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Draconian Aussie Science Censorship Law Takes Effect Next Month (theconversation.com)

Posted by timothy on from the state-vs-man dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The Conversation reports that beginning next month Australian scientists and engineers face 10 years imprisonment for communicating without a government permit on biotech, robotics or manufacturing. Geoffrey Roberston QC says the laws are "sloppily drafted" and threatens research with "no sensible connection to military technology". But the government is barreling ahead, despite warnings from Defence Report it will kill Australia's high-tech economy. The law is opposed by Civil Liberties Australia where scientists are petitioning against it.

10 of 265 comments (clear)

  1. Better for everyone else by Dog-Cow · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Keep going, Australia! Committing economic suicide makes it better for everyone else. Thanks for taking one for the team!

    1. Re:Better for everyone else by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The world is not a zero sum game. If Australians were rich and sensible they would buy and use more of your products. If they did that you would buy more of their products. Everybody would be happy. Only idiots think that "take take take" will make them richer (long term) and in the same way, if Australia goes crazy it means one less place to escape to when your country goes bad.

    2. Re: Better for everyone else by TapeCutter · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Mate, I'd seriously consider buying a one way ticket for a wanker like you.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    3. Re: Better for everyone else by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, the USA is big into "local government" - typically, police, fire department, schools, etc are all managed and funded at the level of very small districts. For example, in Los Angeles, some of the best public schools in the USA are literally only a few miles from some of the worst public schools in the USA. And, of course, if you want to live in one of the best school districts in the USA then you're going to have to either live in a very small apartment or be very rich. So, yes, there are places in Rhode Island and Massachusetts that are very dangerous and there are places in New Mexico and Florida that are very safe.

      But the broader point is that, at this point, the USA as a whole is now very ethnically and racially diverse. So any neighborhood that is good enough that the best and brightest in the USA are actively moving there will be quite ethnically and racially diverse. The only exception is old predominantly white neighborhoods that used to be very good and where all the good people haven't yet got around to moving away yet - typically these neighborhoods have mostly old people.

    4. Re:Better for everyone else by Archtech · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Aldous Huxley nailed this syndrome well over half a century ago. He wrote that:

      "One of the many reasons for the bewildering and tragic character of human existence is the fact that social organization is at once necessary and fatal. Men are forever creating such organizations for their own convenience and forever finding themselves the victims of their home-made monsters".

      So people create governments to keep them safe and provide law and order. Gradually the governments grow, until they become massive cancerous organizations concerned mostly with their own survival - and further growth. Eventually they either kill the host, or have to be overthrown in bloody wars or revolutions.

      --
      I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
    5. Re:Better for everyone else by drsmithy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Kinda.

      Australia is the country whose leaders have, for the last thirty or so years, looked to the US and UK and decided "the problem these guys have is that they're just not going hard enough".

    6. Re:Better for everyone else by Salgak1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Really ? That would explain the really high violent crime rates in Utah, which is about as ethnically diverse as a loaf of Wonder Bread. Except they're about half the national average. You get high crime with large deltas in income over a small area. . .

    7. Re:Better for everyone else by doctorfaustus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It doesn't sound life they're leftists. They sound like far right wingnuts.... At least the ones under discussion here, who seem to have a majority

      --

      DAILY ROTATION
  2. What if... by vikingpower · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...this nightmare had unintended and unforeseen positive side-effects, with researchers setting off in entirely new fields ? Granted, this is just a desperate attempt at seeing at least some positivity in something very, very disheartening.

    --
    Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
  3. Re:I left Australia more than 6 years ago... by spyfrog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    According to Wikipedia, you have an population of 21 million people. Sweden has 9.5 million and managed to have 100.000 immigrants in 2014 and was overwhelmed with over 170.000 in 2015. So I am quite sure you could manage 30.000 without problem.