<story><title>‘Extraordinary’ hacking powers pass Australian Parliament</title><url>https://www.innovationaus.com/extraordinary-new-hacking-powers-pass-parliament/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Teever</author><text>Has the government of Australia given any rational for banning Australians from leaving?  What is the public discourse like over this?&lt;p&gt;I also heard that Australia was making it very difficult for Australians who were abroad prior to COVID from coming back, is that true?  Has that changed much?  Again, does the government give a rational for this decision? And the discourse?&lt;p&gt;I think that Australia and NZ were right to lock down hard and stamp out COVID but I&amp;#x27;m a bit baffled by the fact that it has managed to get in a few times and more specifically how it has managed to get in.&lt;p&gt;It seems to be that once if you&amp;#x27;re an island the size of Australia and you&amp;#x27;ve eliminated domestic transmission the simple solution is to route all international flights to an airport in remote location (not one in a large city) where absolutely everyone involved in the process be they passangers, crew or quarantine staff must stay for two weeks with zero exceptions.&lt;p&gt;If you did that then you could easily repatriate Australians living abroad.</text></item><item><author>vermilingua</author><text>The tech industry in Australia has for some time existed in an impossibly hostile climate, with onerous tasks to betray their own users able to be handed out &lt;i&gt;to individuals&lt;/i&gt; at any time, with virtually no oversight. [1]&lt;p&gt;This has all happened under the auspices of the most overtly corrupt and authoritarian government we’ve had in my lifetime, within four years.&lt;p&gt;If I had the option, I’d pack up and move, but having written this and other anti-government sentiment, it’s entirely possible that they stop me at the border. [2]&lt;p&gt;Combining this with the political apathy of nearly everyone here that I know, the current vilification of protestors (not entirely wrongly given the circumstances), and the utter spinelessness and complicity of the “opposition”, I don’t see a future for my country that doesn’t involve violent revolution (we’ve tried it before [3]) or tyranny.&lt;p&gt;But it gets better: the tech industry is not only under attack, they’re complicit. Beyond even the ordinary run-of-the-mill scumbaggery we see from tech companies, a number have recently formed the Tech Council of Australia [4], aiming to make Australia a startup capital of the world. Scroll down that page and you’ll see a list of member corporations, several of which sent opposition to the AABill when consultation was open. Now, apparently, they’ve decided that it’s too hard to beat ‘em, so they’ll join ’em.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;parlinfo.aph.gov.au&amp;#x2F;parlInfo&amp;#x2F;download&amp;#x2F;legislation&amp;#x2F;bills&amp;#x2F;r6195_aspassed&amp;#x2F;toc_pdf&amp;#x2F;18204b01.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;parlinfo.aph.gov.au&amp;#x2F;parlInfo&amp;#x2F;download&amp;#x2F;legislation&amp;#x2F;bi...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au&amp;#x2F;leaving-australia&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au&amp;#x2F;leaving-australia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Eureka_Rebellion&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Eureka_Rebellion&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[4] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;techcouncil.com.au&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;techcouncil.com.au&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ccakes</author><text>&amp;gt; I also heard that Australia was making it very difficult for Australians who were abroad prior to COVID from coming back, is that true? Has that changed much?&lt;p&gt;As an Australian living abroad - nope, nothing has changed. It&amp;#x27;s near impossible for us to get back although at this point, why would I want to..&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; And the discourse?&lt;p&gt;Australians overseas are distraught with many being forced to watch friends and family go through tragedy from afar. The ones living at home don&amp;#x27;t seem to give a crap at all - &amp;quot;you left, serves you right&amp;quot; isn&amp;#x27;t an uncommon sentiment.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s been discussed in other posts recently on HN about Australia - life there is pretty good and Australians are generally laid back to a fault. If a problem doesn&amp;#x27;t affect an individual on a personal level, it doesn&amp;#x27;t exist.