South Australia’s ex Attorney-General (man, it feels good to say that) Michael Atkinson has won the recent election, before promptly stepping down from the front bench. He will stay in parliament until 2014, but has no more say over our classification scheme for video games.
Citing family reasons, Atkinson made the announcement outside of a Prospect church, reports Adelaide Now:
“[My son]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.”
While Atkinson says there was no suggestion for him to step down, a series of events has kept him in the spotlight for the later part of his 20+ years on the job. His veto power on an R18+ rating for games we all know well – but certainly his recent fumble over internet censorship didn’t help his image of not understanding digital culture, as he is currently suffering a -11.6% swing. With 64.5% of the vote though, his position was still a strong one. At the time of writing, 74.4% of votes have been counted.
Pro R18+ party Gamers4Croydon may not have taken any spoils of war with their 3.7% of the Croydon vote, but still managed to edge out the Democrats and Family First Party, with 2.5% and 3.2%, respectively.
Supporters of Atkinson may feel they aren’t getting the man they voted for, while gamers will undoubtedly take advantage of recent organisation to try and influence the new Attorney-General ahead of the Standing Committee’s meeting on the 29th of April, which may or may not discuss the proposed R18+ rating for video games seriously.
Gamespot AU has been in contact with the AG’s office, who have said the new Attorney-General will be decided “in a week or two.” Atkinson’s views on our rating system were his own, not the Labor party’s, so shall we all raise a glass in hope of the new Attorney-General playing Counter-Strike on the weekends?
Adam O'Neill
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 9:58 AM64.5% is EMBARRASSINGLY low for a blue ribbon seat, especially given that that includes preferences (yes Tycho, the Greens ALWAYS give their preferences to the ALP, that’s why you should always vote below the line).
As for G4C, just wow, I’d hoped but never thought they’d do that well. I’m thoroughly impressed.
James
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 2:06 PMThere is no line with lower house elections. You number all candidates in this case.
SA does have a facility to let you number a single box, and have them distributed according to the candidate’s wishes, but such votes are not counted until afterwards. From the initial counts, you can be fairly certain that most of the people voting Greens really do prefer Labor to Liberal.
Marathon
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 11:16 AMWas some great news yesterday. Fingers crossed his replacement will be a bit more open minded. Probably the only ray of sunshine for me. (Freak rainstorm – From Perth :P )
Khanh Le
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 4:50 PMAbosultely delighted at this news, if the new AG were to be as simple minded as Atkinson, well..we’ll make him fear us as much as he does bikies :D
John Oestmann
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 7:57 PMSo he didn’t resign because he was terrified of the gamers who were sending him death threats then?
Marty Luther
Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 10:22 PM‘Jungy out’