[graybolt]

Australia seems to be heading towards some strange, horrifying dystopia. With Nauru, government spying, and the Reef, it seems on par with some kind of third world dictatorship.

For those that don't know: Australia operates a detention camp on Nauru where they made the prices of visas a nonrefundable $8,000, and people are raped, sexually assaulted and abused. The Australian government tries to suppress journalists writing about this.

The government wants to ban encryption and associate it with criminals and terrorists.

At the same time, it's doing its best to destroy the pristine environment it inherited, and the Great Barrier Reef is rapidly dying. Other countries, for the most part, reduced their CO2 consumption per capita since the 80s and 90s - Belgium 65% less, Poland 63% less, America 28% less, Australia actually increased theirs by about 10%.

They've got no bill of rights, they're destroying their environment and everyone else's, and they've got a powerful nanny state looking for more power. I don't get why they enjoy such a great reputation on the world stage.

[ansible]

> At the same time, it's doing its best to destroy the pristine environment it inherited, and the Great Barrier Reef is rapidly dying.

Isn't this more generally everyone in the entire world's fault, and not specifically the Australia government?

Ocean warming, pH decreasing, pollution, etc.

[graybolt]

Yes, the reef is being destroyed due to ocean warming and acidification, but this is very much partly the fault of Australia.

They're the #2 coal exporter in the world, about three times as much as the US for example. They consume massive amounts of CO2 per person and have made no efforts to decrease this while the rest of the world has. They burn massive amounts of coal and have no interest in changing this; investment in alternative forms of energy actually went down in recent years. This is despite having tons of space for wind turbines and literally perfect conditions for solar.

Australia also destroys its local environment with overfishing, introducing invasive species, clearing vegetation, and polluting the coasts.

If they want to pretend they're a first world country, they need to act like one.

[Synaesthesia]

They’re actually one of the biggest contributors to CO2 emissions. I must confess my country, South Africa is one too.

[BLKNSLVR]

Don't forget the optic fiber NBN was killed in favour of using existing copper / HFC infrastructure.

And in regards to Nauru, two of the higher-qualified doctors have been arrested and deported in the last couple of months, and the mental-health program was cut.

Australia doesn't just suppress journalists writing about it, in conjunction with the Nauru government they actively prevent journalists from travelling to Nauru.

[dmead]

This is what happens after generations of brain drain. I wouldn't attribute it to malice, so much as the leftovers that didn't return to the west are running the show now.