&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;&amp;#x2F;rant&amp;gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>‘Extraordinary’ hacking powers pass Australian Parliament</title><url>https://www.innovationaus.com/extraordinary-new-hacking-powers-pass-parliament/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Teever</author><text>Has the government of Australia given any rational for banning Australians from leaving?  What is the public discourse like over this?&lt;p&gt;I also heard that Australia was making it very difficult for Australians who were abroad prior to COVID from coming back, is that true?  Has that changed much?  Again, does the government give a rational for this decision? And the discourse?&lt;p&gt;I think that Australia and NZ were right to lock down hard and stamp out COVID but I&amp;#x27;m a bit baffled by the fact that it has managed to get in a few times and more specifically how it has managed to get in.&lt;p&gt;It seems to be that once if you&amp;#x27;re an island the size of Australia and you&amp;#x27;ve eliminated domestic transmission the simple solution is to route all international flights to an airport in remote location (not one in a large city) where absolutely everyone involved in the process be they passangers, crew or quarantine staff must stay for two weeks with zero exceptions.&lt;p&gt;If you did that then you could easily repatriate Australians living abroad.</text></item><item><author>vermilingua</author><text>The tech industry in Australia has for some time existed in an impossibly hostile climate, with onerous tasks to betray their own users able to be handed out &lt;i&gt;to individuals&lt;/i&gt; at any time, with virtually no oversight. [1]&lt;p&gt;This has all happened under the auspices of the most overtly corrupt and authoritarian government we’ve had in my lifetime, within four years.&lt;p&gt;If I had the option, I’d pack up and move, but having written this and other anti-government sentiment, it’s entirely possible that they stop me at the border. [2]&lt;p&gt;Combining this with the political apathy of nearly everyone here that I know, the current vilification of protestors (not entirely wrongly given the circumstances), and the utter spinelessness and complicity of the “opposition”, I don’t see a future for my country that doesn’t involve violent revolution (we’ve tried it before [3]) or tyranny.&lt;p&gt;But it gets better: the tech industry is not only under attack, they’re complicit. Beyond even the ordinary run-of-the-mill scumbaggery we see from tech companies, a number have recently formed the Tech Council of Australia [4], aiming to make Australia a startup capital of the world. Scroll down that page and you’ll see a list of member corporations, several of which sent opposition to the AABill when consultation was open. Now, apparently, they’ve decided that it’s too hard to beat ‘em, so they’ll join ’em.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;parlinfo.aph.gov.au&amp;#x2F;parlInfo&amp;#x2F;download&amp;#x2F;legislation&amp;#x2F;bills&amp;#x2F;r6195_aspassed&amp;#x2F;toc_pdf&amp;#x2F;18204b01.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;parlinfo.aph.gov.au&amp;#x2F;parlInfo&amp;#x2F;download&amp;#x2F;legislation&amp;#x2F;bi...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au&amp;#x2F;leaving-australia&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au&amp;#x2F;leaving-australia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Eureka_Rebellion&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Eureka_Rebellion&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[4] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;techcouncil.com.au&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;techcouncil.com.au&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>vermilingua</author><text>The rationale for preventing citizens leaving is that they may catch COVID abroad then rely on govt. intervention to get back home as a &amp;quot;stranded&amp;quot; Aussie. This is of course nonsense, as govt. intervention to get home has been worth exactly fuck all over the last 18 months. An acquaintance of mine went overseas for his mother&amp;#x27;s funeral, was told he wasn&amp;#x27;t allowed to return, managed to get back on the constraint that he flew business (we want rich people back here, after all), then had to fly to South Australia (we are in NSW), quarantine for two weeks, hire a car, and drive back to NSW where he was required to quarantine for two weeks at the border before returning home.&lt;p&gt;Whether all that was indeed necessary to prevent the spread of COVID (despite several negative tests and all but total isolation in that time) is up for debate, but yes the government certainly makes it as hard as possible to enter the country, virtually impossible unless you can purchase upper-class tickets (bribe the border force).</text></comment>