Michael Atkinson resigns

Published on 21-03-10 at 03:38 PM AEST by

rec

Attachment 6689It's election time in South Australia, and Gamers4Croydon are running against Attorney General Michael Atkinson. For those living under a rock for the past 6 months, this was to contest Atkinson's anti R18+ classification stance, which was forcing adult content into Australia's MA15+ classification, and thus into the hands of 15 year old gamers.

In this period, Atkinson delivered some controversial statements - calling gamers criminals, and more dangerous than biker gangs. It was also revealed that he funded a study claiming that the link between gaming and violence was stronger than the link between smoking and cancer.

Thankfully, his reign of ignorance in a position of such power is over. A number of community members have sent word that Michael Atkinson has abruptly stepped down, citing that it's so he can attend all of his son's soccer matches. I can't help but think there's more to it than that, especially considering the timing - and if there is, whichever person or persons putting pressure on him to call it a day deserves a round of applause.

Attorney-General Michael Atkinson quits front bench [AdelaideNow.com.au]

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Tags: atkinson, classification, r18+

5 Comments

MetalAttack - 21-03-10, 04:24 PM
w00t

Lothar - 21-03-10, 04:58 PM
He has only resigned from the front bench...

Harbinger - 21-03-10, 05:15 PM
Who cares, he's not the attorney general anymore.

ResLo - 21-03-10, 05:39 PM
Harb is right.

He was a bit of a rogue and took stands on several issues (not all gaming related) that were not necessarily the Labor parties policies. Its not like the Premier can be seen to be publicly chastising his own AG. My feeling is that the recent stuff ups have prompted Rann to tell him to hang up his boots.

Whoever takes over will not want to pick up Atkinson's stance on R18+ imo. Thats a topic that can be grabbed with both hands and approved, that way the new AG can be seen to be a progressive thinker etc etc.