Australian Parliament Approves Email Snooping

brindafella writes "The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, reporting on a legislative change last week, says 'the [Australian] Government will have 12 months to access communications not only between the B-party and the suspect, but also between the B-party and anyone else. If you have unwittingly communicated with a suspect (and thereby become a B-party), the Government may be able to monitor all your conversations with family members, friends, work colleagues, your lawyer and your doctor.' The Australian Parliament's major parties combined to pass an amendment to the Telecommunications (Interception) Amendment Act 1979."

Comments

It's all history...

[Toby The Economist]

Well, you can tell Australia used to be a penal colony...

The Americans of the South Pacific

[oob]

Given that 'Straya, the Deputy Sheriff shares so many cultural, social and political similarities with the U.S., it's simply not a surprise to those of us in the region that they're implementing similar domestic policies.

The most surprising aspect is the sheer admiration that the 'Strayan people hold for the U.S. and their collective willingness to become a subservient client state to U.S. interests.

They truly are the Americans of the South Pacific and not just in terms of public policy. The 'Strayan people are almost indistinguisable from their American counterparts in terms of attitude and behaviour.

Re:Welcome to 1984

[dangitman]

If politicians really cared about solving the problem, they'd take a look at how christian missionaries operate, for example. Not that I'm advocating missionary work, but you can't deny that they're successful - don't tell people that they're all a bunch of subhuman heathens, but rather set a good example;

I don't think you have much idea of how Christian missions work. Most of them do not set good examples (quite the opposite) but instead focus on telling the indigenous that they are subhuman, and forcing them into virtual or outright slavery. One only needs to look at Christian missions in Australia and South America to see that. Are you unaware of the missionaries running cartels of slave labor in South America, or the "Stolen generation" of Australian Aborigines?

Australian politicians really the Borg?

[neonmagic]

This is because you do not live in a democracy, Australia is now a fascist state, along with the US. We MUST submit to our government, and do what they say. Hell, they're worse than the Borg! Hell, in Australia we don't even have the ability to have th freedom of speech in our constitution, breaking several United Nations charters. We have a federal government that deliberately amended the marriag act to forbid same sex marriages (discrimination anyone?). We have laws where pagans can be religiously villified by other religions, but we can't villify them (ie. Christian, Jewish, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, etc). Discrimination anyone? We have a federal government that wants to abolish unemployment/welfare support, allows employees to work for absolutely peanuts for employers, who can dismiss you at a whim, for any reason, at any time. We have a government that knowingly lies to its constituents (Iraq and WMDs anyone?). We have a government that reserves the right to lock you up, for up to 7 days, without telling you why, restricting access to your lawyer (all conversations monitored), etc. We have a federal government that's allowed the AFP (Australian Federal Police) to monitor and do what they like, this also applies to our national spies, ASIO. We have a government that has cut back immigration, because John Howard is a racist pig. We have a government that wants a US style medical system, where if you don't have money, you die. So much for a caring society. We have one of the highest tax rates in the world (in fact I think it is the highest), the 2nd worst banking system in the world (behind Canada I believe). We have a federal government that won't say sorry to our Aborigines, and the 'stolen generation', and they emphatically deny it ever happened. Much like saying the holocaust didn't happen (btw, now illegal in Australia, so much for freedom of speech).

Why do I live in Australia? Cos I was born here, and can't afford to go to a decent country. I could easily get German citizenship if I wanted, but I'm not too sure that it's better over there. This rot is spreading throughout the world. And it's very worrying. I hope the big bang comes soon, and I hope it destroys all mankind. We don't deserve to survive as a species.

Dave