The Boys from Brisbane

Australia to make online gambling illegal
This man must be the biggest luddite in history

A good response from Australian readers to our stories on attempts to curtail onlie gambling down under. John O'Meara fears for the future:

What hope does Australia have when we have Ministers such as Alston running our Information Economy or should I say ruining our Information Economy. First of all he single handedly banned Australian ISP's from hosting Porn sites, as a fix to limiting children accessing porn, it took the porn industry just 24 hours to relocate their sites to the US and sidestep his brilliantly naive plan, and now we see him putting limitations on internet gambling because of the rampant gambling problem we have in this country.

The view of the vast majority of the Internet industry in Australia, is that we need a change in Ministers as the one we got is nothing short of incompetent and void of any understanding of the information economy. Let's see him or his government put a ban on tax generating poker machines or would that upset a few vested interests!

Twenty years ago we were a nation of farmers and miners and today we are still a nation of farmers and miners and in twenty years time we will still be the same if we can't find suitable political leaders who can map out a 10, 20 and 30 year plan for this country, and if this is the genius that is in charge of our advancement as an information rich economy, then God help us all.

Yes indeedy. But this Luddite philosophy didn't just fall from the sky. Alston must have got his opinions somehow. Francis Decena reckons she knows:

Nice article. Pretty much confirms what my friends and I have thought about the learned Senator for a while now.

We always thought he has the look of an SS Officer about him....

Ah, that would explain it. Sort of 'Boys from Brisbane' type scenario... Interesting. Then again, maybe it's just what Australia needs. Luke Muphy thinks so:

If you lived in a country of less than 20M people like Australia that also happens to have 20% of the worlds poker machines you might be in a better position to understand Alston's position. Gambling is out of control in Australia, and a recent survey shows that over 90% of the population support moves to put a cap on it. Alston's position is not some evangelical crusade, just an attempt to maintain Australia as a great place to live.

Come off it. To spend an afternoon at the pokies with a stubbie in your hand while the sheila and kids sit outside the pub in the 4-wheel drive is one of Australia's great institutions. If Alston wants to maintain Australia as a great place to live, he should spend his time hunting down and hitting poisonous animals with a big stick. That should keep him of the streets for a while.