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Australian Government Rejects Data Retention Law After Report
mask.of.sanity writes "The Australian Government has shelved its plans to proactively store communications data of every citizen ostensibly to assist with law enforcement and intelligence efforts. The shelving (video) comes after a scathing report by Australian parliamentarians who investigated the Government's plans, and three months ahead of a federal election in which the Government is expected to lose office."
Thank goodness there's a pacific Ocean between Aus and the USA. Or this subversive thinking might infect us.
Have gnu, will travel.
In other countries, occationally orwellian laws are blocked by elected officials.
In the US, they all shrug and try to explain away our rights.
Ha. Voters are idiots; you just watch Nancy Pelosi get re-elected despite her stance on surveillance...
contained rigorous privacy controls and oversight
That doesn't sound like the American system at all.
It might examine only a few thousand by hand, but it is all being recorded.
Data mining isn't "examining a few thousand by hand". It's the analysis on the mass data that matters. You may drill down to specific emails/calls/transfers/etc, but to know which ones, you need to be able to map entire networks of associations.
This is not like the cameras on an ATM that stores unwatched images unless a specific event prompts someone to look at a specific time. Your personal data is not being blindly stored on these systems, unwatched since you've done nothing anyone cares about, it is being analysed along with everyone else's.
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
Voters are idiots
Are you saying you don't vote, or that you are an idiot?
When the current opposition party was Government they took Australia into Vietnam and Iraq and copied the 'war on terror' mantra. While no Australian politician can be anti-American, the current opposition party are arse-lickers of American politicians.
Parent AC didn't mean "...because of this"; the current government is pulling record low numbers in the polls. They are hated and are going to be destroyed in the next election.
And it sucks, because the leader of the next government is a US-style neo-conservative religious nutter. And his party is dominated by True Believers in US-style trickle-down economics. The current government's incompetence is going to allow something much worse to take over, not only to control the lower House (and hence the executive) but likely the Senate, giving them basically a rubber stamp on anything they want to shove through.
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
"The Australian Attorney-General Department's pig-headed push for Internet data retention were rejected by an Intelligence Oversight Committee for being vague and violating civil liberties. Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said the government needs to get the message and drop the scheme, and warned data retention could be used by PRISM. Head Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says data retention is off the agenda for now, though when the last AG made a similar promise they caught everyone off guard and passed new laws 12 days later"
http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/06/24/national-security-inquiry-declines-to-endorse-data-retention
http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/06/24/keane-a-debate-we-had-to-have-on-security-measures
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/465679/data_retention_needs_oversight_inquiry/
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/465152/australia_suspected_prism_data_ludlam/
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/roxon-puts-web-surveillance-plans-on-ice-20120809-23x9l.html
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/312771,senate-passes-lite-data-retention-laws.aspx
The government is expected to lose office
Yes they are, but the opposition hasn't ruled out doing the same thing.
So instead of a "Bacon Number" you'll have a "Bin Laden Number"
goodie
Actually, based on what has been happening in Australia lately this is a huge change of course, and probably a sign that the average citizen is getting a little sick of the shenanigans pulled by the current government, (sometimes pulled by only a minister here or there, without the consensus of his own party).
As for it being basically the American system, that is not true at all, because regardless of what they say they collect, you can be sure the NSA collects your entire email, not just the headers. And the us system has no such thing as privacy controls.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
It's a $50 fine. Plus you only have to get your name crossed off.
(And it's apparently easier to get out of than jury duty. "I had to work all day", "my youngest had a stomach bug and couldn't leave the house", etc.)
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
Yep, it's rare for people to actually have to pay the fine, however we consistently get 90+% of voters turning up to a state/federal election which is a GoodThing(TM).
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
The current government's incompetence is going to allow something much worse to take over
No, the incompetence of the Australian voter will be responsible for that. However numerous polls also show that the majority of voters would have preferred to be choosing from Rudd vs Turner. Turner leads the traditional side of conservative politics, the side that still has some principles and common respect for their ideological opponents.
