World's biggest luddite strikes again!

Australia's Senator Alston dismisses ADSL

By Kieren McCarthy • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 19th October 2001 14:55 GMT

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The world's biggest luddite, Senator Richard Alston - who unfortunately is also the minister for Communications, Information Technology and The Arts for the Australian government - has struck again.

Not content with outlawing email, gambling and any material ever that is not suitable for children, he has now attacked a plan to roll out broadband Internet access across Oz.

A proposal in the Labour party's policy statement (stolen from the Internet's Industry Association) that all homes should have cable by 2006 has been rubbished by Senator Alston, who called it "a costly waste of time" and "horrendously expensive".

Maybe it is if he has his way - there would be no point in using the Internet in the first place. He then claimed that despite 98 per cent of households in Singapore having a cable connection, only two to three per cent of them have taken it up.

The only reason South Korea uses so much broadband, he continued, is because kids are playing games. "There's no role for government in facilitating that roll-out," he said. "My kids don't need any help in that regard."

This, may we remind you again, is Australia's minister for Communications, Information Technology and The Arts. Proof, were it needed, that Richard Alston retains his crown as Greatest Luddite in the World. Well done Richard. ®