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Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

digitalrightswatch.org.au

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Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#361

Post by perl4ever »

astrange wrote: post #337
perl4ever wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how much Australia is influenced by people who loathe the US and move from it to Australia because it's far away and yet Anglophone and "western".

The only things Americans know about Australia are Steve Irwin and Outback Steakhouse, i.e., nothing.

Ok, but I was referring to expatriates.

Also, you forgot Paul Hogan. And Kylie Minogue. And Nick Cave.

Also, while absolutely nothing sticks in my mind about either, the names of Kevin Rudd and Kim Beazley have been retained in my memory.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#362

Post by bogomipz »

jclulow wrote: post #165
lsiebert wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For US folks, The Liberal Party is Center Right and further to the left than the Republicans, Labor is Center Left and further to the left of the Democrats.

Under the current leadership the LNP inches closer to the GOP with each passing day, so, I don't expect they'll be perpetually to the left of the Republicans.

Sorry if this is a silly question but are the LP and the LNP the same party? When I try to look up LNP I see references to Queensland which confuses me if it's a national party. If not are they related?

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#363

Post by Gatsky »

roody15 wrote: post #269

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…

This is pretty hyperbolic. Examination of global excess deaths would tell you that the lockdowns were successful in their stated primary aim. Australia and NZ had significantly fewer excess deaths during the first wave [1]. And if they continue with lockdowns, they will have signficantly fewer excess deaths again no matter what else happens.

You may think this isn't a good trade-off, which is a fine point to make, but I don't think any minds need to be blown.

[1] https://twitter.com/MaxCRoser/status/1434228604666368007?s=2...

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#364

Post by perl4ever »

sumedh wrote: post #341
perl4ever wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how much Australia is influenced by people who loathe the US and move from it to Australia because it's far away and yet Anglophone and "western".

If I am not mistaken most of the immigration to Australia is from UK, India and China.

That may be, but do they hate where they came from the same amount and do they talk about it as much?

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#365

Post by LAC-Tech »

girvo wrote: post #277
BrissyCoder wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

As another senior SE in Brisbane I can 100% back up what BrissyCoder here is saying. Its even more so right now, if you're up for contracting. $1000+ a day is common. Kind of nuts, but hey its been good for my wallet.

1000 AUD is about 100 USD an hour. That's laughably low for any Brisbane sized city in the states. Not nuts at all.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#366

Post by mr_toad »

api wrote: post #205
mc32 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Australia people are compelled to vote, so the problem looks like the majority having a different take. Not that I agree with their votes, but you can’t say they don’t vote. 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?

What percentage are property owners? Sounds like it's absolutely fantastic free money if you own property.

But the only way to realise that gain is to downsize or move out of town. And neither of those options is easy, because of restrictions on development and redevelopment.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#367

Post by tick_tock_tick »

smcleod wrote: post #174
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…

Almost 11 years in Melbourne (from NZ) and I couldn't agree more. The 220~ days (and counting) that Melbourne has been in lockdown has certainly worn me down, but even before C19 the political climate, attitude towards technology, cost of housing and the impact of increasing bushfires has taken an enormous toll on the country over the past decade that I've been here.

Why are they still in lockdown? Vaccine rates seem fine enough to at-least let most people do whatever they want.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#368

Post by FridgeSeal »

WalterBright wrote: post #186
layoric wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Born in AU so bias is to stay, which leads me to push more for political change required to try to address these problems. Most of your 10 years has been under a particularly bad (and honestly corrupt) federal gov. Country has a large state capture problem from largely mining companies but also other special interests that have lobbied and . Anything that might threaten those interests is being pretty heavily targete…

> 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’s not “forced” it’s “your responsibility in a democracy”.

We have preferential voting here, and plenty of minor parties to vote for, so your vote isn’t “wasted”. Living in a democracy means participating in voting to help decide what the country does, and honestly it’s a pretty minor requirement: the actual act is quick and easy, it’s on a weekend and anyone who has to work at is given the opportunity and the results are usually mostly finalised by the end of the day.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#369

Post by roody15 »

0xdeadb00f wrote: post #308
roody15 wrote: post #269

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…

This talk about "Draconian" lockdown in Australia needs to stop. Our privacy and digital rights laws are awful. But the lockdowns are necessary. NSW had upward of 1000+ cases and that's why they're (still) in a strict lockdown. QLD and i beleive WA as well for example are not in lockdown at all because of their much much lower daily cases. Also, "50 cases in a nation of millions"? I dont know where you're getting you…

1200+ cases in NSW out of a population of over 8 million.

So we should extend a strict lockdown … to do what exactly? Is the plan to manage this virus with a series of alternating lockdowns and get the number of cases to zero? Is this realistic, is this the type of world you want to live in?

The virus appears to be as contagious as chicken pox, vaccines help with serious cases but are doing little unfortunately to stop the spread. At what point do you think it would make sense to manage the disease and resume normal life instead of draconian lockdowns for a untenable goal?

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#370

Post by jussij »

chii wrote: post #253
AussieWog93 wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I really think Australia desperately needs this system but negative gearing is so ingrained in Australian culture now that it's political suicide to try and change it. I believe Labor made noises about this in a recent Federal election and suffered the consequences. The senior ministers of the ALP came to a similar conclusion. Mid this year they announced no changes to negative gearing or capital gains tax offsets.…

negative gearing allows the average person investing to have the same tax advantages as a company investing (in anything), because for a company, only profits (revenue minus expenses) are taxed. If there were no "negative gearing" for investment properties, then either there would be fewer such properties, or people would have to form businesses to perform such investments (which adds an extra bit of friction with ac…

The problem with negative gearing is the 'average person' can't participate in negative gearing.

Negative gearing only works for those who have a high level of income with the corresponding high level of taxation.

Why it works so well for these individuals is they can greatly reduce their tax liability by using the property deductions negatively gearing has to offer.

As a secondary benefit, those same investors also win on the capital gain side of the equation as these negative gearing tax incentives create massive demand for property.

Your 'average person' living on the average wage can't benefit from negative gearing as their wage bracket does not attract a high enough level of taxation.

In fact it hurts this group of people only because those higher property prices also means they are priced out of the housing market.

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