ right (Score:2)
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 time that Telstra started rimming their customers.
If they can get you ISDN, they can get you ADSL (Score:2)
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.
Re:Actually, he got _one_ right (Score:1)
Re:Notable Achievements of Alston's (Score:2)
Please mod down the parent. He blatantly copied off Simon Wright.
Re:Notable Achievements of Alston's (Score:1)
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 absolutely no effect whatsoever in making it harder for Australians to access stuff that their government doesn't think they should see.
Unless, of course, you were to argue that the law wasn't passed with the intention of it being useful for anything other than buttering up the conservative Tasmanian Senator Brian Harradine, whose vote the government needed at the time in order to pass a law allowing them to sell off more of Telstra, in which case it was very effective... but who would be that cynical?
Hoo-fucking-ray (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Hoo-fucking-ray (Score:1)
Re:Hoo-fucking-ray (Score:3, Informative)
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 case of Alston he may want to return to the Bar.
I am an OTA (Other-Than-Australian).. (Score:1)
Re:I am an OTA (Other-Than-Australian).. (Score:1)
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 don't ignore our neighbours! (Score:3, Insightful)
Er... oh, you meant the Kiwis...? (-:
Be thankful (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Be thankful (Score:1, Informative)
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-)
Re:Be thankful (Score:1)
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)
Do the Disaster Shuffle baby! (Score:2, Insightful)
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 :)
You Beauty! (Score:2)
Re:You Beauty! (Score:1)
Re:You Beauty! (Score:0)
Re:You Beauty! (Score:2, Informative)
See also, "Gala"
No, you galah! (Score:2)
Alston would be more of a chook - clueless and not particularly pretty. (-:
Re:No, you galah! (Score:1)
Re:You Beauty! (Score:0)
When I was in school when we had swimming I used to go into a cubicle to change. I was always being bullied by what the Americans call "jocks". (We were all jocks being in Scotland). This boy clibmed to the top of the cubicle and looked down on me singing," Percy Pongo hides his drongo!"
He then went on to insist that I must be gay for years after.
The doctor gives me pills.
Re:You Beauty! (Score:1)
Graham
First naming as "World's Biggest Luddite" (Score:3, Informative)
However, I found the original Register article that named Alston as "The World's Biggest Luddite" [theregister.co.uk].
Slashdotted twice in a week (Score:1)
An appropriate tribute... (Score:3, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:1)
Re:An appropriate tribute... (Score:2)
A picture of a bum with a fist coming out of it?
(Apologies to the "Late Show" interviewee who first suggested this as an appropriate Australian flag design - can't get the image out of my head)
Re:An appropriate tribute... (Score:2)
Time to run the goatse guy through the Gimp.
Re:An appropriate tribute... (Score:1)
Re:An appropriate tribute... (Score:1)
Does it come with a $1.2M commission [whirlpool.net.au]?
Communications AND the arts (Score:1, Interesting)
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.
A chance for change? (Score:1)
Dear Mr. Alston... (Score:2)
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 a paltry $500,000
Your sincerly,
Mr. Alstons Back Pocket.
Re:Dear Mr. Alston... (Score:0)
Not a good thing. (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:Not a good thing. (Score:1)
Re:Not a good thing. (Score:1)
Thanks for those links. Very very interesting.
Re:Not a good thing. (Score:3, Informative)
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:0)
I agree. This is a terrible move, and will have a massive negative impact on privacy in Australia.
Re:Not a good thing. (Score:1)
It's been a long day.
Re:Not a good thing. (Score:0, Troll)
* trying to destroy the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
The first step to having equal rights is non discrimination, being a certain race in Australia can make your life easier, dont belive me, go to your local "dole" queue, and tick the box -i do not wish to disclose my race-
# Being the force behind Australia's equivalent of the Patriot Act
Well, we do have to catch up on 1984, but seriously, who watches the watches.. lets wake up.
Refusing to defend a homosexual judge, despite being bound by his position as Attorney General to act as an advocate and protector for the judiciary
If you wathced the news, you would see that there is more to this, than i can explain here.
Refusing to accept UN reports on racism in Australia
Yes, the UN over sensationalised the reports. Dont believe me, live here for 10 years, read it, then make your decision
Lobbying for increased intellectual property rights
I think that was his party decision, and not just his.
Lobbying for laws allowing Australia's spy agency, ASIO, to read domestic emails
No, what he lobbied for was access to eschelon.
Supporting the increase in the rate of phone tapping
I agree with this one, AU has the best phone network in the world, and yet we dont use it for high tech crime fighting, what gives ?
And generally trampling on human rights and civil liberties wherever possible.
Not everything is as simple as it seems.
Yeah but (Score:0)
You're talking to an australian. THE dumbest brand to human to ever exist.
