Dwell On It » Australia

“In-principle” agreement on R18+ classification could delay R18+ classification indefinitely

Tateru Nino — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 05:36:06 +0000

I know, it seems like the various State Attorneys General coming to an “in-principle” agreement in favour of an R18+ rating for games would be a good thing for… well, actually for getting the rating passed.

However, it actually isn’t and it could delay this repair to the classifications system indefinitely. If the “in-principle” agreement hadn’t been announced, we’d likely have had an R18+ classification in the works by next week. As it is, it is actually looking increasingly doubtful that it will turn up any time soon.

The sleeping giant

Tateru Nino — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 23:43:30 +0000

The Brisbane River. There were huge floods in 1974 and 1975, then the country moved into about 35 years of drought.

Familiar faces

Tateru Nino — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 11:22:42 +0000

Snapped at the GP clinic today, because this has been bugging me for a while:

Do I own it, or what?

Tateru Nino — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:00:31 +0000

Dear Australian judiciary,

If I were to buy a cement mixer, I could turn it into an artwork. I could modify it to act as a washing machine, if I wanted.

The early vote

Tateru Nino — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 07:25:14 +0000

I’ve seen elections where the voters were bored or apathetic. I’ve seen them looking put-out and inconvenienced. Today was the first Australian election where I’ve seen the voters really looking keen.


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Like choosing to be hung or shot

Tateru Nino — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 04:21:35 +0000

I grew up under a 14 year gerrymander, where less than 30% of the vote kept the ruling party in power. Where bulldozers moved out at 3AM to demolish National Heritage sites, so that the land could be sold “for the sum of one dollar” to political cronies. Where police would direct traffic around cranes that were hoisting gaming tables into illegal casinos in the middle of the city centre for all to see.

And yet, I have not been more ashamed of our political process than this current election campaign.


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Teens evade filtering and electronic monitoring

Tateru Nino — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 06:48:58 +0000

A few weeks ago, I was walking the couple of kilometres from home to the mechanic to collect the car. On the way, I wound up walking for a short ways behind a couple of teenage high-school girls, maybe 13, if I’m any judge of these things. One was telling the other about how to trade pornography online without being tripped up by filtering software or school administrators checking network logs.


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The National Broadband Network 2.0

Tateru Nino — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 07:39:35 +0000

Australia’s not-quite-fledgling National Broadband Network which focuses on fibre-to-the-home isn’t actually the first network of its kind in Australia.

Shouting it from the rooftops

Tateru Nino — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 07:45:12 +0000

Nick Ross at ABC’s “The Drum” has this to say on the Australian Mandatory Internet Filter:

“Championed by Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, the $30million+ filter is being sold by Labor as an internet block for child pornography, bestiality and extreme pornography with ‘wide ranging support from the Australian public’ and ‘only minimal opposition against’.
But after a new, lengthy investigation it transpires that virtually none of this is true.”


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A media eclipse

Tateru Nino — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 08:23:40 +0000

As you might or might not be aware Australia has a new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, as we come up to the next general election.

Under the Westminster System, you don’t really vote for a government, per se. You vote for representatives, and then the representatives pick and choose who gets to be the government.


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Conroy and the thunderstick

Tateru Nino — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 08:04:48 +0000

Senator Stephen Conroy, speaking at the launch of National Cyber Security Awareness Day, made a truly woeful slip.

I must hasten to remind you that Conroy is the Australian Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. Why? Because his fumbling prose about the Web is essentially the equivalent of calling a modern military assault rifle “a thunderstick”.

Atkinson’s departure not a green light for Australian R18+ games rating

Tateru Nino — Sun, 09 May 2010 12:37:25 +0000

You might think that the departure of long-serving South Australian Attorney General, Michael Atkinson, would pave a clear path for establishing the long-sought R-rating for games in Australia, right?

Well, it might not exactly be as simple as all that.

Breasts, censorship, orgasms and Australia

Tateru Nino — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:12:46 +0000

According to a press release from The Australian Sex Party (who would, I daresay, like everyone to just plain loosen up a little)… well, we’re going to be talking about some adult material. Let’s put that after the fold.


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Standards

Tateru Nino — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:16:54 +0000

I have an interesting observation. If the Australian Classification Board or the Australian Communications and Media Authority tell me that something might offend me… well, they’ve got a 100% miss-rate so far.

On the other hand, if I want to be offended, I just have to watch a commercial-break on television or (in a pinch) go out and look at a few billboards. You know, those things that they’ve generally okayed as being acceptable.


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Vulnerable adults

Tateru Nino — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:18:45 +0000

As you’re probably aware, Australia doesn’t have an 18+ rating for video games (though it does for other types of media such as films and publications). It’s not a stretch to see why. At the time the legislation was applied to video games, such games were the province of the young, and it is only recently that they’ve grown up, right?

Wrong.

From their inception, video games (particularly computer games) were played by all ages.


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A modest proposition

Tateru Nino — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 04:05:37 +0000

Okay, back on the topic of Australia’s proposed Internet filtering system, which is continuing to move forward. The films V for Vendetta and American Gangster from iTunes are now blocked to those who would purchase them but are a part of the trial system.

Why? Because iTunes requires no more than a valid credit-card payment as a verification method for access to mature content.

Does that sound like anyone we know?

Decision to split Telstra

Tateru Nino — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:26:57 +0000

Telstra, the national telecommunications provider and current commercial Internet backbone provider for Australia is to be broken up.

Rivals, it is said, are cheering. Consumer groups as well. Share prices have crashed, of course. What about Telstra itself? Well, obviously the management isn’t going to be too cheery, but almost everyone I know who actually works for Telstra outside of upper management is having a party.


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PS3 Slim price falls to US$430

Tateru Nino — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:16:55 +0000

You thought it was US$299? Well, that’s what they’re selling it for in the USA, yes. In Australia, the new PS3 is US$430. The original model sold for around US$800.

And you wonder why we don’t buy a whole lot of current-gen consoles.


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Familiar lies

Tateru Nino — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 03:37:51 +0000

Common knowledge isn’t exactly common, or isn’t exactly knowledge. Most of the things that “everyone knows” are generally incorrect.


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Victorian Health Services – an exercise in sheer frustration

Tateru Nino — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:14:28 +0000

Among other things, I’m the full-time carer for two disabled people. And let me tell you, that really doesn’t give you a high opinion of the medical profession, or at least of that part of it that we experience in Melbourne, Victoria.

One patient has at least some effective support from a specialist. That only took most of a decade to achieve. These days, I go with this patient to see everyone. Specialists, general practitioners, the whole lot. Because, on a purely statistical basis, the odds that they’re going to be rubbish are very high – and I’m the one who has to put her back together over the course of the next week.