The fundamental problem in Oz is that the mining unions are pulling the strings in the Labor party and the mine owners are pulling the strings in the Liberal party, and Murdoch controls 70% of the press. On many subjects the union and the bosses are in lockstep agreement, eg: the unionists ousted Rudd because of his mining tax plans, their bosses ousted Turner because of his plans to regulate carbon emissions. Neither the union leaders or mine owners want anything to get in the way of digging holes in the ground, everybody seems to have forgotten about Tony's prediction of economic Armageddon, the carbon tax was instituted a year ago and we are still one of the healthiest economies on the planet.
Disclaimer: I believe we should exploit our resources but not at the cost of our natural life support systems, for instance coal mines on cape york are potentially a threat to the great barrier reef. The reef is not only a valuable tourist attraction it is also a massive fish nursery, The shelf waters around Australia's coast are the breeding ground for much of the southern hemisphere's fisheries, the planetary food web is not something you can put a price on, it's essential natural infrastructure that (if given a chance) is so productive it allows some of us enough time to do things like dig massive holes and sell magic rocks to China.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
The current government and it's immediate predecessor (of the same party) has done a brilliant job. Compare to the rest of the world. The wanna-be's keep making statements contrary to the facts, but Rupert Murdoch and Gina Rinehart want a change, and with control of most of the media consistently push outright lies. Their media has, for example, reported the current Prime Minister would be dumped by their party EVERY WEEK for the past 130 weeks. Ain't happened yet - it is a bare-faced attempt at destabilisation.
Australia's Liberal (i.e conservative) Party - the finest politicians money can buy.
This. So many times this.
The crux of it is multiple fold:
1) Rupert Murdoch owns the biggest cable network in Australia (Foxtel). The current governments NBN plan will give up to 100Mbit (maybe even 1GBit) to just about every home in a town above 1000 homes - Australia wide. As the US has seen with streaming services, in this environment, cable tv would be obliterated. Its just a sad fact that the same guy owns most of the media - therefore he uses his influence to protect his media assets.
2) Gina gets a load of immigrant workers. The current government is looking to restrict imported workers to a lower amount that is currently happening. This means that Gina will have to pay fair wages to more of her staff. This is of course being protested by her interests in any way possible.
3) Tony Abbott is great at grinding axes, but very poor (being kind) at content. He has spearheaded the biggest sledging campaign in Australian political history. This is the guy that outright lies (which the media doesn't expose - see point #1) to the public to destabilise the current government as much as possible.
4) Tony Abbott (with the media in tow) has made a massive issue about asylum seekers arriving in Australia via boats. Forget that fact that he calls them illegal immigrants (which they aren't) and that they are the source of Australias problems (which they aren't) and he promises that he will stop the boats (which he can't) to increase our nations security. His plans have been scoffed at by the brass in the navy as unworkable - but these details get overlooked by the media (see point #1).
In a nutshell, its a sad day for me to call myself an Australian - and its a sad day for politics in Australia that people sink so low as to put themselves before their country - but that is exactly what is happening at this point in time.
Sendmail is like emacs: A nice operating system, but missing an editor and a MTA.
Yet you still wind up with a government that's competing with the UK and USA for the Police State Award.
Do we?!
I mean the inept Australian government actually felt it necessary to go to parliament to get legislative power to do what the UK and USA Police states just went ahead and did.
In Australia we were displeased because we were informed about the government's intentions. The US and UK governments did not see fit similarly to displease their respective constituents. The Australian government has backed down in the face of both public and parliamentary opposition to the plan. Do you seriously believe the US or the UK are about dismantle their machinery? For all the articles the Guardian may publish?
Not much of a competition I would say.
Democracy ... I'm occasionally hopeful that it might work after all.
Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
Fosters: Only for gullible tourists and export to gullible foreigners.
Voters are idiots
Are you saying you don't vote, or that you are an idiot?
In Australia, it's illegal not to vote. So you're either a voter or a criminal (I guess at one point in AU history, most people were probably both).
And by some standards, many members of Parliament still are.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
I see it another way. I see it more that we have 2 choices and they're fundamentally the same thing. It's not about Gillard and Abbott (they're figure heads, we don't have a president here, the "leader" is a mouthpiece, not a policy maker - policies are made behind closed doors and then communicated via these mouthpieces).
