It's bizzare. I don't usually post political stuff, so hopefully you'll forgive this indulgence :)
Just yesterday, we hear that our favourite Attorney-General, South Australian AG Michael Atkinson had a law passed saying that nobody would be "allowed" to post comments on South Australian websites without giving their full name and address, and that the first name and postcode needed to be published along with the comment.
From some of his comments, you really get the impression that he's starting to lose his grip on reality:
"The AdelaideNow website is not just a sewer of criminal defamation, it is a sewer of identity theft and fraud."
"You will publish false stories about me, invent things about me to punish me."
So, of course there was an internet backlash. Now, I've only lived in this world for some 30 years, so I don't have the "experience" of people like Mr. Atkinson, but let's be honest here... if you didn't see this coming, you'd have to have your head up your arse.
Then today, we hear that the law will be retroactively repealled (after the election). But still the bizarre comments from Atkinson continue:
"From the feedback we've received... the blogging generation believes that the law supported by all MPs and all political parties is unduly restrictive"
"I miscalculated the strength of feeling among teenagers and people in their 20s who have grown up with the internet and blogging and I underestimated their desire to have as a right the ability to make political commentary in the election period anonymously or under an assumed name."
That first one, he's basically saying "all us politicians are so out-of-touch that we had no idea that this would even register as a blip on the radar!" And as if it's only "teenagers and people in their 20s" - who are all criminals anyway, right Mr. Atkinson? - as if they're the only ones who care about being censored...
There is some evidence that "all MPs" who supported the bill were misled (presumably by Atkinson) into believeing that the laws were not as broad-ranging as they actually were (though you've got to wonder if anybody actually reads what they're voting for?). Says the shadow attorney-general Vickie Chapman:
"He clearly wanted to use this legislation to hunt down any of those who criticised him or the Government and that was made absolutely clear yesterday by his statements and behaviour"
Which seems very much inline with some of the other stuff that Atkinson has been doing over the last few months
This whole thing is really wierd, in my opinion. Atkinson seems to have this bizzare persecution complex... anyway, it'll be interesting to see what happens in March.