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With the Australian Labor Party caving in on the proposed encryption law that will allow Australian police and agencies to access private data directly from vendors, the new proposed laws are now agreed in principle to introduce government level snooping of user messages and encrypted files. Agencies like ASIO or the Australian Federal Police will have the ability to request that telecommunications and tech companies help them with their investigations and compel companies to build ways to allow targeted access to encrypted communications data.
Previously: Australian Government Pursues "Golden Key" for Encryption
Five Eyes Governments Get Even Tougher on Encryption
Apple Speaks Out Against Australian Anti-Encryption Law; Police Advised Not to Trigger Face ID
Australia follows New Zealand to demand passwords
New Australian Push For Encryption Backdoor in Wake of Alleged Terrorist Plot
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Thursday December 06 2018, @02:07AM (5 children)
Only two in the lower house, labour and the liberal/national coalition - greens and independants don't have any real authority in the lower house (unlike the senate if things line up the right way). Not enough people here vote for the alternatives just because they are the alternatives.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by jb on Thursday December 06 2018, @03:24AM (4 children)
That was true until relatively recently (last week?).
Currently, Australia has a minority government: the (tiny) cross-bench in the house of reps holds the balance of power.
But it is not the cross-bench who are letting this nonsensical bill through.
The government is pushing it through with the support of the opposition.
So for all you out there blaming this on the Liberal Party -- you are both right & wrong: it is the Liberal Party who have been pushing it, but it the Australian Labor Party who are letting it through.
In short: Australia suffers from the exact same problem as the US -- the two major parties are so close together in policy positions (and neither stands for any of the principles they once held dear any more -- they both simply run with whatever polls best at the time) that there is very little difference between voting for one and voting for the other (in fact, it's quite amusing that these days the left faction of the Libs is considerably to the left of the right faction of the ALP and vice-versa).
Frankly, after this ... following hot on the heels of selling off Australia's sovereignty on the TPP-11 deal ... I think one would have to be a complete masochist to vote for either major party at next year's election.
Minor parties do exist in the centre, as well as on the far left, on the far right & everything in between -- something to suit almost everybody's individual taste -- most of which at least stand for something.
Unfortunately, actually reading platform statements and analysing them critically (instead of the more common process of simply asking oneself "which of these two liars sounds more convincing?") seems to require more effort than most voters are willing to put in.
I used to be proud of the fact that voting is compulsory in Australia. Now I'm not so sure...
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Thursday December 06 2018, @03:51AM
That one didn't exactly grab a lot of headlines.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday December 06 2018, @04:21AM (2 children)
You are right for the wrong reasons.
It is true that Australia suffers from the exact same problems as the US.
You a wrong about the reason, though. It is not that the two major political parties are so close in their positions, it is because both the countries shares the same "deep state" that's pushing the agenda, namely the US deep state.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @07:50AM (1 child)
Have you considered the possibility that the problem is that the Australian politicians have their heads stuck up the ass of the US and the US have their hands stuck up the asses of the pollies ala kermitthefrog?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Thursday December 06 2018, @08:31AM
The cause of the cause, you ask?
I considered many possible explanations for why our polies are missing the asses of the American deep state on a bipartisan basis.
The most probable one to my mind is the fear the Chinese won't want just to play nice with what the Aussies will want to sell them, but will come with demands in regards with the access to 'strategic resources'. And perhaps, in time, will back this demands with some military bases in the friendly countries, like East Timor, Fiji, Vanuatu, etc. Of course, with the permission of these countries, not hard to buy their goodwill after Australia played for grabs with some of them [wikipedia.org].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford