Gamers scarier than bikies: Michael Atkinson - Radio Jhatka, Manoranjan Pakka!

Posted on: 2010-02-16

MICHAEL Atkinson says his family is more at risk from angry video gamers than outlaw motorcycle gangs. The South Australian Attorney-General said that a "threatening note from a gamer" was placed under his door early one morning.
"I feel that my family and I are more at risk from gamers than we are from the outlaw motorcycle gangs who also hate me and are running a candidate against me," he said on ABC TV's Good Game last night.
"The outlaw motorcycle gangs haven't been hanging around my doorstop at 2am. A gamer has."
Mr Atkinson was involved in introducing tough new laws to outlaw bikie gangs in South Australia several years ago.
At the time he said politicians and public officials had to put themselves "on the line" to take the gangs on.

The comment on Good Game is the latest volley in a war of words between Mr Atkinson and people who support the introduction of an R18+ rating for video games.

Australia is the only Western country without an adult rating for games. Mr Atkinson has been the most vocal opponent of introducing one and has the power to veto changes to the classification system.

Industry groups say an adult rating would help parents make better decisions about which games are appropriate for children, but Mr Atkinson disagrees. He has previously referred to the campaign as akin to saying: "Give us more cruel sex and extreme violence!"

However the attorney-general's famously colourful rhetoric hasn’t always hit the mark.

In 2004 Mr Atkinson told South Australian Parliament that bikies had used a park barbeque in his electorate to "cook a cat for human consumption".

He was later forced to apologise. The animal was not a cat, the incident happened at another location and bikies weren't involved.

Src - News.com.au