Re:Not a good thing. (Score:2, Informative)
The HREOC is in charge of stopping people from being sacked because a boss does not agree with their political views or sexual preference. It is responsible for stopping sexual harassment in the workplace. Most importantly, it is in charge of protecting free speech. So, you support a totalitarian state, do you? The ASIO Bill gives unparallelled rights to Australia's spy agency to detain anyone for questioning without having to lay charges (and with no right to having a lawyer present). I hope it isn't abused - but it is certainly a worrying prospect. What happened is that Justice Kirby was accused of picking up male prostitutes in his Government-supplied car. It was Darryl Williams' job to stand up for him in his duty as Attorney General. He did not. Darryl Williams was criticised on all sides for this. People are now calling for the role of Attorney General to be redefined, since Williams let politics get in the way of his duty. Justice Kirby is still practicing. I've lived in Australia for 24 years, read the report, and decided that it made some good points. The Australian Government has breached several international agreements in their detention of asylum seekers. Williams refused to answer these specific allegations, instead he dismissed the report entirely. No, it was his. If you read the link I point to, it contains a speech by Darryl Williams stating how he feels intellectual property laws have to be tightened. He attempted to get ASIO's powers increased to allow them to "read unopened domestic emails". Civil liberties groups were up in arms about this at the time. What gives is that the rate of phone tapping has been dramatically increasing under Williams' reign as Attorney General. While it would be nice to think that this is all for crime-fighting, the past actions of Australia's surveillance organisations make this seem a little fanciful. No, it never is. Your unwavering trust that the Government will only ever use it's increased powers to fight crime and help others is truly simple indeed. Personally, whenever I see any government get increased powers of surveillance, or the ability to detain people without charges, I get a chill up my spine. It would be simple to think that these laws are there to protect us, but what happens when they are abused? If Williams had his way, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (or the UN) would not be there to stand up for us.
Re:Not a good thing. (Score:1, Insightful)
Refusing to accept UN reports on racism in Australia
Yes, the UN over sensationalised the reports. Dont believe me, live here for 10 years, read it, then make your decision
I've lived here for thirty years, and I've witnessed a once thriving multicultural society returning to the days of the White Australia Policy. It's fucking scary.
Re:Not a good thing. (Score:5, Informative)
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
Re:Not a good thing. (Score:1)
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...)
Re:Not a good thing. (Score:1)
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 'crimes'. So while the policy is similar, the Americans have had to jump through some hoops.
Us suckers in the Land of OZ don't have a pesky Bill of Rights in our Constitution, so Williams and Co just trampled them by signing into law the demolition of common law (and who knows, maybe democracy?).
Ah well, New Zealand is looking really nice. The Warriors made it to the quarter finals, the All Blacks will probably win the world cup, their Prime Minister doesn't have her tongue in GWB's arse, real estate is cheap and the air is clean. I wonder if they'll have me?
Re:Not a good thing. (Score:1)
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 more of us over there than Kiwis over here, if Howard stays in much longer
Actually the situation is even worse (Score:1)
Re:Actually the situation is even worse (Score:1)
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 his new portfolio with these people in mind.
Re:Actually the situation is even worse (Score:1)
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 borders. I felt perfectly safe from terrorists after the attacks on 11/09/2001, and continue to do so. A far more effective strategy against terrorism would probably have been to distance ourselves from American & British imperialism and align ourselves with the more neutral policies of mainland Europe and the United Nations.
Re:Not a good thing. (Score:1)
Re:Not a good thing. (Score:2)
First dibs on the website redesign (Score:1)
--
0x00
Ding dong the witch is dead? (Score:2)
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 Ziggys gravy train is a hard game to play.
Lucky for me I can ship all this gear over the Tasman sea where the political situation is so messed up.
Re:Ding dong the witch is dead? (Score:0)
Re:Ding dong the witch is dead? (Score:0)
Thank you John Howard (Score:1)
WELOVETHEAUSTRALIANITMINISTER.COM (Score:2)
I had to do it...
gone but not forgotten (Score:1)
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.
What story? (That 'rejected' feeling!!) (Score:1)
OT: Why no Flag (Score:1)
just use the US one (Score:1)
Oh God! (Score:1, Offtopic)
hey! (Score:1)
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.
What the... (Score:1)
WTF?
Re:Next step for the Australians... (Score:0)
You troll (Score:1)
Re:You troll (Score:0)
This is the sort of democracy we have - rule by absolute whim of the Prime Minister.
Re:You troll (Score:2)
This is true, however, gun crime has risen since the introduction of the new laws - not that anyone should have been surprised by that.
Re:Next step for the Australians... (Score:1)
Re:Next step for the Australians... (Score:1)