ZDNet Australia Interviews Richard Alston

ynotds writes "ZDNet Australia has an interview with notorious Australian IT Minister Senator Richard Alston which could even be read as suggesting that he, like some others in the Australian government, has learned a little about his portfolio during his 7 years at the helm. He responds openly about his censorhip regime, lack of action against spam and his antipathy towards Electronic Frontiers Australia but refuses to get into details on cyberterrorism response and security expenditure."

Comments

You guys, you guys!

[netsharc]

You know what I just heard? ZDNet Australia has an interview with notorious Australian IT Minister Senator Richard Alston which could even be read as suggesting that he, like some others in the Australian government, has learned a little about his portfolio during his 7 years at the helm. He responds openly about his censorhip regime, lack of action against spam and his antipathy towards Electronic Frontiers Australia but refuses to get into details on cyberterrorism response and security expenditure.

Go read it!

from the article...

[newsdee]

Do you regret making the comments that broadband in Korea is being driven primarily by demand for porn and games?

Has nobody told this guy that porn and games drive demand for the Internet in the whole world?

First they ban porn...

[MavEtJu]

...then they complain about the amount of overseas traffic. Can you add one to one?

Question

[jsse]

like some others in the Australian government, has learned a little about his portfolio during his 7 years at the helm. He responds openly about his censorhip regime, lack of action against spam and his antipathy towards Electronic Frontiers Australia but refuses to get into details on cyberterrorism response and security expenditure.

Out of curiosity, where did you aussies pick up those people to run your Government? Law firms? Car insurance companies?

Microsoft?

Re:Question

[simong_oz]

Out of curiosity, where did you aussies pick up those people to run your Government? Law firms? Car insurance companies?

My first temptation was to mention George Dubya Bush, but I'm not sure if you're american :)

But seriously (!), as an aussie who has spent a fair amount of time overseas, this is quite an interesting point. The attitude of the average australian to politics is hard to define - complete apathy is the closest thing I can think of but that's not quite right either. All I can say is that it's quite different from anywhere else in the world.

(Yes, I do realise I'm generalising and oversimplifying here)

All of the politicians and most of what they stand for are completely hated (that's too strong a word, but it will do). Australians have accepted that they care for nothing more than the next election and protecting their massive superannuation payouts. Whenever a politician speaks, they are just dribbling the same bullshit (read the interview carefully - is any of the questions actually answered?) and lies, and nothing worthwhile is actually going to happen.

Australians seem to realise that no matter who is elected, they will do the same crap job as whoever was in power before. If the same major party is elected they'll do the same crap job, if the other major party is elected they'll spend 3 years undoing what the previous government did and accomplish nothing anyway. There seems to be a genuine feeling that if every poiltician disappeared tomorrow Australia would actually be better off as a country.

The upshot of this attitude to politics is that nobody with the slightest grain of intelligence wants to be a politician, so we get people like Richard Alston. You just have to look at our prime ministers over the years ... ye gods

Re:Question

[poo203]

dude...the same place you get your politicians....the universal pool of slime.....

Re:amazing...

[darkov]

the Australian IT and/or telecommunications industry would be honestly shocked and amazed that Senator Alston even knew what 'spam' was!

He does: "It's what broadband gives you besides games and pornography."

Alston humour

[danny]

For some Alston humour, check out Tapes purporting to originate from a certain government agency and new plans to protect the country's children from bad weather.

More censorship humour.

Danny.

Sheep rhyme for you Australians

[Anonymous Coward]

Mary had a little lamb,
She tied it too a pylon,
10,000 volts went up its bum,
And turned its wool to nylon.