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Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

digitalrightswatch.org.au

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Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#161

Post by mlio »

femto wrote: post #117
mdoms wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived in Australia for 5 years and my sense is that, as harsh as it sounds, Australia needs to go through an extreme hardship to wake up as a nation. Australia has lived true to its moniker as the Lucky Country - at least two full generations of Australians have never witnessed economic hardship or downturn of any kind. Natural disasters pass the nation by (other than wildfires). Even Covid looked like it was going…

One could argue that Australia has always been this way. The full quote is: "Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck." written by Donald Horne in 1964. These words were true prior to 1964 and are still true in 2021. What saves Australia is the word "mainly". There are some first rate people in Australia, mostly not in positions of authority, who stop the ship from sinking. Exa…

"Just as Samson after being shorn of his hair was left eyeless in Gaza, was this generation, stripped bare of all faith, to be left comfortless on Bondi Beach, citizens of the kingdom of nothingness, who booze and surf while waiting for the barbarians?"

- Manning Clark on the settling of Australia.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#162

Post by inkyoto »

tac0_ wrote: post #128
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…

I feel you mate. Sad part is Australia has all the potential to have a really good future but the only thing missing is competent leadership. The liberal government continues to fuck up time and time again and the Murdoch press just turns a blind eye. Fucked up quarantine, fucked up vaccine rollout, fucked up climate policies, fucked up the news media bargaining code, and fucked up numerous policies just to prop up t…

the only thing missing is competent leadership

I keep hearing this every now and then, but the incompetent leadership does not come from nowhere nor has conceived itself. The country leaders have been legitimately elected, which means the leadership is the direct reflection of the country people's will. People consciously elect incompetence that bears the incompetent leadership, for that is what they desire for one reason or another. There are a few progressive, young parties that could steer the future of Australia in the right direction with progressive policies that make sense in the 21st century. Guess what? An average Australian does not care about the progress, they care about their real estate portfolio in maintaining the status quo for a change is scary and frightens people. Politics have become a career ladder excercise with public servants serving their own self-interest rather than working out differences between differing views and opinions and working towards a modern future of the country. Australia has been become mired in complacency, pipe dreaming and discussing how Labour is better over Liberals (or the other way around) whereas both parties are more or less the same in the grand scheme of things.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#163

Post by greyface- »

rwbt wrote: post #67

I'm curious if this affects FastMail users in US since they're based out of Australia.

"Fastmail responds to well formed warrants [and] will continue to do so, for any legislation that applies to us both now and in the future."

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28410178

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#164

Post by grecy »

stackedinserter wrote: post #158

Are there any Australians here on HN? Who in your country is pushing this BS? What's the selling point? What do media say?

It's "for our safety".

For context, I'm Australian and have just come back after almost 20 years away, living around the world.

Safety is now the absolute most important thing in Australia above everything else. Sadly, it's now more important than enjoying life.

I'll be leaving, only come back to visit family from time to time. I have zero interest in living here.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#165

Post by jclulow »

lsiebert wrote: post #146
tac0_ wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel you mate. Sad part is Australia has all the potential to have a really good future but the only thing missing is competent leadership. The liberal government continues to fuck up time and time again and the Murdoch press just turns a blind eye. Fucked up quarantine, fucked up vaccine rollout, fucked up climate policies, fucked up the news media bargaining code, and fucked up numerous policies just to prop up t…

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.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#167

Post by throw_nbvc1234 »

Tronno wrote: post #132
gorwell wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.

> Strong men create good times. Or sometimes they just kill each other in cycles of violence spanning generations. > Good times create weak men. Or they enable amazing things like the internet, modern medicine, and empires that last 1000 years. Sorry, but I've seen this pithy quote before and I wish it would go away - it's simply not true.

The foundations of the internet and computing were built by people from the cold war when modern civilization was a technical glitch away from ending at any given time. Half the stuff in networking is decades old, written by people who are decades older then that and raised by the generation before them. Implying the internet is a byproduct of the recent "good times" seems a bit disingenuous.

The internet (FAANG if you want a concrete definition) and modern medicine are both multi-trillion dollar industries; for very fundamental reasons. I'd argue their relative success would probably occur in both good and bad times.

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#168

Post by grecy »

fieryskiff11 wrote: post #102
discordance wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australia was initially populated with Aboriginals, from who the land was stolen by convict settlers.

You say stolen, I say conquered.

If I came into your house at gunpoint and literally took everything you own, would you say I stole your stuff, or that I conquered you?

Re: Australia’s new mass surveillance mandate

#170

Post by wrycoder »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #84
wrycoder wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are saying the Republican Party has spent decades trying to stop black people from voting, that is simply incorrect. It is what the other party’s propaganda would like you to believe. Same with voter suppression.

Southern conservative as Democrats or Republicans like Jesse Helms and Trent Lott were very much in favor of not letting African Americans vote. Who they caucused with later is unrelated. But yes, to say it was Democrats or Republicans would be very technically inaccurate. It isn’t a coincidence that the states that were practicing Jim Crow before are the same states trying to discourage voting today.

The Democrats say that voting is being discouraged. What is being discouraged is invalid votes, to diminish fraud. Republicans would love to encourage an authentic black vote.
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