:-P
So I couldn't care less who the leader of either party is. When it comes to policies, though, they're both much the same thing. Both parties are so close to each other that the only real difference that comes is how the market reacts to one or the other. Yes there are minor differences - but they're minor only.
If you truly think we're going to take the country in a whole different direction by changing from Labour to The Coalition, I've got a bridge to sell you.
Of course, Australia is likely to change government in September, and then we will have the government for which dealing with constituents will be a much lower priority - right after changing the filter in the coffee machine.
Aussies in general are reluctant to get involved in their own governance.
This is what is going to cause Australia to follow the rest of the world into economic, social and environmental disaster. Many people (Australians) I speak to feel that we need to change the government, but when you ask them why they have little to no idea what the government actually does or how it works. The government we have now has not done a great job, but they have done extremely well considering the global issues going on - but many Australians tend to care nothing about the rest of the world unless it's broadcast in prime time in a sitcom format.
Aussies in general are reluctant to get involved in their own governance.
This is what is going to cause Australia to follow the rest of the world into economic, social and environmental disaster. Many people (Australians) I speak to feel that we need to change the government, but when you ask them why they have little to no idea what the government actually does or how it works. The government we have now has not done a great job, but they have done extremely well considering the global issues going on - but many Australians tend to care nothing about the rest of the world unless it's broadcast in prime time in a sitcom format.
This,
The Labor government hasn't done a terribly good job, but it was passable. However the Murdoch run press wants to paint it as the end of the world.
Really, I view the Murdoch press as a greater threat to Australia than all the politicians put together... Murdoch ultimately does not have to answer to the constituents.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
I work as an election official on election day. Posting as an AC to protect anonymity.
Legally, you are incorrect. Under the Electoral Act, it is your duty to vote, and an offence not to. Practically, of course, you are correct. Because voting is secret, nobody can tell if you voted... unless you admit it on Slashdot.
What I wanted to say is that I have one request, and one request only, on behalf of election officials everywhere: Please take the ballot papers that have been issued to you and put them in the ballot box. Fill them out or don't. Write a slogan on them. I don't care, do anything you want... just put them into the ballot box in one piece.
There have been some very close elections around the world recently, including Australia. What makes Australia different is that there has been no question of electoral fraud.
We don't often stop to consider just how remarkable this is. Look at the mess of the 2000 presidential elections in the US, or the previous elections resulting in a hung parliament in the UK, or Italy (just Italy; I don't think I need to expand on that). We may not know how to run a country, but we know how to run an election. We do it bloody well, and this is something you can be proud of.
One of the tenets of security is that you analyse known threats and look for patterns, and one of the mechanisms that is commonly used to rig elections around the world is to selectively remove ballot papers from being considered in the count. There are various methods to do this, from stealing and destroying them, to changing the rules of formality post facto (hanging chads, anyone?).
It's an unbelievably huge deal if ballot papers go missing. Removing ballot papers from the polling centre does not send any message to your politicians, nor does it help change the system. All it does is causes a major headache for already-exhausted casual employees. (Don't forget, we've been at the polling centre since an hour before it opened, and have to stay there until counting finishes. It's a very long day.)
Whatever you think about compulsory voting, or the state of the political system and the major parties, it is not the fault of the Australian Electoral Commission or their casual staff. So... yeah, please put the damn papers in the damn box.
Thank you for your assistance in this matter.
Sincerely,
Your friendly election official
Abbott is what Santorum (who comes from the same Catholic faction) would look like if he had to run in a country like Australia.
However, I meant "US-style neo-con" and "religious nutter". Not "US-style religious nutter". For the latter, you need Steve Fielding's party.
[Hey, secular Americans, our ultraconservative evangelical movement had to create a third party, which got about 2% in the last election. (7% in even the most conservative state.) Livin' the dream baby.]
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
And it sucks, because the leader of the next government is a US-style neo-conservative religious nutter. And his party is dominated by True Believers in US-style trickle-down economics.
