[Australian Politics] Australian Politics

[@Cicada3301AU]

Unbelievable, isn't it!
After launching all-out war against free speech by pushing for increased censorship, the Australian Government looks set to launch a new front-line against encryption, again.
The fact governments and the intelligence communities continue to express frustration on encryption, specifically end-to-end, is actually a good thing because it tells us it's working and doing exactly what it's supposed to do.
What the Australian intelligence community wants (and has always wanted) is backdoor access and are pissed off no tech company (that we know of, at least) has provided said backdoor.
On this front, kudos to big tech for putting the security of users first.

https://www.afr.com/companies/telecommu ... 423-p5fm1j

[@Cicada3301AU]

We're not there yet, but Australia is starting to resemble something of a failed state.

[@Cicada3301AU]

[@Cicada3301AU]

I don't want to preempt any outcomes of Wednesday's terrorism raids in Sydney, which saw 400+ State and Federal law enforcement and counter-terrorism officers arrest 7 teenagers, however based on the information publicly released so far, the initial claims of why the raids were carried out and the actual charges made just don't appear to stack up.
As I said, there's much more information to be released yet and I can't preempt anything, but if it turns out that all teenagers see any charges dropped and are released from detention then it's going to seriously put into question the integrity of Australia's intelligence agencies and law enforcement.
I hope I'm wrong and I most certainly hope the raids weren't politically motivated.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation ... 522f8407e6

[@Cicada3301AU]

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Absolutely astonishing, isn't it?
That the Labor Government, despite its historically and utterly miserable performance, can still be re-elected.
It's primary vote appears to be reduced to somewhere around ~32%, lower than what it was originally elected on.
That is, again, two-thirds of the country NOT voting for them.
And ~49% state we are heading in the wrong direction.
Yet the government would be "easily re-elected".
None of this is proof democracy works, instead it proves democracy does not work and is fundamentally broken with no way to escape the madness.
The problems are exacerbated even more by having the Liberal Party adopting the same policy positions as the Labor Party, making Australia essentially a one-party State.
Preferences exacerbate the problems even more, because a vote for an alt-party (eg. One Nation) only guarantees their preferences flow to the Liberal Party anyway.
So again, we are a one-party State stuck in cyclical political madness.
This is not freedom and democracy.

[@Cicada3301AU]

What an absolute mess!
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese tried to blame the Community Protection Board, who only give advice and don't make decisions, as pointed out by Senator James Paterson, and then Immigration Minister Andrew Giles comes out and says 'oh yeah, it was a delegate of my department' before going back into hiding.
Seriously, this Government is an absolute embarrassing mess and beyond words for its incompetency.
There's a funny side to the Immigration Minister coming out and red-facing the Prime Minister, but it also shows the incompetence.
The Prime Minister, Home Affairs Minister and Immigration Minister - arguably three of the most important positions in any administration to secure a stable, functioning government - are just the worst of the group.
Australians voted for this mess and you know what, come 2025 Federal Election, they'll do it all again.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation ... e74dcf3744

[@Cicada3301AU]

If you want to stop the protests then find out where these FIFO ANTIFA protesters are all coming from.
Clearly many of these 'students' are not actually attending the campuses they're protesting at.
Additionally, clearly they're not studying at all, as many of them have no idea what "intifada" means; have no idea what "from the river to the sea" means; and some even having no idea what the protest is about, admitting they are protesting just because they can.
And I'm 100% certain many of them have no idea of the complex and contested history of Israel and Palestine.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher ... beb8a4dff4

[@Cicada3301AU]

I have read two articles this morning where the Government has blamed the immigration crisis on the previous Coalition Government.
That is completely wrong and is purely Labor attempting to shift the blame away from their own inability to govern!
The Coalition was in power for nearly a decade and had few immigration problems and had completely stopped the illegal boat arrivals.
Then Labor comes into office in 2022 and in just 2 years we now have massive, hugely unsustainable, increases in immigration numbers (historically high increases) and several illegal boats performing illegal drop-offs, going undetected.
And the Labor Government attempts to shift the blame to the former Coalition Government?
That's the oldest political trick in the book - blame the previous administration for your incompetence.

[@Cicada3301AU]

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Amazing that only now others are starting to realize that what I wrote in June 2022 had merit and is actually unfolding.

"The Labor Party, with Anthony Albanese as Prime Minister, has the potential to take Australia to the far-left.

We warned about the potential before the election.

Albo may not be a far-left politician himself but the influence and pressure from some senior ministers, particularly pro-China defense minister Richard Marles, and pressure from the green-left bloc, might prove too much for Albo to resist.

It's true that Labor does now hold the majority in the Lower House, but with such a large unprecedented bloc of green-left members of parliament, Albo will be doing very well if he's able to push back from the pressures of the far-left.

With the incredible power The Greens and the Teal cult have, the bloc is effectively an extension of the Labor Party, creating the perfect storm for one of the most far-left governments Australia has ever had.

This is all no accident and Australians must not underestimate how significant this massive shift in the structure of the House of Representatives really is."

Reference: https://www.freedompublishersunion.net/ ... -2022.html

[@Cicada3301AU]

Why are other attacks of almost identical circumstances classed as "terrorism" yet they continue refusing to call this one?

https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/mi ... 506-p5fpas