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Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

digitalrightswatch.org.au

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Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#261

Post by kylebyproxy »

dane-pgp wrote: post #206
kylebyproxy wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compulsory voting in an unengaged populace can only serve to lower signal-to-noise ratio. How many times do we need to relearn "garbage in, garbage out"? The responsible ballot choice when uninformed is "abstain". AFAIA, Australia doesn't provide that option. Also, the intransigent moderates you mentioned create inertia biased toward status quo and inhibits appropriate policy action and change (see e.g. the slow-movi…

> AFAIA, Australia doesn't provide that option. To be precise, there isn't a specific "Abstain" option on the ballot paper, but it is perfectly legal to leave the ballot blank. After all, if they could trace blank ballots back to the voter to punish them, it wouldn't be a secret ballot. For context, "informal votes" (i.e. those votes which are rejected at the counting stage) have typically accounted for less than 5%…

Ooo that's interesting! I stand educated; thanks for sharing that.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#262

Post by cletus »

BrissyCoder wrote: post #227
cletus wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I'm Australian but from the part no one ever visits (ie Perth). I say this because for most visitors Australia = Sydney, maybe Melbourne. Anyway, I've gone to live overseas a couple of times now. The most recent time was to the US 11 years ago. I'm still here. As many problems as the US has, the one big selling point it has is career opportunities and earning potential as a software engineer. Like... it doesn't ev…

I mostly agree with everything here but will point out that SE salaries have risen quite dramatically over the past 10 years in Aus. If you are a (genuinely) senior engineer you should be on $170k+. In a place like Brisbane (if you can handle the summers) that's a reasonably liveable salary. But yeah - I fear it's going to end up like the rest of the country fairly quickly... One of my major gripes is that education…

The central premise of musical chairs is that there are less chairs than people but every round everyone gets an opportunity to get a seat.

So in my analogy, the last round ended in Sydney in 1978 meaning if you weren't sitting then then you didn't get another chance at a seat.

I remember seeing property shows in the 2000s and there'd be a young couple in their mid-20s with a baby looking at houses that were up to $800K. You'd really need to be earning $200k+ then to afford that or, more realistically, $250k+. Not a lot of jobs in Australia (even Sydney) paid that then (and still don't for the record).

So how were such people affording houses? The Mum and Dad Bank is how. Their parents who were sitting down in 1970s were now sitting on considerable unrealized property wealth and this gets passed along to the children.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#263

Post by 0xdeadb00f »

cottsak wrote: post #114
glenngillen wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't vote on every bill, we vote on preferred parties every 3 years. It's still a predominantly 2-party dominated system though, and there's basically zero difference between the two on issues like this.

This is an important point. How do we vote for and elect representatives in sufficient quantities that will throw out privacy and security overreaches like this? Very few of the representatives in both houses will understand the technical means, underpinnings, and exploit and overreach potential of these bills because they simply don't understand the technology in the middle. All a party/member needs to do is draft t…

My theory is none of the parties object to it because its in both their interests to pass it. Labour or Liberal, both do not care about privacy or "digital rights", because it benefits them to spy on citizens.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#264

Post by brokenmachine »

exporectomy wrote: post #209
lumost wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

`It really feels sometimes that the only thing the average Australian cares about is the price of their property portfolio.` If this is the only accessible form of financial gain - why wouldn't they? I strongly suspect that in order to have a dynamic economy a weak housing market is a pre-requisite. Given the choice it's much easier to plunk money down in a house and watch cash magically appear than it is to start a…

Not in Australia but it's been kind of an insult to see my house earning more than the top tax bracket income I've been making from my one-man business for the past 3 years. Sometimes I wonder what the point of trying to earn money with work is. Of course it won't last, but it has a psychological demotivating effect.

Imagine how psychologically demotivated you would feel if you didn't have the property...

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#265

Post by racnid »

OneEyedRobot wrote: post #219
wsc981 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ultimately what is one supposed to do in a democracy (never mind Australia for a moment) when you’re just not part of the majority opinion on something? I think the only option is to emigrate. I didn’t and still don’t agree with most of the government policies in The Netherlands (regarding immigration, climate, EU, etc), but most Dutch voters apparently do. Eventually the best option is just to cut your losses and…

>I think the only option is to emigrate. In spite of the tendency for part of the US electorate to wish to federalize all government functions, there's still a lot of difference between US states. That seems to work out pretty well. It isn't like California is identical to Arizona, at least currently.

The yuppies and karens are trying their hardest.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#266

Post by alfiedotwtf »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #248
markdown wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There isn't a bill of rights without exceptions, and a pandemic (public health) is always going to be one of those exceptions. It doesn't help at all during a pandemic.

I don't know dude I just partied all weekend without any issues, no mask, no constraints on where I could go. No mandates. Seems like some places have their ducks in a row. Get vaccinated and live a little bit...

> I don't know dude I just partied all weekend without any issues, no mask, no constraints on where I could go. No mandates.

During a pandemic, this is something to cringe at, not celebrate

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#267

Post by madengr »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #226
WalterBright wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> compulsory voting This always seemed like madness to me. You can force someone to vote, but you cannot force them to vote responsibly. They may just vote "screw you" just for revenge. The right to vote includes the right to abstain from voting when one does not care. Forced voting sounds like a recipe for bad election results. I would expect the same from paying people to vote.

It can't be any worse than what we have in the USA. I mean for god sakes, Trump actually won the presidency. Something is definitely broken in the US system (primarily voter suppression, legal corporate bribery, and gerrymandering is my theory)

I assume you mean the 2020 election. Voter fraud and machine manipulation is my theory on why Biden is our illegitimate president.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#268

Post by LAC-Tech »

billiam wrote: post #236
siquick wrote: post #37

I've lived in Australia for 10 years and really considering my familys future in this country. We are sleep-walking towards a very average future. An undiversified export economy, out of control house prices, a job-market primarily focused on two cities, a government intent on selling all public assets, very limited political interest in positive climate policies. The latter is simply addressed with "technology will…

might not want to hear this as an adoptive Aussie, but two words, mate: New Zealand.

The GPs issues were

An undiversified export economy, out of control house prices, a job-market primarily focused on two cities, a government intent on selling all public assets, very limited political interest in positive climate policies. The latter is simply addressed with "technology will help us out when we need it to".

And you suggest New Zealand?!

- Australian housing is a bargain compared to NZ ones.

- NZs job market is focused on one city, which is smaller, more expensive, lower wages and more crime than Brisbane or Perth.

There's a reason so many New Zealanders live in Australia and not vice versa.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#269

Post by roody15 »

I simply cannot wrap my mind around what is happening in Australia. Continuing a lockwdown while the number of positive covid cases remains in the low hundreds and the daily death rate in the lower tens to single digits.

Nothing makes sense here. Draconian laws, complete shutdown over something that is and has been statistically under control and managed from months.

Am I alone here or do people really think what is going on in Australia makes sense and that attempting to completely eradicate a virus that may be as easily spread as the common cold makes sense.

Serious cannot leave your house outside and go outside for a jog … because there are 50 positive cases in a nation of millions ?

My mind is blown.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#270

Post by nl »

sigotirandolas wrote: post #240
nl wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s not going well, they literally have concentration camps, ask for papers, don’t let you leave your homes, etc. Anyone who thinks this is actually what is happening in Australia is falling for propaganda. > they literally have concentration camps Offshore detention centres for refugees seeking asylum is a stain on Australia that cannot be excused or erased. If you mean the quarantine centres they are finally bui…

I assume the parent was referring to the "five reasons to leave home", as far as I know vaccine passports haven't been implemented in Australia yet.

> as far as I know vaccine passports haven't been implemented in Australia yet.

I thought they were referring to the ability for businesses to ask about vaccine status.

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