<story><title>‘Extraordinary’ hacking powers pass Australian Parliament</title><url>https://www.innovationaus.com/extraordinary-new-hacking-powers-pass-parliament/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><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></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></parent_chain><comment><author>xvector</author><text>Australia is a disaster when it comes to electronic freedoms. It might just be a lost cause at this point.&lt;p&gt;A classic example of why you really shouldn&amp;#x27;t be giving the government too much power, because even so-called &amp;quot;modern democracies&amp;quot; can and will go bad.&lt;p&gt;Backdoors in encryption, free for all to hack citizens, etc. What a mess. Hope some people fight back.</text></comment>