I've been watching Tony's political career for longer than most (he buttonholed me outside the Fisher Library in 1978 I think it was). He was a certifiable nutter then* and many of my cohort of students from that degree have been living in fear these past 35 years that one day we would be facing the prospect of his leading an Australian government. [*To be to fair to Mr Abbott in the '70s, he was in this more than outbalanced by members of the "loony Left." We tend to forget that the rejection of material reality which now forms the central plank of the neo-con/Tea Party ideology, was once the province of the more radical sects of the Left. For instance the ideologically motivated denial of Climate Science is an echo of the denial of Plate Tectonics which was at one time held to be inconsistent with Marxist dialectical-materialism! A position which would no doubt have perplexed even Dr Marx.]
However, it appears to me that, like most of us, Tony has mellowed with age. I find his opportunistic "blood pledge" to repeal a market based solution for addressing carbon usage with an ironically more "socialist" orientated Direct Action approach to be highly reprehensible (and one hopes unsuccessful). Similarly, once in government, one hopes they will recognise the folly of their ways in regard to the NBN rollout. In general, however, I don't think we should be overly concerned about the radicalism of his current political position. His adherence to "trickle-down economics," for example, is I think is vastly overstated, my feeling is that his personal economic position has developed from the kind of Catholic corporatism preached by his mentor B.A. Santamaria. But here too he has become less ideological. Moreover his views in regard to the academy (and pure research) are far more enlightened than anything we've witnessed in Australia's recent anti-intellectual history. To the point that some of use working in the sector (traditionally part of the natural constituency of the centre left) dare to hope for some small moves to correct the wrecking of Australia's university system which began with the Dawkins "Reforms."
However, not only has Tony's ideology been mollified by age, his ambition too has overtaken his principles. Remember this is the guy who, we are to believe, when bargaining for government at the start of this hung parliament, told an independent either that he would "sell his arse," or do "anything but sell his arse," to become P.M.
It's not what Tony believes that you need to worry about. It is the editorial policy of the company which publishes the Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun is that will once again determine the policy direction of the country. Witness now what happens to any government that dares not tow the line! Abbott's ambition will preclude him from making the same mistake.
The current government's incompetence ...
A case in point. While this has perhaps not been the most stellar government in Australia's history, the fact that even you have been sold the idea of the government's supposed "incompetence" is a the real concern. True, there have been political mistakes made. Most recently Ms Gillard's raising of the "abortion" issue. An crude attack on Mr Abbott's catholic faith, and an issue on which Tony, his ambition taking the driver's seat, has taken a leaf out of Pilate's book. Made all the more inept by the fact that the coded term "reproductive rights" would have satisfied the present audience just as well. Or allowing the Carbon "Tax" (which is actually a trading scheme with only a temporary lead-in tax like structure) to be known as a TAX (booword!).
However, putting aside emotive public discourse for a moment ... any dispassionate assessment of the current gover
Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
I've never understood why some people are so concerned about big government but then give monopolies to big businesses.
http://www.xkcd.com/354/
By definition a constituent is a voter; but I agree the perception from the likely future government of what a constituent is is very different to the dictionary definition.
Selling government owned assets is fantastic. You make a heap of money, get to ensure that all future profits go to those who had enough money and warning to buy up the asset (either in total or shares) and in 10 years time when the profit from the sale is gone and you no longer have the profit from the asset, you aren't in power any more and don't have to care that the country can no longer afford stupid things like health care and infrastructure.
Sorry, someone must be spraying sarcasm around here.
Polly's viciously contest the coveted top spot on the ballot ... Fortunately the order on most ballot papers in Oz are randomly selected.
Correct Our "representatives" don't actually get a say in their ballot position.
Aussies in general are reluctant to get involved in their own governance.
Historically yes, particularly when compared to how politically active citizens are in other countries. In some European & South American countries, you KNOW when an election is around the corner; mass rallies, demonstrations, strikes, etc.
However I believe this is very gradually changing in Australia, in part due to technology. For example just as negative Twitter comments sometimes force large companies to actually sit-up and pay attention to unhappy customers, the same tools are being used to force the hands of politicians. I've personally had some small success in this area.
Having said that, I don't know the veracity of the following statement, but I keep hearing that politicians will pay more attention to hand-written letters than they do to electronic communications.